You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge. Or at least, you're about to witness the first trailer for NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton, prefaced by a southside ride-along with producers Ice Cube and Dr Dre themselves. Appropriately, it's immensely red-band, so don't go blasting it in the office - though you may feel inclined. Parental advisory, kids. Explicit lyrics. And some boobs.
In development since at least 2009, Straight Outta Compton had Cube's Boyz N The Hood director John Singleton attached for a while, but reaches the screen courtesy of F. Gary Gray (Friday, Law Abiding Citizen). The film follows the thrilling but controversial rise of Cube, Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella and Eazy-E, kicking off the West Coast hip-hop scene and selling nine million records before predictably imploding.
Cube had an acrimonious split from the group before pursuing his solo career (he went platinum, bitch, but he didn't have to sell out), but became reconciled with his former bandmates after Eazy's death. Cube and Dre have overseen the film project together, with input from the other surviving members, so it should hopefully prove more even-handed than if Cube had gone it alone.
Corey Hawkins plays Dre, with Neil Brown Jr. as Yella, Aldis Hodge as Ren, Jason Mitchell as Eazy and a certain O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Cube. Jackson is indeed the real-life Son Of Cube, which sounds like nepotism until you see how uncannily perfect he is in the role of his father as a teenager with a little bit of gold and a pager.
Keith Stanfeld will show up as Snoop Dogg, with R. Marcus Taylor as Suge Knight and Rogelio Douglas Jr. as Public Enemy's Chuck D. And no, you weren't mistaken: that's Paul Giamatti playing Jerry Heller, NWA's visionary manager.
Straight Outta Compton will be assaulting cinemas from August 14.