Growing up, my parents would listen to Niggas With Attitude (N.W.A), and I was excited when I saw that it was going to come out in theaters. It’s clear that N.W.A. music has touched many lives all around the world, some may say their music glamorized violence to our youth but I believe they gave a voice to those mistreated by the police.

Throughout the film we see several scenes that are disturbing about police abuse in the streets of Compton, California.

For example in the scene where Ice Cube leaves the house where Dr. Dre is staying at, we see cops invading the neighborhood arresting people who broke the law but also harassing people that look like trouble. And a cop immediately approaches Ice Cube and tells him,

“What the f*** you doing? Put your hands behind your back.”

The scene represents the abuse of police power, just because someone looks or dresses differently doesn’t mean they should be judged. Personally, I can relate to this scene because I’ve been harassed by a police officer just by sitting in a car waiting to pick up a friend. The officer thought my friend and I were selling drugs just because he noticed a ziplock bag hanging out of his pocket. The officer assumed it was drugs when it was really change.

One scene that I like is when Ice Cube is on a school bus going to school and a couple of teens see a nice car driving by and decide to throw up the Crip sign. The guy from the car stops the bus and talks to the kids about the gang life and he tells the teens, “You need to gang bang those books.”

I really like that quote because it brought me back to a memory of my cousin, who was always in trouble with the law, told me to never be someone I’m not.

The director did a great job on focusing the movie on the group N.W.A, rather than each individual member in the group.

In the scene with the group in a press conference, they answer questions about their behavior. A reporter from the press conference says, “Your songs glamorize violence…”
and Ice Cube responds, “Our art reflects our reality.”

Quotes like these make each character in the film believable. The group’s music speaks for their lifestyle and others living in Compton.