Introduction
In 2015, the world was exposed to one of the most provocative and educative movies called Straight Outta Compton. It is the story about three outstanding rap artists, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E, who created a group, N.W.A, as an attempt to introduce their art as a reflection of the reality they had to live in (Straight Outta Compton). Straight Outta Compton is not an ordinary biographical movie that tells a story about people. The movie is the story of a political war where one party cannot accept rap songs as a new form of art, and another party cannot but promoting rap songs as truth-telling street knowledge. Straight Outta Compton is the movie with a message has the power to transform political sensibilities including racial injustice and prejudice, the inability to clarify cultural underpinnings, and the necessity to become a political revolutionist in order to protect personal and community’s ideas and beliefs and resist the rules and obligations established by the government.
Racial Injustice
One of the most evident and attractive features of Straight Outta Compton is the necessity to introduce the question of racial inequality as an unchangeable issue that bothers people of different ages and races. On the one hand, it is expected that the filmmakers try to underline racial prejudice as one of the main concerns at the end of the 1980s when the rap group N.W.A was created. On the other hand, it turns out to be a real challenge to explain what problems people could have when they have a different race. The scene when Eazy-E is arrested in front of his mother and the inability to talk and explain the situation proves that racial inequalities and prejudice cannot be avoided or understood. People like the idea of being different, and they are ready to use their color of skin as the main excuse for their decisions.
Cultural Underpinnings
Cultural underpinnings are also observed in the movie in order to prove that people are ready to support one idea in case it is explained and supported in terms of their cultural preferences. The scene when people listen to Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” and demonstrate their true emotions when they hear that it is impossible to avoid an idea of “living with the whites one big house/and not another nigga in site” (Straight Outta Compton) could be used to explain how people stay dependant on what is imposed and not clearly explained to them. Constant instability and inability to choose and decide independently make people weak. N.W.A. is a challenge for society to see the truth and realize the importance of their cultural roots.
Political Revolutionist
Finally, almost every song performed by N.W.A. is a call for people to comprehend how miserable and unstable the political situation is because of the possibility to avoid the law, offend some representatives of society, and stay legally clean even being an evident political revolutionist. When the group offers its “Fuck Tha Police” is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. It proves that if a person is humiliated by the police many times, one day, he will find a way to revenge in the most unexpected and effective way. Political concerns stop mattering when rap that was not approved by the government and introduced as an example of chaos and disorder becomes one of the most respected forms of art in society.
Conclusion
In general, Straight Outta Compton is a perfect combination of the ideas when people could be united with one goal and one challenge. Political concerns may prevent some groups of people from taking the steps that reflect their attitudes. Still, Straight Outta Compton shows that even the power of the government could be broken in case the correct steps, true emotions, and clear goals are demonstrated.
Work Cited
Straight Outta Compton. Directed by F. Gary Gray, performances by O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and Paul Giamatti, Universal Pictures, 2015.