Straight Outta Compton ****/5: A pretty good film but i had issues with some of the glaring biases in the film.

(photo courtesy of forbes.com)

Well I finally watched Straight Outta Compton and it was a pretty good film. I already knew the story and so I was not in a rush to watch the fictional or more dramatic version. The fictional or dramatic versions of real live events are always exaggerated and biased and dilute the reality of the original situation. This is why it’s good to have many films on the same subject in some cases. The exaggeration and biases in Straight Outta Compton are very evident in the film.  There are still some very strong  moments in this film that capture the reality of life in the streets and emphasize the power of having street knowledge. 

This film is about the rise and fall of the pioneering hip hop group N.W. A (Niggers with Attitude). The members of the group were the late Eazy E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella. Their album ‘Straight Outta Compton’ put gangsta rap on map in a big way with such controversial hits as ‘Fuck tha Police’. It also reflected the harsh reality of street life and shows how unprepared some people in the mainstream media were for this kind of music.

Positives

The primary positive in this film was the first half when the group is formed in the harsh streets of Compton and South Central , Los Angeles. There is a very realistic edge in these early moments that showed to some extent how street life formed the basis for the birth of gangsta rap music as we know it and how it was geared for mass consumption as opposed to just remaining in the underground.  This allowed it to reach a mass audience in the United States and highlighted the violent activities of street life experienced by  a lot of members in the impoverished black communities throughout the United States. I listened to the album and it was a fairly good listen.  I also read some of the reviews by the critics at the time and one made an important point when he said that the album might celebrate the violence and bravado required for survival in the streets but there is little room for introspection.  That is pretty accurate for as gangsta rap matured more introspective songs were made about how black people in the communities were impacted by the violence of street life. NWA pioneered gangsta rap as a club banging experience. This allowed it to reach a mass audience and once the dollars started rolling in, as a result of increased record sales, who can really complain. If people in the market are buying then N.W.A’s  music must have had some social relevance because it affected or reflected the perception of some people, especially black people.   Classic albums like The Chronic, Doggystyle and All Eyez on Me, also benefitted from the inroads made by the album Straight Outta Compton.  I just mentioned those albums and I’m sure that other albums were influenced by the N.W.A album.  So how the album came together was very interesting especially the hit song ‘Fuck tha Police’ which was the most controversial one on the record.  One could understand, based on the group’s early experiences, how their harsh experience with police officers gave birth to the song.

The intensity of the first half of the film made the birth of gangsta rap as an art form very believable but there are still some significant biases.

There is also some relevant historical material in this film although it’s a bit choppy in the 2^nd half. Some of this material included the reasons for the breakup of the group starting with Ice Cube’s departure as he was rightly frustrated with manager Jerry Heller and Eazy E. Ice Cubes departure led to a musical confrontation between himself and his former group members still in the N.W.A. The famous track ‘No Vaseline’ was Cube’s response to N.W.A’s diss track ‘100 miles and running’.   The film also shows the role played by Suge Knight in getting Dre off his contract with Eazy E’s Ruthless records and how the partnership between Suge and Dre  led to the formation of Deathrow records. Dre then leaves Deathrow to form the company Aftermath. We also see Eazy E’s tragic  battle with Aids, ‘but I aint no faggot.’

The acting in this film is pretty good and the direction by F. Gary Gray is assured for the most part especially for the first half of the film when the group had all 5 members.

Negatives

The film is clearly biased in many regards especially when one considers the portrayal of Eazy E, Dre and Ice Cube. At times I thought the film dragged because it tried to spend time on the careers of Dre and Cube after they split from N.W.A and the thin material did not justify so much time being spent. Did the film really have to get into the Deathrow  saga just so  Dre could man up and say  he is leaving to form Aftermath? What did that have to do with the impact of the record Straight Outta Compton? By the 2^nd half of the film these personalities are treated as holy figures that are always in the right. In order to make Eazy E’s death more palatable a lot of false reconciliations are made. For instance I find it hard to believe that Eazy E was planning a major comeback for N.W.A by reuniting with Cube and Dre even though his last record, released after his death, had a lot of disses  aimed at Dre. I am not saying it is false  that Eazy E was planning to reunite N.W.A without Jerry Heller;  I am just saying I find it hard to believe. I find it hard to believe because he was portrayed in such a special light towards the end. It just felt that a lot of realistic elements were missing. I never knew Eazy fell out with Jerry towards the end but would that necessarily lead to the group being reunited. Something is missing here.  Dre is portrayed as a saint as well despite his history of domestic abuse. We see Suge Knight portrayed as the devil but I find it hard to believe that Dre was so blind to what Suge was capable of. After all he was a security guard trained in enforcement. After Ice Cube’s diss track there is nothing of note in regards to the group. If they were not prepared to delve into the other album’s released by N.W. A why just Straight Outta Compton since they focus on the careers of Dre and Cube after they left the group.  The film would have been stronger if it just focused on N.W. A and how the group fell apart or just focus on the impact of the album itself.  It did not have to go into so much detail about Cube and Dre’s careers after they left. It could have been mentioned but not emphasized so much. After awhile the film was not about the N.W.A but about ruthless records. The emphasis on the impact that the album had is lost by the 2^nd half. The 2^nd half makes for good dramam because of Eazy E’s death although he was no saint also.  The movie was stretched thin towards the end even with the portrayal of Eazy E’s final days.  By then the writers were trying to make too many U turns and corrections.  Just by focusing on the impact of the album and its immediate aftermath then the film would have been stronger in my opinion.

It also makes you wonder about the reality of the situation because although a man like Suge seems reprehensible today brute force was clearly a tactic that was required in the early days of gangsta rap because it was a struggle for power.  Dre sided with Suge for a reason and so trying to highlight that Suge pistol whipped someone for parking in his customary space doesn’t really say much apart from painting Suge in a negative light. Yes what he did on that occasion was reprehensible but what does it say about how close gangsta rap was to the streets of Compton and South central Los Angeles. It wasn’t really just the personalities involved. So Dre excused himself although the foundation for his success was due to his connections with the streets. Others didn’t excuse themselves as they progressed but that does not mean that brute force wasn’t required in the early days. Suge just embodied that aspect of it. It seems reprehensible because rap is now a more mature art form.  Now you can rap without trying to gain street credibility. You can do collaborations with Justin Bieber , Katy Perry, Taylor Swift etc and not worry about your street or hardcore image. Doing a collaboration with Bieber is a good thing because it will be a hit record and the dollars will start pouring in. One can now rely on rapping solely as an art form without having to gain street credibility. You can rap about the birds and the trees once it can make money. Gangsta rap is just one aspect of rapping nowadays whereas before, as a result of N.W.A, Gangsta rap was  the dominant force in rap. At the time when gangsta rap was the dominant force money still did not come as easily and the dispute over contracts in the film is a clear indicator of that. You could go broke very easily in those days. Selling millions of records was not a guarantee for monetary success. This is why the fight for control of these resources was  crucial and the film did not emphasize that enough. We see Ice Cube trash the office of a white executive but could he take that chance with a man like Suge Knight without serious repercussions. A man so close to hardcore street life.

Another element of bias was how the album was presented in the film. I expected to hear about how more of the tracks were conceived but emphasis was placed primarily on ‘Fuck that Police’. It excused the filmmakers from showing the other side of gangsta rap that has to do with the glorification of violence or black on black crime. I didn’t see enough instances about black on black violence and why N.W.A decided to promote this lifestyle instead of being more introspective. Could it be that because some members were so close to the streets that they saw the gangsters as powerful figures as they tormented their fellow citizens? Why side with the gangsters and not with the people being killed by the gangsters? When they say it is their reality that is false unless they are gangsters themselves? There are those in the black communities that are not too accepting of gangsters or the gangster lifestyle.  So I would have liked to understand more about why these rappers sided with glamourizing the gangster lifestyle which is a ruthless one and is responsible for a lot of black on black crime. Would the Dre of today rap about killing a nigga because he gave him attitude?  I think not.  So the film did not explore why people, even in the poor  communities, would have a problem with gangsta rap. Why is celebrating black on black crime a good thing? This is why when they portray Dre as being so incensed with the activities of Suge Knight it comes across as false since a lot of the songs that he produced in those days celebrated that kind of behavior. Was the reality eventually too much for Dre to bear? Did it finally dawn on him that black on black violence is not such a good thing after all? So demonizing Suge Knight  achieves nothing especially if gangsta rap is promoting or glorifying violence especially black on black crime. Maybe we should be glad that gangsta rap is not such a dominant force in rap and we can look forward to rappers collaborating with Justin Bieber. It seems that Suge Knight was the scapegoat in the film in order to excuse the writers from addressing the real issues.  Eazy E was prepared to kill Suge Knight and it shows that Suge’s behavior in the film was the norm. Eazy E just had to be the better man. So how close was gangsta rap to street life? The film should have addressed that issue some more apart from the track ‘Fuck tha police’.

It was a tough time and instead of accepting that some of the protagonists embraced  some aspects of the gangsta lifestyle they are portrayed as saints who went straight outta Compton to Riverside. Right Ice Cube.  Let’s just imagine that N.W.A’s album was not a  major  mainstream success and still remained in the underground. How reprehensible would Suge Knight’s behavior seem when everyone would be competing for the music product just like  they compete for drugs. That normally ends in violence.  That’s why Eazy E was prepared to kill Suge Knight. If he did kill Suge Knight who would have missed him? It’s the way of the streets.