Review of Strait Outta Compton

 Strait Outta Compton can be looked at in two ways. Here I see a film that is basically a musical biopic. It is about N.W.A. and how Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella, and Ice Cube got together and started a band. On the other hand, the film is also about the police state that exists in inner-cities all across America, and Compton is a key example.

In fact, the very first scene not only paints a portrait of Eazy-E’s life before the group started, but also the regularity of hyper-militarized police in South Central Los Angeles during the mid-to-late 1980’s. One could argue that this type of military action still exists today. With the exception that you will find local police departments in all types of neighborhoods with a tank/battering ram. SWAT-style vehicles, and paratrooper-style police officers. Even in my hometown of Roseville CA, you can find this type of police activity, and Roseville is not inner-city-nothing. It’s a suburban community where people come to shop and wealthy people buy homes.

At the center of this story is the group’s First Amendment right and the song “Fuck the Police.” Eazy-E even states, “the Government wrote that shit.” The scene where the Jerry Heller reads the threatening letter sent to the group by the FBI displays the fear the group installed into law enforcement on every level. In reality, “Fuck the Police” is just a song and it’s right to be performed by the group is fully supported by the United States Constitution. When the Detroit Police Department nearly started a riot and arrested the group after the band performed the track after being threatened by the police department shows the level of hypocrisy that exists in the country. That scene is something you would expect in North Korea, or maybe possible China. Not in America, where we are protected by the Freedom of Speech. Yet somehow it did happen.

What happened to N.W.A. and the criticism they received for “Fuck the Police” was really nothing new. I do believe that it was because the group was “Gangsta” and they are black, that the criticism was out of fear. These types of responses to music happened frequently in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I remember Axle Rose catching flack for lyrics from the Guns n’ Roses album, GNR Lies­ with the track “One In A Million.” In fact, I recall buying tickets to go see Marilyn Manson during the “Antichrist Superstar Tour” only to find out a week before the concert that it was cancelled because several local religious groups pressured the Pan American Center in Las Cruces NM to shut it down. This was out of a direct result of fear and I have yet to see Marilyn Manson perform still. This was around the same time Tipper Gore introduced the Parental Advisory sticker on tapes and CDs making it difficult for people under 18 to buy music without their parent's permission. Luckily my mom was cool and thought that Parental Advisory sticker was bullshit and bought my music with me. 

Strait Outta Compton comes at a time when America is really starting to take a look at how their local police departments handle situations. The uprisings that have occurred in Oakland, Missouri, and elsewhere show that people are pissed off. The police are supposed to protect us. Not shoot at us out of fear. The police beatings we see popping up almost on a weekly basis are disgusting and un-called for. There is no reason for SWAT-style military vehicles sitting on-standby at the local police department’s yards. I don’t think criminals out there are carrying rocket launchers and tank-piercing bullets. Unfortunaetly, it doesn’t stop with the local PDs. When it was revealed that the NSA is indeed spying on Americans, a whole new threat to our daily lives as Americans emerged. In the movie theaters, “Fuck the Police” is what America needs to hear because law enforcement have been severly overstepping their bounds for too long. We need music and art like this to remind the law enforcement community to back off.