Best Hip Hop Biopic

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2015)

Straight Outta Compton is a biopic about the careers of Eazy E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre as they started the N.W.A and became the voice of people in the hood. With songs such as Straight Outta Compton and F*ck Tha Police these men worked their way up to the top through friendships, break ups, and different labels. They faced controversy from the streets and the Police for their works, and fought through it. It shows the boys break up from each other, their individual career paths and challenges (money problems, corrupt managers, Suge Knight, and more). You hear mention of their movie deals, and it shows a list of other artists the rappers worked with, such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac. Let's talk about what didn't work. This movie glosses over some of the low points in each rapper's career, mentioning them, but not putting enough detail to give a fair representation. This is mainly due to Ice Cube and Dre's involvement as producers obviously not wanting to ruin their names But that wasn't a big deal because I loved everything else. The cinematography was fantastic. There was one scene involving gangs that I wont ruin for you, but it had a very cool and emotionally powerful shot in it that made me almost cry with pride. The acting was superb. Every actor showed such raw talent and emotion that was so powerful that as a viewer I felt empathy for the characters, and I truly believed the pain was happening to them, in the moment. It was moments like that that made me forget I was watching a movie at all. It felt more like the actual people really going through everything. A special shout out goes to O'Shea Jackson Jr. for giving a performance as his own dad and absolutely killing it. And the story? Fantastically put together, switching between each character flawlessly without letting any character be overtaken by another. Also, I am a bit biased towards loving the soundtrack considering I knew every hip hop song in the film and could rap along with them. Suffice to say I loved this movie, and would definitely go see it again. 10/10