Straight Outta Compton
Channels Boyz n the Hood

by Sarah Wolfson

Straight Outta Compton, also the title to the seminal album that spearheaded the rap group N.W.A., serves as a social commentary. The film addresses systemic police abuse in Black communities and lands at a decisive moment in history where racial injustice and race relations are at the forefront of American politics. Straight Outta Compton is a film that grasps the dehumanization of police misconduct in a community hidden from the starlit hills of Hollywood and a tale about the iconic musicians N.W.A. 

Directed by F. Gary Gray, Straight Outta Compton tells a story about five young men who formed a musical collective that gave a voice to the climate of their community and ushered in a musical sub-genre known as west coast hip-hop. The biopic harks back to a tragedy with complex characters rife with conviction and talent amid socio-economic turmoil.

Gray, who made his directional debut with the movie Friday, took the audience through a musical travelogue where old-school hip-hop merges with political critique. Scripted by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, with producers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, the film describes a musical group’s meteoric rise to fame: a throwback that includes infamous pool parties and witty quips and the mechanics that pioneered ‘gangsta’ rap. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique portrays what it’s like for these youth living in Compton, Calif., a city just south of Watts. Early on, we are exposed to everyday obstacles: LAPD raids that resemble a war zone, police curfews, and F.B.I. threats.

The film jumps into the lives of Dr. Dre, a DJ-producer, who Corey Hawkins portrays, and Eazy-E, acted by Jason Mitchell. Essential member Ice Cube, played by his real-life son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., is just a teenager at the time who uses lyrical prose to defy the system. Supporting characters include MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), D.J. Yella (Neil Brown Jr.), and their talent representative, later a dividing force, Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti).

In 1986, clad in their staple black windbreakers and Raiders gear, the raucous rap group formed N.W.A. over a vulnerability to street life, beats, and rhymes. In 1987, Eazy-E began Ruthless Records with his label partner Heller. The group quickly built a kinship and overcame struggles – some attributed to its fame and eventual disbandment in 1991 that followed its course.

The film kept a steady pace with a sprawling storyline and a few lapses. Light-hearted sequences include a scene when rapper Cube and Dre began working with Eazy-E in the studio, prompting him to rap the ubiquitous track “Boyz-N-the-Hood” for the first time. Here, the audience witnesses a humorous, charismatic side of the artist. These intimate moments are interrupted when N.W.A. is confronted with police harassment. Racial epithets are thrown around in this pivotal scene, later inspiring the infamous song, “F–k tha Police.”

Eazy-E passed away due to AIDS-related complications right before a reunion between the group was in the works. The director’s depiction of his death is a bit rushed and glosses over the severity of the infectious H.I.V. virus and AIDS epidemic.

Gray missed another opportunity to discuss themes of exploitation of women and misogyny.

Former producer Bill Straus said first drafts of the script included a scene in which Dre attacks T.V. host Dee Barnes during a party, but it didn’t make the final edits. That alleged incident took place in 1991, in which Barnes ended up filing a $22 million lawsuit. Women were often the focus of their lyrical content, but they served as a backdrop in the film. Just as their grim portrayal of street life pointed to a harsh reality of police presence, their depiction of women could have initiated a conversation around the subjectivity of females in music.

Straight Outta Compton, despite its limitations, stands as a thought-provoking piece connecting to the Black Lives Matter movement. Nearly 50 years since the Watts Uprising and 23 years since the 1992 L.A. Uprising, the scenes of police beatings and interactions are reminiscent of today.

Critics targeted N.W.A. for glamorizing violence, but this film illustrates how constant police harassment exposed conditions that perpetuated systemic violence. With the Rodney King beatings as a topical subject in the movie, we cannot help but think about Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Ezell Ford, Mike Brown, Kimani Gray, Oscar Grant, Shantel Davis, Akai Gurley, and Tamir Rice, whose lives were taken unjustly by the police in present-day.