Review: Straight Outta Compton finds new humanity in rap legends - The Verge
It’s impossible to talk about N. W. A without talking about South Central LA in the late 1980s. Crack had found its way to the inner city and burrowed itself there, as did the gang violence that followed it. President Ronald Reagan was leading a... The Los Angeles Police Department made up for recent budget and staff cuts with near-constant aggression in predominantly black neighborhoods like Compton. The department even had a special unit known as CRASH, which stood for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums ( really ) that encouraged police to use widespread force to combat gang violence in the city. One of the unit’s missions was known as Operation Hammer, a no-tolerance approach that really just meant arrest everyone. Given its historical context, as well as our current cultural climate, Straight Outta Compton could’ve played it completely straight. A was the product of two big cultural shifts: one of music (funk and pop paved the way for the birth of hip-hop) and one of politics (exhaustion from police brutality that ultimately led to the 1992 LA riots). Scenes of N. W. A’s small recording triumphs are bookended by scenes of piggish white cops roughing up the members for the crime of standing too long in one place. Source: www.theverge.com
