Clock wise from top left: Ice Cube. director F. Gray Gray, Dr Dre, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and O'Shea Jackson.
Clock wise from top left: Ice Cube. director F. Gray Gray, Dr Dre, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and O'Shea Jackson.
The hit movie Straight Outta Compton takes us back to the days of provocative influential gangster rappers N.W.A and the mean streets of South Central LA. Here, cast and creators talk about their involvement in the film.
Movie are notoriously lagging indicators when it comes to social change. But every once in a while, a story that takes a generation to come to the big screen arrives like an urgent harbinger from the past, offering insight that feels both ancient and blisteringly new.
By rights, Straight Outta Compton should have arrived on screens more than a decade ago, when the idea for a biopic about the influential late-80s-early-90s rap group N.W.A. — Niggaz wit' Attitude — first surfaced.
What:Straight Outta Compton about the rise and demise of N.W.A. aka Niggaz wit' Attitude When: Opens at cinemas on September 3.
The project has wended its way through the usual Hollywood development circles, eventually landing in the hands of director F. Gary Gray, with whom N.W.A. co-founder Ice Cube made his early music videos and the breakout comedy, Friday.
Straight Outta Compton benefits from Gray's facility for keeping the action moving and from flawless casting, including the teenage Cube being played by his own son, O'Shea Jackson jnr.
And, unsurprisingly for a film whose producers include band co-founders or their relatives (Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright), the story engages in a fair amount of self-mythologising and uncritically reproduces the misogyny for which N.W.A. was known.
But at its best and most timely, the film bristles with Gray's personal knowledge of South Central Los Angeles, where he grew up at West 126th St and Normandie Ave; where N.W.A. and their peers came of age during the crack cocaine and gang violence epidemic; and where they were routinely harassed by Los Angeles police officers, who would aggressively patrol the community with helicopters, stop-and-frisks and vehicles outfitted with battering rams, with which they mowed down suspected crack dens.
"I remember thinking, 'Wow, do these guys have a camera on our block?'" Gray says, recalling the first time he heard N.W.A. "They were rapping about things that I experienced firsthand or witnessed firsthand, and I was shocked. I was also entertained. I thought it was funny and real and honest and refreshing."
," they immediately became lightning rods for a full-scale moral panic: Their profane, belligerent lyrics to songs with such titles as
F — tha Police
and
Gangsta Gangsta
, critics contended, fomented violence and antisocial behaviour and were dangerously influential with young fans. N.W.A. records were slapped with parental warning stickers and banned in some venues; even sophisticated rap critics drew a line between the unfiltered animus of N.W.A. and the more explicitly political work of such contemporaries as Public Enemy and KRS-One.
Straight Outta Compton the movie questions such distinctions.
In one of the film's most pivotal scenes, the band is taking a break outside during a recording session and are set upon — for no reason — by a particularly bullying cadre from the LAPD. Slammed to the sidewalk, their faces ground into the cement, they are released only when their white manager, Jerry Heller (played by Paul Giamatti), intercedes on their behalf.
Shortly thereafter, N.W.A. records F — tha Police, the song that now stands not as an anthem of irrational violence, but as a raw, brutally honest expression of impotent rage.
Gray says he's satisfied with the accuracy of the movie, despite criticism for the film failing to address the group's sometimes-misogynist lyrics and Dr. Dre's violence against journalist Dee Barnes and ex-girlfriend Michel'le Toussaint.
Dre, now possibly the richest man in hip-hop after Apple bought his Beats by Dre headphones brand for US$3 billion, last week issued a statement to the New York Times apologising to "the women I've hurt" .
The film also depicts rival Death Row Records boss Suge Knight — who isn't happy about his depiction in the film and is now facing a murder charge after an incident tied to his access to the film's set — and Heller as the villains of the piece.
Gray says he's aware of the controversies, but "this movie is about N.W.A."
"It's about the group, the rise of the group and the subsequent following of the group and you can make five N.W.A. movies with all the information that is out there. We couldn't get everything in.
"Obviously you can only do so much when you have two hours and 10 years and five guys in one movie but I'm very happy with the accuracy, especially given that I got it from the members of N.W.A," he says.
"If it was something that I just Googled or got it from Wikipedia then it would maybe be a little bit questionable. But Ice Cube was there every day. Dr. Dre was there every day. It doesn't get any better than that."
The Boyz n the hood
Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, in a scene from the film, Straight Outta Compton.
O'Shea Jackson jnr as Ice Cube
As Ice Cube's son, Jackson has spent years observing the rapper-writer-movie star. But he still had to study acting and audition repeatedly for two years to win the role of Cube. Jackson started performing with his dad, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance, when he was 18. "That's why I wanted him to do the movie, because I knew he would have that part down pat," Cube said.
"It was just the acting chops. And he focused, and I'm extremely proud of him." For Jackson, the opportunity was enticing and intimidating. "It's a big-time studio, and [director] Gary don't play," the 24-year-old said. "It's a lot to take on, especially if you never acted before."
Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E He has the most movie experience of the three stars. But this is his biggest part by far. Mitchell's performance as Eazy, who was 31 when he died of Aids in 1995, is the heart of the film.
He gained weight, learned to rap and shed his New Orleans twang to play the rap icon.
He spent more than a month preparing for the role with Cube collaborator Dub-C.
"He helped me work on the accent situation and the walking and talking," Mitchell said.
His transformation wowed his co-stars. "When you see him," Hawkins said, "that's Eazy-E."
Corey Hawkins as Dr Dre A Juilliard graduate who appeared in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway, Hawkins was met with playful scepticism when he was cast to play Dr Dre.
"I'm the guy coming from Juilliard. I'm saying I just did Shakespeare on Broadway," he recalled. "I had a moment where everybody was like, 'I don't know if you're going to be able to do this. Do you listen to rap music? Have you ever heard N.W.A. before?'" The 26-year-old learned how to DJ and spent ample time with the man himself — producer-mogul Dr Dre. Jackson sees a parallel between Hawkins and the character he plays. "Dre, he saw the music as an art, like he appreciated it as an art," Jackson said. "My man Corey is from Juilliard; he sees acting as the art."
Chip off the old Ice Block
Ice Cube left, and his son O'Shea Jackson Jr.
O'Shea Jackson jnr was determined to play his father, Ice Cube, in
Not only does the 24-year-old look uncannily like his dad, but he also has the rapper-turned-movie star's mannerisms and expressions down — something he used to his advantage during the two-year audition process that had him taking acting classes before director F. Gary Gray was satisfied.
Father and son sat side by side to talk about bringing Ice Cube to life on-screen.
What's it like seeing your story told by your son? Ice Cube: I'm proud on a thousand different levels. You always want your kids to step up at the moment of truth, and he did more than step up. He just owned it. I'm just proud of the production. I'm proud of the movie. I'm proud of the group. I have never been this happy for any project that I've ever done.
Kids often think their parents are dorky in some way. Did you discover anything like that in portraying your dad as a teenager? O'Shea Jackson jnr: The only thing that would be remote to that would be the lingo of the 80s, just the things that they said that were "in". ... No pun intended: Ice Cube's the coolest dad.
Was there anything you didn't want your son to know about you? Ice Cube: Seeing my son getting roughed up by the police is not fun. It brings back memories of when I got roughed up by them. He grew up totally different than how I grew up, and to me, he shouldn't have to go through that. But in a movie like this, and to understand really what we all went through, I'm glad that he did feel the tone of what we went through so he could understand it a lot more. He was able to do it in a controlled environment, and not really have these police put their hands on him, because that would hurt me if they did that for real.
How was it rapping your dad's words, and Ice Cube, how was it watching him do it? Jackson: I've been seeing him rap these words forever, you know? So it's cool to finally be on the other side of that. To have been looking at his movements and then getting them down. I had the time of my life.
Ice Cube: We first took him on tour, me and my wife, when he was one and a half ... So he's been around movies and music his whole life. ... Then at 18, he started to really perform with me. So he has a knack for the stage. I've seen him rap my songs before on stage, with me. So to see him do this on the big screen, it was great. I wasn't surprised that he was so good, because I knew how good he was.
