Ice Cube was always one of the savvier businessmen of the legendary gangsta rap group N.W.A. When Cube was handed contracts by N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller, Cube had an expert look at them, and he rejected the terms, leading to his eventual leaving the group and striking gold as a solo performer. Taking further legal advice, Ice Cube took legal action seeking recompensation for having written around half of the entire Straight Outta Compton album. When his former comrades attacked him in verse, Cube released the devastating No Vaseline, which sits behind only Nas’ Ether on the list of rawest diss tracks.
So it’s no surprise that Cube is already campaigning for the N.W.A. biopic in promoting his son O’Shea as a possible casting choice for Cube himself.
Elaborating on exposing his children to his music “My son Darrel could recite ‘Straight Outta Compton’ at two years old. He loved it! You can expose your kids to anything as long as you sit there and explain it to them.”
Following the casting of Lil Eazy E as Eazy E in a video for Game, this would be the second time an N.W.A. member would be played by their own progeny.
While there’s little word yet on who’s to be cast in the film, which writers are set to pen the flick or who’s going to direct it, the group’s place in hip hop history as well as the popularity of musical biopics and Ice Cube’s considerable skills as a film producer, it’s hard to imagine the film won’t get made.
Cube suggests that the film will deal not only with the group itself, but the cultural context of the time from George HW Bush to Reaganomics, the Gulf War and racial tensions in Southern California in the late eighties and early nineties.
At the very least, the N.W.A. flick is sure to have one of the best soundtracks ever produced, covering both the N.W.A. tracks and ensuing solo albums, and the jazz, funk and soul that inspired Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking beats.
