So you will always get that, I believe, in my movies-some sort of humor, it helps the drama. Well, I grew up in an environment where there were dangerous times, but there were a lot of funny moments too, you know? My first movie was Friday, and it was a very funny movie about weed-dealing. How important was it for you to include humor? There was a lot of laughter in the screening I attended. It's also very light in places- I think that element might surprise people. But when you experience the brotherhood and the family ties that bind them and the motivation behind the music, you can't help but have a different relationship with N.W.A. It's very easy to dismiss these guys as edgy street rappers who talk about controversial things. You can't experience the brotherhood that you experience in the movie by going on to Wikipedia. That's what makes this special, because you can't just google "N.W.A." and get these details. I want you to get to know the guys behind the tracks, behind the lyrics and beats, and get a sense of them as human beings. There's a humanity to the story that you wouldn't normally associate with this genre of music. Your film takes us beyond that persona and into their lives. ![]() It's complicated because they were serious men, whose work was informed by serious events, but they also had an aggressive persona that they deliberately projected. The film reverses the stock media narrative of the guys being thugs and agitators. I'm sorry I'm just choked up because it's just so many things for me on a lot of levels. It's relevant creatively and artistically. It goes far beyond the group and the music created. We'll see, but I'm very happy with epic nature of the film. There may be a director's cut that's even longer. It was great to see something that had sufficient space for the story to unfold in. You can't just google "N.W.A." and get these details. We've gotten a lot of great feedback from people from all walks of life. The runtime is something I don't really think too much about because everything in the movie, I believe, is intriguing and compelling. You could make three movies out of the N.W.A. But since you put it that way, I guess it is the first. You know, I never thought about it like that. When I saw the running time (150 minutes) I was like, "Wow, OK." We've seen running times like this for films like Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, but this is the first rap biopic in that vein. A lot of the elements of the story intersect in ways that have never intersected for me in other films I've directed. I grew up in Los Angeles in that era, so a lot of things that they rapped about I witnessed and experienced firsthand. and their lives-their rise, their fall, and then their rise again-it's the film of a lifetime for me. For me, to be able to tell the story of N.W.A. Gary Gray: I've known Cube since the beginning of my career as a director, and it's all come full circle. Could you talk about how excited you must be to seeing it come out now?į. VICE: This must be a genuine passion project for you. I recently spoke to the LA-based Gray over the phone to get the inside track on the film. Gray's affinity with his subjects is evident, as well-he also shot the videos for Cube and Dre's " Natural Born Killas" (1994) and Dre's " Keep Their Heads Ringin". Dre, and Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright and features Cube's son O'Shea Jackson Jr. ![]() It's a sweeping, incident-packed drama that traffics in humor, emotional force, and sociopolitical insight, even if its charms sadly don't extend to portraying women-save for Dre's mother and Eazy-E's wife-as anything other than barely-clothed eye candy.
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