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ESPN 30 for 30 Tuesday night - "Straight Outta L.A." (1 Viewer)

Raider Nation

Raider Nation

Devil's Advocate
Premieres 8 pm EST on Tuesday, 5/11.http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5171517

Video preview

L.A. Times review:

Tuesday night brings the premiere of "Straight Outta L.A.," rapper-actor Ice Cube's highly watchable film about what might be called the aesthetic intersection of the Raiders — back in the 1980s and '90s, when they were the Los Angeles Raiders, after and before they were the Oakland Raiders — and Southern California hip-hop as embodied by N.W.A., the platinum-selling, hard-edged Compton-based group to which he belonged. And though it doesn't deeply develop or substantially support all the ideas it advances, it does set up interesting resonances.

Although Ice Cube sets his tale solidly within the context of the time — of Reaganomics and ghetto drug wars — this is less a story of events than it is of image and self-image whose only tangible measure is the rate by which N.W.A.'s adoption of the team's brand gear and black-and-silver color scheme increased sales of Raiders merchandise. Oddly, among all the real accomplishment recounted here, on the football field and in the recording studio, this is largely a story about the power of design. With a different name, a different logo or less dramatic colors — "Purple and gold," says N.W.A.'s MC Ren, "I don't think that would have looked good on us" — this might not be a story at all.

Cube enlists a wide variety of voices to tell his tale, including players, marketing men, politicians, reporters, ex-gangsters, scholars and his biggest fish, quixotic Raiders majority-owner and general manager Al Davis. ("History will dictate what I am," he says. "You do it your way, don't let the culture tell you what to do. That's being a Raider.") From music, and the street, are such hip-hop philosophers as Ice T, Chuck D and Snoop Dogg, who tosses a football around with Ice Cube on the field of a significantly empty Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and pinpoints the way the Raiders' take-no-prisoners Weltanschauung reflected rap's own: "We couldn't represent flowers and trees and birds… We had to represent something like a pirate attitude."

"Straight Outta L.A." is also Cube's own story. He had become a fan of the Raiders when he saw them "beat the hell out the Eagles in Super Bowl XV," and with the Rams having decamped to Anaheim, "as far as they could from any black fans," he was ready to welcome a team already celebrated in his neighborhood: "It was one of the greatest days of my life; my team was now in my city and everything was about to change."

Indeed, hip-hop has always been about a sort of civic pride, or at least a civic consciousness, and the film implicitly links the violence that increasingly surrounded Raiders games, and the popular association of Raiders gear with street crime, to the violence that, in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, took over the city itself.

As the team began to lose many more games than it won, the bloom left the silver-and-black rose, so that by 1991, Ice Cube was rapping, "Stop givin' juice to the Raiders / 'Cause Al Davis / Never paid us." After some ill-fated, or self-scuttled, approaches to Irwindale and Hollywood Park in search of the fancy new stadium that continues to elude him, Davis took the Raiders back to Oakland in 1995, and Los Angeles became, as it remains, a town without a football team.

"I don't know if anybody in L.A. cared at the time," says the director. "I did." And he has done a pretty good job of telling us why.
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:lmao:
 
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I've heard fantastic things about this piece, wish I could have seen it when it was playing at the Tribeca Film Fest here in NYC.

 
#### the police comin straight from the underground, young ##### got it bad cause im brown

 
The production was well done, but it only ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack of the '30 for 30' shows I've seen.

 
*Flashes some gang signs* then turns the channel to a rerun of The Office. Prison Mike is much harder than Snoop or Cube will ever be.

 
Ice Cube is re-living an era of the Raiders that is with the exception of the 1983 Champions, was a dark one for the Raiders. By the time that they moved to LA, these Raiders were a bunch of choirboys in the new all parity, No Fun League. Nothing like the "characters" of the previous era, Matuzak, Sistrunk, the Stork Hendricks, Stabler, Casper. If you remember the longest yard with Burt Reynolds, this team reminded you of them. Mean and nasty, and intimidating. That is why they are a fascinating team to many to this day. They still have the mystique. Loved or hated. There is no middle ground.

When they moved to LA, they suddenly became adopted by street punks and gangsters. A lot of us in Oakland felt betrayed by Al Davis. But we were fans for life. I know that Al Davis was revolted by his new fan base of thugs. As a fan growing up in Northern California, so was I. Our Raiders of the 1970's were a hard hat, lunch pail crew, with pipe fitters and longshoremen. Tough guys who would hang out with the players and have a drink at the bar with them after the game. Ice Cube's tale of a bunch of lowlifes unfortunately gave all Raider fans that image. I didn't hate all of it. The hip hop culture wouldn't be where it is today without the LA Raiders. The part I do hate is the gang colors and crazy costumes that scare away the families who want to enjoy a football game. I know I wouldn't take my son to a game and that feels kind of sad, since my uncle took my to the Oakland Coliseum when I was just 4. The culture changed for the worse, and the fans in the stands became more fearful than the team on the field.

Ice Cube at the end of show claims the Raiders will always be LA. I disagree, they were on loan. The Raiders will always belong to Oakland.

 
Raiderfan32904 said:
Ice Cube is re-living an era of the Raiders that is with the exception of the 1983 Champions, was a dark one for the Raiders. By the time that they moved to LA, these Raiders were a bunch of choirboys in the new all parity, No Fun League. Nothing like the "characters" of the previous era, Matuzak, Sistrunk, the Stork Hendricks, Stabler, Casper. If you remember the longest yard with Burt Reynolds, this team reminded you of them. Mean and nasty, and intimidating. That is why they are a fascinating team to many to this day. They still have the mystique. Loved or hated. There is no middle ground.When they moved to LA, they suddenly became adopted by street punks and gangsters. A lot of us in Oakland felt betrayed by Al Davis. But we were fans for life. I know that Al Davis was revolted by his new fan base of thugs. As a fan growing up in Northern California, so was I. Our Raiders of the 1970's were a hard hat, lunch pail crew, with pipe fitters and longshoremen. Tough guys who would hang out with the players and have a drink at the bar with them after the game. Ice Cube's tale of a bunch of lowlifes unfortunately gave all Raider fans that image. I didn't hate all of it. The hip hop culture wouldn't be where it is today without the LA Raiders. The part I do hate is the gang colors and crazy costumes that scare away the families who want to enjoy a football game. I know I wouldn't take my son to a game and that feels kind of sad, since my uncle took my to the Oakland Coliseum when I was just 4. The culture changed for the worse, and the fans in the stands became more fearful than the team on the field.Ice Cube at the end of show claims the Raiders will always be LA. I disagree, they were on loan. The Raiders will always belong to Oakland.
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Well put together post. :thumbup:
 
I think the most itneresting was when IC was interviewing the remains of Al Davis, that was good.

Overall the films was interesting but I think Run Ricky Run and the 2 hour film on the 80s Miami Hurricanes were better. Also when this was happening in Los Angeles, same exact type thing going on the East Coast in Miami. SO for me it was interesting how the two intertwine some.

All these 30:30 films have had their moments, ESPN did a good thing here.

 
I love the Miami Canes piece, that was good watching, of course I was growing up then and it was always a great clash b/w good and bad with Notre Dame and Miami. We had to play a lot of Saturday football games in HS, and I missed the classic Catholics v Convicts game at South Bend(1988), but seeing those Canes teams documented was cool.

I thought the Ricky Williams one was sad and creepy.

Last night, 2 things stuck out to me, Al Davis must be knocking on deaths door or he is the most ugly man on Earth. And the coin the NFL made on merch. during those years, did that guy say it went from $300M to over $3B in 7 years? And Jim Brown has to fight for health or pension benefits from the NFL?

 
I love when Al was like "I dont want any other team in sports to wear silver n black it's ours". When the LA Kings changed colors. LOL

Looked like someone punched AL in the face

 
I was looking forward to this one and enjoyed it. Not one of my favorites, but interesting nonetheless.

Couple of thoughts:

1) Al Davis is a ghoul but I love the fact that he still has the balls that he has.

2) Ice Cube was going for the "Raiders will always be L.A." thing, but he contradicts himself and proves the point that L.A. is a casual football town that will stop caring when the team doesn't win.

3) Parts of it made me jealous that I wasn't a Raiders fan which is a great job on Ice Cube's part.

4) This isn't Ice Cube's fault, but I am really curious as to what really happened between Davis and Marcus Allen.

 
I've always loved the Raiders since the early 70's but this was definitely the worst 30 for 30 episode.

It should've been called "Ice Cube On Ice Cube". Looks like he's feeling under-appreciated.

Trying to understand the words out of Snoop's mouth and comprehend what the sentence actually means was pretty challenging - I wish they would have had English subtitles.

From what I understand, gang members in LA liked to sell drugs, to commit violence against anyone they chose, and blame their sorry situation on the cops. Then high-schoolers who liked to wear black and pretend they were in gang, watched football.

Lastly, Al Davis' visage will haunt my dreams forever. You'd think with all that money, he could at least get a teeth whitener or face peel.

 
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DawgPoundNJ said:
4) This isn't Ice Cube's fault, but I am really curious as to what really happened between Davis and Marcus Allen.
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What happened between Al Davis and Marcus is that Marcus was banging OJ Simpson's wife. It was rumored that Marcus was driving the white Ford Bronco on the day of OJ's breakdown. Al Davis is like the old time Mafia bosses. You don't bang your friend's wife. That sickened him. Out of a sense of old school justice, he was banished to KC.That's the short story.
 
CravenM said:
Trying to understand the words out of Snoop's mouth and comprehend what the sentence actually means was pretty challenging - I wish they would have had English subtitles.
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Snoop Dog is a poser who used the Raider for steet cred during the gangsta rap days. He's a die hard Steeler fan. He even admits as much.Ice Cube is a loyal Raiders fan.
 
A few thoughts:

1. Al Davis can't blink and I'm mesmerized by this. I challenge anyone watching this show to catch Al Davis blink just one time. I promise you won't see it happen. I seriously wonder if he can even close his eyes when he sleeps. It's as if he had some surgery to make his eyes stay open at all times as if that would cheat death or something....and it might be working.

2. It was a good piece but would have been far better being 30 minutes. It was way to long. For instance after a few minutes of explaining I think everyone understood the popularity of Raider gear in the gangsta rap/hip hop/black community. I swear the show must have spent more than half the episode continually beating this subject to death.

3. I'd like to know what Al Davis thinks Marcus Allen did?

 
the whole show doesn't even mention the 70's Raiders...kickass teams NUFF SAID - the only team the steelers were scared of

WE

Todd

Did

lame

 
Raiderfan32904 said:
Ice Cube is re-living an era of the Raiders that is with the exception of the 1983 Champions, was a dark one for the Raiders. By the time that they moved to LA, these Raiders were a bunch of choirboys in the new all parity, No Fun League. Nothing like the "characters" of the previous era, Matuzak, Sistrunk, the Stork Hendricks, Stabler, Casper. If you remember the longest yard with Burt Reynolds, this team reminded you of them. Mean and nasty, and intimidating. That is why they are a fascinating team to many to this day. They still have the mystique. Loved or hated. There is no middle ground.When they moved to LA, they suddenly became adopted by street punks and gangsters. A lot of us in Oakland felt betrayed by Al Davis. But we were fans for life. I know that Al Davis was revolted by his new fan base of thugs. As a fan growing up in Northern California, so was I. Our Raiders of the 1970's were a hard hat, lunch pail crew, with pipe fitters and longshoremen. Tough guys who would hang out with the players and have a drink at the bar with them after the game. Ice Cube's tale of a bunch of lowlifes unfortunately gave all Raider fans that image. I didn't hate all of it. The hip hop culture wouldn't be where it is today without the LA Raiders. The part I do hate is the gang colors and crazy costumes that scare away the families who want to enjoy a football game. I know I wouldn't take my son to a game and that feels kind of sad, since my uncle took my to the Oakland Coliseum when I was just 4. The culture changed for the worse, and the fans in the stands became more fearful than the team on the field.Ice Cube at the end of show claims the Raiders will always be LA. I disagree, they were on loan. The Raiders will always belong to Oakland.
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great posting. just saw it and couldn't agree more....damn Al looks more like the crypt keeper every day. brush you teef man, jeez
 
Raiderfan32904 said:
CalBear said:
Raiderfan32904 said:
Ice Cube at the end of show claims the Raiders will always be LA. I disagree, they were on loan. The Raiders will always belong to Oakland.
Click to expand...
That's only because we can't seem to give them away.
Click to expand...
Well, you always have the Niners to root for. Yay! Go Crimson and Butterscotch! woo hoo!
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don't go following up a great post with associating the NIners with the dooshes in berkley. dems fightin words. :lmao:
 
CravenM said:
I've always loved the Raiders since the early 70's but this was definitely the worst 30 for 30 episode.It should've been called "Ice Cube On Ice Cube". Looks like he's feeling under-appreciated.Trying to understand the words out of Snoop's mouth and comprehend what the sentence actually means was pretty challenging - I wish they would have had English subtitles. From what I understand, gang members in LA liked to sell drugs, to commit violence against anyone they chose, and blame their sorry situation on the cops. Then high-schoolers who liked to wear black and pretend they were in gang, watched football.Lastly, Al Davis' visage will haunt my dreams forever. You'd think with all that money, he could at least get a teeth whitener or face peel.
Click to expand...
:goodposting: Couldn't understand half the gibberish coming out of Snoop's mouth in those 1 on 1 segments. Also pretty ridiculous that Cube and Snoop suddenly felt the need to talk "ghetto" for this show. :thumbup: They nailed the bits about the colors standing out; although White Sox clothing/accessories were just as prevalent as the Raider stuff, and has had a much longer shelf life than the ridiculous shield with the eye patch guy.
 
Iron_Far said:
They nailed the bits about the colors standing out; although White Sox clothing/accessories were just as prevalent as the Raider stuff, and has had a much longer shelf life than the ridiculous shield with the eye patch guy.
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;) Greatest logo in all of sports.

Still.

 
menobrown said:
A few thoughts:1. Al Davis can't blink and I'm mesmerized by this. I challenge anyone watching this show to catch Al Davis blink just one time. I promise you won't see it happen. I seriously wonder if he can even close his eyes when he sleeps. It's as if he had some surgery to make his eyes stay open at all times as if that would cheat death or something....and it might be working.
Click to expand...
He didn't cheat death. He just will outlive us all. The devil is scared of him. Seriously, Al Davis is the patiarch of time long lost. There aren't many of him left in this world. We all need to bow down to the living legend. Still rocking those ghoulish white poly jumpsuits, but he can pull off the look. He belongs with the Evel Knevel, Rat Pack generation. When he is gone, the world will be a little blander place.
 
Three things I got out of that hour:

1. Willie Gault thought Jay Schroeder sucked

2. Ice Cube loves black and silver uniforms.

3. Al Davis is a ringing endorsement for standard definition TVs

Yup, that about covers it.

 
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