While predecessors Public Enemy had built their following on politically charged lyrics, N.W.A brought those politics to the street. At that time, hip-hop was directly engaged with the action of the streets.
Dre and Suge Knight opened Death Row Records, among other benchmarks.
But the hip-hop culture of 1991 is different than the hip-hop culture of today.ġ991 was a banner year in the golden era of hip-hop: 2Pac released his first studio album and Dr. At the time, Singleton asserted that his film, which was as critical of gang violence as it was of police violence, had been marketed as a gang film. When Ice Cube made his film debut in John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood in 1991, shootings across the country welcomed the film’s premiere, including one in Chicago that resulted in a victim’s death. If this were the early ’90s and Straight Outta Compton had just premiered, theaters taking on extra security might make more sense. Gang-related violence is often cited as a means of justifying excessive policing of black populations. Their audiences were also primarily over 30, an age group not typically associated with the kind of “gang-oriented” violence theaters allegedly feared. In the case of either film, the director was a black man, the stars were black, and the audience was expected to be black too. Two years ago, theaters made the same requests for Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a film that depicted the evolution of the civil rights movement. This isn’t the first time that theaters have requested amped-up security for a black-led film. And that’s where the situation gets dicey. So if Universal wasn’t asking for beefed-up security, then all signs point to the theaters. But in a statement released to Deadline, Universal clarified their involvement: “The studio has not solicited enhanced security for theaters that will be showing the film this weekend, but has partnered with those exhibitors who’ve requested support in their locations.” If Universal was ordering extra security at screenings of Straight Outta Compton as a means to protect citizens of color from the wave of hate crimes that have recently occurred when those who are not white and male attempt to gather, then it would be justified. However, it is worth noting that Straight Outta Compton is Universal’s first release since the shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, at a screening of Trainwreck, which was also a Universal property.
There were no incidents reported from any screenings of Straight Outta Compton this weekend, nor were any expected. Neither Universal nor theater chain Regal Cinemas was available for comment on the issue of cinema security, seemingly because the issue is an embarrassment. This is such obvious good press that news of Universal Pictures offering to help pay for increased security at screenings of Straight Outta Compton seems like a shot in the foot as much as it does a betrayal of their audience. The film’s success is a win not just for fans of N.W.A or for black filmmakers and black audiences, but also for anyone who wants to see different kinds of movies at the multiplex instead of rehashes of the same films by the same people in the same genres. Gary Gray of Friday and The Negotiator fame, and starring Ice Cube’s own son as the famed emcee, Straight Outta Compton and its $60.2 million opening weekend are testaments to the power of diversity at the box office. Produced by original members Ice Cube and Dr.
rose to glory from the streets of Compton in the 1980s. Now, right below Disney’s live action Cinderella and right above Marvel’s Ant-Man, there’s Straight Outta Compton, the story of how hip-hop group N.W.A. If a list of the year’s top box office debuts reads as a logline of usual suspects-a Jurassic Park reboot here, a new Avengers movie there-this weekend has injected fresh blood into the works.
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