Hip Hop, Hollywood Opportunism, and the Power of NWA

Number 1 at the Box Office for three weeks in a row. 60 million in its opening weekend. Highest grossing music biopic of all time. Black. Unapologetic. Successful. Surprising? Shouldn’t be. If you know Hip-Hop, you know the story of NWA, Rodney King, the LA riots, the West versus East Coast beef, the reputation of Suge Knight, and the importance of absolutely nailing that Tupac scene. If you think you know Hip-Hop, you have a few De La Soul tracks on your iTunes (but never a whole album), tell everyone J. Cole is your favorite rapper when you started listening to him in 2013, have a Tupac and Biggie playlist you put on when you’re feeling nostalgic, rock an Illmatic graphic tee from time to time, and you recently moved to Brooklyn. Sorry, got distracted by the hipsters. They’re everywhere.[divider type=”space_thin”]Straight Outta Compton has raked in $150+ million dollars so far and has really revived the lure of the early 90s. As of now, there are two movies being shopped around Hollywood solely off the strength of Compton’s performance this year: one is a Tupac biopic that has been trying to get off the ground for some time now. The bigger, and quite frankly more enticing movie is Welcome To Death Row, based on the documentary and eventual book of the same name about the rise of Dr. Dre, Snoop, Pac and the most notorious record label of all time. Throw in the most feared person in the music industry and it sounds like dollar signs for movie studios, pure entertainment and e…