In April 2016, Kendrick Lamar inducted five people into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This included Andre Romelle Young, an entrepreneur worth hundreds of millions after selling his headphones and speakers brand to Apple in 2014, alongside O’Shea Jackson Sr., a Hollywood actor who had starred in several roles including comedy film Ride Along 2 released three months prior to the ceremony. Also listed was Antoine Carraby, a producer of over 300 pornagraphic films, and Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, the founder of record label Villain Entertainment. Last, but certainly not least, Eric Lynn Wright was celebrated posthumously after contracting the HIV/AIDS virus in 1995. It was these five members, under the aliases of Dr Dre, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, MC Ren and Eazy-E respectively, that formed the group N.W.A in 1987. Although only releasing two studio albums, it was their style and outspoken nature against authority that helped develop Hip-Hop into one of the most influential cultures in modern music history, building an entire industry for underprivileged talents which earned them their induction. Each born and raised around Los Angeles and Compton, California, N.W.A’s first album Straight Outta Compton received critical acclaim and hit platinum despite multiple attempts to censor songs such as Fuck Tha Police. Straight Outta Compton is also the title of their 2015 biopic which I will be reviewing here.
Directed by F. Gary Gray, who has collaborated with Ice Cube on various music videos and his first film Friday, Straight Outta Compton outlines the formation of the N.W.A (Niggaz With Attitude) to their dissolution and eventual reunion. Covering an intense period of eight years as well as including context before and after, the benefits of having Ice Cube and Dr Dre as producers are evident. With two full accounts from different sides of the rifts between them and sharing their first-hand emotions proved invaluable to the story as well as the performances. Dre discussing the death of his brother off-camera aided Corey Hawkins to give a powerful portrayal on-screen, and it doesn’t get much closer than O’Shea Jackson Jr playing his father. However, they remained unscrupulous with the casting after rejecting Lil Eazy-E’s audition (one of Eazy-E’s 11 children) for Jason Mitchell’s, but still used Wright’s son to help mould the character to great effect. There’s also a surprisingly stellar performance from Paul Giamatti as Jerry Heller, Eazy-E’s partner and agent for the N.W.A. With so many relationships, perspectives and narratives overlapping, they managed to convey such complex characters well and never resulted in someone being completely unlikable.
However, for each 3-Dimensional character, there’s a few nondescript ones behind them. It is hard to comment on Aldis Hodge’s and Neil Brown Jr’s performances as MC Ren and DJ Yella because they were barely in it, their involvement heavily reduced compared to their contributions in the N.W.A. A similar fate for the unmentioned DJ Arabian Prince, who’d left slightly earlier than the group’s break-up but was an influential songwriter and rapper. These significant omissions accompany complaints and further backlash from those who knew the group intimately. Whilst the scenes that took place in the film have been accepted as accurate (excusing creative licence), brief cameos from Dr Dre’s partners went nowhere and present one of the potential downsides of his producer role. Already packing in too much content and a first screening originally three and a half hours long, it is unsurprising that the assault charges and sexual abuse allegations filed against Dre were left on the cutting room floor.
What Straight Outta Compton successfully includes is N.W.A’s place relative to the political climate at the time. Interspersed between scenes are news clippings of their most infamous gig as well as the Rodney King Trials and the AIDS epidemic. These brief moments using real footage adds gravitas to a movie that has an extraordinary amount of generic party scenes and helps strike a good balance tonally. Strafing the line between drama and action, every interaction between the police and the group is incredibly tense. Even though it’s a biography, the film was capable of increasing the stakes to a point where I believed anything could happen, crucial to keeping my engagement throughout. There’s moments of charm and comedy between the members too, making for an altogether well-rounded piece. Despite the aforementioned omissions, Straight Outta Compton achieves what many biopics don’t: an entertaining representation of artists whilst encapsulating the world around them. The movie also truly conveys their attitudes that they aren’t role models and didn’t care if you liked their music, whilst showing the impact N.W.A made.