The film Straight Outta Compton arrived in 2015 as a somewhat fictional biopic about legendary Hip Hop group N.W.A.
Directed by F. Gary Gray, the movie dove into the tumultuous journeys of Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella, who set the precedent for West Coast gangsta rap in the late 1980s/early ’90s. But the film was marred by controversy from the beginning.
Roughly two months after its release, N.W.A’s former manager Jerry Heller filed a $112 million lawsuit against NBCUniversal, F. Gary Gray, Legendary Pictures, screenwriters Ice Cube and Dr. Dre as well as the estate of Eazy-E, claiming his depiction was inaccurate and insisting parts were stolen from his autobiography without permission. The suit was ultimately dismissed in December 2018, two years after Heller’s death.
Meanwhile, former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight was involved in a fatal hit-and-run on set in January 2015 that wound up sending the embattled record executive to prison for 28 years.
Then there was the exclusion of J.J. Fad from the story entirely. The First Ladies of Ruthless Records — MC JB, Sassy C and Baby D — were integral in the label’s success but weren’t even mentioned in the film. The trio gave Dr. Dre and Ruthless Records their first gold certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and yet, the film failed to even say J.J. Fad’s name.
Singer Michel’le, Dr. Dre’s former fiancée and mother of one of his children, also wasn’t depicted in the film, but she wasn’t surprised, telling VladTV at the time, “Why would Dre put me in it? I mean ’cause if they start from where they start from I was just a quiet girlfriend who got beat up and told to shut up.”
Former Pump It Up! host Dee Barnes, who Dr. Dre brutally attacked at a Hollywood party in 1991, also was left out of the storyline. She later addressed the glaring omission in a Gawker article titled, “Here’s What’s Missing from Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up.”
During a recent interview with HipHopDX, DJ Yella explained why there were so many crucial parts of the Ruthless Records/N.W.A story left out of the film. He sounded especially disheartened J.J. Fad didn’t get the shine they deserved.
“Our first gold single and gold album was by J.J. Fad,” he says. “‘Supersonic’ happened to be the first one. Even though we did the ‘Boyz n Tha Hood’ and a couple of EPs, that’s all we did. But J.J. Fad blew up real fast and then it was nonstop. The gates was open, and they didn’t close until years later. But I understand what they was trying to do. They was trying to get too much into the movie.
N.W.A Pioneer DJ Yella Directed Over 300 Pornographic Films - Then Found God
“There was already some stuff that got left out. The movie was like 70 percent correct, because it was just too much to pack into that little two hour and 20 minutes. I guess it would have been too much trying to touch on that. A few things that didn’t get touched, but yeah. It’s a shame they didn’t get even mentioned. Even like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. They sold 10 million records. They only got mentioned by cassette tape.”
But DJ Yella made sure to include J.J. Fad in his new memoir, the aptly titled Straight Outta Compton: My Untold Story. Prior to its release, Yella publicly told MC JB she would get the recognition J.J. Fad rightfully earned over the years.
He says, “I told her she was going to get her props — and she did.”
Throughout the book, DJ Yella dives into the history of N.W.A, the death of Eazy-E, his foray into the adult film business and subsequent journey to God.
Find Straight Outta Compton: My Untold Story here.
I think we all know that the movie wasn’t completely accurate now, I think Cube and Dre wanted to push their narrative, and it that meant making Eazy, Yella and Ren look bad or non existent then that’s what it was Cube and Dre didn’t care. I think it hurt Dre and Cube rep amonst real hip hop head fans and Nwa fans. They had a chance to give Eazy his glory before he passed by showing he did it again with Bone Thugs, It would have showed his vision and eye for talent was real. All they had to do was put one scene that would have been like Yo Bone sold such and such Eazy you did it again, Ruthless is back etc, showing something like that before showing him getting sick would have been the right thing to do because it was the truth, but that wouldn’t have fit either Cube or Dre’s narrative. They wanted to play the Eazy was down and out without them and Broke, really, he was still more financially stable them both of them put together even with their success. I’m glad Yella is finally starting to speak up, Jerry Heller was managing the world class wrecking crew, so he knew Dre before he knew Eazy, but the movie made it look like Eazy was the first one he met. JJ fad should have been mentioned in the movie. Dre fighting in the studio wasn’t believable, Cube interview by the pool was stupid, showing cube writing friday was a waste of time, Cube showing the fight between him and above the law was pointless if you weren’t go show how you really got beat down. Showing Eazy riding looking at billboards looking sad was stupid, Suge got too much camera time.
Cube and Dre was NWA. Whom else your children know from that era?
Ren was as important to NWA as anyone. Facts. Check credits. Ask Cube and Dre. Cube and Dre were just more successful after NWA.
So after the NWA – ‘ Straight Outta Compton ‘ Biopic Film there was talks of a Bone Thugs N Harmony Biopic Film Being made and with help from Ice Cube as far as producing n directing it, it’s been years now since the NWA Biopic Film and still no more talk or anything about it, at the end of ‘ Straight Outta Compton ‘ film, I think it’s DOC that brings in the Bone Thugs N Harmony Album for Eazy-E to listen to, n the. Moments later he died, they were gonna pick up the movie from that point n then go back to show the whole story of their lives, I think it would be so fuckin good of a movie if they made it, just them making a record with Eazy-E Tupac Biggie N Big Pun ALL while they were still alive, that story alone is worthy of a movie lol. Anyone think they should still make a Bone Thugs N Harmony Biopic Film ?