There are fine performances: Mitchell, Hawkins and Jackson are all strong, and R Marcus Taylor makes Suge Knight memorable despite his relatively few lines. The second half of Straight Outta Compton trudges through a series of grievances, with a procession of lookalike actors playing people like Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur for about 30 seconds each. It’s just unfortunate that historical accuracy here constitutes a massive cliche. Historically speaking, it’s accurate that the initially close buddies in NWA fell out over money and fame, before they realised what really mattered was friendship. History is written by the victors, and the victors in this story weren’t women. Is any of this examined in the movie? Nope. NWA’s music was replete with violence against women – there can’t be many songs more grotesquely misogynist than One Less Bitch, in which Dre fantasises about letting his friends gang-rape a sex worker before he murders her. Dre recently issued a blanket apology “to the women I’ve hurt” in the New York Times. More than one former girlfriend has also accused him of physical violence. He pleaded no contest to her charges of assault and battery. In the middle of NWA’s feud with Ice Cube (covered in some detail in the film), Dre physically attacked Dee Barnes, a TV music host he felt had disrespected NWA by giving Cube’s side of the story. The real Dr Dre was a producer on Straight Outta Compton, so it’s not surprising his personal history has been tidied up. Women in this film are visible mostly in the form of gyrating bottoms, with two potentially interesting characters – Dre’s mother, Verna Young (Lisa Renee Pitts), and Eazy’s girlfriend (later wife), Tomica Woods (Carra Patterson) – given far too little screen time to develop. The police waited in the lobby, suspecting the rappers would be down at some point to scoop up some of the groupies loitering around. In real life, NWA finished the gig and went back to their hotel without being arrested.

They do anyway – and are chased off stage by angry cops, thrown to the ground in the parking lot and bundled into a police van.

When NWA play Detroit in 1989, local police warn them off playing Fuck Tha Police. The FBI letter was their golden ticket to an enormous youth market looking for something to horrify even quite liberal parents who had grown up in the 1960s and 1970s. The film doesn’t fully get into how skilled Eazy-E was at turning all attempts to shut NWA up into ever greater publicity. I mean, I’m Canadian.” Out of the blue, NWA receive a threatening letter from the FBI telling them to nix their track Fuck Tha Police. I couldn’t believe that this, you know, the things they were talking about actually happened. When he first heard NWA’s music, Turner remembered in the documentary NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group: “I thought it was just purely theatre. Heller hooks NWA up with Bryan Turner of Priority Records. Boyz-N-The-Hood becomes a smash hit, and NWA attract the attention of manager Jerry Heller (played by Paul Giamatti in a conspicuously villainous wig).

Nwa straight outta compton