Note and Quotes for my critical investigation

To what extent do the representations of black people in 'Straight Outta Compton' reinforce negative stereotypes?
Internet Links

Rottentomatoes
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_outta_compton/
“Story of how these youngsters revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood”
·         Straight Outta Compton is an intense film that invites you to reflect, not just about racism and discrimination, but also about how the mainstream media can absorb a counter culture.
·         Compton, California, was some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music
·         I can't deny this is a serious and important movie, however, if you don't like rap, this movie won’t change your mind.
·         Eazy-E: She kinda... preoccupied wit some real nigga dick.
·         Dr. Dre:           If we keep goin' we can take over the goddamn world!
·         Ice Cube:         Speak a little truth and people lose they mind.
·         Ice Cube:         How you go from selling rocks in a dope house to eating dinner in the white house?

The guardian Straight Outta Compton film puts California City back under scrutiny
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/08/straight-outta-compton-california-film-review
guardian journalist visited Compton before the film was shown
“There is some truth to that image…Weeks earlier a drive-by shooting killed a young man directly across the street. A few days after that another drive-by opened fire”
·         “The gang culture never changed. It’s not safe,” said Baggio.
·         The rap group’s 1988 album Straight Outta Compton seared into popular culture with tracks like Fuck Tha Police and Gangsta Gangsta, the lyrics expressing an underclass’s rage and alienation: “See I don’t give a fuck, that’s the problem/I see a motherfucking cop, I don’t dodge him.”
·         The album went double-platinum and detonated gangsta rap into popular culture, upending hip-hop, infuriating politicians and law enforcement agencies, and immortalising Compton
·         Recent police shootings of African Americans – this weekend Ferguson marks the anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown – have put race, inequality, law enforcement and the judicial system on the political agenda.
·         Will put the 10-mile sprawl back under scrutiny. Is it still a violence-riddled ghetto? Has anything changed?
·         I visited the street where drive-by shooters gunned down Dre’sean Harris, 22, on 7 July.
·         Fed in part by NWA lyrics, he said. “I thought, wow, that’s what I’m going to be. And I was. I lived the life they were rapping about.”
·         “You’re rapping about robbing and doing time while you’re in a five-star hotel eating grapes and shit.” Gang member
·         Statistics back him up. Violence peaked a quarter of a century ago, when NWA topped the charts, with nearly 100 murders per year in a city of 100,000 people. Last year there were 26 murders, more than three times the overall average for LA, but nevertheless a dramatic fall for Compton.
·         Demographically Compton is transformed. African Americans, once a big majority, now comprise a third of the population, the result of departed middle class black families and a Latino influx which has made Mexican restaurants and Spanish language billboards a common sight.
·         African Americans still comprise a lopsided proportion – 60% – of murder victims.
·         Some shootings are about protectng turf, others are disputes about women and some are initiation rituals, he said.

Why you should see 'Straight Outta Compton'
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/13/opinions/straight-outta-compton-lisa-france/
·         It would be very easy to dismiss "Straight Outta Compton" as an "urban film."
·         So there's a risk that white audiences will shy away. That the movie is a biopic about a controversial rap group from back in the day ups that ante –
·         Even though white, suburban males have always been among the biggest consumers of rap music.
·         Its themes of police brutality, racism and disenfranchisement of young, black men in America are as fresh today as they were when N.W.A. released the protest anthem "F**k Tha Police" in 1988.
·         If there were ever a group fashioned to make people uncomfortable, it was N.W.A. Using the poetry of the streets, these guys thought nothing of riffing on everything from killing to drugging.
·         N.W.A was rapping about police harassment years before the videotaped beating of driver Rodney King by members of the Los Angeles Police Department.
·         Decades before cell phone cameras would capture interactions between police and civilians and social media would rocket it across the Internet
·         Ice Cube rapping "F**k tha police/A young ni**a got it bad cause I'm brown/And not the other color so police think/They have the authority to kill a minority."
·         "I think that N.W.A picked up where Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King would have gone if they hadn't been assassinated," former N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller
·         land of Hollywood and dreams to me and what the group was talking about was a nightmare.
·         Indeed, the new film documents Eazy-E's exploits with multiple women but also portrays a man very much aware of his role as hood ambassador
·         That reality has not shifted much in 30 years, and to be sure the film will draw attention -- and likely moviegoers -- opening just after the one-year anniversary of Brown's death in Ferguson.

The One Scene in 'Straight Outta Compton' That Resonates Most in 2015
http://mic.com/articles/123837/the-one-scene-in-straight-outta-compton-that-resonates-most-in-2015
·         despite being a period piece set in the late '80s and early '90s, Straight Outta Compton feels like a story of today.
·         California, in March 1989. After police at the event demand the group not play their protest song "Fuck tha Police," they defy orders and perform it anyway.
·         It also looks remarkably like the scenes in Ferguson, Baltimore and more. There's police overreaction, fighting against authority and civilian involvement, all coming together for utter chaos.
·         Its rap scene may not exist in quite the same form today, but the themes of racial tension and police brutality resonate.
·         There are issues with Straight Outta Compton that make fully endorsing it difficult. The movie has a significant woman problem,
·         female perspectives in the story and in how the main character’s treat women. Director F. Gary Gray doesn't just avoid condemning the N.W.A member for their violence against women, he turns it into jokes.
·         The racial tension depicted resonates because these are not new issues.
They are ingrained into American life. It's why Universal Pictures has hired extra security for Straight Outta Compton's screenings.

http://beachflute.teachforus.org/2007/10/28/the-list-of-stereotypes/
·         Stereotypes about Black people:
·         Stupid
·         Irresponsible
·         Crack babies
·         Teen pregnancy
·         Drop-outs
·         Incarcerated
·         Fathers leave their kids
·         Love fried chicken and Kool-Aid
·         Lazy
·         Violent
·         Live in the ghetto/the projects
·         Wasted generation
·         Loud, obnoxious, rude
·         Nappy hair
·         Bad attitudes, disrespectful
·         Hoodlums
·         Poor
·         Obese
·         Dirty
·         Sex, drugs, porn, weed
·         Guns
·         Low job expectations

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/14-things-we-learned-about-straight-outta-compton-20150813
14 Things We Learned About 'Straight Outta Compton'

·         Ice Cube wanted the movie to show a lighter side of the group.
·         "What's cool about the movie is that it showed how much fun we were having," he says. "We were kids, doing hip-hop and becoming famous. It's like, 'Oh, yeah, FBI? Oh, yeah — policemen too, huh?'
·         Shit, I survived yesterday; I should be able to survive today, using my instincts. But where's the fun at?
We're not just going to be sitting and sulking: 'We're living in Compton, man. Damn. World is fucked up.'"
·         The movie's reference to Friday's most famous line wasn't planned. "
'Wouldn't it be funny if I said, 'Bye, Felicia'? And I said, 'Hell, yeah!'
·         It wasn't by design. I wish we were that smart, but it just kind of fell in our lap.
·         Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Wright, gave the actor playing Eazy unseen footage of the rapper — including outtakes of music-video shoots ­— to help him capture the late MC's personality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYXOAgO2U_A
N.W.A.: The World's Most Dangerous Group

In the intro:
·         It was a voice for the voiceless
·         Hoodlum that wanted to say anything that they wanted
·         1980 crack cocaine and gang warfare
·         As crack was really addictive and the dealers would use violence to get rid of their competition
·         What they were saying was really happening in the streets
·         Nigga was a word we used in a positive way as brothers as we used to be abused by it

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150813-nwa-the-worlds-most-dangerous-group

The world’s most dangerous group?

·         The group’s 1988 debut album, also called Straight Outta Compton, promoted hip hop

·         specifically, a sub-genre dubbed gangsta rap from the underground into the American mainstream

·         But the era was one of controversy; debate about the music’s lyrical content stretched from the ghettos of Los Angeles all the way to Washington DC.

·         mid-1980s epitomised a problematic pattern that could also be seen in many other US cities.

·         After World War Two, discriminatory real-estate policies and rapid suburbanisation led to huge overcrowding and poverty in urban areas like Compton

·         both largely populated by African-Americans and other minority groups

·         In LA, recession and de-industrialisation led to mass job losses (in 1983 youth unemployment was nearly 50%).

·         Hundreds of rival gangs sprung up – the most notorious being the Crips and the Bloods – and a crack-cocaine epidemic raged
Books

African American issues

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=31my_ppvd00C&pg=PA135&dq=African+american+stereotypes&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDIQ6AEwA2oVChMIm5ba_8XvyAIVxW0UCh0nfQsy#v=onepage&q=African%20american%20stereotypes&f=false

·         stereotypes have become painful for the targets of those being stereotype

·         African American began in the slave days as they would African slaves are naturally lazy, intellectual inferior and inherently docile

·         White argued in the 19^th century that the white people were doing the black slaves a favour as people with African descent were allegedly prone to misconduct and social drift without guidance

·         Black stereotype increased heavily on stage in the 1840’s white actors would colour their face black and portray a buffoonish, ignorant character

·         The major issues for African American is poverty, low graduation rates, high rates of wedlock births(parents who are not married) high rates of incarceration (in prison)

Compton

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kJAV0WYcRo8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=compton&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=compton&f=false

·         Stigmatized as a high crime combat zone in the 1970’s and 1980’s

·         Home-grown gangster-rap artist solidified the myth of compton

Other texts:

Empire

Empire tv series

Where the two characters are in love and the sell drugs in the neighbourhood. The females goes in to jail and so the male character while she is in jail become a very successful rapper and entrepreneur as he owns a successful record label. They have 3 kids who they had before she went to jail so she comes out 10 years later. Then the film is based on them and their troubles in the family and the police as they father kills someone and many more things happening. This are stereotypes of black people put into a tv series.

Power

Very similar to empire this tv series is about a male and female in love who have kids and so they grew up in the bad side of New York. They sold drugs and so we catch the story on how they are living now as they have been selling drugs for nearly 15 years and they are trying to make the dirty money into clean money so they open a night club but trouble keeps following them. As the police are onto them and the rival drug dealers. Then main character cheats on his wife with his high school sweet heart who is a police officer/lawyer who is after a man called ghost who is the major drug distributor which is the main character. Lot of people get shot, get put in jail and a lot of drug using and mistreating females.

Baby boy

Is about a male character named Jody who is a 20-years old male who lives with his mother and is unemployed living in the dangerous south central LA. So he is forced to mature as he has a baby with his girlfriend of five years and another daughter with another woman who he cheated on with his girlfriend’s now. He is told constantly to get a job and live with his girlfriend and their son but avoids it. Then his girlfriend’s ex boyfriends is released from prison and forces his way into her life and her house as he abuse her and tries to rape her. But he realises she still loves Jody so he tries to kill him in a true gang la style in a drive by but he is unsuccessful. The movie is classic and is an urban comedy drama.

Critical investigation proposal

Working title

To what extent do the representations of black people in 'Straight Outta Compton' reinforce negative stereotypes?

Angle
This is a moral panic as the Media views on straight out of Compton is that they are perceiving the life of a bunch of thugs or gang bangers.Its a rag to riches.

Hypothesis:
Straight out of Compton is represented in a bad light

Media Representations 

• Black ethnicity is represented is a negative way  
• Critics say that they missed out on Dr Dre issues in the 90's of beating up women.
• Also as whole the movie is very degrading for women as they are treated as "sex objects"

Media Languages and Forms 

• Film dark scenes to show the dangerous street of Compton
• real transition to when they get money and successful much more light at pool parties and hotels

Narrative 

• Narrative structure equilibrium-disequilibrium-new equilibrium rags to riches 
• narratives roles protagonist,hero (nwa members),villain (jerry) 

Genre 

• Urban drama 
• Based on a true story

Media Institutions 

• Hollywood universal pictures
• director Gray Gray reinforces or 

• Production companies	Legendary Pictures New Line Cinema Cube Vision Crucial Films Broken Chair Flickz
  Distributed by	Universal Pictures
  Release dates	August 11, 2015(Los Angeles premiere) August 14, 2015(United States)
  Running time	147 minutes
  Country	United States
  Language	English
  Budget	$28 million
  Box office	$193.8 million

Media Values and Ideology 

• This film  has positive value to educate and inform how the police used to treat black civilians 

Media Audiences 

• 15+ 

Social

• Social representation of black people in america are they are drug dealers or unsuccessful or gang bangers
• Rappers are violent and music is not art
• They represent gang culture and reinforce these things in their music

Historical

• Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco.
• This then lead to black people being separated from the rest into bad neighbourhoods like Compton;
• Through 1900's they were fighting their rights and police brutality 

Economic

• The film broke r rated movies records it is the highest selling music film
• African American in the film are seen to be poor and deal with drugs to survive
• in the film you see how they react towards contracts and money 

Political

• In the film they are against the government as they feel like they don't help them out especially police 
• Police brutality was huge in the 1980's and so on
• This lead to the riots in 1992 due to the killing of a innocent man Rodney king by police kicking and hitting them

Issues and Debates

• Representation and stereotyping is related to my study as the whole film is about the story of NWA and their life and in the film you can see how they were stereotyped and given bad representation.The film showed the police given rough and random searches on African american civilian in compton because they stereotype and thought they were drug dealers.then when the film came out the media straight away assumed that film would influence people to riot and the film have a negative effect on them and make them react angrily.
• Media effects is also related to my study as iam analysing why the media mostly underrated and stereotype straight out of Compton.So this would also make the audience stereotype it and not go see as they know the bad things about the film because of the film
• News Values this theory is analszing the news and so this relates to my study as CNN had segment saying there was no violence at the straight out of Compton.Compton. This shows that the news value number one thing is bad news and or something unusual and so it there being no violence at the shows being showed and there was just long lines.

  Negativity

  Bad news - involving death, tragedy, bankruptcy, violence, damage, natural disasters, political upheaval or simply extreme weather conditions - is always rated above 'positive' stories (royal weddings, celebrations etc)

• Moral Panics the process of arousing social concern over an issue - usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media.this is the definition and so this links to my study as the media(news) are trying to make this a social concern.As the police has told some people not to watch the film as it will gives a bad representation of the police but not of the rappers.

• American dream is the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.This relates to the story of the movie which is their rise to fame and its rags to riches story.

Theories

• Audience theories 

This links to my study as I want to find out whether the representation of black people in the movie has made the audience feel.the black feel angry or do the white people have sympathy.Why does the audience consume the text? such as uses and gratification or effects model of moral panic they are intrigues to see what happens.

• Gender and ethnicity theories 

This theory links to my study as the question is does the movie reinforce black negative stereotypes.So does the ethnicity of the characters live up to society representation of them being uneducated drug dealer,gang bangers, guns and drug uses and treat women badly.The male gaze was strong in the movie too as they always ha beautiful women around them in nearly all of the scenes and so it may suggest that they were just objects they were just there to look.

• Marxism and hegemony 

Over powering black people in the film was the aim as the police and white people had more authority on them as they were poor and hardly of them enjoyed school and dropped instead of ice cube.Even in hat scene you can see ice cube looking at the white students that were separated from the black students.

• Genre theory 

Urban drama movie so the genre helps out the audience has it have any correlation.The genre draws a different audience to a normal drama as its urban its more up to date with the new days.Even though its trying to represent the 1980 however they switch it up for us to understand more clearly.this audience pleasure as some of their favourite rappers were in their such as eazy e or ice cub e or snoop dogg and even tupac.

Media text 
Straight out of Compton 

other media texts
Cnn coverage segment
Ride along the movie
Think like a man

Tv Documentaries
The worlds most dangerous groups

Academic text books:
Dear white people
Red notice 
black 47 and beyond

Internet links
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_outta_compton/
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/13/opinions/straight-outta-compton-lisa-france/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Outta_Compton_(2015_film)
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/aug/30/straight-outta-compton-review-pulsating-account