N.W.A., a hip hop group most popular in the late 80’s and mid 90’s, has been revived after the release of Straight Outta Compton, a movie titled after their first album. The film, directed by F. Gary Gray, placed 5th (in chart numbers) on it’s opening weekend, and for great reason; this film was thrilling, exciting, funny, and most of all surprisingly accurate.

Because this movie is categorized as Drama/Biography, of course it would be expected to be pretty accurate facts-wise, but due to the fact that Tomica Woods-Wright (wife of deceased Eric “Eazy-E” Wright), O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson, and Andre “Dr.Dre” Young co-produced it, it is accurate on the emotional field as well. Many audience members quietly sniffled in the scene when Eazy-E the “Godfather of Gangster Rap” died from AIDS in 1995.

The portrayals of all characters including Snoop Dogg, DJ Yella, and Suge Knight were extremely realistic in terms of looks and personality. I even had to do a double take and question if Tupac was really dead when Marcc Rose, the actor who played Tupac in the film, appeared in a scene to record California Love with Dr.Dre. O’Shea Jackson Jr., the actor who played Ice Cube in the film, also resembled his character greatly, as he is Ice Cube’s son.

The film begins by giving a glimpse into the personal lives of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube, portraying Eazy-E dealing cocaine, Dr. Dre missing a job interview because he was too wrapped up in his music, and Ice Cube writing lyrics on the school bus. The opening scenes alone really did a great job at showing who each character was as a person, and how they would later contribute to N.W.A.

This film was intense. There were many scenes of gang violence, riots in California, and police brutality, but luckily they were balanced with bursts of comedic relief. In the scene showing how Ice Cube went solo in 1991 due to financial betrayal by the group’s manager Jerry and was exchanging various diss-tracks aimed at N.W.A, the audience laughed and “ooh”-ed along with the cast.

Of course people who grew up listening to N.W.A’s music will view this movie, but it also greatly impacted the younger generations as well. Rapper Kendrick Lamar even interviewed Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, and MC Ren in Billboard magazine about the film, which really tied together the generational gap. Lamar, being from Compton as well, looks up to N.W.A. and Dr. Dre himself, and has done several collaborations with him.

To show a younger audience that one of their favorite rappers looks up to this legendary group really does add meaning.  35,000 people downloaded the album Straight Outta Compton which was originally released in 1988, a week after the release of the movie, and the song Boyz-N-The-Hood by Eazy-E made #50 on Billboard’s top 100, twenty-seven years after its release in 1987. Not to mention that the movie has blown up on Twitter, old N.W.A. songs can be frequently found on my timeline, and the “Straight Outta” filter has been overly used on numerous social media platforms.

This movie was amazing. Although you already knew the gist of what was going to happen because it was a biography, it still kept you on the edge of your seat, anxious for what the next scene will bring.