NWA – PEOPLE LIKE US

Finally seeing the most anticipated black movie in decades “Straight Outta Compton”, I would like to analyze different personality types that make up this life. The movie although dramatic with an intro that wanted to look like we were about to see an action movie (which are always fictitious and unrealistic) got the audience attention and gave presence to the character Easy E. But I must say Ice Cube is indeed a brilliant story teller when it comes to putting together his movies because this one he was able to summarize series of events that led to the rise of NWA and their dissipation, events which took over a decade and piece together the important pieces in this roller coaster thriller of a biographic.

If you saw the movie or are interested in hip hop history then this article is for you but if not it is also for you to because I am talking about real life people and real life events and how it can affect us wherever we are and whatever we do.

I needed to see this movie because I became a hip hop disciple as an infant, thanks to my elder cousins and sister who I grew up around. Especially my older cousin who was my role model back then played a lot of hard core rap around the house and we used to drive around town bumping to that even though I didn’t know the implications or real meaning of what those rappers where saying back then (Laughs). So I knew Easy E, Ice Cube and Dre and he had a cassette tape album of NWA which I sort of liked the track F**** the police, just because of the scratching and dexterity to which they dropped it. It was hard. But even at that early age I saw it as rebellious because I had the movie cultivated idea of the police being the heroes but I didn’t know then that that would be in an ideal world.

But I started getting consciousness and the ability to pick my own music and my own style gradually for myself just about the time Easy E died. I was greatly aware when Easy E died of Aids because I grew up in a neighborhood where we embraced hip hop as a lifestyle, like we identified with the black American struggle like it was ours (laughs again). But now seeing hip hop spread all over Africa and Nigeria being done in our vernacular languages today, I can say it is really music for the Blacks worldwide.

I fell in love with Dr Dre’s music when he did “keep your head ringing”, till this day it’s a song I play over and over again. I wonder why the song wasn’t factored into the movie. Anyway I started following and witnessing the rise of hip hop and “gangsta rap” – that bad thing we love so much from the mid 90s. Then I was in my elementary and I have grown up now and so have all these characters and so has hip hop and gangsta rap and this is just a movie to bring about memories and for people like me who didn’t gain consciousness from the incept but grew up to meet it at some point how it all came about.

Actually I started clicking these tabs to write about the one of the Villains who got me the most, but then I can’t start saying anything about NWA, The West Coast, and the evolution of gansta rap without first giving honour where it’s due. NWA consist of five members but one of them didn’t have the opportunity to live long enough to see where hip hop is today, but like most great hip hop personalities who died along the way rap music and culture still carries them along as legends. So we are looking at the living four NWA members.

Of the NWA cast we have Easy E, Ice Cube, Dr Dre, DJ Yella and D.O.C. Of all the surviving four of this group we are celebrating today we have two outstanding personalities. Ice Cube and Dr Dre whom watching the movie at the end the screen was highliting the success of this two Individuals. Their growth surpasses hip hop and music.

Ice Cube is a rap father figure and a top Hollywood actor and Film maker. He started his first movie with “boyz in the hood” which I remember watching as a little boy. Now he has a string of big commercial movies success behind him.

Dre on the other hand was responsible for creating music superstars like Snoop Dog, Eminem, 50 cents, The Game, Kendrik Lemar amongst many but now his name is more famous for his Beats electronics company that produces headphones and speakers. The said Company he sold to Apple Computers in a deal that made him a billionaire and an apple executive at the same time.

The other two people can’t be said to be failures because at least we know them by their alliaces and in the music they made by teaming with this group. So the advice my Pastor gave to me some years ago comes into play in this situation. Move with the wise and be wise.

Finally the most inspiring factor I got from this movie is the fact that these boys grew up in a disadvantageous environment marred by poverty and police harassment, brutality and racial prejudice and still through their determination and productivity they have become a voice in the global society. This is a very constant story I see in history from different countries, different fields , different circumstances but the same success story. Let’s be motivated and do good stuff. My next piece would be on Suge Knight. (Evil Laugh).