West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: Blood$ on August 14, 2015, 07:21:06 AM
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since the movie is out figured we could start up a thread for reviews once heads have seen it... no spoilers though
going to peep it at 6:45 8)
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saw it july 23rd at a screening, i gotta say its very well made & better than i expected im going to watch it a second time saturday ;D
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I seen it last night, and was real surprised by it even though I knew a lot of the shit that was happening. It still was very introspective. And showed why dre grew tired of the gangsta shit. Just being down with homies and having them around was a problem. It was cool to see them build Eazy up like that being a fearless businessman from day one, no one like at that time and with out Eazy , there's no death row, bad boy, rocafella, cash money or no limit... Eazy duZ it
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I liked the movie and found it very entertaining but they took a lot of creative liberties with the facts toward the end.
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Just got back, movies legit...definitely no Lifetime movie lol
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It's gettin crazy good reviews, I'm hyped to see it
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best movie ive saw all year...gotta check it out if you dont you dont belong on this board chuuch....f gary gray did his thing and so did all of the actors
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movie was serious...
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Damn good movie. They did Eazy justice.
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Bad that they limited MC Ren's part of the story. Like dude is inessential. But overall I loved the movie. They painted they're picture very well. At that part where Eazy is in hospital I swear I cried like a girl. Best movie out this year.
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Classic movie, up there wit the GOAT biopics.. A couple issues, they didn't really go into the Dre-Eazy beef, they left out Michel'le, and they showed Snoops introduction (dint like the actor playin snoop), but no 213, which was a big part of that. Dre did Warren dirty again... I can see why Daz says there needs to be a DPG movie. Other than that, shit was great.
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yeah a few timeline inconsistencies like where Pac is recording "Hail Mary" before "Hit em Up" in 1995 lol
I aslo did cry or at least tear up for Eazy's scene
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yeah a few timeline inconsistencies like where Pac is recording "Hail Mary" before "Hit em Up" in 1995 lol
I aslo did cry or at least tear up for Eazy's scene
also, dre says his new label will be called aftermath when leavin death row when he was really guna call it black market...movie was long as fuck, as well, so i can see why they dint fit everythin in it
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Went away this weekend, seeing it some time during the week. My boy tells me Eazy's actor was amazing. So happy they didn't give the roll to Lil' Eazy now lmao.
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Went away this weekend, seeing it some time during the week. My boy tells me Eazy's actor was amazing. So happy they didn't give the roll to Lil' Eazy now lmao.
they all were good, outside of mc ren and snoop..pac was surprisingly good
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Went away this weekend, seeing it some time during the week. My boy tells me Eazy's actor was amazing. So happy they didn't give the roll to Lil' Eazy now lmao.
they all were good, outside of mc ren and snoop..pac was surprisingly good
I thought Ren was portrayed OK as the low-key background member/Eazy's homie who also raps good lol but they could have at least covered when he dropped his first solo, he definitely got brushed off to the side for the most part
the dude who played young Snoop did look like him but didn't sound so much like him
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Went away this weekend, seeing it some time during the week. My boy tells me Eazy's actor was amazing. So happy they didn't give the roll to Lil' Eazy now lmao.
they all were good, outside of mc ren and snoop..pac was surprisingly good
I thought Ren was portrayed OK as the low-key background member/Eazy's homie who also raps good lol but they could have at least covered when he dropped his first solo, he definitely got brushed off to the side for the most part
the dude who played young Snoop did look like him but didn't sound so much like him
The snoop actor didn't carry his energy .. In fact, the guy who played ren was more like snoop (shy, laid back) .. Ren was a lot more in your face than he was made out to be.
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CNN surprised that Straight Outta Compton brought in box office record but no violence:
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh8zkUAF0E6h9Nm2Vk
8)
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since no one mentioned it yet i wanted to point out that i thought it was crazy that compton menace was that OG blood '2 tone' from crenshaw mafia who got on the bus and checked everyone in the beginning, and then they go into 'Just Another Day' right after that scene. i guess that was back when him and game were still cool. Great film BTW, i thought Paul Giamatti killed it as Jerry Heller, on some Oscar nominee type shit. The casting over all was excellent and really what made the film so great, even the Ren portrayal. yeah, he coulda used more shine, but both he and yella are in it about the same, screen time wise, it only seems like yella has a bigger part cuz his character has more charisma and funnier(which is apparently true to life). The Ren character is more laid back, but still in just about every scene that involves them as a group. it's obviously mainly based around Dre, Cube and Eazy. and lets face it, thats the only way it coulda gone, they are the stand out players in the story. What could they have added that Ren contributed that wasn't in the film already?
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since no one mentioned it yet i wanted to point out that i thought it was crazy that compton menace was that OG blood '2 tone' from crenshaw mafia who got on the bus and checked everyone in the beginning, and then they go into 'Just Another Day' right after that scene. i guess that was back when him and game were still cool. Great film BTW, i thought Paul Giamatti killed it as Jerry Heller, on some Oscar nominee type shit. The casting over all was excellent and really what made the film so great, even the Ren portrayal. yeah, he coulda used more shine, but both he and yella are in it about the same, screen time wise, it only seems like yella has a bigger part cuz his character has more charisma and funnier(which is apparently true to life). The Ren character is more laid back, but still in just about every scene that involves them as a group. it's obviously mainly based around Dre, Cube and Eazy. and lets face it, thats the only way it coulda gone, they are the stand out players in the story. What could they have added that Ren contributed that wasn't in the film already?
If u listened to the old NWA albums, Ren is prolly the most outspoken member on skits, songs, etc.. The movie made it seem like he was a backup rapper when he was pretty much the frontman in terms of rhymin. But it's understandable, since he ain't a star like cube or dre.. As long as they dint do eazy like that.
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since no one mentioned it yet i wanted to point out that i thought it was crazy that compton menace was that OG blood '2 tone' from crenshaw mafia who got on the bus and checked everyone in the beginning, and then they go into 'Just Another Day' right after that scene.
that's hilarious I said the exact same thing to my homie who was with me lol
that's probably one of, if not the biggest rap checks Menace has gotten ever
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I think it's expected to change some stuff for a movie, there is only so much time to develop a certain number of characters and
you have to streamline stuff for it to make sense sometimes...
Like if they show it as: "we're gonna call it Black Market records" and then they have to show them going, "oh wait, that name is taken, let's call it
Aftermath"... it doesn't have the same impact in a movie as just mentioning Aftermath and having people hear the name and getting it instantly...
Audience members who don't know all the details are gonna be like, "what? what's the new label called?" and they don't really gain anything from knowing that detail...
Same with the characters, you can't have like 6 main characters and fully develop them all, something has to give...
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I think it's expected to change some stuff for a movie, there is only so much time to develop a certain number of characters and
you have to streamline stuff for it to make sense sometimes...
Like if they show it as: "we're gonna call it Black Market records" and then they have to show them going, "oh wait, that name is taken, let's call it
Aftermath"... it doesn't have the same impact in a movie as just mentioning Aftermath and having people hear the name and getting it instantly...
Audience members who don't know all the details are gonna be like, "what? what's the new label called?" and they don't really gain anything from knowing that detail...
Same with the characters, you can't have like 6 main characters and fully develop them all, something has to give...
I agree... they still could have at least shown a few glimpses of Ren's first solo release and maybe shown a just 'years later' scene of Yella going into the porn industry lol I still feel like the Death Row/Ruthless disses were pretty vital missing bits though maybe all that will be featured in the director's cut
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DOPE flick. My girl and I saw it Thursday night and again on Sunday and we got plans to go again this Saturday with some friends, gotta support while we can ;D. Really looking forward to the dvd/blu-ray, wanna see what was left out.
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I think it's expected to change some stuff for a movie, there is only so much time to develop a certain number of characters and
you have to streamline stuff for it to make sense sometimes...
Like if they show it as: "we're gonna call it Black Market records" and then they have to show them going, "oh wait, that name is taken, let's call it
Aftermath"... it doesn't have the same impact in a movie as just mentioning Aftermath and having people hear the name and getting it instantly...
Audience members who don't know all the details are gonna be like, "what? what's the new label called?" and they don't really gain anything from knowing that detail...
Same with the characters, you can't have like 6 main characters and fully develop them all, something has to give...
I agree... they still could have at least shown a few glimpses of Ren's first solo release and maybe shown a just 'years later' scene of Yella going into the porn industry lol I still feel like the Death Row/Ruthless disses were pretty vital missing bits though maybe all that will be featured in the director's cut
that might be the only part i was disappointed that they left out.....the dre vs eazy beef.
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ICE CUBE - NO VASELINE Was A NWA Diss...
That's Why It Was IN The Movie.... Death Row/Ruthless Beef Had Nothing To Do With NWA In A Sense....
Im Pretty Sure DRE DAY Would Have Been In The Movie If He Dissed NWA But He Was Gunning For EAZY E!!!!
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ICE CUBE - NO VASELINE Was A NWA Diss...
That's Why It Was IN The Movie.... Death Row/Ruthless Beef Had Nothing To Do With NWA In A Sense....
Im Pretty Sure DRE DAY Would Have Been In The Movie If He Dissed NWA But He Was Gunning For EAZY E!!!!
well they touched on the whole Dre/contract issue with Eazy so they should have also mentioned the diss tracks that followed... they also did leave out "100 Miles & Runnin'" and "Jackin 4 Beats" before "No Vaseline" but that was no big deal
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ICE CUBE - NO VASELINE Was A NWA Diss...
That's Why It Was IN The Movie.... Death Row/Ruthless Beef Had Nothing To Do With NWA In A Sense....
Im Pretty Sure DRE DAY Would Have Been In The Movie If He Dissed NWA But He Was Gunning For EAZY E!!!!
but they did show that era, they just left out that part
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Yeah, Cuz Everyone Branched Off To Do They'er Own Thing....
(http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m221/KOLA57/IMG_20150817_195548_zpsahhjyn3x.jpg) (http://s105.photobucket.com/user/KOLA57/media/IMG_20150817_195548_zpsahhjyn3x.jpg.html)
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Saw the movie today and really enjoyed it. The movie is a great tribute to Eazy. It had little white kids crying for him. I bet a million Eazy E albums got sold on iTunes over the past week.
My only complaint is that they left out the Dr. Dre vs. Eazy feud. This is unfortunate not only because Real Mothafuckin G'z is one of the best diss songs of all time, but also because the scene with the phone call between Dre/Eazy to put the group back together makes no sense if you don't realize that they were seriously beefing. Though I kinda doubt that that phone call ever took place.
R.I.P. Eric Wright one of the dopest niggas ever to live
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Saw the movie today and really enjoyed it. The movie is a great tribute to Eazy. It had little white kids crying for him. I bet a million Eazy E albums got sold on iTunes over the past week.
My only complaint is that they left out the Dr. Dre vs. Eazy feud. This is unfortunate not only because Real Mothafuckin G'z is one of the best diss songs of all time, but also because the scene with the phone call between Dre/Eazy to put the group back together makes no sense if you don't realize that they were seriously beefing. Though I kinda doubt that that phone call ever took place.
R.I.P. Eric Wright one of the dopest niggas ever to live
the phone call wasnt real, because all accounts from before the movie have said that dre never made it in time to the hospital to reconcile wit eazy.....as a matter of fact, there was an NWA reunion planned witout eazy-e and they were guna call it NWE (Niggaz Witout Eazy).......understandable why they left that out tho.
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I just read that Rolling Stone article and Dre said the call happened lol who knows for real
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I just read that Rolling Stone article and Dre said the call happened lol who knows for real
i coulda sworn that he himself back n the day said he didnt make it in time to the hospital to make peace
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Interesting read :
Here's What's Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up
http://gawker.com/heres-whats-missing-from-straight-outta-compton-me-and-1724735910 (http://gawker.com/heres-whats-missing-from-straight-outta-compton-me-and-1724735910)
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Interesting read :
Here's What's Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up
http://gawker.com/heres-whats-missing-from-straight-outta-compton-me-and-1724735910 (http://gawker.com/heres-whats-missing-from-straight-outta-compton-me-and-1724735910)
"Beatin up a bitch don't make ya shit, but then again, some niggas think it makes a man"
You knew they were gonna leave that line out the movie...
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Classic movie, up there wit the GOAT biopics.. A couple issues, they didn't really go into the Dre-Eazy beef, they left out Michel'le, and they showed Snoops introduction (dint like the actor playin snoop), but no 213, which was a big part of that. Dre did Warren dirty again... I can see why Daz says there needs to be a DPG movie. Other than that, shit was great.
Warren G was in the movie with Snoop.
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Saw the movie today and really enjoyed it. The movie is a great tribute to Eazy. It had little white kids crying for him. I bet a million Eazy E albums got sold on iTunes over the past week.
My only complaint is that they left out the Dr. Dre vs. Eazy feud. This is unfortunate not only because Real Mothafuckin G'z is one of the best diss songs of all time, but also because the scene with the phone call between Dre/Eazy to put the group back together makes no sense if you don't realize that they were seriously beefing. Though I kinda doubt that that phone call ever took place.
R.I.P. Eric Wright one of the dopest niggas ever to live
the phone call wasnt real, because all accounts from before the movie have said that dre never made it in time to the hospital to reconcile wit eazy.....as a matter of fact, there was an NWA reunion planned witout eazy-e and they were guna call it NWE (Niggaz Witout Eazy).......understandable why they left that out tho.
Dre has confirmed he had a phone call with Eazy.
https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodReporter/videos/10152894928537750/
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Classic movie, up there wit the GOAT biopics.. A couple issues, they didn't really go into the Dre-Eazy beef, they left out Michel'le, and they showed Snoops introduction (dint like the actor playin snoop), but no 213, which was a big part of that. Dre did Warren dirty again... I can see why Daz says there needs to be a DPG movie. Other than that, shit was great.
Warren G was in the movie with Snoop.
did he even have any lines or introduce himself as warren? he like dre's redheaded step-childbrother
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Saw the movie today and really enjoyed it. The movie is a great tribute to Eazy. It had little white kids crying for him. I bet a million Eazy E albums got sold on iTunes over the past week.
My only complaint is that they left out the Dr. Dre vs. Eazy feud. This is unfortunate not only because Real Mothafuckin G'z is one of the best diss songs of all time, but also because the scene with the phone call between Dre/Eazy to put the group back together makes no sense if you don't realize that they were seriously beefing. Though I kinda doubt that that phone call ever took place.
R.I.P. Eric Wright one of the dopest niggas ever to live
the phone call wasnt real, because all accounts from before the movie have said that dre never made it in time to the hospital to reconcile wit eazy.....as a matter of fact, there was an NWA reunion planned witout eazy-e and they were guna call it NWE (Niggaz Witout Eazy).......understandable why they left that out tho.
Dre has confirmed he had a phone call with Eazy.
https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodReporter/videos/10152894928537750/
maybe im trippin but i do recall accounts from others sayin dre never made it in time to reconcile wit eazy....i think it mighta been jerry heller, i duno, but i definitely heard that dre just missed him and was regretful for not bein able to squash it before he passed.
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So is this the kind of movie that you need to see in a theater?
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Saw the movie today and really enjoyed it. The movie is a great tribute to Eazy. It had little white kids crying for him. I bet a million Eazy E albums got sold on iTunes over the past week.
My only complaint is that they left out the Dr. Dre vs. Eazy feud. This is unfortunate not only because Real Mothafuckin G'z is one of the best diss songs of all time, but also because the scene with the phone call between Dre/Eazy to put the group back together makes no sense if you don't realize that they were seriously beefing. Though I kinda doubt that that phone call ever took place.
R.I.P. Eric Wright one of the dopest niggas ever to live
the phone call wasnt real, because all accounts from before the movie have said that dre never made it in time to the hospital to reconcile wit eazy.....as a matter of fact, there was an NWA reunion planned witout eazy-e and they were guna call it NWE (Niggaz Witout Eazy).......understandable why they left that out tho.
Dre has confirmed he had a phone call with Eazy.
https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodReporter/videos/10152894928537750/
maybe im trippin but i do recall accounts from others sayin dre never made it in time to reconcile wit eazy....i think it mighta been jerry heller, i duno, but i definitely heard that dre just missed him and was regretful for not bein able to squash it before he passed.
Those two things don't necessarily conflict with each other. He had the phone call and then he never made it in time to see Eazy.
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Eazy use to talk to Dre all the time eazy brought dre a house that was on the same estate
as eazy and jerry. eazy use to talk to the D.O.C all the time eazy was trying to get the D.O.C back
on ruthless cause suge wasn't giving D.O.C nothing. also eazy had made up with cube when
they both did a cameo for chris rocks cb4 film them meeting at the tunnel isn't where they squashed the beef.
and i noticed dre is hard as nails in this film for some reason he knocks out like 3 people in this film
and lol at snoop standing up to suge when he 1st meets him like that would happen. also eazy didn't need to downgrade his house
thats bullshit he was making money of dre ffs! dj quik will confirm how rich eazy was.
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http://outlawvern.com/2015/08/17/straight-outta-compton/
Straight Outta Compton
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON is a movie that will smother your mother and make your sister think it loves her. Or at least it will give them more of an idea of what N.W.A was all about. Unless they already know alot about N.W.A, which come to think of it I do expect of your mother and your sister. They’re pretty cool.
I’ve been thrilled about the idea of an N.W.A biopic for years. So far The Notorious B.I.G. is the only rapper to get one of these (the better-than-I-expected NOTORIOUS), though I remember when Steve James of HOOP DREAMS fame was supposed to be doing one on Grandmaster Flash starring Don Cheadle. A story from that era could be epic. And I would like to see an O.D.B. movie and possibly Public Enemy would work, but I don’t know if there’s much of an ending on that. N.W.A, to me, seems like the best choice for this treatment.
And their movie is pretty much what you’d expect. It captures some of the vitality and power of N.W.A and also has most of the weaknesses of biopics. I can’t honestly claim it all works as a movie, but it celebrates N.W.A without being totally embarrassing about it, so I couldn’t help but enjoy watching it.
Director F. Gary Gray (SET IT OFF) and friends absolutely succeeded in the hardest and most important part of the job – figuring out who the hell can play N.W.A – and that goes a long way. Corey Hawkins (NON STOP) is an especially impressive find as Dr. Dre. He really captures Dre’s way of speaking and his quiet focus. In many ways this is his story, as the dreamer who convinces them all to come together and make music in the first place, and who is so happy just being able to create that he’s slow in recognizing the ways he’s being taken advantage of.
Neil Brown Jr. (NEVER BACK DOWN, FAST AND FURIOUS) as DJ Yella is the comic relief of the movie, making a memorable character out of the member of the crew we the public are least familiar with. Aldis Hodge (one of Zeus’s kids in DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE!) plays MC Ren, who isn’t really given much focus other than showing up at the studio and recording, but he’s got the right presence.
The trickiest one is Jason Mitchell (DRAGON EYES) as Eazy-E. Eazy is such an enigmatic figure in rap history because he’s kind of the bad guy of N.W.A, but also the martyr. He was the actual criminal whose drug money funded their record company, who had to be talked into becoming a rapper, and as they show in the movie had his rhymes written for him and recorded one line at a time. He’s the one who was seen as conspiring with manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) and ripping the other members off. He was the one stuck in bitter feuds with both Cube and Dre after they left. But since he was the one who got sick he’s also the galvanizing event that brought them to put that all in the past and remember that they’re brothers.
Mitchell has Eazy’s small stature, but not quite his high pitched voice. Still, I think he does a good job of creating a sympathetic character who we can like and understand even when he’s wrong.
And then there’s O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Ice Cube. Like Mario Van Peebles in BAADASSSSS! he’s a son playing his famous father, but he also has the hurdle of this being his first time acting. His BOYZ N THE HOOD, in other words. Man, those are some shoes to fill. If I were him I’d hang a GHOSTS OF MARS poster on the set to lower the bar a little.
It’s gotta be a weird position to be in. At one point he has the line “I have a baby on the way,” referring to himself. He doesn’t straight up imitate his father as much as another actor might, but he looks more like him than anybody could without digital effects. In the jheri curl years especially young Cube’s belligerent scowl and eponymous Attitude seem to be reborn on screen. He also does his father proud when he has to rap. (I was thinking I’d seen him as hype man to Cube but I guess that was a different son, the one he calls Doughboy. Both of them appear on Cube’s 2010 album I Am the West.)
The casting of Giamatti as Heller is important too. It’s okay that he’s a recognizable star, because this is someone we’ve heard of more than seen. On Dr. Dre’s classic album The Chronic, Snoop refers to Jerry and Eazy as “Mr. Rourke and Tattoo.” Fair or not, Heller is the poster boy for white people who take financial advantage of rappers (see industry rule #4,080). Giamatti plays him as an asshole, a chubby old guy who carries himself with swagger, flies into a few tantrums and seems fishy every time he claims “the contracts are being finalized as we speak!” But wisely the movie does give him some good qualities. It is true that they would’ve had a hard time getting their music heard without him. You can see why Eazy, when benefiting from him, enjoyed his company. And it’s probly true that Heller talked Eazy out of committing a murder (though he later said he should’ve let him do it).
In the early scenes this is about the best N.W.A movie you could hope for. It opens strong with Eazy in a tense stand-off in a crackhouse. He actually gets away because of a police raid. Saved by the bell… or actually, the battering ram. I feel actual guilt for letting out a laugh of delight at a particularly brutal action moment during the raid. This is the problem of us white dudes enjoying what the movie calls “reality rap” as spectacle. I apologize. It’s not an action movie, it’s the death trap that Eazy wisely slips away from when he shifts to the record industry. These are the types of scenes you want to see in a biopic – the things you only imagine from hearing of Eazy’s past. Or the scenes from before they become stars, like Dre laying in his bedroom on a pile of records analyzing Roy Ayers through headphones, or Cube watching a kid get a gun pointed at his head on the school bus.
The movie’s at it’s very best when it’s showing their experiences with the police. Cube is not a criminal, he’s just a kid, but he gets manhandled, yelled at, threatened and demeaned by cops, mostly white, sometimes black and bitter, in one case right in front of his house and parents. There are very similar scenes in BOYZ N THE HOOD (co-starring the real Cube, named after a song he wrote) and MENACE II SOCIETY, but here we’re seeing it happen to representations of real people who we know went on to become important contributors to our society and culture, and we’re watching it with 2015 hyper-awareness of how tragically these situations can end. And also with the knowledge that this is going to inspire their anthem “Fuck Tha Police.”
According to the movie the fire that lit that fuse is police hassling them right in front of the studio during a break from recording, making them drop their lunch and lay face down on the sidewalk. It starts to feel a little like a slavery movie. How much indignity and dehumanization can people suffer before they explode?
Despite some corny dialogue arguing with police over the validity of rap, this is a great scene about the well-meaning side of Jerry. He’s incensed by what he’s seeing, both because it’s racist and because it’s fucking with his artists. But even a powerful white guy like him can’t stop the system, all he can do is yell about all the people he knows and talking to the mayor and shit, empty threats even if he means them. He paces around, furious, but at least he’s standing up. Meanwhile five men who are in the middle of recording an album that’s still beloved a quarter century later lay at his feet like hunting trophies. This kind of shit is new to him, but not to them. And they’re real fuckin tired of it.
Shit like that begat “Fuck Tha Police” which begat a letter from the FBI and, when they were on tour, multiple incidents with local police threatening to shut them down for performing the song (or for “obscenity”). In a way it’s nice that they can graduate from being degraded in their neighborhood to being treated like Elvis’s pelvic thrusts, but the movie shows a larger threat here as standing up for their right to expression could lead to police arresting them on stage which could lead to a full scale riot. From what I was able to find I think the Detroit concert scene is taking off from media tall tales more than what really happened, but it’s a vivid illustration of the specific type of danger felt in that era of rap concerts.
When the tape of the Rodney King beating starts playing on TV Jerry doesn’t take it as personally, telling the guys to “get back to work.” We see the trial going on on TVs throughout the movie, and then the riots. Of course Cube once said “Anything you want to know about the riots was in the records before the riots.” What happened to Rodney King was no surprise to the creators of “Fuck Tha Police,” but having it on tape – and then the system deciding that it was done correctly – was new to many white or upper class people, just like it was to Jerry in front of the studio, or like it is now as news of injustice after injustice spreads on social media in almost-real-time.
But we don’t have an N.W.A now.
SO THERE’S SOME excellent stuff about where the Attitudes came from, but the other great story of N.W.A is the breaking and repairing of the friendship. Cube leaves because Jerry and Eazy aren’t paying him what he feels he’s owed. I love the part where he dryly confronts them while they have a lobster and champagne breakfast.
Cube went solo and made a classic, Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. Losing Dre’s music could’ve been disastrous… except he went to New York and worked with Public Enemy’s production team, The Bomb Squad, who created an even more complex and powerful collage of funk and noise to crack and rattle furiously between his words. (Chuck D can be spotted in the studio with him, played by Rogelio Douglas Jr., Trumpeter #1, Studio Band, WHIPLASH).
Of course Cube ended up in a bitter feud with his former group, but what I didn’t know (if it’s true) is how much his old friends respected the music he was making. Dre is shown driving around bumping it. When Eazy angrily dismisses Cube, Yella defends him on the basis of how “hot” his album is.
One of the most enjoyable sections of the movie is the diss record war between the two factions. Eazy convinces Dre to call Cube “Benedict Arnold” on the song “Real Niggaz” (from the album efil4zaggiN [I don’t think they mention the earlier line on the 100 Miles and Runnin EP]) so Cube, who had kept his mouth shut on the first one, comes back with one of the harshest diss records in rap history, “No Vaseline,” as the last song on his second album, Death Certificate.
I really respect this scene because it actually made me appreciate the song more. I always thought it had some funny lines (“First you was down with the AK / And now I see you on a video with Michel’le”), but to me that song and the anti-Asian “Black Korea” tainted a great album. I always got hung up on the title and how he’s saying they’re all fucking each other. That’s such a childish insult, and it was kind of a bummer to see the members of this group we still loved so pissed at each other and calling each other names. I always think man, can you believe they were still teenagers when they started N.W.A? and then stuff like this reminds me that yeah, of course they were.
But in the movie it’s part of the story, we know the ending, we see the friendship and the misunderstanding that leads to this rift. That context finally let me really enjoy Cube scorching over the funky Brick sample, roasting them with insult after insult. And the movie intercuts the fiery recording session with the gathered members of N.W.A and management listening to the finished recording. I don’t for a second buy that that’s how they heard it for the first time, but it’s really funny to watch their faces as they hear what he’s saying about them. They’re embarrassed but can’t help sometimes nodding their head at the beat or admitting that it’s pretty funny. Only Jerry blows his top about it, and starts talking about lawsuits.
Of course, it goes down easier because they leave off the last verse, where he says “Half-pint bitch, fucking your homeboys / You little maggot / Eazy-E turned faggot.” And I’ve always believed that when he said “‘Cause you let a Jew break up my crew” he was being more descriptive than anti-Semitic, but the way some of the people in the theater cheered on that and any reference to him being Jewish did not give me good vibes.
HERE’S WHERE THE movie runs into trouble. Dre also leaves, and has a solo career at least as accomplished as Cube’s, and harder to streamline. In order to get to (HISTORICAL SPOILER) the group’s reconciliation before Eazy’s death you have to explain Dre leaving and founding Death Row Records with Suge Knight (FORCE OF EXECUTION stuntman R. Marcos Taylor), the menacing Piru Blood turned boogie man of record company executives. They fit in what they can: debuting Snoop (Keith Stanfield, SELMA) on “Deep Cover”, working on The Chronic, showing off the instrumental for “California Love” to Tupac (first timer Marcc Rose, who does a great job). (Hey, wait a minute – he plays him the more famous remix, that doesn’t actually make sense.) Of course they can’t get into that whole story.
It starts to feel like they’re adapting Dune at some point. Even after simplifying things (leaving out original N.W.A member Arabian Prince and G-Funk staple Nate Dogg) so many rappers have to be shown that you never see them meet, they’re always somebody Dre already knows. Entire marriages and childhoods have to be summed up in a few lines. Major developments (Cube’s acting career, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony) have to be mentioned, not shown. They respectfully include the D.O.C. and his car accident, but with so little context I’m sure it’s confusing to people who don’t know what I’m referring to there.
It’s stupid, but I kinda wish they coulda done this as a KILL BILL style two parter with part 2 focusing on the Death Row years, to really develop what was going on there. But at least they’re able to get in one excellent scene where Dre hears gunshots from inside the studio and goes out to yell at Suge and a roomful of hangers-on. It’s a scene of crazed decadence as scary as the firecracker scene in BOOGIE NIGHTS, and it’s based on the kind of stuff that really went on there. It’s all draped in Bloods red, there’s a life-sized electric chair, they’re having dog fights and torturing some guy at gunpoint.
At one point as Dre lectures them he looks at a guy and says “one time,” which if I’m not mistaken is a reference to the fact that Suge had off-duty police officers on the payroll. This was at the heart of the “Rampart scandal” involving corruption in an LAPD anti-gang unit. According to the theory pushed by one LAPD detective, these Death Row employees were involved in the murder of Notorious B.I.G. In 1997 one of them was killed by an undercover officer in a road rage incident, while another was convicted of robbing $722,000 from a Bank of America.
See, that could be a movie of its own. Almost has been a couple times.
OKAY, THIS IS A major left turn here, but it’s my biggest question about the movie: Why does Eazy have a framed CHILD’S PLAY 2 poster in the Ruthless Records office? I had to check to make sure he didn’t have a song on there or something. I think it just means he likes that movie, right? This is from Universal but I prefer to think this is an authentic historical detail than that they would say “Hey, do you guys mind pretending Eazy liked one of our movies?”
Most disappointing omissions:
1. Dre selling records out of his trunk
2. Mel Man
3. The guy who plays the racist white guy on “Fuck Tha Police”
4. Eazy-E giving a big monologue about how important CHILD’S PLAY 2 is to him
5. The filming of xXx: STATE OF THE UNION
The most unintentionally funny line in the movie is when Cube’s wife asks “How’s FRIDAY coming?” We’ve just seen him cracking himself up typing a screenplay on an old computer and saying “You got knocked the fuck out!” But then they must’ve worried maybe somebody might not know what that’s from so they gotta have her explain it. For now on people in my life are not allowed to ask me “How’s the book coming?,” they have to say the full title every time.
There’s actually less of that type of shit than I expected. In that sense it’s not as standard biopic as I feared. But in the break up years it starts getting bogged down in that school report mode that so many music biopics suffer from, becoming more of a list of references to every damn thing that happened than an actual story.
One example of a thing only referred to: the time Eazy-E went to a Republican fundraiser dinner with George Bush.
He got branded a sellout for that one. On “No Vaseline,” Cube chants “I never have dinner with the President” three times. But I always got the impression that he just thought it would be funny. He got the fundraising letter, and it wasn’t that much money to him, and he knew it would raise eyebrows. I can understand why they might not want to get into all that at that point in the story, but it’s the kind of thing that’s better to act out. Mentioning that it happened is not as exciting as making a movie about it. If we just wanted to hear it mentioned that it happened we’d be at home reading Wikipedia.
I suspect many people who aren’t into the music will enjoy it for a while and eventually get bored. And they’re kinda right. But hey, all those albums start off stronger than they end up, too. The last song on Straight Outta Compton is “Something 2 Dance 2.”
For me it’s hard not to love it for those cinematic moments that do happen. We get to see Dre fucking around on a keyboard until he figures out the riff for “Nothin But a ‘G’ Thang.” And there’s a scene where Jerry and Suge, the two arch-villains of hip hop history, give each other the stink eye through crowds of dancing bikini babes. It’s the silent changing of the guard and it takes place at “Eazy-E’s Wet ‘n Wild Party.”
Also I approve of the attention to detail in fashion. I like that Dre’s hats seem to keep up with what he wore in the videos of each era. The first time Cube talks about going solo he’s dressed like the cover of his Kill At Will EP.
And of course this is a movie about music, so it makes you want to nod your head or dance. They really capture the feel of big rap tours of that time, and I never saw N.W.A so thanks for giving me this simulation. Sometimes I believe they use the real recordings, but mostly they do it Sissy Spacek style, a wise move for making us feel the discovery of these great songs in the studio.
The non-N.W.A music is well chosen too. There’s a whole lot of Parliament-Funkadelic, which is smart considering how much Dre sampled, interpolated and took inspiration from them. During the scene where Cube and Eazy meet in New York they have Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.” playing in the club, to show us how hip hop has evolved in the background of this story. Early on a little of Dre’s new Compton album is used as scoring, which is weird to me for historical reasons but it sounds pretty good.
I LOVE THAT N.W.A gets to be honored in this way. They made great, important music, had a dramatic story, the survivors continue to have evolving careers. But the music biopic is a double-edged sword. It celebrates and enshrines the artist, but it also sort of vampirizes them. The music, the thing that made the artist so important, has to be re-recorded or repackaged. Some actor has to mimic the person, copy them, interpret what they might’ve been like in private. Famous moments have to be re-enacted in ways that don’t quite fit our memories of them. Entire human lives have to be reworked into something that fits comfortably into a movie. Inevitably, truth has to be shaved off for time, drama or palatability. And then a whole generation will be introduced to this great art through the movie, and have their idea of it shaped by this lesser form. Even in a best case scenario they only get to know it as a canonized work of the past and not a thrilling, refreshing, scary new force.
And also they can kiss the artist’s ass too much. Some have pointed out ugly parts of the N.W.A story that are left out: the homophobia and racism of Death Certificate, the incident where Dre punched female journalist Dee Barnes (which at least Eminem brings up on his song with Dre, “Guilty Conscience”). And in my opinion the misogyny in general is implied but toned down. But I also don’t think that’s a big deal because all you have to do is listen to the classic album that the movie is named after to see it. It’s not being hidden from public view.
I don’t know. It’s fair to point out that stuff, but I don’t think the movie pretends they’re enlightened. “Do I look like a motherfuckin role model?” Like any biopic they already got too much to explain in this story without having to explain or answer for every one of their character flaws. I also think if they showed more of these things then somebody else would accuse them of glorifying or defending such behavior.
UPDATE: When I wrote that last part, honestly I was ignorant of the extent of abuse Dre was accused of. It’s more and worse than I realized. Dee Barnes herself has now written a powerful, upsetting piece about the movie and makes some good points about other omissions as well.
I don’t like the common refrain that it’s a whitewashed telling of the story because it’s produced by Dre and Cube along with Eazy’s widow. This is another issue with all music biopics: you can’t offend whoever owns the rights to the music you need to play in the movie. But I mean, is autobiography not allowed anymore? If we were talking books then yeah, I’d take a good biography over a ghost-written memoir. But this is not journalism, this is movies, and I’d much rather see N.W.A’s self-serving version than some Hollywood asshole’s outside view.
I bet if they weren’t involved it would start with Dre discovering Eminem and then flash back to all the events leading up to this and how that gives him the idea to make beats by Dre headphones.
Also there’d be a whole section about Tairrie B:
Thank you for reading this far. Here is my final question. Are N.W.A now too old, too commercialized, too Hollywood-mythologized, too repackaged to be The World’s Most Dangerous Group? We must acknowledge that Cube is now a lovable star of comedies and family movies, Dre is a billionaire Apple dude trying to build a performing arts center in Compton, and yes, the group has a fuckin biopic from Universal Pictures. They deserve it, but does it take away their edge?
Maybe there’s no danger left in those guys, maybe they are Aerosmith now. Sorry Dre. But their youthful cinematic counterparts? They’ve caused extra police presence, added security guards and bag checks at theaters around the country, just like a rap concert or “hood movie” in the ’90s. They still represent a threat to somebody.
Shit. Maybe nothing’s changed.
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Saw the movie today and really enjoyed it. The movie is a great tribute to Eazy. It had little white kids crying for him. I bet a million Eazy E albums got sold on iTunes over the past week.
My only complaint is that they left out the Dr. Dre vs. Eazy feud. This is unfortunate not only because Real Mothafuckin G'z is one of the best diss songs of all time, but also because the scene with the phone call between Dre/Eazy to put the group back together makes no sense if you don't realize that they were seriously beefing. Though I kinda doubt that that phone call ever took place.
R.I.P. Eric Wright one of the dopest niggas ever to live
the phone call wasnt real, because all accounts from before the movie have said that dre never made it in time to the hospital to reconcile wit eazy.....as a matter of fact, there was an NWA reunion planned witout eazy-e and they were guna call it NWE (Niggaz Witout Eazy).......understandable why they left that out tho.
Dre has confirmed he had a phone call with Eazy.
https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodReporter/videos/10152894928537750/
maybe im trippin but i do recall accounts from others sayin dre never made it in time to reconcile wit eazy....i think it mighta been jerry heller, i duno, but i definitely heard that dre just missed him and was regretful for not bein able to squash it before he passed.
Those two things don't necessarily conflict with each other. He had the phone call and then he never made it in time to see Eazy.
naah but i remember the main talkin point bein that dre didnt make it in time to dead the beef. i heard that account at least a couple times if i remember correctly.
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I didn't like the movie. It was well made and all of that but to me it just wasn't good.
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Eazy use to talk to Dre all the time eazy brought dre a house that was on the same estate
as eazy and jerry. eazy use to talk to the D.O.C all the time eazy was trying to get the D.O.C back
on ruthless cause suge wasn't giving D.O.C nothing. also eazy had made up with cube when
they both did a cameo for chris rocks cb4 film them meeting at the tunnel isn't where they squashed the beef.
and i noticed dre is hard as nails in this film for some reason he knocks out like 3 people in this film
and lol at snoop standing up to suge when he 1st meets him like that would happen. also eazy didn't need to downgrade his house
thats bullshit he was making money of dre ffs! dj quik will confirm how rich eazy was.
Yeah, that shit about Eazy downgrading his house didn't seem believable to me. The whole storyline with life for Eazy "going downhill" after the gang split up seemed wrong. They show him get beat up by Suge, cheated by Jerry, and downgrading his house like his life was really getting bad. What they don't show is IT'S ON going 2x Platinum! Of course the nigga was rich as fuck...he had all of NWA's money!
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Why wasn't HWA in the movie?
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Eazy use to talk to Dre all the time eazy brought dre a house that was on the same estate
as eazy and jerry. eazy use to talk to the D.O.C all the time eazy was trying to get the D.O.C back
on ruthless cause suge wasn't giving D.O.C nothing. also eazy had made up with cube when
they both did a cameo for chris rocks cb4 film them meeting at the tunnel isn't where they squashed the beef.
and i noticed dre is hard as nails in this film for some reason he knocks out like 3 people in this film
and lol at snoop standing up to suge when he 1st meets him like that would happen. also eazy didn't need to downgrade his house
thats bullshit he was making money of dre ffs! dj quik will confirm how rich eazy was.
Yeah, that shit about Eazy downgrading his house didn't seem believable to me. The whole storyline with life for Eazy "going downhill" after the gang split up seemed wrong. They show him get beat up by Suge, cheated by Jerry, and downgrading his house like his life was really getting bad. What they don't show is IT'S ON going 2x Platinum! Of course the nigga was rich as fuck...he had all of NWA's money!
plus Bone... their first EP went at least Gold lol
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I think they point the movie was trying to show was that Jerry was robbing him to the point where he was going broke.
https://www.youtube.com/v/VvKDwjg2eJQ
^Bizzy wanted some of that sweet nectar rolling down his cheeks too!
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I think they point the movie was trying to show was that Jerry was robbing him to the point where he was going broke.
https://www.youtube.com/v/VvKDwjg2eJQ
^Bizzy wanted some of that sweet nectar rolling down his cheeks too!
Yeah, I think that was the point the movie tried to make, but is it actually true? Was Eazy ever even close to being broke in the 90s? I would imagine that he made so much money off NWA that he was set for life. Plus he had plenty of money coming in with other Ruthless releases.
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Movie was corny af..but it was aite.
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I just saw it again for a second time last night... just as good as the first viewing
I did notice the "Dre Day" plaque in the studio near the end of the movie so maybe the director's cut will touch on the Dre/Eazy beef post-N.W.A... I also realized that was indeed supposed to be Warren G introducing Snoop, guy sounds just like Warren lol I was more faded the first time I peeped it so that went right past me
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Dope movie.
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Caught the film the other day and was really impressed with how it turned out. All of the main actors were very convincing in their portrayal of the group. I thought Paul Giamatti in particular was very good playing Jerry Heller, so much so that you sort of end up liking him for what he did for N.W.A in getting them the opportunities that they had in the beginning. The actor who played Eazy E I thought did a brilliant job too.
Glad that they showed The D.O.C's influence in the group, also I'm assuming that was meant to be OFTB at the end with Suge?
Aside from a couple of mistakes that only hardcore fans would spot, it was pretty much everything I wanted from the film.
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Caught the film the other day and was really impressed with how it turned out. All of the main actors were very convincing in their portrayal of the group. I thought Paul Giamatti in particular was very good playing Jerry Heller, so much so that you sort of end up liking him for what he did for N.W.A in getting them the opportunities that they had in the beginning. The actor who played Eazy E I thought did a brilliant job too.
Glad that they showed The D.O.C's influence in the group, also I'm assuming that was meant to be OFTB at the end with Suge?
Aside from a couple of mistakes that only hardcore fans would spot, it was pretty much everything I wanted from the film.
i agree on every point, what a great movie!
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Saw the movie yesterday.
If that is how Eazy was, my picture of him is wrong.
Anyone know if that "bone" track NWA reunion track is real? the tape Yella comes in with at the hospital?
Dre seems little more gangsta in the movie than i picture him beeing, easy alittle less than i see him beeing.
Was a nice story and good movie.
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also I'm assuming that was meant to be OFTB at the end with Suge?
LOL I think so now when I think about it... a bunch of dudes were on the low portrayed and just not name-dropped (Above The Law, Lench Mob, Warren G, OFTB, who else?)
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also I'm assuming that was meant to be OFTB at the end with Suge?
I thought the same thing when I saw that scene. The guys looked like OFTB. I was actually wondering if the Bloods hanging around Suge were cast in order to resemble some of the people who were historically Suge's homies at this time, like the people Pac shouted out in To Live and Die in LA (Neckbone, Tre, Herron, Buntry). I would respect Dre for wanting to commemorate them in this minor way, if he actually did that.
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since no one mentioned it yet i wanted to point out that i thought it was crazy that compton menace was that OG blood '2 tone' from crenshaw mafia who got on the bus and checked everyone in the beginning, and then they go into 'Just Another Day' right after that scene.
that's hilarious I said the exact same thing to my homie who was with me lol
that's probably one of, if not the biggest rap checks Menace has gotten ever
Haha that's funny yet cold. I honestly didn't know how Menace looked like lol.
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since no one mentioned it yet i wanted to point out that i thought it was crazy that compton menace was that OG blood '2 tone' from crenshaw mafia who got on the bus and checked everyone in the beginning, and then they go into 'Just Another Day' right after that scene.
that's hilarious I said the exact same thing to my homie who was with me lol
that's probably one of, if not the biggest rap checks Menace has gotten ever
Haha that's funny yet cold. I honestly didn't know how Menace looked like lol.
he's doing his thing lol didn't mean it in a cold way, he did claim Game never paid/shorted him so this was probably a good check for him
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finally saw the movie on the theaters last weekend...
i like the movie....i thought that i might be either totally enthusiastic about this movie or totally pissed...well it's not one or the other...i like it
like many people above me i was a little bit dissapointed that the dre/eazy beef disapeared. but besides that i enjoyed it. looking forward to the director's cut