STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON - Tuesday 15th September 2015.

I'm a product of the 80's and I was aware in the latter half of that decade of the emergence of a radical new band of Gangsta Rappers blazing a trail across the music scenes telling in no uncertain terms the stories of their lives, the violence, the injustice, the hardship and their life experiences - they were Niggaz Wit Attitude (N.W.A.) and hailed from the south Los Angeles suburb of Compton. 25+ years on the story of these groundbreaking yet notorious boys from da hood is told in F. Gary Gray's biopic of their lives in 'STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON' which I saw this week.



Director F. Gary Gray has crafted a strong telling here of the rise and fall of that revolutionary California hip hop group that rose to prominence for mostly the wrong reasons given their outspoken vocals, the messages in their lyrics, their views and opinions, their frequent run-ins with the Police and the party hi-jinx as their star status began to rise. Gray also Produces, as does Ice Cube and Dr. Dre and the film was made for US$28M and at the time of writing this review Box Office receipts have topped US$180M.

As the film opens it's 1986 and friends Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), DJ Yella (Neil Brown), MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), and Arabian Prince (Brandon Lafourche) form the band N.W.A. and release their first single under their own label, Ruthless Records. Spotted by has been music manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) he throws Eazy-E a line about how he can open doors, pave the way and put the newly formed act on the map. After the small time concert circuit in their very early days they begin to develop a following and are eventually picked up by Priority Records who provide the resources for the band to cut their first album - 'Straight Outta Compton'.

Such is the success of their first album, that the group embark on a national tour playing to larger crowds in larger venues and increasingly living large, although at this point it is only Eazy-E who has a formalised contract with Heller - none of the others do not, which in itself starts to create friction and in-fighting. At a concert in Detroit, the band is told by the local Police not to sing their smash hit 'Fuck tha Police' fearful that this will incite a disturbance and potentially a riot. Needless to say, the boys do, having been egged on by the crowd, and yes, a riot ensues during which our N.W.A. are cuffed up and thrown in the back of a Police truck on trumped up charges, which they dodge of course and are released.

Shortly after, things come to a head between Heller and Ice Cube resulting in the latter's resignation from the group to pursue his own singing and acting career. Ice Cube's first solo album - 'AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted' was released in mid-1990 and met with big critical and commercial success outstripping the reception received from the earlier N.W.A. offering 'Straight Outta Compton'. What followed was a tit for tat campaign between N.W.A. and Cube with each side dissing each other in their lyrics resulting in more acrimony, more ill feeling and more angst between the former friends who drifted further and further apart as a result.

As N.W.A. cut their second album 'Niggaz4Life', Dr. Dre becomes more disillusioned with Heller and gets entwined with Suge Knight (R. Marcos Taylor) and the two form 'Death Row Records'. With his new freedoom and seemingly the world at his feet Dre records his own solo album 'The Chronic' released in late 1992 as well as Producing new up & coming talent - the likes of which included Snoop Dog and Tupac Shakur. Dre's lyrics too on his new solo album diss Eazy-E, leaving the latter out in the cold with no new revenue stream, a band in disarray and mounting debts. This leads to a confrontation with Heller, at which Eazy-E fires Heller for embezzling funds from the bands coffers.

A chance meeting at a nightclub between Eazy-E and Ice Cube allow the two to reconcile their differences and talk about the band reforming out of the shadow of Heller now. Next up Eazy-E reaches out to Dr. Dre who also agrees to getting the guys together, and soon afterwards the are reunited with DJ Ren and MC Yella to begin work on a new album. Eazy-E though is not in the best of health and collapses at the house with his friends. Fast forward to a hospital bed and Eazy-E is confronted with the news by the Doctor that he has tested positive from the AIDS virus HIV and has six months to live. One by one, his fiends come by to visit, show support, and rally round before his death in March 1995. The film wraps with Dr. Dre confronting an out of control Suge Knight at the 'Death Row' Studios saying he is done and is walking way to form his own label - 'Aftermath Entertainment'. Subsequently Dre signs up the likes of 50 Cent, Eminem, Busta Rhymes and Kendrick Lamar, and goes on to create Beats Electronics which he sold to Apple in mid-2014 for US$3B. Ice Cube pursued a successful film and television acting and music career that is still going strong today.

I said at the beginning that I was aware of N.W.A. back in the late 80's & early 90's, but, was never a follower of this genre of music. However, I found this a fascinating story and got sucked in by the strong performances, the arc of how the boys from da hood grew from nothing but found their voice through their experiences, the prejudices, the violence, the guns, the drugs, the culture in which they grew up that came out in their music and lyrics, and ultimately found an audience . . . and a very significant one at that. But within ten years they came and went - passed away, moved on, faded out and some with greater success than others.

This is well told; well acted with solid performances especially from those portraying Dre, Cube, Eazy-E and Heller; and as well the music paints a picture of the social commentary of the time - gun crime, racial and social unrest, Police violence, injustice and prejudice, AIDS, sex, drugs and rock & roll, and the Rodney King riots. At 147 minutes this is a long film which toward the end I felt a little drawn out and perhaps overly long, and the stories of how MC Ren, DJ Yella and Arabian Prince contributed in those early years and after were skirted over and had little significance over their more prominent band members.

That said, this is worth checking out, and for anyone around in the 80's and 90's who remembers that era and lived through it this is a great slice of nostalgia and well delivered.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-