STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

Review by Allison O’Donoghue

Directed by F. Gary Gray

Niggas With Attitude (N.W.A) was the soundtrack of my youth. – rebellious, anti-establishment, antiauthoritarian hardcore rap and hip-hop, with even harder lyrics. I was looking forward to seeing Straight Outta Compton on the big screen, although films don’t seem to last long these days unless they’re big blockbusters like Star Wars, guaranteed to make squillions - the longer its played, the more they make. But surprising everyone, is a little Indie film depicting the life and times of a group of rappers in the late 1980s LA. Straight Outta Compton became the sleeper hit of the summer, amassing a cool $200 million at last count, and earning an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

I distinctly remember when rap first hit the airways. It was in your face and unrelenting, a breath of fresh air, and a shock to the senses. I clearly remember the hullaballoo the violent and misogynistic lyrical content caused, especially on Fuck tha Police. That song had everyone freaking out. The police wanted it banned as they thought it incited violence against the police. Which it didn’t. Not in Australia anyway. The debate raged on in print, TV and all the radio stations weighed in. Meanwhile, the notoriety raised the profile of N.W.A, pushing the units of their debut album through the roof, and fans demanding the right to hear them on radio or see them on MTV. Freedom of speech became the catch-cry. 

Cast of Straight Outta Compton

Heads rolled at a local independent Sydney radio station Double J - 5 DJs were sacked for defying the critics/censors and playing Fuck tha Police late at night. Within months of their sacking Fuck tha Police (with strategically placed bleeps) and album Straight Outta Compton went mainstream, opening the door for countless bands and acts to follow, and silencing the critics.

Set within the impoverished outer LA suburb of Compton, California, Straight Outta Compton is the long awaited biographical film depicting the rise and rise of rap and hip-hop in the late 1980’s. Fed up with not hearing their own tunes on radio N.W.A (Niggas With Attitude) created their own sound and took it to the people. The debut album Straight Outta Compton became a hit launching the careers of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eric Eazy-E Wright, MC Rena and DJ Jella et el.

The film opens in 1986, when Eazy-E, then a crack dealer, narrowly escapes a drug bust at a crack house, as militarised police brutally crush the house and anyone in it with armoured tankers. Compton is a war zone. And Eazy needs a new career move. He meets up with Dr. Dre, DJ Jella and Ice Cube - played brilliantly by O’Shea Jackson Jr, Ice Cube’s son, the spitting image of his dad. They test out the new song Gangsta Gangsta at a local club, and the crowd go wild.

Ice Cube

Lorenzo “MC Ren” Patterson owns the club gives them a chance to showcase their work but is not happy, hates rap and thinks the sound won’t go anywhere. After the gig, Dr. Dre witnesses his brother Tyree being beaten up and defends him, but gets arrested for his trouble. Eazy-E bails him out and together they hatch a plan to get out of the ghettos and do it through music. They form their own record label Ruthless Records and cut their first album Boyz-n-the-Hood, financed by Eazy-E’s drug money.

Music manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giametti) watches with dollar signs in his eyes as they cut more and more records to cater for the demand and seizes the opportunity to exploit them. He offers to manage the group and take them to the next level. Eazy-E knows he needs help to navigate the music industry and uses Heller to achieve his goals. In 1988 Heller brings a series of record producers to a sold out N.W.A gig, but only one has the vision to take them on, Bryan Turner from Priority Records. He sets the boys up in his studio and gives them free reign. They recruit mates Arabian Prince and The D.O.C to help write lyrics for their debut album Straight Outta Compton.

Eazy-E with Jerrry Heller.

During recording session the boys go outside for a smoke break, the police turn up and harass them.  A posse’ of black men constitutes a gang, and all blacks are guilty of something – right? Sadly, the boys are accustomed to police brutality but what shocks them is the treatment metered out by a black cop, who throws them to the ground and proceeds to arrest them, until Heller comes out and puts a stop to it. Heller can’t believe the random unprovoked attack on the boys and threatens to sue the police. Without Heller, the boys would have gone to jail. Ice Cube is so angry he immediately pens Fuck tha Police and hands it to Dr. Dre to work his magic. The rest is history.

Dr. Dre

Unsurprisingly, Fuck tha Police becomes an overnight hit and their debut album Straight Outta Compton sells out. But it also sets them on a collision course with every police department in every town, city or country they play in, including Australia.

By the time N.W.A reach Detroit the FBI  have sent them a threatening letter to stop playing Fuck tha Police or they’ll be arrested. The boy’s watch with bemusement as the auditorium walls are lined with police and undercover cops situated in the audience. Nonetheless, they launch into Fuck tha Police, the cop’s storm the stage, shooting off a few rounds and scattering the crowd in all directions. The boys run for their lives but are cornered by quite possibly the whole Detroit police department. They're beaten and arrested for inciting a riot, which they deny and the charges never stick.

Heller urges them to take the incident seriously and stop playing the song but Ice argues it’s the truth, but more importantly it’s their constitutional right under the First Amendment and freedom of speech. Eazy-E sees an opportunity to promote the boys – “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. They convene a press conference and discuss their right to express themselves under the First Amendment through their lyrics, sparking furious debate and winning a legion of new fans, more importantly winning the right to sing their lyrics and play their music.

The only person who signed a record contract with Heller was Eazy-E. This unsettles Ice as he starts to wonder where the money is going, coz he ain’t getting any. He challenges Heller and pulls Eazy-E aside, but E defends and feels indebted to Heller, without him none of their success would have happened.  Disgruntled, Ice Cube leaves the band to perform his own hardcore music with Turner producing his debut album Amerikka’s Most Wanted. It becomes a huge success, surpassing N.W.A’s initial success and sets Ice Cube on a trajectory to superstardom. He has his own production company, produces, directs and acts in his own movies, continues to promote black musicians, has been married for 20 years, has 5 children, and has never looked back.

Biggie Smalls with P Diddy.

Rifts between the boys/gang/hood members are played out in lyrics, each dissing the other, and sometimes spilling out on the streets with the untimely and very public deaths of Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur and many others, cutting short promising careers. It seems to be all quiet on the Hip-Hop front at the moment but could erupt at any minute. Especially with the likes of rival record label mogul, co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records, Suge Knight - wherever Suge goes, trouble follows.

He’s been implicated in the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, to name a few, but this is all speculation, he has never been charged their murders. And as yet, both deaths remain unsolved. Currently, Suge Knight is in jail awaiting trial for the 2015 fatal hit-and-run death in Compton, California. 

Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

Straight Outta Compton is a great ride down memory lane. It will take you back to your youth – can’t believe I’m saying that. Or if you’re already young and have never been aboard the Hip-Hop train – then get on board. Check it out.