Old school compton rappers1/29/2024 ![]() We’re being fleeced of the real story, ganked out of a better movie. The opening lines, “This is a stick-up, everybody get facedown, Ren, gag their mouths so they can’t make a sound,” say it all. Eazy E’s deliciously reprehensible track, “Nobody Move” would be better suited to the tone of the film. Who is fighting the power as the “Black CNN” now? Kanye West? He couldn’t fight his way out of a Twitter feed.Ĭan nostalgia save us again? Like those old action stars Arnie and Stallone, are these old school rappers stepping back into the ring because the young punks of today just can’t cut it? Does a mainlined dose of the old “Street Knowledge” get those revolutionary juices rioting again? Does a group like NWA, once again supremely relevant in a time of increased racial divide and austerity, a time described by Jesse Jackson as a “backlash” against Obama’s presidency, act as a piece of third cinema? Are we compelled to take action? Other than revisit our record collections, sadly not. Ice Cube was one third of the triumvirate of great political rappers in the late 80s and early 90s, the others being Chuck D of Public Enemy and KRS 1 of Boogie Down Productions. Dre’s revolutionary call to arms used early on in the movie, “You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge,” should feel the same, sharp intake of breath they gulped when they first heard Ice Cube roar his follow up lines, “Straight outta Compton, crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube, from the gang called Niggaz With Attitude.” and never let it go until the final bars of “Something 2 Dance 2.” At this moment in time we’re sorely lacking those firebrand rappers that exhilarated, exasperated and infiltrated a generation of teenagers not only in Compton but in white America and even suburban England. “We’re going to prohibit some equipment made for the battlefield that is not appropriate for those police departments.”Īnyone familiar with Dr. The backlash from Ferguson has prompted President Obama to act: “We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force,” Obama said. Since 1997, 4.3 billion dollars worth of military arms has found its way into police forces across the United States. Now for the best part of two decades the American police have benefited from access to surplus military equipment that saw service in both wars with Iraq and the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Brazil used to hold that dubious honour, its policemen armed with weapons usually restricted for war zones to help pacify the favelas for the World Cup and the Olympics. The NWA biopic couldn’t have been released at a more vital time to add fuel to the fire of wanton destruction of black youth by the most militarized police force on earth. What’s worryingly similar is that despite the zombie hordes being fictional, dead husks of human beings and gangsta rappers being the living, breathing embodiment of young black resistance in the late 80s and early 90s, both are treated with equal levels of violence by the world’s premier democracy. Both are American folk devils that rattle the white establishment to its core who then respond with a series of increasingly inept moves to halt the threat to the capitalist status quo. ![]() The living dead or gangsta rapper, it doesn’t matter which as both are interchangeable. We could be starting another zombie apocalypse or alternatively listening to a multi-layered, cinematic section of an NWA or Ice Cube track. ![]() ![]() “Straight Outta Compton” explodes with a blank screen, helicopter blades and media chatter. ![]()
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