Straight Outta Compton

This one scared me since it's so incredibly ambitious to attempt to tell the story of the formation and destruction of N.W.A., the Godfather's of gangster rap. The group was formed with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. It led to the formation of Ruthless Records, which cranked out the N.W.A. albums and a few solo projects for Eazy E, MC Ren, DJ Yella, and later Bone Thugz-N-Harmony (Their mega-hit "Crossroads" was actually written for Eazy-E shortly after his death from AIDS). The group came on essentially out of nowhere. Eric Wright (Eazy-E) was dealing drugs and was recruited by Dr. Dre to spend some of his elicit money on music. Dr. Dre was already in a group, but had no problems working on music with Wright. Ice Cube was in high school at the time, but still penned most the rhymes used by N.W.A., specifically Eazy-E's and Dr. Dre's, in addition to his own. DJ Yella was a DJ with Dr. Dre in their group World Class Wreckin' Crew and came with Dre immediately. This movie does an incredible job of cutting through the around 7 years from their formation and meteoric rise, to the separations of Ice Cube and Dre from the group, to forming Death Row Records and Cube's solo projects, to Eazy-E's unexpected death. It covers so much ground, much of it deserving of separate films, but it does an excellent job. N.W.A. deserves a TON of credit for getting rap that wasn't meant for the radio and MTV to get mainstream play and success. I'm presuming without their contributions it would be impossible to tell when rap would've been so popular in all of America. The actors all do very well playing incredibly difficult, iconic roles that most people that watch have an idea of how they sound, look, and act. O'Shea Jackson Jr. finds the role of a lifetime in getting to play his dad, Ice Cube. Even later on the actors playing Snoop Dogg, Suge Knight, and Tupac do a very good job. The story was produced by Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E's wife, so you were getting various points of view, etc, so one artists isn't focused on, or shown in a more favorable light than the others. Strong showing from F. Gary Gray as well, who is probably best known for directing Friday. Bottom Line: 9.1 out of 10. I'm biased because I like rap, but this movie does just an amazing job of covering a TON of ground and the basics + more about an amazing tale about N.W.A. and all that went with it.