Straight Outta Compton: Movie Review
In the late 1980’s, the hip-hop group N.W.A. (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella) made a huge impact, not only in music but also in the media. Ice Cube, who was responsible for a bulk of the lyrics, wrote about what he saw on the streets of Compton. This truth and realism of Cube’s lyrics, combined with the top notch production by Dre and smooth lyrical delivery by Eazy, helped make N.W.A. the biggest group to come out of Los Angeles at the time.
Director F. Gary Grey was definitely a great choice to bring the story of N.W.A. to the big screen. After all, he got his start directing Snoop Dogg’s “Murder Was the Case” prior to helming Ice Cube’s “Friday”. It’s safe to say he probably knows a thing or two about the members of the infamous group.
“Straight Outta Compton” begins in 1986, with Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) making a clean getaway during a police drug raid. Dre (Corey Hawkins) has just moved out of his mother’s house because she won’t support his dreams of becoming a music producer. Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr) spends his days getting bussed into a nice school, only to get bussed back to Compton which is not only his home but his source for lyrics. It doesn’t take long for the those three to come together with the purpose of creating music. They are joined by Eazy’s friend Ren (Aldis Hodge) and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.).
After Dre talks Eazy into trying to rap over one of his beats, his smooth delivery becomes one of the groups secret weapons. Eazy did have some hilariously awful takes before he could actually deliver a line on beat. When the first single they press “Boyz in the Hood” blows up on the streets of Los Angeles, they catch the attention of music producer Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti). He of course goes on to manage “N.W.A.” and gets them a record deal with Priority.
If you are familiar with the history of the group, you know that eventually they have a falling out and that leads to each member going his own way. One of the strongest things about “Straight Outta Compton”, especially that of Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. playing his own father in the movie. Nobody could have convincingly played a younger Cube than his own son. This type of casting trick can work well. We have seen it before. The Notorious B.I.G.’s son played him as a child in “Notorious” and Mario Van Peebles played his own father Melvin in “Baadasssss”.
“Straight Outta Compton” does run on a bit longer than needed at 147 minutes. I feel 10-15 minutes trimmed from it could have made things a big tighter. However, fans of the group and those who love music biopics in general should really dig the movie.
By: Marc Ferman
