Supriya Panjiyar Essays (766 words) - Hip Hop, Music, Gangsta Rap

Supriya Panjiyar Essays (766 words) - Hip Hop, Music, Gangsta Rap Supriya Panjiyar Professor Tracie Hernandez English Composition 1302 2/7/2017 Straight Outta Compton Based on true events which happened in Compton, California during 1988 , "Straight Outta Compton" is a 2015 American biographical film directed by Felix Gary Gray. Aldis Hodge (Mc Ren), Corey Hawkins (Dr.Dre), Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E), Neil Brown Jr. (DJ. Yella) and O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube) act as members of the group N.W.A.(Nigga's with attitude). The film takes audience to the life journey of N.W.A. members, starting with their struggles of being an African American living in a ghettos to the height of their fames and richness . The f ilm opens in the late nineties in an econ omically depressed and violent C ompton when " gangsta " rap music was just evolving. R acial discrimination was still prevalent in United States even after a century of its abolishment. The introduction of the group membe rs in the movie gives audience a brief glimpse on the severity of economical and moral injustice and backwardness majority of African Americans were going through . Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, a small time drug dealer, Andre "Dr. Dre", a talented but unappreciated DJ at a loca l club and O'Shea "Ice-cube", a high school student who writes poems. Their introduction shows them dealing with abuse, h umiliation, amidst gang violence, drug trading, police harassment and poverty. That is not just their introduction but it is trying to show how many of the African Americans lived. Their talent and love for music is what brings them together and helps them become a successful and influential group called N.W.A. A scene in the movie has picturized clearly how African Americans faced police harassment and violence. In the scene all the group members are busy recording their rap music while "Dr. Dre" comes out to meet his wife. After a while everyone comes out of the studio and that is when four police officers comes to them and ask questioning them without any reason and orders them to lie on the ground with their hands on the back interlocked. During this scene the director of the film has played beautifully with his camera. The high angle shot on the group members has shown how helpless and small they looked before the police even though they had committed nothing wrong and the four police officers are shown like they are powerful people. The group members in response to these kinds of harassment do not choose a violent way rather they choose to be quiet and lets their music do the talking. They use their "microphone as their weapon". This is how civil disobedience is shown in the film, through rap music. Another scene in the film shows how the group members morally disobey the police. This scene in the film specifically shows civil disobedience. The group members just gets a warning from the FBI before their concert. The group members does not show any kind of violence during that time rather they stay calm. When they get on stage ice cube asks every audience to "raise their middle finger high on t he sky" addressing to the police officers in the back stage. And then Ice cube starts singing "F**k da police" expressing the reality of police brutality and his anger in the song. Civil disobedience is not only about speaking against what is wrong in a moral way, it is also about a waring the people abou t it which the group members successfully do in the film because when the members get arrested the audiences stands up for them against the police. The audiences are shown high up in the building while the police are shown on the ground in the scene. After they get arrested they sit in a conference with the media and when questioned about their music "Eazy-E" replies they are simply using their civil right by the first amendment which is freedom of speech. The first half of the film has shown civil disobedience. African Americans were discriminated even though slavery was long gone. African Americans were left behind in poverty because the government focused on enhancing the life style of the white race. While the discrimination prevailed African Americans faced