Marvel unleashed a handful of new hip hop Variants today, with Wale and Wiz being my favorite adaptations of the new ones below. I also included some more of the very dope album covers with DMX x Wolverine probably being my favorite of ’em all. Enjoy!
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It’s been awhile without a dope pod to step to from Grantland’s Jalen & Jacoby. Hey, it’s the dog days of summer. No complaints here. Especially when they come back and give the lead to Straight Outta Compton.
The first 20 minutes above are dedicated to the N.W.A. biopic and throughout the entire entertaining convo, Jalen reveals he was actually at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit for the famed concert where N.W.A. was arrested by the police. Jalen confirms some of the reports that came out after the movie about some of the factual details of that night, and in general, just speaks on living that experience as a teenager in the late 80s. Great stuff, as always, from these two.
One of the many highlights of Straight Outta Compton was Ice Cube — his son, namely. I couldn’t get over how identical O’Shea Jackson Jr. was to Cube throughout the biopic. His performance delivered for more than just his natural, genetic looks too.
Up above, Noisey got father and son together to ask each other questions about son playing father and some favorite and even tough scenes to watch from the movie. The whole interview is a fascinating sit-down and I only wish it turned into a podcast. Enjoy.
Both Dr. Dre‘s new album, Compton, and the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton are flying high right now — both on critical acclaims and atop the charts.
Dre’s first album in 15 years was naturally met with a lot of curiosity. Apple Music told the New York Times that Compton was streamed 25 million times on their service and sold half a million downloads, which boasts 11 million subscribers. To put that in perspective, Drake’s IYRTITL had 48 million and Kendrick’s TPAB had 39 million, with the bolster of also being available to Spotify’s 20 million subscribers.
Compton also debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 moving 295K units (behind Luke Bryan’s Kill The Lights).
As for Straight Outta Compton, it has already surpassed its $29 million budget with a whopping $56.1 opening weekend. Universal predicted $25-$30 million for opening weekend, but I wonder if that was even with the smashing success of the ‘Straight Outta Somewhere’ campaign that moved 5.4 million downloads. The biopic outdid MI:Rogue Nation’s paltry $17 million opening weekend in the U.S. ($46.1 international, though.) I would have thought MI:Rogue Nation would get top billing but upon quick reflection, Straight Outta Compton was everywhere so today, I’m not totally surprised. Still, very surprised though and just how much the movie made.
It was also helped by almost universally positive reviews, from critics and tastemakers here in the hip hop industry. I’ll add my 2 cents to that too as I saw the film last night and came away with no complaints. The cast was fantastic, the plot struck a great balance of the key points in the N.W.A. timeline, and F. Gary Gray did a tremendous job directing the film artistically. Needless to say, go see it if you haven’t yet!
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To conclude, a couple bonus tidbits. For one, I missed this DJ Premier interview with Billboard who talks about his entire history with Dre, recording “Animals” with him for Compton, and even revealing Talib Kweli had a verse for the song that they may save for a remix (hopefully adding Common to it as well.) I guess this happens in time for the movie’s release on Blu-Ray!?!
Lastly, someone re-created N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” music video using GTA V and it’s pretty awesome to view it from this lens. Enjoy below.
On the heels of yesterday’s RollingStone cover reveal, the latest pub for N.W.A. and Straight Outta Compton is a doozy.
Kendrick Lamar sits down with N.W.A. for Billboard and they talk for 25 minutes. Need I really say more?
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1
The conversation ranges from early days in the studio with Eazy-E, the eternal “bullshit” of the music business and how N.W.A made South Park (and much more) possible.
“N.W.A did a lot more than entertain. They told the truth,” says Lamar. And as Dre explains, “If N.W.A had done it softer, it wouldn’t have gotten the attention. It wouldn’t have worked.” Cube tells Billboard that he believes police brutality remains “the same” today as it did in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
“Ain’t nobody we’d rather have do this interview,” says Cube, 46.
“Have you seen the movie?” asks Dre, 50.
“Not yet,” answers Lamar. “Didn’t want to go to a preview and see it in a privileged setting. Would rather wait for it to come to the neighborhood and see it with everyone else. That way it’ll mean the most to me.”
These are just scattered tibits aside from the sitdown itself. Again, be sure to press play above, if you can only read right now, the full transcript is here. And there’s also some behind the scenes on the cover shoot here.
Gowhere Hip Hop 