Led by three dynamite performances and filled with profane, vulgar, street beats, F Gary Gray’s dynamic musical bio-pic actually converted me. Straight up, easily one of the best band films ever made, this warts-and-all fable of boys from the hood makin’ good in the music business, ruffling feathers and bucking authority is explosive, genuine, and stunning. Straight Outta Compton is a slam-dunk hand-grenade of a film. Populated by names familiar and unfamiliar to me, I hoped that the film would at least give me a glimpse into why these guys were – and continue to be – so influential. Straight Outta Compton, directed by F Gary Gray, is titled after the group’s début album from 1988, and features plenty of the music that made them famous. Although I cannot claim to enjoy, or even appreciate their music, NWA were a formative group on the music scene back in the day, and so a biographical film about their exploits was always a possibility. I’m a 40 year old white dude from Australia, about as far removed from 90’s black rap and gangstas as you can get, although I will admit to some minor incumbency with the depiction of poplar hip hop group NWA (acronym for Niggaz Wit Attutudes) via an association with my local community radio station during the early 90’s.

Look, I’ll shoot straight wit’ y’all, dis dope ain’t my shit, y’hear? Synopsis: The group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood. Principal Cast : Jason Mitchell, O’Shea Jackson, Corey Hawkins, Paul Giamatti, Aldis Hodge, Neil Brown Jr, Marlon Yates Jr, Corey Reynolds, Tate Ellington, Alexandra Shipp, Angela Elayne Gibbs, Bruce Beatty, Lisa Renee Pitts, Keith Stanfield, R Marcos Taylor, Sheldon A Smith, Carra Patterson, Elena Goode, Keith Powers.

Let me watch straight outta compton