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Straight Outta Compton tells the tale of the rap band N.W.A., aka Niggaz Wit Attitudes, and begins in the mid-1980s on the streets of Compton, California, which were some of the most dangerous in the USA.
When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. Following the meteoric rise and fall of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton tells the story of how these youngsters revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood and ignited a cultural war.
I was in school, aged just 16, when “Fuck tha Police”, got a lot of airplay amongst friends (although obviously not on Radio 1). It’s a protest song against police brutality and racial profiling, but to us, in Manchester UK, it was just loud and featured a lot of swearing, and sounded superb, and sounded like it was rallying against the establishment.
And upon seeing the trailer for this film, I’m quite fascinated that they’ve made a movie which not only looks back at the band’s beginnings, but also features actors portraying the band members, including Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and Ice Cube.
Straight Outta Compton is directed by F Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen, The Negotiator) and stars Paul Giamatti, Alexandra Shipp, Rebecca Olejniczak and Keith Stanfield as Snoop Dogg, and is released in the UK on August 14th, and I’m very much looking forward to it.
Check out the trailer below and click on the poster for the full-size image:
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.