At last night Grammy’s, the Kanye stage crash and Madonna bum flash aside, there was fanfare around the premiere of the trailer for the NWA biopic, Straight Outta Compton. Starting off with the real older, wiser and considerably richer Dr Dre and Ice Cube cruising round their old neighborhood, passing blessings to people on the street and getting props from The Game and Kendrick Lamar, it then flips to the fictional version of 1987 Compton, with O’Shea Jackson Jr, Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell playing Ice Cube, Dr Dre and Easy-E.
As well as the booty-bouncing pool party scenes, it looks like there’s a political message to the film too. “The same thing we was going through in the 80s with the police, people are going through now,” says Ice Cube, with Dre adding, “It’s a good time to tell our story.” The film is keen to show that the group weren’t the gangsta rappers they were often portrayed as, but were inherently political, fighting police oppression around the time of the beating of Rodney King and the ensuing LA riots. The film is keen to point out that the song Fuck Da Police was a form of “nonviolent protest” that the group was banned from performing by the authorities.
There are other inspiring scenes, like seeing Dr Dre’s mum laugh him down for earning $50 for a DJ gig, suggesting he needs a real job to make money. Fast forward to 2014 when he reportedly became hip-hop’s first billionaire. If ever there was a showbiz story with a “journey,” this might be it.
Credits
Text Stuart Brumfitt