Straight out of Compton

I was chatting with my friend Seun aka Sean Cabal and he said he was watching Straight out of Compton at the cinemas and he was bored. He said ‘thank God someone else paid for the ticket’ and he did not understand why there was so much fuss about this movie.

After watching the movie myself, I kind of understand where he was coming from. I am not a hip hop head, and Seun was more of the Wu Tang Clan era, but it was more than that.

Doctor Dre’s stable produced Eminem and 50 cents and both had successful movies about their autobiography in 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Trying. This movie was about using a successful formula, and who will blame Dre and Ice cube? After all they are both business men.

Dre and Cube came out of this movie both smelling like a bunch of roses. Scenes like Dre telling Suge Knight that he was leaving Death Row because of his atrocious behavior and Suge asking what his new record label will be called and Dre answering ‘The Aftermath” was almost laughable.

What was almost commendable was the portrayal of Easy E as it showed a vulnerability to hip hop that was almost not acceptable and it was also a tribute. Having said that, the movie needed an emotional factor to avoid it being totally cheesy and maybe that was just cashing in. It was like P. Diddy’s song for Notorious B.I.G.’s  “I’ll be missing you”. Did he actually produced that song as a tribute or he knew he could cash in on his death? Questions, I guess we would never know the answers.

Fans of NWA, Ice cube ,Dre would enjoy being taken down the memory lane.