Excellent drama, unrealistically violent

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2015)

This is a well made drama, with an excellent cast, genuine depth and a powerful ending. Now for the not-so-great part: the makers of the film seem more interested at times in creating a filmic version of N.W.A's sensationalistic, violent music than authentically portraying the lives of the people in the group. That said, the film opened with record setting opening weekend sales, which is really something for a legacy hip hop group, and one that has a pretty selective audience.
For those too young or just too polite to know, N.W.A. sort of "broke down the boundaries" for offensive, sexist, hardcore street rap, partly spearheading the Gangsta Rap controversy of the early 90's. What that actually means in terms of studio recordings often boils down to old Funkadelic tracks (Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome, anyone?) with expletive laden raps over the top - middle class white kids get off on the danger and power fantasy of gangsta rap etc, while major label record companies made off with millions.
Is it exploitative? Definitely, but also N.W.A. really did come from Compton (or pretty close to, anyway), and the film details their beginnings recording in rough neighbourhoods and playing dive bars to their later career, mentored by a middle aged Jewish-American music industry professional called Jerry Heller, who hid financial details from the group, both promoting them and ripping them off at the same time.
Discriminatory racial profiling, police harassment, and gang activity are all played out in a harsh, realistic style of combining hand- held shots, expert editing and a concise script. The casual sexism, nudity and obnoxiousness of commercial hip hop culture might be a bit tiresome for some; these people are actual adults but behave like overgrown 18 year olds themselves at times.
Two points: the film actually has dramatic power rather than sentiment, eschewing Hollywood gloss for a "real, in the moment" feel, but also there's a LOT of scenes in which estranged performers and dodgy record industry types get straight-up punched senseless on camera. It almost seems like the writers have included multiple scenes regarding the groups mismanagement and infighting to push the story forward, but it hardly seems realistic the sheer number of times people get angrily dealt to; even Dre, the most clean cut and work-focused of the group, apparently beats the crap out of people just for partying and making noise while he's recording. I highly doubt stuff this crazy actually happened so frequently, while at the same time the pertinent and very serious issue of wealthy producer and headphone sponsor Dre assaulting three women as a youngster is conveniently removed from history altogether.
Last thoughts: see this movie, its got a great character arc and some powerful themes that fall well outside of the standard rap bio narrative. Rated for nudity and strong language, I guess.