Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and the cast of Straight Outta Compton discuss the challenges and rewards of making the new film with The Hollywood Reporter. Read more after the jump.
In 1986, it was morning in America. Ronald Reagan was in the middle of his second term. Top Gun was breaking box-office records. Bill Cosby was the most beloved TV star in the country. But in Compton, Calif., five black kids, including Andre Young (Dre), O'Shea Jackson Sr. (Cube) and Eric Wright (Eazy-E), were inventing gangsta rap in South Central clubs, creating a wholly new form of music made up of shockingly raw stories of police brutality and other urban blights. Their incendiary lyrics (“a young n—a on the warpath, and when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath of cops, dyin' in L.A.”) landed N.W.A (which stands for “N—az With Attitude”) on FBI watch lists, incurred the moral wrath of media crusaders like Tipper Gore and got their music banned from scores of radio stations and record stores. Still, their first album, 1988's Straight Outta Compton, managed to sell 3 million copies and go double platinum. If hip-hop had one Big Bang-like birth, an explosive moment when it first emerged as a serious, sustainable art form, this was it.
“It was always about free speech, being able to express yourself, whether people like it or not,” recalls Cube of N.W.A's early raps (the group made four albums before they broke up in 1991). “That's the great thing about being in this country, is to be able to speak your mind and not be censored.”
