When the N.W.A. biopic, Straight Outta Compton hit cinemas a few years back an audible gasp could be heard across conservative America. The group operated with such explosiveness that a biopic about their life would always feel like a blockbuster action movie and that is without focusing on the guns, girls and glamour the group enjoyed off stage. However, it did leave us all wondering how much of what we saw on the screen was Hollywood hyperbole?
Of course, embellishment is a saving grace for most Hollywood directors and, within Straight Outta Compton, there were of course plenty of scenes that likely never took place. however, there were some which, believe it or not, came straight out of real life, as well as Compton.
One such story sees Ice Cube destroy a record executive’s office with a baseball bat. Remarkably, this is one of the true stories, and Cube has confirmed the fact via numerous interviews. The scene exploded because Cube wasn’t paid the money he was owed and, if there’s one piece we can give you, it is to always pay Ice Cube what he is owed.
Cube had recently left N.W.A. and signed a solo deal with Priority Records. When signing for the relatively new label, Bryan Turner, the CEO, promised Cube he would pay the rapper more money if his album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, outperformed their forecasts. Delivering one of the most potent records of the decade, Cube delivered on his end of the deal only to find turner shirking his.
Naturally, things went south from there and Cube turned up at the label offices and destroyed Turner’s space with a baseball bat. Speaking with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts, Cube opened up about the incident and prefaced the story by saying he tries to keep a check on his “violent” side but that he had no regrets about the breakages.
“He pushed me to the limit, and here’s why. I had sold a lot of records,” Cube begins. “I wanted and advancement on my next record because O’shea Jr was about to be born.” Cube was trying to “get a house for my family” but was $100,000 short. But as Cube’s house-buying process ticked on, Turner began ducking and diving away from Cube having already given him the green light for the advance.
When Cube finally got hold of Turner, the record boss rejected Cube’s idea that he had already agreed to which the rapper replied, “Oh. Okay. I’m on my way up there.” His story continues, “I walked through and they saw me with a bat… ‘What’s up, Cube!’. And I got the Lynch mob with me,” Cube continues as he narrates the scene from the film. But while the film saw Cube and his crew start smashing things as soon as they walk in, Cube says things were a little different.
“In reality, he was in the bathroom and when he came out, we were just posted up in his office,” after trying to pass off the misunderstanding, Cube locked the door and started to berate Turner. “I just got more heated and heated,” he continued, “I gotta take this back to South Central and rearranged his office for him.”
Listen to the full interview below.
