Considered the creators of “gangsta rap”, N.W.A. contributed to making rap mainstream in the 90s and managed to change an entire generation’s view on music.

Straight Outta Compton is the perfect movie to delve a little deeper into the wild history of the group; beginning with the origins of each member, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella.

Without revealing too much of the plot, the movie shows where the rappers were at in their lives prior to N.W.A. Eazy-E is selling drugs, Ice Cube is in high school, Dr. Dre has a kid and the three of them are connected through growing up in Compton.

Already, the movie has surprised everyone with it’s solid opening weekend by earning an estimated $60,000,000.

Personally, the movie had it’s ups and downs in pace which can be kind of hard when watching a two and a half hour movie because it starts to feel long but it collectively was entertaining throughout.

I also thought that although it was a movie about a supposedly violent time and group, the film was way more mellow than I was anticipating. It had good tension where necessary but I felt like they might have glossed over the gritty stuff to kind of keep a cleaner image and also to make it more mainstream.

It definitely had a clear bias towards Dr. Dre and Ice Cube seeing as they are the producers behind the movie and it made it seem like they were the main characters so don’t expect to see a lot about MC Ren or DJ Yella.

They also managed to portray Eazy- E a little better than he probably actually was but since he isn’t even alive to contribute his thoughts and emotions, it was entertaining to see what the group thought of him since they dedicated the film to him.

Overall, it’s a really great movie and even if you don’t like rap, it’s amazing to see the power that people have through music and to see the creation of a musical revolution. If you have any interest in music at all, I think it’s definitely worth seeing.