30 for 30: Straight Outta L.A. (2010)
*** (out of 4)
Another entry in ESPN's series, this one here takes a look at how gangster rap and the Oakland Raiders went together and turned a popular team into one of the biggest merchandise sellers in the world. Director Ice Cube, who was there when most of this broke, explains how the violence of the city was just right for the violence of the Raiders. I was pretty surprised to see how many people Cube gathered for this documentary as we get members from the original NWA group, Ice-T, various Raiders players including Marcus Allen and we even get Al Davis. I was shocked to see Davis who is still hard as nails in terms of doing things his own way and it's still rather funny to hear him try to explain how he's doing stuff his way and how it's the best thing for everyone. I think, for the most part, this is a pretty good documentary, although at times it seems to be all over the place. Part of it wants to cover the Raiders. Part of it wants to cover the early explosion of gangster rap. Then we get into the more political stuff of the L.A. riots and whether or not rap was causing people to be killed. There's a lot of stuff that tries to get covered in 50-minutes and at times one thinks things could have played out better with a little more running time. With that said, what's here is an interesting story and with all the familiar faces being interviewed things never get boring.
*** (out of 4)
Another entry in ESPN's series, this one here takes a look at how gangster rap and the Oakland Raiders went together and turned a popular team into one of the biggest merchandise sellers in the world. Director Ice Cube, who was there when most of this broke, explains how the violence of the city was just right for the violence of the Raiders. I was pretty surprised to see how many people Cube gathered for this documentary as we get members from the original NWA group, Ice-T, various Raiders players including Marcus Allen and we even get Al Davis. I was shocked to see Davis who is still hard as nails in terms of doing things his own way and it's still rather funny to hear him try to explain how he's doing stuff his way and how it's the best thing for everyone. I think, for the most part, this is a pretty good documentary, although at times it seems to be all over the place. Part of it wants to cover the Raiders. Part of it wants to cover the early explosion of gangster rap. Then we get into the more political stuff of the L.A. riots and whether or not rap was causing people to be killed. There's a lot of stuff that tries to get covered in 50-minutes and at times one thinks things could have played out better with a little more running time. With that said, what's here is an interesting story and with all the familiar faces being interviewed things never get boring.