Straight Outta Compton - The Motion Picture

Doesn't look like it's getting the Lifetime™ treatment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyxt-S6K_Vg

Just the uncredited parts show promise:

Pedestrian (uncredited)
Club Executive (uncredited)
Teamster Union Driver (uncredited)
Woman at Riot (uncredited)
Protester / Looter (uncredited)
Rap Patron (uncredited)
Waiter (uncredited)
Club Patron / Dopeman (uncredited)
NWA Fan (uncredited)
NWA Fan (uncredited)
Pool party girl (uncredited)
Road Crew (uncredited)
Pool party guest (uncredited)
NWA Fan (uncredited)
Protestor (uncredited)
Car Driver (uncredited)
Valet (uncredited)
SWAT Officer (uncredited)
Studio Patron (uncredited)
Looter (uncredited)
Super Fan (uncredited)
Tekin (uncredited)
Pool party Girl (uncredited)
Pool party patron (uncredited)
Loot (uncredited)
NWA Fan (uncredited)
Club Patron (uncredited)
Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
Arabian prince (uncredited)
Groupie (uncredited)
Attorney (uncredited)
Concert Goer (uncredited)
Patron (uncredited)
Club patron (uncredited)
Protester (uncredited)
Waitress (uncredited)
Protester / Concert Goer (uncredited)
Pool Party Girl (uncredited)
Club Patron (uncredited)
Restaurant guest (uncredited)
Club dancer (uncredited)
Patron (uncredited)
Pool Party Babe (uncredited)
Hostess (uncredited)
Looter (uncredited)
Protester (uncredited)
Girlfriend (uncredited)
Record Mogul (uncredited)
Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
Christian Protester (uncredited)
Skater fan (uncredited)
Club Patron (uncredited)

this looks .... p good?

Giammatti as Jerry Heller is p genius casting

I was all damn, dude playing Cube is dead-on.

And then I looked at the credits.

what is it his son or something

Yeah

http://i.imgur.com/byAGdRn.jpg

Straight outta Ice Cube, a crazy motherfucker named Darrel

It def has a VH1-Movie-cheese feel to it but I am so down to see this, I dont care

I'm deeply skeptical and hate biopics in general but this is one where the pat narrative arc probably doesn't apply

I mean I guess they could fashion one out of Eazy's death but that seems unlikely (I hope)

I hope it goes all the way through their post-NWA careers and we can see Darrel Jackson re-enacting his dad's time on the set of Anaconda. (Selena Gomez cameo playing J. Lo.)

I can't quite figure out the timeline from the trailer - they obviously go up to Rodney King, which is '91 ie. post-Cube departure and it looks like Suge at least makes an appearance so maybe it goes through the breakup?

If they show Jackson as Ice Cube holding his newborn son, jaymc and nabisco's heads will explode.

I don't like this idea

https://www.yahoo.com/music/gangsta-rap-icons-nwa-to-reunite-with-eminem-124788590106.html

Snoop would've made more sense

hologram eazy or gtfo

breaking news from 1999

http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/compton.jpg

01 Intro
02 Talk About It [ft. King Mez & Justus]
03 Genocide [ft. Kendrick Lamar, Marsha Ambrosius & Candice Pillay]
04 It's All on Me [ft. Justus & BJ the Chicago Kid]
05 All in a Day's Work [ft. Anderson Paak & Marsha Ambrosius]
06 Darkside/Gone [ft. King Mez, Marsha Ambrosius & Kendrick Lamar]
07 Loose Cannons [ft. Xzibit & COLD 187um]
08 Issues [ft. Ice Cube & Anderson Paak]
09 Deep Water [ft. Kendrick Lamar & Justus]
10 One Shot One Kill [ft. Snoop Dogg]
11 Just Another Day [ft. Asia Bryant]
12 For the Love of Money [ft. Jill Scott & Jon Connor]
13 Satisfaction [ft. Snoop Dogg, Marsha Ambrosius & King Mez]
14 Animals [ft. Anderson Paak]
15 Medicine Mane [ft. Eminem, Candice Pillay & Anderson Paak]
16 Talking to My Diary

lol people are getting hyped about an album with FOUR Anderson Paak features on it. (I liked that dude for a minute tbf.)

Wait so is this album called straight outta compton

Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre

Not PMOC: An Eventual Joke by Some Dude or Da Croupier

reviews mostly mildly positive so far

Any links to those reviews? Can't find any.

Yeah did this even make a ripple? Seen zero non-ilx mentions

here is a useful website

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_outta_compton/

this looks like its going to be on the same level as the biggie biopic

a tv movie biopic basically

Most biopics are on the level of tv movies, tbf.

Will we finally learn the origin of Ice Cube?

serge gainsbourg had one of the best biopics

this looks like its going to be on the same level as the biggie biopic

a tv movie biopic basically

― StillAdvance, Thursday, August 6, 2015 8:30 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno the buzz for this seems way better, Notorious was a punchline before it was even out. i think this will easily make more money.

i could see the movie going either way, but Compton is guaranteed an eventual four-star review in Rolling Stone by some dick or da vidfricke

I meant the sdtk btw

Xxp

it premieres today on Apple Music

probably figure they don't need (or want?) any advance reviews

Album streaming now for a little longer fyi

thinking about the band's story, it's funny in retrospect how stupid Heller was to settle on Eazy as the breakout star, given the subsequent careers of Dre and Cube and their outsize role in shaping the group overall. A manager having a divide-and-conquer strategy with a hot group - singling out one for "greater things" - is totally predictable standard operating procedure, maybe Heller's just an idiot for picking the money guy who happened to be a good mascot rather than the other two obvious dudes who were carrying the bulk of the creative role (no disrespect intended to the D.O.C. or Ren)

role load

i think it's kind of short-sighted to consider heller "stupid" or an "idiot" for sticking with eazy considering eazy was still a platinum artist and led to them releasing multi-platinum bone thugs. yes dre accomplished even more but heller would have had to go through suge knight to get a cut. and cube's whole reason for splitting was not liking heller's management deal - is the idea that heller should have taken less and cube would have kept him on as a manager out of gratitude and then he'd be getting net points on Friday After Next?

jerry heller was my dad's manager in the 60s fwiw!

? Heller managed both Cube and Dre before NWA, but he founded Ruthless with Eazy, and that's where the problems started. Eazy and Heller's financial arrangement as label heads essentially squeezed out Dre and Cube. Heller was willing to lose both Dre and Cube as long as he had Eazy, the less talented but more amicable one.

xp

also eazy WAS the star post NWA - he was the king, as evidenced by him leading, headlining all other west coast rappers in this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJD1oDKKMdM

Heller managed both Cube and Dre before NWA, but he founded Ruthless with Eazy, and that's where the problems started. Eazy and Heller's financial arrangement as label heads essentially squeezed out Dre and Cube. Heller was willing to lose both Dre and Cube as long as he had Eazy, the less talented but more amicable one.

yes. he was willing to lose the greater talents who would have dropped him as a manager as soon as better managers pointed out how bad the deals were. i would agree this would make him "stupid" if he didn't continue to make millions with a more willing accomplice.

he was definitely the star, but he couldn't function without the other two

I love All in the Same Gang so much btw. of course, produced by Dre and Eazy's verse written by Ren iirc

xp

he was willing to lose the greater talents who would have dropped him as a manager as soon as better managers pointed out how bad the deals were.

well he could've just given them better deals/renegotiated. After which no Death Row, no Death Certificate, possibly no Snoop but who knows how things would have gone, he probably would have made many MORE millions is my point

maybe not by your artistic measure, but eazy DID function without the other two. a multi-platinum ep in 1993. two gold albums after his death. and when he died, he was mourned by a multiplatinum #1 single released on heller's label.

and yes, maybe there's a world where dre would have never let suge take over and cube would have stuck with heller as his career went hyphenate. but those are some biiiiiig maybes considering the industry collaborators dre and cube wound up with.

to just say "lol eazy is nothing compared to dre and cube, whatta maroon" is ignoring a lot of details

not to mention eazy DYING twenty years ago, who knows how much hustling he could have accomplished otherwise

a multi-platinum ep in 1993. two gold albums after his death.

you are aware these albums are terrible right

"maybe not by your artistic measure" was my attempt to head such qualitative shit off at the pass

what about jerry heller's career suggests he was driven by the desire for a great artistic legacy

I was just doublechecking

xp

I kinda wonder if Heller gravitating towards Eazy was emblematic of him being a more old-school record company guy - maybe having a frontman that was propped up by other producers/writers just didn't occur to him to be a liability, after all this is how it was/is done in a lot of cases. But once Dre took off as a producer and Cube became a huge star it must have occurred to him in retrospect, "if only I had kept those guys together"...

or even just kept them all on the same label or under his management

oh i'm sure when he saw dre and jimmy iovine split a billion from apple he thought "man i wish i had a cut of that" but i dunno if dre would have kept him along for that ride under any circusmstance or that dre would even have a billion in headphone money to split if heller had stuck by him

yeah too many hypotheticals

but to say jerry heller is an idiot for not having the foresight to be jimmy iovine kinda ignores that jerry heller did quite well for being jerry heller

true, he did not hitch his wagon to Ren

considering the success of bone thugs i think its very likely eazy would have wound up the birdman of the west coast (with heller smiling beside him) assuming suge knight didn't kill him later in the 90s. again, not exactly hollywood or headphone money, but not bad.

sure, my point is that it's relative though. he had three goldmines to choose from, and he chose the one with the least gold in it

That's cash money Birdman not a delusional former star trying to do legitimate theatre - though I wouldn't rule that out as another possibility

and all i've bumped on is the idea that it was stupid or idiotic to go with eazy, considering heller's relative lack of value beyond hustling music on an indie level. never denied dre or cube made more money.

a delusional former star trying to do legitimate theatre - though I wouldn't rule that out as another possibility

heh

Thought this was surprisingly good. One overly sentimental scene having to do with Dre's brother, and maybe a couple of other scenes that didn't work for me. Factual accuracy? Haven't a clue. Does it gloss over a lot? Of course--but whatever is glossed over is also still there in plain view. The music, for me--basically a fan when the first album came out, also a million miles away--was really handled well (my favourite song, "Compton's in the House," doesn't show up, though). The police stuff couldn't be more timely. Sly sense of humour throughout, and all five performances for the band members are solid, especially O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Giamatti's good up to a point, but he's basically doing Giamatti stuff.) In the end, it felt like there was a lot of feeling in the film from Dre and Ice Cube for Easy-E.

sounds promising! probably gonna be awhile before I can see this

I def want to see this

but whatever is glossed over is also still there in plain view.

Not necessarily:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/12/straight-outta-compton-dr-dre-s-assault-on-dee-barnes-and-the-problem-with-music-biopics.html

haha yeah I was wondering about that

I meant more in a general sense--there's enough there that you can infer the rest. (Or maybe I just know enough of the story that I could.)

I spent 20 minutes on that post, trying extra-hard not to say anything that could be misconstrued.

haha there was that thing going round a couple of days back w/ 'dre and cube address abuse allegations and misogyny in lyrics' and dre said some contrite things, he didn't sound so much like it was something he genuinely agonized over like lennon, but still i thought 'well that's good they've matured and they're wiser' and then i read the bit about misogyny which was pretty much the same 'if you're not a bitch or a ho then we're not talking about you' line from 1988 and thought 'or maybe not'.

Good review from David Edelstein, and pretty accurate, I'd say:

http://www.vulture.com/2015/08/film-review-straight-outta-compton.html

Another thing I meant by "in plain view"--it's there, but most of the really unsavory stuff is attached to Suge Knight (including a virtual reenactment of The Godfather's bandleader-contract anecdote). If you to into the film knowing even some of the background, I think you'll be aware of that.

Yea Dee Barnes incident is one I called out during the movie as being a glaring omission. Even Dre's high speed pursuit is painted as more of a lashing out in frustration more than him being blinded by his good fortune at Death Row.

Still liked it a lot though. Found it pared down the Eazy-Dre beef in the 90s a bit. Dre Day didn't get a mention and I know Eazy was very hurt by that song.

But it covered A lot of ground. Cube smashing up the Priority office was ace.

Holy shit, I just read about the Dee Barnes incident for the first time. What a fucking asshole. If that happened today his career would be over faster than you can say Ray Rice.

My friend saw it & said he was surrounded by ppl (young kids he assumed mostly) who audibly gasped when the cops werent charged in the Rodney King trial, and who were shocked when Eazy got diagnosed

lol

? Cops went to trial

think she means convicted

yeah sorry, brain fail

in Heller's autobiography he says Eazy was a brilliant businessman, which isn't hard to believe -- I suspect Heller choosing Eazy as the breakout star had to do with 1) Eazy's personal charisma 2) his faith in Eazy as a smart businessman

If that happened today his career would be over faster than you can say Ray Rice.

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, August 15, 2015 4:49 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Strongly Disagree With This Statement

Rappers are forgiven for everything.

I mean Ray Rice only Vaught heat cos of the vids. And even after the first dropped the narrative that he pushed her and she slipped and hit her head on a bar had a lot of traction til the second put it to resy.

If Dee Barnes happened in 2015, she'd be doxxed and getting death threats on twitter.

*caught f u phone

Fairly sure Chris Brown is still a star. Famous men can beat women and still be loved/revered.

Sadly

Yup

Just watched, and agree with clemenza above -- was pleasantly surprised with this, and since I wanted it to be good, I came out inspired. Heck, I'm playing Straight Outta Compton as I type! Also agree w a sentiment in the Edelstein review in that I'm sure a lot was glossed over, but still feel like I learned a lot about these guys, and what it might have been like going through all that stuff. The NWA members all came across as basically "likable", basically because they wanted to be successful, true to themselves and in control of their own destiny. I will never know how accurate the characters were to their true-life counterparts (though I can say I thought all the main actors were good, particularly Jason Mitchell as Eazy E), but their actions seemed believable, even relatable, in the context of the movie for the most part. I thought the movie was good at communicating their constant need to prove themselves, and to not let anyone take away everything they'd worked hard to build. It did a GREAT job at depicting the general shadiness of the music business in general, and how in the end, it really isn't any different than any other extremely competitive operation ("legit", street or otherwise). thumbs up!

Went in with fairly low expectations, and I enjoyed it for the reasons clemenza laid out, particularly during the first 90 minutes or so. I went in prepared to be disappointed by Ice Cube's son, but I think he acquitted himself pretty well! And I agree Jason Mitchell was really good as Eazy E. I think the actor playing Dr. Dre was the weak link in the crew, but I also feel like it may have been harder to play Dr. Dre than the other two.

I saw some criticism on twitter of the film's timeline getting muddy in the second half, but that didn't bother me too much. What are you going to do? You gotta throw 2Pac in there at some point, even if Eazy E died like six months before 2Pac set foot in Death Row's studios.

Also, I really liked the part with the "Friday" screenplay. It definitely felt like a producer's note: "Put that in there! Not enough people know that I wrote that movie!"

haha

I just skim ILX film threads until I've seen the movie myself, so I didn't know until after I saw this that O'Shea Jackson Jr. is Ice Cube's son. I sat in the film thinking, "Jesus, he sure looks and sounds like Ice Cube."

Made me smile: as Heller makes his initial pitch to Eazy-E (sounding a lot like the guy in Almost Famous who tries to sign Stillwater), with his gold records on the wall and stories about REO Speedwagon--Eazy oddly unimpressed--you can hear Grand Funk's "I'm Your Captain" in the background.

2nd half was kind of a business-snooze & goddamn two and a half hours cmooooon

but first half was p dope & i liked it for the shined-up "nice" version that it is

didn't know until after I saw this that O'Shea Jackson Jr. is Ice Cube's son

if only there had been some clue

cool that they told their story & that ppl are showing out in big numbers

they had an officer watching over things periodically in our theatre. i was like c'mon

nothin like that at ours

but 4 theaters showing it, p cool

the theatre I go to is normally empty on Thursday openings and there were a looooootta people there to see it. was cool.

The last hour wasn't quite as entertaining to me because a chunk of it is predicated on the idea that mid-90s Dre and Cube were totally into an N.W.A. reunion spearheaded by Eazy. Maybe I've just never heard about this, but it didn't strike me as plausible whatsoever.

Also, it is awesome to see it is over-performing box office expectations. Universal has made a bunch of money this year by releasing movies centered around women and people of color. One would hope that other studios would take note and follow suit, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

#1 this weekend

if only there had been some clue

Again, I went into the film pretty much cold--if there was a lot of advance hype about the casting, I missed it. The resemblance, physical and aural, was unmistakable, but I wouldn't think "Obviously, Ice Cube's son" would be the first conclusion you'd jump to.

I saw it on a weekday afternoon, maybe 100 people in the theatre. There was a couple in their 60s sitting near me; I'm not sure that they were aware of what they were seeing. I've made a vow to never again show up to a multiplex early. The half-hour of device-games, commercials, promos, and trailers was excruciating.

The last hour wasn't quite as entertaining to me because a chunk of it is predicated on the idea that mid-90s Dre and Cube were totally into an N.W.A. reunion spearheaded by Eazy. Maybe I've just never heard about this, but it didn't strike me as plausible whatsoever.

― intheblanks, Sunday, August 16, 2015 10:20 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think it was publicly reported but Cube and Dre are insisting in recent interviews that they were close to a reunion had Eazy not died.

Interesting. It's still hard for me to buy. Dr. Dre is arguably the most powerful person in hip-hop in late 1994, I have trouble seeing him jumping back into N.W.A.

I guess I could see them reuniting to put something on a movie soundtrack, then Dre announcing that they've signed with Aftermath, then never releasing anything else they recorded.

Clem: that's why I sit down 15 mins after the advertised start time.

also remember it's the hip-hop world. potential collaborations and reunions tend to happen and blow up in a matter of minutes. N.W.A. almost reunited one other time in the early 2000s (actually released a few singles with Snoop) but then it blew up. Commercially speaking, though, it could have easily worked. They were all only local heroes when N.W.A. first blew up, now three of them were multi-platinum hip hop superstars. A reunion album with Dre's new bag of tricks at the time would have sold mad units. they could have been Wu-Tang before Wu-Tang, keeping the solo careers alive and also the group simultaneously. From a business model, they could have made out like bandits.

Eazy dying obviously put a stop to that - the other problem would have been that Dre, Cube, Eazy arguably didn't need N.W.A. from a career or financial standpoint as much as Ren and Yella did, so it might have been a short-lived reunion at best.

Dre has made clear over the years that he was terrified by what was going on at Death Row (even told a story about an engineer getting his ass beat for rewinding the tape too far), so the thought of him fleeing a new level of discomfort for something familiar and warm isn't too farfetched.

it just kinda blows my mind what Death Row could have become had Suge not run it like a legit gangster. When I was a 13 year old chatting with my friend about Snoop and Dre, none of us would have believed in two-three years, those two would be on their way out, and the label would hit big with a few Pac albums and then fade into obscurity.

I remember the stunned disappointment on "man on the street" folks who were given Doggfather at random for an advance listen. I realize many folks defend the album now (I'm still not a fan), but folks really thought that pop-infused G-Funk of Death Row was a mainstay and it was gone fairly quickly (g-funk as a whole obv has had a much longer lifespan but Dre's brand specifically what I'm referring to obv)

xpost I usually get to the movie in time for previews intentionally. and only go to the least populated theatre cos other moviegoers are the worst.

I think the main issue with the dude playing Dre is that while he looks similar, he looks too young. Dre has had an 'old guy' face since his early 20s.

genuinely surprised at O'Shea Jr's quality. he apparently had a horrible first audition, and one of the hardest things to nail as an inexperienced actor is comic timing, but his delivery during his insult and subsequent dismissal of the poolside interviewer was great.

but 4 theaters showing it, p cool

It's running 3-4 times an hour at the Arclight in LA

clemenza: I was joking on you citing his name. "Who on earth could O'Shea Jackson, Jr.'s father possibly be???!?!¿"

I guess I could see them reuniting to put something on a movie soundtrack, then Dre announcing that they've signed with Aftermath, then never releasing anything else they recorded.

― intheblanks, Sunday, August 16, 2015 6:13 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is essentially what did happen a few years later - there was an NWA 'reunion' song on the Next Friday soundtrack, with Snoop in place of Eazy, but then talking of doing a full album never led anywhere.

Chin Check I think it was

Snoop & Em both wrote for Dre on the Ice Cube / Dr Dre / MC Ren song off Cube's War & Peace vol. 2 album, "Hello."

Yup. God that song mighta been decent if not for Cube's "who gives a shit" attitude on the entire album and the ToeJam and Earl beat from Dre

sic: I just took his name from IMDB when I first posted--still didn't clue in as to who he was, and wouldn't have unless his name had been O'Shea Cube.

Some reaction from Eazy-E's daughter: http://www.bet.com/news/music/2015/08/16/eazy-e-daughter-straight-outta-compton-review.html.

You thought his government name really was Ice Cube?

Because I'm about to blow your mind with some news about Emilio Estevez.

loooool

The poster descriptions of this make me want to see it much more than the trailer, the self-aggrandizing lead-in of which put me off a little (reminds me a lot of these quick-cut musician "documentaries" that have proliferated that are just talking head after talking head saying stuff like "important" and "changed everything" for 90 minutes).

pretty neat piece on Greenspan's, the source of all the sweet vintage threads in the movie

http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/article31286762.html

I couldn't believe this was on like 4 screens @ my local multiplex. well-timed opening to be against like the man from uncle and idk even what else, some studio head shd get a raise cuz this will make v good dough

i thought this would do well but i was still surprised by HOW well until I remembered that where to care about biggie, you have to care about mid-'90s rap - and be ok with diddy. with nwa, you not only have the nwa period, but chronic and chronic 2001, without even getting into cube. there's like three generations of gangsta rap fans touched on there, and then you have dre as eminem's mentor. so the base of interest is really a lot bigger than notorious.

everything about this was handled better than the biggie movie

This still doesn't have a Danish premiere date, meaning that it's tough to figure out whether or not it even has a distributor, meaning a rumour popped up that it wouldn't get to the country, the rumour growing so loud that a cinema had to tweet, that yup, it did have distributor. Because Universal Pictures distributes it's own films internationally. But mostly release dates coincide, I don't know the last time a blockbuster didn't have a release date here the day it opened in the US.

It makes me think. It is kinda weird, but NWA is probably seen as a niche-concern, more so than Pitch Perfect II and it's ilk. But why? At Danish festivals the kids jump around to King Kunta as well as Trap Queen or Get Low, and it always seems to surprise the organizers, there are always more people than planned for. And the music isn't on the radio, only in niche programs. Why wouldn't kids today, in the age of spotify and the internet, realize that NWA are the forefathers of a lot of the music they love? It's just erased, almost, hiphop is really still the eighties, it's New York, and it's conscious. In the eyes of the tastemakers.

Sorry for derailing the thread.

hiphop is really still the eighties, it's New York, and it's conscious. In the eyes of the tastemakers.

I assume yr speaking specifically of Denmark here

Wesley Morris:

"...so beholden to the appeasement of so many artists and legacies and estates that none of it coheres as a movie.... There’s no point of view—just the masculinized version of the generically entertaining bitchery you find on nighttime soaps. But should the story of five gangsta-rappers from Compton feel this much like Melrose Place?”

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/straight-outta-compton-review-ice-cube-dr-dre/

based on the worldwide box office for other rap biopics and ice cube movies, guessing scandinavia isn't a primary concern

judging from the info available on box office mojo and imdb, i don't even know if ride along got released in theaters in denmark

i didn't hate ride along

I thought the Morris review was pretty otm.

there's a bit of irony in wondering how a movie about nwa can have such a "psycho-thriller camp" relationship with reality

lol

hiphop is really still the eighties, it's New York, and it's conscious. In the eyes of the tastemakers.

I assume yr speaking specifically of Denmark here

― Οὖτις, 17. august 2015 19:16 (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup.

And no, Ride Along didn't get a Danish premiere either, and that was Universal as well.

idk what to tell you except that (at this point) that is a v v small sliver of hip hop culture

Frederik, you're probably already aware of this, but there's an online petition to have Universal agree to two unsubtitled screenings in dk http://www.skrivunder.net/nwa_filmen_straight_outta_compton_i_danske_biografer

x-post: He. Yeah, I know that. Denmark is small like that. People sorta like Kendrick, though. And Kanye. But Atlanta, drill, ratchet, that's foreign country. A song like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDLaJm5noSU
which is such a Mike Will copy - a great one at that - is called chopped'n'screwed many places. We're decades behind.

No niels, I didn't know that. I'm guessing that might be why Grand tweeted what they did.

Frederik: "Ik heb geen fuck"--whenever you hear that, it means "I don't give a fuck." I used Google translator.

That's dutch, dude...

Also, now I'm really sorry for derailing the thread. I want to hear more about the film! Looking forward to it.

These are the kind of derails I look forward to.

(xpost) Not only that, but they'd probably be speaking regular old English in a unsubtitled film. I need to think these jokes through.

saw it again last night. still liked it, but have to agree with Veg's take that the last hour is a bit of a slog.

and one thing that drives me nuts is how every simple concept is overexplained.

*Eazy reads FBI letter*

Eazy: You know what? this is a gift!
MC Ren: Yo, what you mean?
Eazy: Bad publicity is good publicity
MC Ren: OHHHHH makes sense!

*Ice Cube hears line referring to him as Benedict Arnold*

Ice Cube: Benedict Arnold? Are they calling me a traitor?
Record Exec: Yes.

*For the last hour, Eazy goes into a coughing fit towards the end of every scene he's in to remind you he's sick*

Whoever's on screen with him: You alright, Eazy?

*scene where Eazy explains no less than three times in five minutes that he's having to downgrade his house due to expenses*

I mean, still enjoyed it but that shit was annoying

lmao

A hospital? What is it?

haha that kind of shit is in a weird way precisely what i'm looking for. like i get wesley morris' point but there's something more triumphant and subversive (or maybe more subverted, in the sense of 'this is how much these guys won this battle') about a by the numbers walk hard type biopic for n.w.a., like even w/ the straight outta meme i could see someone bemoaning that but as someone old enough to remember the 'culture wars' that you'd have companies tweeting 'straight outta arby's' or whatever feels like a marker of victory in a way that dre being a millionaire, anything that tell's the bill o'reillys 'you're right, this isn't yr country anymore' is fine by me even if it's just someone selling curly fries.

i thought this would do well but i was still surprised by HOW well until I remembered that where to care about biggie, you have to care about mid-'90s rap - and be ok with diddy. with nwa, you not only have the nwa period, but chronic and chronic 2001, without even getting into cube. there's like three generations of gangsta rap fans touched on there, and then you have dre as eminem's mentor. so the base of interest is really a lot bigger than notorious.

I think this is part of it, but it was also just the fact that the movie itself looked way better than Notorious. When I saw the Straight Outta Compton trailer two months ago, it looked totally exhilarating. The buzz kept building over the past month in various media sources, then it opened this week to uniformly positive reviews.

some dude said it upthread, but Notorious was a punchline before it even came out.

yeah, i didn't mean to suggest there weren't other factors like that, i just thought the difference in audience base was sorta remarkable.

Also, and I mentioned this upthread, but Universal is the only studio right now doing a good job making and marketing blockbuster movies centered around women and people of color. They've had 7 big hits this year; 5 of those 7 are Pitch Perfect 2, 50 Shades of Grey, Trainwreck, Furious 7, and Straight Outta Compton.

The appeal of these films is of course very broad! It's why they made so much money! I guess the point I'm making is that there's only one studio that actually is using its resources in such a way to make an NWA movie a blockbuster. Other studios would have been too blinkered to make this project the success it ended up being.

honestly you could say universal is the only studio doing a good job of making and marketing movies for adults

or rather, adult-oriented. obv marvel/pixar stuff is big with adults too.

xxxpost - cant imagine dre or cube wanting a reunion in the mid 90s but they did both record natural born killers around 1996 iirc, so im guessing they didnt hate each others guts at that point

yeah, was really curious about the stuff regarding the reunion - in the movie, they actually show Yella playing a track he'd worked on for it, and I was wondering if that was real, or they just invented it (or made concrete something that may have been much more up in the air irl) for the narrative of the movie. Would def be into hearing unreleased NWA stuff!

i think they ran their course tbh. unless they have archive stuff that was never released, im not interested in hearing any new NWA songs, esp if theyre like chin check. also dont know why they need a replacement for eazy - they could just keep going as a trio (plus yella obv)

cant imagine dre or cube wanting a reunion in the mid 90s but they did both record natural born killers around 1996 iirc, so im guessing they didnt hate each others guts at that point

I remember there being press around the time of Eazy's death that they had all reconciled

I really did enjoy watching this movie but it was so superficial and zero-depthy that it felt like people acting out a Wikipedia article. It taught me that a bunch of kids liked making music and then made some music and then got discovered and went on tour and became famous and then also fought sometimes (i.e. the story of virtually every famous band). Where the fuck were Yella or Ren besides appearing on screen simply because they had to be there for the movie to make sense? Where was all the depth and personal relationship stuff and why was so much stuff brought up once but then like never explored again [i.e. NWA not being able to form because some other group would get mad but then forming anyway, Snoop walking in Death Row flagging blue and ppl getting kinda mad but then it never being addressed explain how it was resolved really, etc, etc, etc]

Basically it just made me want to watch a bunch of other documentaries or read a bunch of other stuff to get some insight into what *actually* happened, also HSB hilariously OTM abt oversimplification, like oh here let me just stumble upon the G Thang riff while Snoop just happens to meander downstairs with all of these great lyrics ready to go

otm

also it was amusing to see how fucking batshit Death Row was and I really doubt it was embellished all that much

Dee Barnes has published her reflections on the time and film via Gawker

http://gawker.com/heres-whats-missing-from-straight-outta-compton-me-and-1724735910

it just made me want to watch a bunch of other documentaries

there are not really any good docs about LA rap of this period that I know of but let me know if you find some

Is there a way to read Gawker articles without sending them traffic?

Ask someone to copy/paste, I guess. But you really should read it.

Pretty much all biopics are bad and dumb, and it probably doesn't help when two of the subjects of the biopic are also producers.

I am getting less interested in this the more reviews come in

I mean I love the subject matter but I hate biopics so this would have to offer something more than that to grab me and it kinda sounds like it does not

idk the description of that 'that's what a fool believes loggins! that's what...a fool believes. *cue music*' moment has me pretty stoked for whenever i dvr this thing off cable.

If you're still not wanting to click through, perhaps this will help.

F. Gary Gray, the man whose film made $60 million last weekend as it erased my attack from history, was also behind the camera to film the moment that launched that very attack. He was my cameraman for Pump It Up! You may have noticed that Gary has been reluctant to address N.W.A.’s misogyny and Dre’s attack on me in interviews. I think a huge reason that Gary doesn’t want to address it is because then he’d have to explain his part in history. He’s obviously uncomfortable for a reason.

Is there a way to read Gawker articles without sending them traffic?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, August 18, 2015 9:40 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whole article here: http://pastebin.com/b64dPxKa

xxpost to stevie & shakey

Welcome to Death Row (2001) is p good. Not much abt nwa but lots abt Suge & Dre.

They're rereleasing it ondemand on some cable providers but u can find it on youtube/dailymotion

I remember there being press around the time of Eazy's death that they had all reconciled

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, August 18, 2015 5:42 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dre and Cube reconciled fairly quickly. Natural Born Killaz was on the Murder was the Case Soundtrack which came out in 1994.

Wikipedia claims it was originally written for that N.W.A. project but uhhhhhh there's no sourcing for that so idk

oh here let me just stumble upon the G Thang riff while Snoop just happens to meander downstairs with all of these great lyrics ready to go

― Y Kant Max Read (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, August 18, 2015 7:52 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahaha I almost listed that example too. Like he's been sitting there frustrated for hours trying to come up with a sine-wave riff and just hits on it at that exact moment? It's like man, you can show them rehearsing it without showing us how you came up with every idea!

Is there a way to read Gawker articles without sending them traffic?

"Hustle and Flow" did a great job of showing process/minutia of building a song in a way that felt organic. A rare example among movies about music as a whole. It's definitely something storytellers don't succeed at. .

You guys are holding this movie to a standard I've never actually seen pulled off in any biopic. I'm sure I might have found things to pick apart in the Brian Wilson movie too, but that's only because I know a lot about it already. As someone who likes NWA, but didn't know a ton about them other than really obvious stuff, I found this movie not only entertaining, but really informative -- ESPECIALLY about how the personalities of Eazy E, Dre and Ice Cube factored into the group forming, performing and eventually disbanding. The acting was really good IMO, believable, and I wouldn't be surprised if Mitchell, in particular, got an Oscar nod (at least for supporting role).

Sure, even to me, it felt like things HAD to have been glossed over, but it's a general audience movie, as much as I've seen I've seen it described as "for fans only". Fans may stand to enjoy it most, but to me it seems like a well-made, relatively in-depth movie for PEOPLE WHO DON'T ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING. My criticisms of it were that it was about 20 mins too long, the ending was anticlimactic, and the bit about the reunion seemed a bit too-good-to-be-true/convenient for a happy ending (unless it really was true).

Regarding the stuff about Dre's woman-beating -- yes, I've read this many places. I heard there was a 3.5 hour edit of this that may become part of a director's cut, and that was to include more details about Dre's relationships.

lol not likely

Dre's never displayed the requisite humility/contrition/penchant for self-examination that would make him OK scenes in the movie of him being a woman-beating misogynist, I expect it would undermine his character's ability to function as a likable protagonist

I still liked it, I just felt like the movie became decidedly less interesting once they finished the part where Dre left the group. Pacing slowed way down, Cube disappears for far too long, Dre's scenes get broad-strokey, etc.

Regarding the stuff about Dre's woman-beating -- yes, I've read this many places. I heard there was a 3.5 hour edit of this that may become part of a director's cut, and that was to include more details about Dre's relationships.

That seems a touch on the wish-fulfillment side, honestly.

regardless of length, Dee Barnes detail is one that could have (and should have) been included, considering some of the unnecessary stuff that was touched on in the last hour. I got a little annoyed how Dre was portrayed as the "white knight" amongst Death Row, as if he wasn't caught up in it himself for a little while.

Also Dominique, more to the point perhaps, are you SURE you want to dismiss it all that way when the subject of said notorious assault just published an explicit piece referencing that as well as the film's director's involvement?

I found it v lol that Dre came off as the sensitive gentle "just in it for the music" dude

like oooookay

Regarding the stuff about Dre's woman-beating --

I understand the film also leaves out Eazy's woman-beating -- but does it take a firm position one way or the other on his potential pussy-eating?

he's actually portrayed as an amphibious creature without genitalia

I had a friend who knew Eazy-E pre-fame and she said he was a total sweet, funny guy (oddly). She was sorta nuts herself but eh who isnt

being a sweet and funny guy would sure help him get laid as much as he did, so idk that that is odd necessarily? can still be that and a gat totin hardass etc

yeah but according to that one lady on "8-Ball" his breath smelled

lool

I'm watching this tomorrow. I'll settle the matter.

Cool thx!

I dug this piece. Grantland's Wesley Morris wrote about his history with the band and how disappointed he is with what the movie is vs what it could have been:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/straight-outta-compton-review-ice-cube-dr-dre/

The breakdown of the group produces the occasional LOL moment, like when Ice Cube’s wife, Kimberly Woodruff (Alexandra Shipp), hears that Eazy called her husband “Benedict Arnold” on N.W.A’s “Message to B.A.” and asks, “Is he trying to call you a traitor?” Which is almost like having a female character in a football movie inquire as to what a touchdown is.

[...]

But the most distressing LAPD run-in happens during a recording session in beachy Torrance, a city just south and west of Compton with scarcely a black resident. The guys have broken for lunch when a handful of cops descend upon them. The suddenness of the takedown is clumsily staged, but Gray maintains his composure, and the boldness sticks with you. The presiding officer is black and speaks to Dre and Eazy and the gang with the hateful disregard typically used in the movies by white officers. The power of the encounter comes at you from all sides. Heller’s outrage feels like disillusionment. He really can’t understand what’s happening. He sees his partners stomach-down on the pavement, and it hurts him. He tells the officer that these young men are artists — rappers — to which the cop replies that rap’s not an art. It’s the exact opposite racial position in which Giamatti found himself in 12 Years a Slave, where the trader he played acquired and sold black bodies with cold-blooded hauteur. Here he’s seething over their mistreatment, and it’s the rare example the movies have in which white people’s speaking on behalf of black people rocks you — because when these black men try to speak for themselves, no one’s listening. You know what “eureka” songwriting moment that confrontation will produce, and you can’t wait to see it happen. You crave the anger and defiance of that song.

Also Dominique, more to the point perhaps, are you SURE you want to dismiss it all that way when the subject of said notorious assault just published an explicit piece referencing that as well as the film's director's involvement?

Hey Ned, not dismissing! Just that I read that part of Dre could show up in a director's cut. Who knows tho...

I also remember the Benedict Arnold line, and thought it was unnecessary. *I* thought it was unnecessary, but chalked it up to this movie (like a LOT of others) being made for a general audience, and the fact that some high school kid might not actually know who Benedict Arnold is. That's the thing -- I'm not saying "writing down" in this way is right for films, it just happens so much, it's almost like a convention I have to accept in Hollywood movies if I want to enjoy anything.

Based on how dre has been described to be represented in the film, going to be very surprised if his violent assault of dee Barnes was filmed but cut for time. And even if it was, that's still something that's more than valid to critique.

I'll be the third person in this thread to rep for Wesley Morris's Grantland review which is not only absolutely dead-on about the movie's shortfalls and victories, it's also some the most perceptive writing about N.W.A's music and its ambiguous legacy that I've ever read.

"I heard there was a 3.5 hour edit of this that may become part of a director's cut, and that was to include more details about Dre's relationships."

'now with extra domestic violence!'

i wouldnt hold my breath for a directors cut. im still waiting on a django unchained and spike lee oldboy directors cut.

all biopics suck in some way, anyway. cant imagine this being any different. esp as its about NWA. its trying to give a group with THAT name and THOSE songs the same treatment as elvis and brian wilson (love and mercy is one of the best music biopics ive seen though, fwiw.. maybe a future nwa biopic will look at dre's life from when he was in nwa and hitting women to when he was under suge knights power and trying to leave death row)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/arts/music/dr-dre-apologizes-to-the-women-ive-hurt.html?_r=0

It is an apology, true. But this is what you need to read:

In interviews with The Times this week, the women at the center of the allegations — the hip-hop journalist Dee Barnes; Michel’le, an R&B singer and Dr. Dre’s former girlfriend; and Tairrie B, a onetime labelmate — spoke about the abuse and about how social media had helped them connect and spread their stories.

“I’ve been talking about my abuse for many, many years, but it has not gotten any ears until now,” said Michel’le, who was romantically involved with Dr. Dre from the late-’80s until the mid-’90s. (They have an adult son.)

During that time, she said, he was often physically abusive, hitting her with a closed fist and leaving “black eyes, a cracked rib and scars.” Michel’le said she never pressed charges because, “We don’t get that kind of education in my culture.”

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She added, “Opening up and finding out there were other women like me gave me the power to speak up.”

Tairrie B (her real name is Theresa Murphy) said that Dr. Dre punched her twice in the face at a Grammys after-party in 1990 after she recorded a track insulting him.

She connected with Ms. Barnes through Facebook last year. “I said, ‘Hey girl, I think we have something in common, and we’ve never talked about it,’ ” Ms. Murphy said.

Ms. Barnes recalled being brought to tears by that message and a subsequent hourslong phone conversation with Ms. Murphy. Both women were writing memoirs — Ms. Barnes’s is tentatively titled “Music, Myth and Misogyny” — but did not expect to wage a public campaign against Dr. Dre, she said.

“The initial conversation was like group therapy, to heal our wounds,” Ms. Barnes said.

Separately:

http://www.newsweek.com/straight-outta-compton-dr-dre-364650

On Wednesday, Michel'le (born Michel'le Toussaint) spoke to Newsweek about the violence she says she suffered at Dre's hands in a different, domestic context. "What he did to her and what he did to me are two different things," Michel'le said. "I was his fiancée." Michel'le spent much of the early 1990s in a relationship with the rapper and former N.W.A member, performed on Death Row Records releases and had a son with the rapper in 1991.

"He told me he loved me, so I don't think I understood it, but he was abusive, mentally and physically," Michel'le said. "I didn't know any better, because my father never told me he loved me. When you find a guy that wants to be with you all the time, you think that's love, right? I had to make my own world."

Michel'le alleges that during their relationship, Dre kicked her and broke her ribs, injuring her in such a way that her ribs didn't heal properly and leaving a lump on the left side of her body that won't go away. She says he sent her to the hospital on at least one occasion during this period.

Standard biopic stuff given urgency by contemporary politics, but if anything I loved the music even more this time around. NWA and Cube've always been blind spots, but every musical cue had me dancing in my seat.

O'Shea Jackson, Jr.'s a better Cube than Cube himself.

Ppl I work with are v uptight abt NWA & their effing off the police ("i dont approve of their message" blah blah coded racism etc)

They just laugh when I try to tell them how much I love it. Dre had mad beats, you can dance to all of it! You would not believe the side-eye i got for saying you can dance to Fuck Tha Police lol

xpost cube was better looking

do any other rappers show up? do they watch an mc hammer video and go "smh...rap is over" or anything

yeah they all go to a Snow concert together

Luke shows up and they have a slap fight

Tim Dog's video comes on and they all watch it, then Ren says, "Wait a minute, is he saying he doesn't care for Compton?!"

hahaha

"what up Snoop"
'man I'm tryin to write those lyrics you asked me for, y'know, to take it to those mark ass bitches Eazy, Tim Dog, and Luke....but i'm stuck'
"well tell me what you got"
'your bark was loud and your bite wasn't vicious, but those rhymes you were kickin were just....I can't find a good rhyme there. it's the only line I can't finish'

(someone from outside Death Row soundbooth screams "damn, dogg, yo breath smells quite bootylicious..."

Dre and Snoop high five

"but what we gonna call the song, dog?"

(secretary runs in)

'the fuck is this, Dre Day? I'm sick and tired of taking down messages for you - tell your bitches not to call during business hours'

Dre and Snoop high five

someone should tell that screenwriter the song isn't named "Dre day"

the radio edit was!

that's why I was so confused when years later when I bought the Chronic..."wtf is 'Fuck with Dre Day (and everybody's celebrating)'"?

cube and dre in a studio

"you know who i love? that juliette lewis"

"she is a delight! we should name a song after one of her movies"

"but which one? husbands and wives?"

"nah...christmas vacation?"

"that's a possibility...kalifornia?"

*cut to phantom planet lurking in the hallway*

"california eh?"

/custos

unless he changed his screen name it's been about 9 years since that dude posted on ilx. i wonder if post-'06 folks even know what "custos" means

either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what went on on greenspun.com

Lol

On the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart dated Sept. 5, N.W.A notches its first top 40 hit, as “Straight Outta Compton” debuts at No. 38 (the survey's highest debut of the week). It’s not only the first top 40 hit for the act, but its first Hot 100 entry ever. Although first released in 1988, “Compton” is allowed to enter this week's Hot 100, as older songs are eligible to chart if ranking in the top 50 and showing notable gains in sales, streaming and/or airplay.

The bow is spurred by publicity generated by the hit film of the same name, which bowed in theaters on Aug. 14 and has earned $111.1 million at the U.S. and Canada box office through Aug. 23. The song sold 35,000 downloads in the week ending Aug. 20 (up 127 percent compared to the previous week) and tallied 5.7 million domestic streams (up 123 percent), according to Nielsen Music.

The track also debuts at No. 7 on Rap Streaming Songs, No. 9 on Hot Rap Songs, No. 11 on R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs, No. 13 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 20 on the overall Streaming Songs chart.

On Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, N.W.A also collects a debut with “F**k Tha Police” (also released in 1988), which bows at Nos. 20 and 25 on the lists, respectively.

N.W.A member Eazy-E also scores his third Hot 100 hit, as “Boyz-N-The-Hood” (from 1987) debuts at No. 50. It also launches at No. 14 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 18 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It immediately becomes Eazy’s highest-charting single on the latter tally, surpassing the No. 30 peak of “Just Tah Let U Know” in 1995.

Posted for giggles, and for the use of the word "ruffian"

http://www.wsj.com/articles/gangsta-raps-grim-legacy-for-comptons-everywhere-1440542382

Or the gawker summary, for those not wanting to visit the WSJ:

http://gawker.com/the-republican-view-of-straight-outta-compton-black-h-1726623097

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150826/rogers-park/did-police-arrest-juvenile-for-rapping-nwa-lyrics-at-them-video

"feel the groove, bust a move/this is somethin' 2 dance 2"
*cop starts breakdancing*

really thought that was going to be about Juvenile

fav moment was when Paul giamati spazzed out at ice cube saying Jew on the diss track

this got waaay too drawn out and boring by the end, the whole eazy-e trying to get the band back together part felt endless. but obvs some great scenes

Yeah, but it's not like there's exactly some neat bow to the NWA story that you could have tied this up with.

OTM to everyone who mentioned the hilarious on-the-nose namechecks of their successful songs and projects. My personal favorite was later in the film:

*Cube laughing hysterically at a computer screen*

Kim: How's Friday coming honey?

Cube: I'm at page 100, but I don't think I'm gonna go much further. Shit's hilarious!

Then again I did really enjoy the film, especially the first hour and a half or so, up until Cube busts up the record company guy's office. It got a bit draggy in the end.

I posted this upthread, but I loved the Friday thing because it really felt like a producer's note from Cube to let people know he wrote Friday.

I also like that the last 45 minutes of the movie for Cube is all cozy domesticity. I'm sure he was actually working really hard during that time to turn his acting career into something lasting, but in Straight Outta Compton his last few scenes are basically, "Then I settled into being famous forever..."

I disliked the Friday thing because it really felt like a producer's note from Cube to let people know he wrote Friday.

"... and after that, I never gave a shit about music again"

THE END

lol

What can I say? Once that type of thing hits a certain level of clunkiness, I start to find it endearing.

lol at shakey

OTM to everyone who mentioned the hilarious on-the-nose namechecks of their successful songs and projects.

and the "bye felicia" ref in the hotel

I think the grantland comment that the last hour of the movie became a Wikipedia article on screen kinda sums up why that part of the movie lost my interest. It just looked like a re-enactment of various well-known events and not much more, whereas the first 90 dug much deeper.

I was kinda hoping Dre woulda given some alternate reality bullshit answer to Suge's last question:

"What you gonna call that new bullshit label?"

'Dre Butter'

haha

hahaha

Armond: "the year's most mindless movie"

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/422527/straight-outta-compton-review-armond-white

Armond white got Geto Boys praise into the national review (online, at least)

The way that article veers between modern-activist-baiting and big-upping non-west-coast rap really is something

The comment section is a poem.

Houston’s Geto Boys and New York’s Public Enemy were superior groups, but childish hip-hop fans and white-Negro rock critics failed to make the distinction. They preferred N.W.A.’s simplistic adolescent angst and hard rhythm to Geto Boy’s bluesy psychological depth and Public Enemy’s R&B and political sophistication.

^^This is total horseshit.

I first saw Armond's byline in the early '90s reviewing PE, and the guy knew what he was talking about (I won't look up and reread those reviews). I agree PE >>> N.W.A. But as usual with him you can turn his copy into Mad Libs: "They preferred N.W.A.’s simplistic adolescent angst and hard rhythm to Damn Yankee’s bluesy psychological depth and Paula Addul’s R&B and political sophistication."

Haha yeah that isnt accurate at all

Xp

yeah calling PE politically sophisticated is a larf

reading Chuck D's interviews in the 90s was enough to get disillusioned with him despite still loving the records

Geto Boy’s bluesy psychological depth
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Sunday, August 30, 2015 1:45 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoiN7UueFGE

4th grade 1988 I was 'like strawberry, strawberry is the neighborhood hoe'. This movie is just no. no. aftermath...

Thing is, I basically agree with a lot of the points in White's review - their nihilism was in itself a form of protest, and in their one truly heroic gesture they made a stink about police brutality when no one else would, but presenting the group as just freedom fighters is just one of the ways the movie is fundamentally dishonest. Predictably, though, these points are swamped by OTT pessimism, bad faith and willfully perverse aesthetic misjudgments.

^^Should read "presenting the group as freedom fighters before all else"

i wish the infamous stethoscope had made an appearance (tho much of the rest of the outfit did). the Wrecking Cru segment of the movie seemed like one part they were ok with the audience not fully connecting the dots on

Ha yeah, love how they made like Lonzo was the only one rocking a jheri curl and a sequined suit, lest Dre (and Yella's) manhood be called into question a la "Real Muthaphukkin' G's".

this was lots of fun, esp as an NWA fan, but the second half got cluttered, and also just a bit silly with the telegraphed timelines (the biggest lols were the snoop and tupac recording session scenes). i never knew NWA wanted to reunite (has anyone verified if this was true?), and i never knew cube never got paid by priority either. it was really enjoyable, and strangely pleasing to see, but for the worlds most dangerous group, not very dangerous, and the way it skipped over efil4zaggin and 100 miles and runnin was criminal - i would have liked the film to actually cover the groups breakup properly, not just show how successful they became after the group. after the first hour or so, the film started to seem like a potted history of the members, rather than about the actual group (who are all portrayed incredibly sympathetically, hilariously at times - they werent THAT nice!).

now i want to see a geto boys biopic

http://thequietus.com/articles/18613-nwa-straight-outta-compton-film-review

best review of this ive seen so far

from the quietus article:

According to the film, Dre apparently improvises his line in the first verse of '...'G' Thang' first take, slinging it in alongside Snoop's similarly off-the-top-of-the-head yet word-perfect lines as the two are carried away by the magnificence of the beat Dre has just thrown together in the living room of his opulent mansion. The only surprise is that Cliff Richard doesn't knock on the door and suggest that the guys do the show right here. (And, yes, I know it's trainspottery nitpicking, but the same scene wants to make us believe that Dre wrote the keyboard line on that song - we're shown him trying, failing and retrying different ideas over the top of the beat before hitting the one we recognise from the record just as Snoop ambles in to shot and kicks off his verse. Yet that line is included in the same Leon Hayward record that the rest of the track is sampled from - OK, on the Hayward track it's played by strings, not an analogue synth: but to try to suggest Dre wrote it is ridiculous. And if that's not what the scene is trying to say, then it's suggesting he's a far poorer musician than legend generally claims - so poor that he can't remember a melody from a record he already knows well enough to reconstruct from samples, even while it's playing on a loop. Whichever way you look at it, this scene is among the most laughably trite in the entire history of music-on-film, biopics or indeed, quite possibly of cinema itself.)

this really bugged me about this scene too!

i mean i obviously know why they did that, but a less lazy writer could have instead quickly sketched the process of dre breaking down this classic soul song and interpolating it back into g-funk. taking a bunch of songs that he loved growing up and synthesizing them into a new hybrid thing to accommodate a new generation of stories and voices was dre's main achievement and legacy imo.

that's why the scene with dre and eazy in the studio making "Boyz in the hood" works so well, because they show the halting, painful process of getting a whole rap song out of a non-musician (they even acknowledge that it relied heavily on punch-ins and was basically stitched together line by line) and it's really interesting and makes them seem like actual artists, trying to make something that people hadn't heard before.

i enjoyed the scene with nwa and jerry heller sitting down together to check out 'no vaseline' because that's always how i imagined them hearing the song for the first time. although in my head they were all a lot more upset than that. it needed a scene of dre excusing himself to the bathroom, locking the door and sliding down it, hands shrouding his face. eazy spitting out a whole mouthful of milkshake at "eazy-e's dick is smellin like mc ren's shit", etc.

well this was just like 99% of music biopics i.e. terrible. Apart from a handful of scenes (primarily feat Eazy and/or Heller) this was like ticking off a bunch of boxes from the group's wikipedia entry, completely flat and lifeless. Even the stuff I didn't know about beforehand - like Dre's brother - was telegraphed in the clumsiest way imaginable, he may as well have been introduced buying a boat called the "Live Forever!"

Eazy trying to rap on beat on Boyz in the Hood still the best scene

I've finally watched this and really liked it (for a biopic).
Maybe because I didn't know much about their story so it didn't feel like the usual "and this is how this historical moment happened".
About the reunion part, there's a moment where Dre says he already has some great tracks for the album and I wonder if that's pure invention or based on anything real ?
Cos if he had these tracks circa Eazy's death some might have been used on 2PAc's album, the Aftermath album or others (someone mentioned "batural born killaz" upthread)...

It would be incredible if the closing credits of this movie rolled to “Straight Outta Compton” by Nina Gordon.

Cos if he had these tracks circa Eazy's death some might have been used on 2PAc's album

Dre was working on an album with Ice Cube and Suge yanked some of the beats (including "California Love") for Tupac

An album full of "Natural Born Killaz" type tracks would have ruled.

I also love that Dre reused yet another interpolation of "Not Just Knee Deep"'s bassline on "Can't C Me"

Dre was working on an album with Ice Cube and Suge yanked some of the beats (including "California Love") for Tupac

Suge yanked it from being a Dre solo single with three Dre verses. The Dre & Cube album Heltah Skeltah had been abandoned about 18 months earlier, with the only completed track going onto Murder Was The Case instead.

(You Can’t See Me’s beat was apparently written for Heltah Skeltah but not recorded by Cube; Dre gave it to The Dogg Pound in 1995, but Suge blocked any Dre productions from the album, so Dre gave it to Tupac to redo as You Can’t C Me.)

can I just say "fuck suge knight" rn?

Here's Dre in late '93 saying "You Don't Wanna See Me" was the only track worked on for Heltah Skeltah so far. Guessing that Cube got the George Clinton vocals hooked up around then (contemporaneous with Bop Gun), even if he didn't put his own down.

I feel weird every time I see the dude who played Dre in other shit

"Hey Dre, why are we calling this album Efil4zaggin?"
"Did you try....reading it backwards?"
"Oh, word"