Rap Movie Adds Sobering Dimensions to Standard "Rise and Fall" Music Biography

Rating: 8/10 (11 September 2015)

Country star Alan Jackson (I think) once remarked that the music genre "rap" should have a "C" in front of it. Besides that, many of us, including myself, have disregarded rap as ear- splitting, cacophonic nonsense. Although I will never become a rap fan, the movie "Straight Outta Compton" (hereafter "Compton") successfully demonstrated to me that rap is far more intricate, potent, and meaningful than its harsh, raw surface suggests, because a strong core of societal hardship and shrewd sense of injustice often powers it. Furthermore, "Compton" dazzlingly reveals that rap can give an intense, hard-to-ignore voice to an entire teenage generation of all races and ethnicities that has been fearfully silent for too long.
"Compton" chronicles the progress of five African-American friends Eric "Eazy-E" (Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson, Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), and DJ Yella (Neil Brown, Jr.) as they endure life in Compton, CA's run-down suburbs. There, police tanks demolishing cocaine dens, gang leaders threatening schoolbuses full of kids just for calling out to them, and hostile cops trampling 1st Amendment and civil rights with impunity in their zeal to racially profile and harass groups of kids are just tolerated facts of life. However, instead of resorting to crime or joining/forming a gang, these high school guys decide to combine their DJing, lyric writing, and harmonizing skills to form the rap group N.W.A. (N-word With Attitude). Under N.W.A. these young musicians hope to educate the world about their pain and sufferings, especially in a way the current musical trend, R & B ballads and slow jams championed by dance hall owner Alonzo Williams (Corey Reynolds) just can't do.
N.W.A., led by Eazy-E, seems to touch a nerve with their musical audience as their song "Boyz-n-the Hood" becomes a hit. This success attracts the attention of Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) who, sensing a new musical trend, convinces the group to let him be their business and contract manager. Under Jerry's seemingly parental tutelage, N.W.A gets represented by Priority Records and turns out the giant hit album "Straight Outta Compton". N.W.A. surges to fame, fortune, and every pleasure money can buy.
Nevertheless, many factors conspire to impede, splinter, or stop the group. Because of obscene, militant, anti-authority lyrics, especially in their searing anthem "F-k the Police", N.W.A. runs afoul of not only their old foes the local police, but also even the F.B.I. Due to their negotiating inexperience, N.W.A. trusts Jerry to stand up for them and get them the gigs. But Jerry has a more unscrupulous side. Because Eazy-E trusts him most, Jerry immediately gets contracts signings for him while the rest of the group waits. Jerry is also less than democratic in ensuring that each N.W.A. member gets his cut of the profits while he himself embezzles more than his fair share. Disgusted, Ice Cube leaves N.W.A. to forge a solo rap career. Ice Cube and N.WA. become fierce (and humorous) rivals as they try to out-insult and "out-diss" each other in their song outputs. Seeking more artistic freedom, Dr. Dre also leaves N.W.A. and hooks up with rapper Suge Knight (R. Marcos Taylor) to create Death Row Records. While the partnership proves productive ("The Chronic" album, mentoring up-and- coming rapper Snoop Dogg (Keith Stanfield) and Tupac Shakur (Marc Rose)), Knight also proves to be a violent tyrant. Debt, sibling deaths, family strife, car accidents, and the specter of AIDS also hover over N.W.A. Can the group keep it together?
Without a doubt, "Compton" follows the "Musical Rags to Riches" trajectory closely and indulges in some of its excesses (e.g. scantily clad and nude party goers, hotel and studio trashings, marijuana dealings). However, the movie succeeds in not glorifying these wretched excesses and showing that N.W.A really worked strenuously for their success, especially in the scene when Dr. Dre dares to chew out Knight and his hanger-ons for partying too much and not working hard enough. "Compton" also details quite well the exploitative realities of the music business through Jerry Heller. Heller may have been a cheating sleaze, but he also convinces us that he cared for N.W.A.'s members and DID help them reach the top. Any other music agent would probably have ripped them off more, and cheated them out of more. "Compton" also manages to portray N.W.A. three-dimensionally as people who are certainly not saints and swear a lot and certainly have their vices, but who are fundamentally decent, industrious, and caring of each other. Other posters have said that "Compton" has sanitized and softened N.W.A.'s image (e.g. Dr. Dre. was a misogynist in real life), but then again no movie biography, music or otherwise, tells the whole truth. Anyway, "Compton" was close- enough-to-life raw enough for me, while vividly and entertainingly proving to me that rap is a legitimate way to "fight the power" without sacrificing your soul.