IT'S taken a while to land, but the excellent 2015 rap biopic Straight Outta Compton is now available to view on demand via Netflix.
Directed by F Gary Gray (Fast & Furious 8, Friday), it tells the story of LA rappers NWA (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) the self-proclaimed "world's most dangerous group" whose aggressively confrontational music found them pioneering the 'gangsta rap' sound of the early 1990s.
NWA's Dr Dre and Ice Cube went on to be huge solo stars, but not before the group caused uproar with profane and provocative anthems like Straight Outta Compton and F*** Tha Police, the latter becoming an anthem of the Rodney King-era.
Starring Corey Hawkins as Dr Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, O'Shea Jackson Jr as Ice Cube (his real life son), Aldis Hodge as MC Ren and Neil Brown Jr as DJ Yella, the film is is at its best when focused on the controversial group's fast rise to notoriety under the guidance of shady manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti).
Pretty soon everyone is falling out over money. An aggrieved Ice Cube quits for a solo career and gets into a very public beef with his former comrades – particularly Eazy-E, whose subsequent demise from AIDS packs a real emotional punch – while Dre falls in with scary manager/thug Suge Knight (R Marcos Taylor).
Officially endorsed by the surviving band members, Straight Outta Compton was never going to be revelatory.
However, it's still a highly entertaining 'rags to riches' affair that will (obviously) appeal most to fans of NWA and late-80s/early 90s rap in general.
