The a16z Show - a16z Podcast: Straight Outta Compton, The Interview (including Ice Cube and Ben Horowitz)

Episode Date: August 15, 2015

This special episode of the a16z Podcast is based on a Q&A from an early screening we hosted of Universal Pictures’ Straight Outta Compton, the story of the group N.W.A. that revolutionized music and pop culture. The Q&A features Ice Cube, producer, rapper, and one of the original members of N.W.A.; director F. Gary Gray; and Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and O’Shea Jackson Jr., who play Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube, respectively. Their wide-ranging conversation -- as interviewed by a16z's Ben Horowitz -- covers the struggle, the drive, the creative process, the cycles of history, the city of Los Angeles ... and why “it’s cool to be a nerd”. photo credit: Khristopher 'Squint' Sandifer Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Show on SpotifyListen to the a16z Show on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yeah, that's me. And last but not least, and I'm going to apologize, but if there are children here, you already heard a lot of this, a crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube from the day. Yay, yay, yay! How y'all feeling, man? Wow. It's a great night, great movie, great audience.

Let's do this shit. All right, so I'm just going to ask a few questions, and then if everybody here has questions, everyone's agreed to answer your questions as well, so everybody's excited to be here. Gary, this movie, you know, was such, you made an epic picture. It's not the way most people would have done

kind of a movie about hip-hop. There's never been a movie about hip-hop quite like this. You know, how did you conceptualize it and, you know, how did you think about developing this story? Well, first of all, I'm honored to be able to tell a story about such a phenomenal group that changed the course of popular culture. You know, history was changed when NWA came out and made straight out of Compton. And how I approached it, you know, it was actually, it was hard and it was easy. It was hard because it was so many major things that happened with this group, so much.

much controversy, so much drama. And it's so many, it's like five guys over the course of 10 years, to actually choose what to put in the movie was really, really hard. What was easy about it was it's not only hip-hop history, it's American history. And

these guys, seriously, this is, these guys wasn't really interested in serving polite society or being politically correct. And this is something that, you know, you can go your whole lifetime and not learn that lesson. And they did it

as young guys. And to tell that story, it's just kind of a universal thing that I think anybody can actually identify with. And when you have a story that has a brotherhood and that has triumph and tragedy and rags to riches, that made it easy for me because these are all universal things that we all can identify with that has nothing to do with where you come from, what your culture is, or even if you like hip hop or not. So it was hard, but it was all so easy. Thank you for that. Great.

Well, great work. I appreciate that. I've loved it. That's it. But kind of coming off of that cue, you wrote, fuck the police. The police. The police. To pronounce it correctly.

That's right. In 26 years ago now, And as Gary said, like, you know, how did you come across, you know, at that point so honestly to tell the truth like that? And then how do you feel about how things have unfolded since then? It's almost like we've waited until today to really understand that song. Well, we was just so frustrated at the time. You know, we was dealing with. Darrell Gates, who was the chief of police in Los Angeles at the time,

and he had declared a war on gangs. Now, to most law-biden citizens, the war on gangs sound pretty good. But if they think every black teenager they run across, or brown teenager they run across, is a gangbanger. That means it's a war on black young teenagers and brown young teenagers. and brown young teenagers. So it was a war on all of us, whether you was banging or not,

you were swept in it, caught in it, steamrolled by it. And it was no relief in sight. Before NWA, if a cop testified against you, everybody believed them you were going to jail, straight up. After NWA, people started to say, Hmm, is this true?

Is this true? Then the Rodney King incident happened to let people know what we was talking about was true and that it was thousands of Rodney Kings all through the community in every community. Then, you know, people start realizing, oh, man, they are serious. So, you know, we really decided to use this song as a weapon as our protests against what was happening to us. Then, now you look up and people realize that it's a, it is an epidemic because we have camera phones, body cams, dash cams, all these things are letting people know the things that we've been knowing for hundreds of years in this country that, you know, the law

enforcement is really stacked against us. And, you know, it's a shame when, you know, it's a shame. the country praise on its own citizens. And that's exactly what's happening right now. Thank you for that. That's a great commentary and explanation in Israel. I hadn't thought of it in that way, but you have a war. It's a war on your own citizens. You're going to war on your own people.

And you train people like that, and that's what you get. It's terrible. but one of the amazing things about the movie and O'Shea Jr., like, this is your first major role is my understanding, which is shocking because it was spooky watching you because I watched your father when he was, and it was like hard to tell that you weren't him.

Like you were that good. And I don't know what they give best actor two for, but like if it's recreating Ice Cube like completely, like you should win it. That was amazing. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

How did you, like, how did you even go about approaching it, though? I mean, you know, because you're so close to him. You know, did you have to then go back and study him? Or how did you get to that role? My preparation was the hardest part. You know, he brought me the idea of being in the movie before there was a script. And he flat out said, you know, I need you. I need you to play me.

So, you know, you kind of got to get this. So, you know, we talked to Gary, and Gary got me, you know, the acting coaches I needed, Aaron Spicer, Susan Basson, and Dustin Felder once I got the role. And I was auditioning for two years before I got the part. And that's annoying. That's a lot. It's less mission ever. But because, you know, there's the idea of you're not going to get it.

You know, you're not going to get it. and that would have killed me. That would have really, in a way, humiliated me. You know, it's my father. This movie is so much bigger than music. It's so much bigger than a group. You know, this is my family's legacy. And it means the world to me that I have the opportunity to cement him in cinema forever.

And that's something that I felt like I needed to do for him. But can we back up just a little bit, you know, I want to dispel any rumors that or any thoughts that this guy actually was given this role. He worked the hardest out of anybody in his cast to get this role. It took him two years of auditioning and callbacks and chemistry tests. And even with the chemistry, tell me what happened with the chemistry test. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Let's back it up.

We want to work for this role. So two years of auditioning, and then we finally get to. a chemistry test. Now, I've never done a movie. I don't know what that means. I'm just thinking it's going to be a cube, or easy a dray. We're going to do some scenes.

So I get there, I walk in there, I see a Jerry curl. Now, I know I'm going for cube. I step up, you know, what's going on? How you doing? I'm O'Shea. You going for easy? No, no, I'm going for Cube.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Well, I got some bad news for you today. You know, and so I had to deal with two other cubes there. competition, if you will. But, you know, it was just things that, another challenge that I had to get over from the get-go, me and these two guys, man, we clicked.

These dudes are, you know, some of my best friends at this point. And, you know, the chemistry test was just another notch in my belt. You know, all the hard work, everything I had to go through. It was all building confidence that I needed in myself. I needed to cram as much experience as I could in a show. short amount of time to give y'all the best project that I could. Well, you did it. You didn't even have to tell us that, Gary, because he proved it wasn't nepotism in the movie.

Like, that was great. Come on, Brian. It's stages, you know. He did an amazing job in the movie, but he did an amazing job really earning the part. You know, people don't realize that these guys went through boot camp. not only to, you know, just earning the part, but just actually preparing for the part. So I'm going to let you do this thing, but I want people to understand. No, go ahead.

No, it's just one of those things, man. I've been involved with this project for four years. It took me four years to get this on up to the screen. I think it took Cube over a decade, maybe 13 years, to put this on the screen. So this is not something where we woke up and said, you know, we want to make a movie. Okay, NWA, it's a slam dunk. It's a passion project. the laborer love, and everybody who's sitting up here really, really put their blood, sweat, and tears

and they're making this movie what it is today. And, you know, nepotism was not a part of this project. Because when it's all said and done, the novelty of Cube Sun playing Cube wears off after the first five minutes. If he can't carry a movie, this movie doesn't work, period. So I really wanted to put that out there because these guys really work. worked hard to do this. Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Gary. Thank you.

That's a great commentary. So actually, picking up on that, since I got my co-interviewers doing an excellent job, Gary. I can't help it. Gary and I were actually talking backstage about one of the things that struck me about the movie, there isn't really a movie with characters this complex and multi-dimensional, you know, outside of like Shakespeare. And in particular, the character who is the most complicated, one of the most complicated characters I've seen on screen in decades was EZE.

Because EZE, you know, he starts out, you know, drug dealer, band leader, the rookie in the band not into music, then the tragic character. And Jason, just tell us about, like, how did you prepare for that? And how did you, you know, how did you play such a multidimensional role where you were so many things? throughout the movie? I had a lot of drive, you know, coming into the part from the beginning. And I really had the opportunity. I saw EZE as an opportunity to not only recreate him

and, you know, recreate people as they know him, but to really be able to pull all my creative guns out, you know. And I had to make a complete transformation to do it because I had to drop the accent and learn how to talk and walk like I was from California and learn the music and learn how to rap and learn all these different things. different things and eat 4,000 calories a day to get my chest big and box and do all these

things. I'm like, easy eat wasn't doing all this, you know what I mean? But, you know, I had, it was a heavy task. It was a heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy task. But that was before I could get to the point where I could take direction, you know, because all of these things are things I felt like I didn't want to worry about while trying to act, you know, because acting, it has to be real. So there were a lot of things that went into that, but Gary, Q, the rest of NWA, you know, really, really, really helped me channel what I felt like was him and to give him a real opinion.

But Gary had this real safe zone for each of us because everybody had their own things to do, you know? Like, he worked super hard, you know, but he had a vision for everybody, I think. And it was kind of chronologically set up for us to develop a real brotherhood and a lot that we did that, you know, kind of transfers on screen well well. But listen, you guys have to appreciate the transformation that Jason made because it's one thing if you're from the streets of L.A. And you are from the streets. But the streets of New Orleans, which is completely different. So he's from the South. So learn the culture, learn the swag, learn how to perform, get larger.

All these things you have to do. in such a short amount of time, the transformation was crazy. And the boot camp that you had to go through in order to give such an honest performance was absolutely amazing as well. And I've, you know, read these stories about some of my favorite films like Raging Bull, where De Niro has to gain weight and lose weight and do all these things to give such a great performance or a city of God where the director works with these kids for months and months and I think you worked for nine months.

You guys came in in eight weeks, recorded the entire Strait of Compton album. These guys, the actors, recorded the album, gained weight, lost weight. Corey went to school to actually DJ. And, you know, you bring up Shakespeare. Corey actually was doing, he was on Broadway doing Shakespeare, something like that, and went to Giuliani.

Come on, let's talk. Let's talk. Yeah. Yes. That's, it was Romeo and Juliet I was reading. Yeah. Yeah, that was amazing. So what was it like going, like one from that, and then to play, not only to play a living legend,

but a living legend who, my understanding, was like on the set every day. Yeah. What was that like? How did that challenge? What's the difference in those challenges? man i don't know i just i look at it all as is a just a huge blessing you know first and foremost because you as your life as an actor man you especially as a black young brother you know in this business you never know where the next paycheck is going to come from you never know you know some of y'all

here might know you know but you never know you know what the next opportunity is going to yield so you know as we always say jason says you know a lot it feels like we we we the life lottery with these roles and these characters. And it wasn't lost on us the task that was ahead. Because initially with Dre, I got the call to come in for him. And I was like, nah, I don't think I can do that. I don't think I'm the one who can, you know, I don't think I look like them, sound like them, act like I'm, none of that, you know?

But it was a lot of just your actor insecurities, you know what I'm saying, getting your own head and getting in your own way. And I remember, you know, just when I found out Gary was involved and our heavily Q was involved and Dre, it was like, okay, it's game time now. All right. You know what I mean? Because I knew this story was going to be epic, but I didn't want to be the one to mess it up. But, you know, thankfully, I got the role. And, you know, these guys, though, man, they made it easy. You know what I'm saying? Working with Jason, working with Shea, Outis Hod. You plays Wren. Neil Brown Jr. who plays yellow, we became brothers doing this whole process, man.

Like, we really, I mean, I can't even, like, put it in words, man, how closely we had to get NWA right before we could even step on set. You know, the two months of prep work. And Dre was there for the whole thing, man, from the very beginning. He was there on set every day. And anytime I needed something, if four o'clock in the morning, if I called him, he pick up the phone because he's in the studio working. You know what I mean?

But it was a lot, man. I had to learn how to DJ, never did that before in my life, never had to learn how to produce, you know what I'm saying? I think the amount of respect that these guys had for what they was trying to do. Exactly. Because, I mean, they're legends. Who sits in the presence of legends like that?

You know what I mean? To the point where they fall in the sleep, like, all right, I'm still here. I'm good. You know what I mean? The cube's shooting right along, too. You're like, well, I feel like Ice Cube behind me right now. Somebody got the iPad. He's like, Jason, you good?

I'm checking up on you. I'm like, wow. You know, but to know that the same people who like put that huge insecurity or that huge fear or whatever you feel when you first meet a legend, they completely swept that off the board for us and be like, man, you're the man for the job. You know what I mean? And we trust y'all to do this, but we're going to watch, you know? Right. And, yeah, man, I think we really came out with something good.

It's about capturing their humanity. man because we're not playing who they are today we're playing the young men they were then and you see you know you can look at who they are today and you see where they came from and everything they overcame you know what I mean that's that's that's what we wanted to capture just who the men were and you know like you said you were talking about shakespearean man it is shakespearean in Romeo and Juliet there's the Montague's and the Capulets and they feuding for no reason nobody knows why they're feuding but you can look at the bloods and the Crips, and you can see that same energy as there, man.

Like, it's in the language, man, and hip hop. It's the same, man. It's like, it all correlates, man. But we pulled on everything. Gary gave us everything we needed, you know, to get this job done. And then the big homies, the big uncles, you know what I'm saying? They were there every single day to make sure we did it right. Well, you did it right.

And just as a statement of this, you know, my wife and my mother-in-law are here, and they started out in Compton and watching them watch the movie it was like if you want to stand up, Nana, Felicia. Hey, hey. Like the shirt. Right? I see that NWA shirt.

I love it. I love it. You put them in a time machine. It was like they literally went back in time. I mean, the look on their faces was unbelievable. It was like they were watching their life 20 years ago. You got to get that to this man right here, though. He's a job. genius. He's a real life

genius. He put you in the time caps when shoot you back. You know what I mean? Yes, he did. Thank you. And so what I'd like to do now is turn it over to Gary because he is the director. And if anybody has any questions, Gary will direct. That's what I said.

Go ahead and get it out. I want to thank the Horowitz family for bringing us all here today. What an amazing opportunity. So I have a quick question and a comment. My name is Latifah Simon, and I'm really excited because just yesterday I was elected as a new board member for the National Black Lives

Matter movement. Wow, congratulations. Congratulations. That's what so. In this moment, a couple of things. This movie matters. And many of us who are writers, we want to run to our computers immediately and write a commentary about why it matters, the commodification of hip-hop, the forgiveness and love and humanization of black men

and all that you all did. In two and a half hours, I can't even begin to capture what this will do for movement in this time. So my question, damn, this was a damn good movie. Wow, thank you so much. I'm shaking. A couple of things. And I'm shaking because many of us who were involved in the HIV movement 20 years ago when we were 16 and 17 and 18 and on the streets.

When I saw that amazing scene, I want to understand how you all prepared for that. When we saw Easy's patch years and years ago, and we brought the quilt to Hunter's Point and seeing mothers weep because they had lost their babies and they were never able to talk about losing their babies. EZ gave HIV voice in our community. And what you all have done with this picture, you reignited because HIV is still the leading cause of death of black young people in the Bay Area. Let's speak. So not murder, not homicide. I want to know from Mr. Cube and also senior and also the director,

your hopes and dreams for this film. So I'll give the microphone to Mr. Horowitz. Well, you know, I want people to be inspired by our story. You know, our story can be any person in here, you know, who has a dream, who won't be stopped. you know, we did this with creativity. You know, we fought back with a pen and a piece of paper. You can do the same thing with a laptop, iPad, whatever y'all fucking wait right about now.

Yeah, but it's all about creativity. You know what I mean? It's all about, you know, being constructive and not destructive. And, you know, you're going to have powerful forces against you, you know. I mean, what we didn't show is people that was in our neighborhood. And our families told us we couldn't rap that we weren't going to be nothing. And we didn't listen to nobody. We just was ourselves and it was all right.

And, you know, so I want people to be inspired by the story. You know, it's a great American story. You know, it's youngsters with courage standing up for what we want to do. Now, everything we did wasn't positive. that's not what we're saying but everything we did was honest and people like that

people like when you're honest they don't like when you're full of shit and when you're lying all the time and when you're just trying to put on the good face or putting on the good mask and a lot of artists would do that they put on the good mass when they get on stage get off stage

and be Ike Turner you know what I'm saying so we was like if you want to be Ike Turner let us know be that shit on stage so we know who you are so we stay away so don't hide behind no masks

and you know so I just want people to be inspired that's all that's all for me it's a movie of a lifetime for me it's a project of a lifetime because it's very personal to me

I grew up in South Central L.A. in the 80s and the 90s and I worked with Q at the beginning of my career he gave me my break I did Friday that was my first that was my first movie. And thank you.

And so when you talk about L.A., South Central L.A., that era, hip-hop, movies, and all of the points that we kind of, in the topics that we touched on in this movie, is

all these things don't normally intersect. You know, you bring up HIV and AIDS and, you know, police brutality and, and And, you know, if you're going to be politically correct or not and serve polite society and however it works out, it's a project of a lifetime for me because it's not only personal, it's relevant in so many ways. And it'll be relevant for a very long time. And when people say what was going on in America, 100 years from now, hopefully this is a film that they reference.

And I just wanted to be as honest about the depiction as possible. and, you know, fact is sometimes stranger than fiction. You know, all these things where a guy starts off DJ in a garage and becomes a billionaire and another guy starts off writing in a bus at school and becomes

a Hollywood mogul. You can't write that. If someone sent me that script but I would be like, that's bullshit. You know? And so to touch on these topics, honestly, I don't know if any of these things will ever intersect for me as a filmmaker.

ever again. And so it was really important for me to make it as honestly as possible. And I'm glad that it's relevant. But at the same time, I'm a little sad that it's relevant. You know, I wish I could say, remember back in the day when the music was great, remember back in the day when the police used to overstep their boundaries and abuse their power? That was then. You know, we're all kind of doing our thing now as Americans. But it's sadly not the case. But I will say that I'm cautiously optimistic that all of the pressure from the headlines and women like you that are stepping up and actually doing something about it, it's going to force change and it's going to put pressure on our leaders in law enforcement. It's going to push pressure on our leaders in Washington

and for those law enforcement officers that are out there that have the tendency or the propensity to actually do things like that. Maybe they'll watch this movie and think twice. So thank you for that. We really appreciate it. appreciate with you to as well. Thank you. Good luck to the second question. Well, I just have a question about, you know, it was a struggle, obviously, from, from inner city and from getting out, but it was also a struggle for the art form to gain respect. And, you know, I wonder now you look at hip-hop and it's a global phenomenon and it's changed. So, you know, for Cube and for Gary, how much, you know, could NWA come out now? Do you think? yeah definitely you know now is probably more easier for NWA to come out than back then you know hip hop was you know it was the underground enemy of music back back then you know you hear a lot of people in the movie saying you know rap is not a art nobody want to hear that rap reality bullshit you know they're saying all that to us you know the uh uh

soul music, R&B music, singers hated us, though he was the scourge of the earth. You know, and so, you know, we wore that as a badge to be ourselves even more. You know, the more that the industry hated what we were doing, the more that we wanted to do it and be ourselves. And we didn't care about what they were saying about us and what they was thinking about the music. We knew that, you know, this music was powerful, and it finally gave the youth of voice.

You know, the youth is voiceless. You know, nobody listens to the youth. And with rap music, you got to listen. So it was just a powerful time against powerful opposition. But, you know, that's why this is movie worthy because it's so many obstacles that were in our way that tried to. to take us down. A few of them worked, but most of them didn't, and that's what it's all about. I look at it a little differently. I kind of feel like there'll never be another group like NWA because they had to do it without any reference, you know. There was no real examples of

guys stepping up and doing it the way they did it, facing the opposition of the FBI and law enforcement having to build a company without any real reference. So you look at cash money records, you look at death row, you look at bad boy records and things like that. They all had ruthless records as a reference, you know, unless you look back at like maybe Motown or something like that, which was, you know, not even the generation that they could really kind of connect to in that way business-wise. It was a bunch of young guys just finding their way. And we watched him grow up on wax so I'm not really sure if you'll ever really see another NWA and while I appreciate there are a few guys out there that are really doing it. Jay Cole is doing it. Kendrick Lamar is doing

it but there's no Kendrick Lamar without NWA so I personally feel like you know I hope it inspires artists to actually get out there but again they'll still be inspired by groups like NWA. man i just cue um i just say what's up and how you doing man what up home south central is in the house yeah what's up

we brought um four or five kids can you guys can stand up five kids we drove from south central just come see this today that's right that's right let me tell you why though let me tell you why so i grew up i grew up in wats i grew up in wats and it's such a great pleasure to be here today with you guys because this morning I was in Watts talking about the, today is the anniversary of the Watts riots back in the 60s.

So now I'm here watching this and I'm like blown away. And the reason why, because NWA has been inspiring me ever since the 90s, ever since the 80s when I was growing up in South Central and in Watts. And ever since then, I thought, man, we got to keep doing something different, do something new and get the youth to be inspired and you used to speak out. So you guys had NWA, we have TXT, which means T's a. exploring technology. And this is the future technology, young entrepreneurs in South Central, Los Angeles, doing things.

That's what I'm doing hackathons. Yeah. And we just had, so look, we just had the biggest hackathon in Watts right now. We had about 200 people, about 100 kids in the Knicks. So if you know the Knicks, Knicks, and Gardens, down in Watts. We had 70 kids, 80 kids down there. And we are facing the same thing that you guys face with music. about not rap not being artists or rap not being a music.

Now, we're facing the same thing because people in Watts or leaders or police, officials are telling us hackathons are a bad thing. So that's what they're telling us. Like hackathons, teaching kids how to code. It's a bad thing. It's going to hack into a computer. They're going to do something illegal. And we shouldn't be doing it.

But we brought it to the Knicks. We had a hackathon. My question to you is this. There's kids down there doing this and they're hacking away, learning how to code and building on tape. companies, not having a lot of knowledge how the tech world starts and how the tech world gets going. I'm asking you today, you didn't have any knowledge of the rap and the music industry. What advice would you have for kids now to say, hey, keep going? I met O'Shea at USC with QD3,

and I remember him telling me that you said to him, hey, I want you to get your degree first before you come and work with me. And he got his degree at USC. I remember him talking to me back there. I'm asking you today is what advice would you have in order to inspire kids and say even if you don't have everything, all the tools necessary to keep going and achieve their dreams today? You know, you got to believe in yourself. You know, it's all about, you know, having that self-determination. You know, you know what you're doing is right. It feels right. Don't worry about what people say. You know, don't let people discourage you. And to not. not doing what you know you want to do and what you're feeling.

Even family members, friends, you know, close people will try to discourage you and get you off your path. It's just natural, especially when they don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. But you just got to work and be determined, not care what people say, and study. You know, everything you want to learn is in a book somewhere. And so that's what it's all about. It's all about getting your determination up and getting your passion up and trying to be great at what you do. And to me, that's all the ammunition you need to get out there and do anything you have your heart set on. And, you know, so like it's not cool to be what they call a nerd now.

Or it's not cool to be smart or which is the. dumbest shit in the world, but I don't know when that happened, because it was cool to be smart in my neighborhood is cool to be smart. Because everybody knows that, you know, all the cool people,

you ain't going to be doing nothing but working for what you call the geeks anyway when you get out of high school anyway. So you need to go and get your shit together and you might need to become a nerd and a geek too. You know what I'm saying? Nothing wrong with that.

nothing wrong with that you know they give they give these names but that just mean you're smart you focus and you know what you want to do and know what you want to be and nothing wrong with that man don't let nobody make you feel ashamed of that you know that's cool to me you know what I'm saying it's cool to have things and to be smart you know so that's what it's all about okay we're going to take two more two more questions hey Vij a couple of questions you know, for the actors, what are you going to take out from the movie going forward? There must have been scenes that brought you back to, you know, what you went through at that point in time.

Well, the one thing that, well, the things that I'm going to take from this film that I hope everybody takes from this film is the confidence that NWA had and, you know, their courageousness, you know, that they're willing to beat a straw that stirs the drink. You know, and anybody else who follows in their footsteps are just caught in the current. And everyone should take the kind of confidence and integrity that the characters show and apply it to anything that you do. From the custodian to the president, you know, everybody should take the same kind of characteristics. You know, the things that speak to the human character in this film are things that I feel like we as society need to be refreshed on.

constantly. So I just want everyone to take that from the film and to apply it to your everyday life no matter what it is that you do. Yeah, that's super important because, I mean, if you take my situation, for instance, I've only been acting for five years. Like, I'd never thought this could happen. You know, if I'd have wrote my own story, it wouldn't be this good. You know, so I think, you know, like watching NWA, you can see that they were just five guys of a like mind and they changed the. the world. You know what I mean? What if it was 10 guys? You know? And we got to start thinking on

that level. We got to start thinking like, I mean, we could do anything, like for real, for real, for real, for real. And for me, what I took from this movie really is that these guys never changed. You know what I mean? Like, I'm somebody like from a street. And I always thought that I would have to articulate so much better and, you know, do these things and wear these kind of pants. And have this kind of job, you know, and none of that is true. You know, you just got to be you. And if you continue to be you, it'll bring you exactly where you need to be. You know, so be happy with that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's real talk. Be you and be the best you, though. You know what I'm saying? Be the best you, be to positively you, you know? And I, from this film, I take away, you know, going the path left's chosen, you know what I'm saying, and being strong enough to make that decision.

Because for me, I grew up in D.C., you know, my mother is a police officer. My dad, you know, dealing with drugs and, you know what I'm saying? It's a whole other lifestyle. And for me, I grew up seeing both. You know what I'm saying? I grew up, grew up sort of on both side of the tracks, you know, and I grew up watching a lot of my friends go that way. And I had to make a choice.

You know what I'm saying? Everybody else is doing that. That must be cool. What's the choice that's going to lead me to go this way? You know what I mean? The same way that NWA had to make a choice. When the FBI came down on these teenagers for speaking reality, they made a choice to put their foot on the gas and keep going.

You know? And that's the thing that I take away from it is that it doesn't matter where you from or what your situation is, whether you're white, black, Asian, Latina, whatever your race, whatever your socio-political, economic, whatever, you can be the best you. And this film shows that because you see what they came from and you see who they are today. And you see the choices that they made to get there. This isn't no fairy tale. This isn't non, this isn't fiction. This is real life. And like Gary said, it's like, you can't write this shit. Like you really can't, you know, if you think about it, oh, this would be a great movie. No, no, this is. This is a great movie. No, this

This is reality. It was funny because we would be on set, man. And I remember Dre was like, man, this could be a movie, man, because this right here, this part was, and we were shooting it. Like, you know? So it's just, it's just be you, you know what I'm saying? Have, have that confidence and go get it, you know? Some of my favorite parts of the movie is, like,

that I remember real vividly, like, happening, like, on the bus that day when dude, got on the bus, you know, tripped out, gave the fucking motivational speech and boned out. And then, you know, performing that doodles, you know, I remember that night vividly. You know, my favorite part, though, is going in Brian Turner's office with the bat. Yeah. You know, that brings back memories right there. Yeah, I was on one.

I was on one, for real. But we cool now, we cool now. You know, you paid me my money, too. Shit. Okay, I just wanted to know what made you guys want to become actors in the first place, and why did you guys choose to audition for this film?

I just needed new friends. For real. I was like, hmm, I don't really like what y'all into. Maybe I'm going to do this, you know? And it was something that I never really thought was going to turn out like that. Like, they just had this lady who just had this acting workshop. And I was like, they might have some nice-looking females in there, you know.

So I'm like, all right, let me go do this. And maybe like three weeks into it, I was like, I really, really, really like this. Like, this is something that it just was expressive. You know what I mean? And I can go there and just do something different for four, three hours out of my day and be like, you know, that's what's up. And maybe like five weeks into it, they just had an agent coming there and check me out.

And she looked at the whole class and was like, everybody needs to take this serious. You want to know how serious it is? I'm about to sign him. Like, what? You know what I mean? And yeah, large. And it took me maybe like about five or six months to book.

But after I seen one of them checks, I'm like, man, hey, hey, hey. You know? after that it was all about trying to push and get to the next level because you're really nothing without a resume and acting, you know what I mean? Everybody got to start somewhere, but you have to humble yourself

and say, I can't take that lead role. You know what I mean? Because you think you know how to act until you get there and have 80 different setups that you got to do and you got to do this and you got to do that and you're like, ah, wait. You know, because they don't have time to teach you when they're spending millions and millions of dollars. So, yeah,

it just, it was one thing that kind of you know, was going to the next in the next. But I was always so happy to work that people were like, man, it's just a good dude to work around. So it was like, man, maybe we should try to read them for a lead. Sliad me that easy E. Murder she row. Murdered she row.

For me, I, um, I don't know. I just like telling stories, you know? I like the old tradition of the grios, you know what I'm saying? Sitting around a cap growing up hearing grandma telling stories. I just, I don't know. I don't know. I just love, love being able to translate real life to screen or to the stage, you know? Because we get to do this for a living. This is fun, man. This is fun. It's a blessing, you know what I mean? To be able to wake up every day and do this and be able to be here with you guys. But the truth is, like, I'm more of a, you know, reserve kind of guy. Like, I'm not very, you know, but when I get to get on stage or get on film, I can let go and just let loose, you know. know, that's, that's, it's sort of an outlet for me, whereas it could have been something else, you know, um, so I just encourage people who are interested. I mean, I don't know if you are,

but like, yeah, you know, go for it. Do it. Because you can be here, you know, you will be here. Um, I'm really into screenwriting. You know, I'm definitely into, into writing scripts. I've always like telling stories and things like that. And, um, I'm, um, I'm really into screenwriting. And, um, I'm definitely into, I'm, I'm And he's really the reason why I got into it. You know, I saw that he needed me. He told me in the beginning during the auditioning process that, you know, it's a lot of people that don't want you to get this, you know, plain and simple because of nepotism and things like that.

But, you know, knowing that all of them people don't want me to do it, but he want me to do it. And that's really all that I needed. And, like, I, you know, I had never act before. I got the A, E, and drama in high school. You know, that's, but that's really it. But I had fun, you know, I had the time of my life. I'm not going to act like this movie.

It didn't drive me crazy. But it's all because of the pressure I put on myself. And while I was filming, I was thinking about my screenwriting friends, like, you know, they go chew my ass out. Oh, you're an actor now? This is what you do, you know? So it was all a collective things. I feel like I know what goes into a good movie,

and I've had way too much fun on this project. These guys, you know, great morale makes great movies. You know, I pray that I get another set like this because I didn't put all this hard work, you know, just for one. I'm trying to be here for a while, y'all. All right, please give it up one more time for Straight Out of Compton. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wow. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, wait, wait a minute. I'm tall. I'm tall. I'm tall. I'm not, but I'm going to stand up with you.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. We just want to thank you all so much for making this movie and for sharing it with us and coming and talking about it. It's been a great honor and privilege. And I think I speak for everyone in Silicon Valley

when I say, damn, that shit was dope. Thanks, Ben.