Straight Outta Brockton

Before I start in about Straight Outta Compton (2015), I should make it clear: I’m as white as a boy from Brockton can be, and I know close to nothing about rap. I just found out that “Don’t call it a comeback” and “Mama said to knock you out” are in the same song (Deadpool 2). But that doesn’t mean I can’t dig it.

This is the story of N.W.A, with special attention to Easy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. Easy-E (Jason Mitchell) starts out running drugs, a dangerous business. Ice Cube, played by the real-live Mr. Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson, Jr., is a high-school kid, but that’s just about as dangerous. Dre (Corey Hawkins) is a DJ, who gets kicked out of his house for being a deadbeat. They are working in a club band, where the owner wants slow jams and none of that hard stuff. Dre wants to take Ice Cube’s raps and strike out on their own, with Easy-E’s money.

This is pretty much a standard music biopic. Our heroes fight adversity at home and in the streets, get crooked representation, fight and make up, and always pursue their own creative vision. The difference is that these guys are raw.

I liked this a lot, although parts were pretty intense. My one complaint is that the soundtrack was great, but there was a lot of conventional movie background music. When they weren’t doing an actual track, it sounded very bland. Not all movie music has to be dull orchestral stuff.

As I understand it, the cast really got the look of their characters. The only one I could judge were the two or three spots where Snoop Dogg (Keith Stanfield) showed up. He’s got a pretty unmistakable look, and it was uncanny.

I guess they took a lot of liberties with the historical facts (like most biopics), like giving short shrift to DJ Yella and MC Ren. I mainly mention because Aldis Hodge from our fave TV show, Leverage, played Ren. Wouldn’t have minded seeing more of him.