You guys stoked for the Straight Outta Compton movie?

[culturejam]

I'm so ready to blast gats and disrespect the PO-leece!

Straight Outta Compton blew my mind when it came out. I still listen to it a couple times a year.

I think it's cool that Ice Cube's son will be playing him in the film.

[Haberdasher]

raw talent, swagger, & bravado?!?
count me in!!!1!

[Stomptown]

That looks sweet!

[selfdestroyer]

In my top 50 albums for sure. Will definitely see this.

Side note, if you guys have not seen the Nas documentary I encourage you to. Really done well.

Cody

[alanp]

I know absolutely NOTHING about this subculture, other than the negative stereotypes, so perhaps I should check this out. I did enjoy playing GTA: San Andreas.

Oh, I did hear Nas on Santana's Guitar Heaven album. Didn't sound like singing or rapping to me, just someone a few sheets to the wind reciting lyrics in normal speech. Thought the name sounded Middle-Eastern at the time.

[juansolo]

Mate of mine was hugely into NWA when I was a teen so it ended up being just about the only rap music I like (and worryingly know most of the lyrics to). Two white kids in a 1.3 Austin Metro driving round in Yorkshire to NWA.... Yeah, classy. Will likely go see this also

Same mate also got me into ZZ Top. What a diverse taste in music he had!

[raulduke]

PJ and Duncan were my favourite rap group back in the early nineties.

I was HOOD.

[GermanCdn]

Looks to be a good movie.  Not a huge NWA fan (I think I know two songs, and for all the wrong reasons), but the trailer's definitely got a hook in it.

It was funny, I was watching it and I thought "Hmm, the guys from NWA have done all right for themselves (Dre, Ice Cube), Public Enemy, not so much."

[sonarchotic]

Looks to be a good movie.  Not a huge NWA fan (I think I know two songs, and for all the wrong reasons), but the trailer's definitely got a hook in it.

It was funny, I was watching it and I thought "Hmm, the guys from NWA have done all right for themselves (Dre, Ice Cube), Public Enemy, not so much."

I'm a huge Public Enemy fan. I thought NWA had some catchy songs but they were devoid of content beyond the hit 'F the Police'. Flav is joke now but he kinda always was. Chuck D may not be rich buy he commands a lot of respect as he should.

[LaceSensor]

I thought the casting looked uncanny... makes sense its his son!

I think the movie looks great, Ill definitely be watching it. Love the record, too.

[blearyeyes]

Well, uh call me uneducated and out of touch but what does this movie want to teach us?
Compton is a hell hole as far as I know.. I live close by....
Help me understand what is the reason to watch this ?

[culturejam]

I'm a huge Public Enemy fan. I thought NWA had some catchy songs but they were devoid of content beyond the hit 'F the Police'. Flav is joke now but he kinda always was. Chuck D may not be rich buy he commands a lot of respect as he should.

I respect Public Enemy for a lot of reasons. I just find their music hard to listen to. NWA was a lot more listenable for me.

Chuck D wanted to raise political issues worldwide. NWA was far more local and focused on showing the rest of America just how much of a warzone their home was. Different agendas, but both did a lot to increase awareness.

Well, uh call me uneducated and out of touch but what does this movie want to teach us?
Compton is a hell hole as far as I know.. I live close by....
Help me understand what is the reason to watch this ?

I don't think it's a teaching movie, per se. It's more of a bio-pic about how NWA formed and rose to fame. I'm sure it will highlight some interesting historical facts along the way, but it's not a documentary with a social agenda, as far as I can tell.

[midwayfair]

Well, uh call me uneducated and out of touch but what does this movie want to teach us?
Compton is a hell hole as far as I know.. I live close by....
Help me understand what is the reason to watch this ?

Because NWA was important for cultural and artistic reasons that went well beyond their home.

I can't even figure out what your comment about Compton has to do with the movie, except that it's the neighborhood they came from and in the name of their breakthrough album.

For anyone wondering why these guys are so artistically important: From a songwriter's perspective, NWA made it cool to put "awful" things into popular music, in the same way that Bob Dylan made it cool to put very intensely personal and political statements into popular music. Even if you don't like gangsta rap, NWA was a major reason the conversation moved forward, and that's important. They weren't the only ones doing it, but they were early in the game, they had one of the most talented producers in popular music, and they caught the most grief from people who believed that singing about their neighborhood amounted to yelling fire in a movie theater.

I would go so far as to say that they're at least partly responsible for the acceptance of hip hop into mainstream American music: a bunch of kids suddenly heard the stuff because they were told not to listen to it (kinda like rock music in the 50s and 60s, eh?), which made them sell a lot of records and get into a lot more ears, then other people start writing less heavy subjects using a lot of the same aggressive beats and vocals which produces hits and a lot of money to make more stuff like that, and sooner or later even the production techniques start making their way into almost every form of music.

This is without even discussing the political effects, which are way more complicated. An hour and a half movie probably can't contain a subject this broad.

[rullywowr]

I'm looking forward to it.  I can recite pretty much every word off of Eazy-E's "Eazy Duz It" album. 

I remember hearing Straight Outta Compton for the first time back in the day...I was like "they said what??!"   It was pretty interesting because at that time there really was no swearing in rap.  You had artists like Grandmaster Flash and MC Hammer...then these guys came along and just turned the genre on its head.

NWA directly spawned the lasting careers of Eazy E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube.  Without them we wouldn't even know who Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent are. 

The influence of NWA goes way beyond just gangsta rap.  It is evident in music by Sublime, Sugar Ray, Dynamite Hack, Beck, and tons more.  It will be interesting to see how the movie does the group justice. 

[Bret608]

I'd be curious to see this too. Back when I first became aware of them (high school, late '80s) it was like all my skater friends were way into them overnight. It worked for us in the same way punk did, i.e. the music embodied an oppositional stance to the dominant culture.

And, oh yeah, it caused my friends to hijack my beat-up car and do a water balloon drive-by on me...we were so OG...