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Straight Outta Compton is of course written by people much more similar to a Rolling Stone journalist than a gangbanger turned popstar. There's also levels to this kind of thing and worth distinguishing between the broader genre of rap, where it's mostly about tough talk but fake in real life (ie NWA were not gangsters, aside from Eazy-E, and basically brought him on for credibility), in contrast to drill, where the whole point of the subgenre is to be an authentically scary person in real life. The latter tend to make way more agressive music and be 0% apologetic about it.
Consistently my experience here is that the people making these kinds of noises are third party types with little exposure to the subjects they're defending. If you look on the drill rap subreddits whenever someone gets arrested the general reaction from the front row fans is "what an idiot".
It was written with the direct supervision of the surviving and prominent group members, like the Rami Malek Queen movie, and it's been criticized in a similar way for representing their self-serving viewpoint.
And rappers need no help with the fundamental hypocrisy of "brag about committing crimes constantly" followed by "fuck the pigs for harassing me though" from white Rolling Stone writers.
From a recent hit song, All My Life:
Like, Lil Durk is a direct product of the incredibly violent Chicago drill scene. Yet he's whining about being "harassed" by cops like he's Miles Morales facing Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk.
Or hell, The Game who actually is a Blood from Compton, in Ali Bomaye:
I mean, this one isn't even internally consistent; after equating policing with slavery, he gives us two reasons independent of the fact that he's a gang-banger and gang-promoter for why he was stopped. This is exactly what I mean about it almost being a reflex.
(BTW: Game's From Adam is a perfect example of the latter half of the "glorify and then problematize" game such rappers play. )
I spent more time on /r/HHH and Youtube so maybe it leans more normie. But, when I look at say...criticism due to Meek Mill being on parole for years, (people leave out the fact that it's cause he kept violating it) you do get "Meek should stop being an idiot" but also "the System is awful" (despite Meek having a ton of advantages and being a spoiled brat)
Also: the entire debate about using rap lyrics - which some people frame as a grand injustice - seems to be a prime example of this phenomenon: the examples people go to are almost certainly guilty but the system is also somehow malicious for using them as evidence when it can be corroborated.
And like I said, they weren't gangsters. Ice Cube was the driving force then and the one who added the most input to the film now, and he was a college kid with a degree in architecture and a passion for the arts.
The verse you're quoting is by J. Cole, the example par excellence of an effete college kid becoming a rapper. Lil Durk is more likely to say:
re:
This might be it man. All I'm saying is normal people, including and especially normal black people who listen to drill and even like Von, don't think he's a hero or a misunderstood martyr or something. Everyone knows he's a scumbag, shit just sounds hard. Same way people like watching mob movies or whatever, it's fun to play the villain.
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