Amid the usual doom and gloom, one area of the music business seems to be in rude health.

Hip-hop biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’ has taken over $50M at the US box office, doubling the amount spent on making the story of LA rappers NWA. It seems that a healthy slice of credibility has helped the movie attract large audiences, unsurprisingly as Ice Cube and Dr Dre were involved in the film’s production, the latter’s son O’Shea Jackson even playing his father.

Of course, not everyone was happy. EB Wright – daughter of founder member Easy E – said: “A lot of Eazy E’s storyline was missing but that’s OK because I’m producing a documentary that will show everything including his death”.

MC Ren, a less celebrated lyricist member of the group, chipped in with: “True fans know my role in the group… don’t let the movie fool you about my contribution to the group.”

Despite – or perhaps thanks to – these perceived inaccuracies, Compton’s takings outstripped both Eminem’s ‘8 Mile’ and the Notorious B.I.G. film. This shows how much rap is now in the mainstream, with a healthy thirst for trawling its past, something that sadly the MC Hammer pic (yes, really) failed to do.

The NWA film seems to be fairly accurate, but playing fast and loose with the truth while embellishing a great story can knock a hole in a film’s street cred.

Take ‘The Doors’ – a bona fide commercial success, it was derided for concentrating on the ‘mystique’ of frontman Jim Morrison, even if Val Kilmer’s impression was spookily accurate. Perhaps the fact Oliver Stone directed should have tipped off anyone looking for complete adherence to the facts.

Conversely, the Jerry Lee Lewis story ‘Great Balls of Fire’ may have told rather too many truths, Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of the serial adulterer and child-marrier a bit close to the bone for some.

But as long as a biopic doesn’t grind the reputation of the subject into the dirt, a cinema audience is usually happy to be entertained. And a convincing impression can make or break a movie, hence the highly adaptable Andy ‘Gollum’ Serkis proving ideal for the role of Ian Dury, having played van Gough, Einstein and Martin Hannett in the past.

Compare and contrast with the title character in the John Lennon film ‘Nowhere Boy’ who could as well have been Ringo. ‘Backbeat’, another look at early Fab 4 – make that Fab 5, focusing as it did on Stuart Sutcliffe – suffered from no Beatles-penned tunes in its soundtrack (but still managed to displease Paul McCartney). Meanwhile, Kurt Cobain documentary ‘Montage of Heck’ was ‘commissioned’ by his widow, and inevitably split the Nirvana fanboy / conspiracy theory camp.

Of course, the US is the biggest cinema market and all record-breaking feats are based on sales on the other side of the pond. In the UK, there’s less fascination with rap and grunge and more with intruding into the lives of celebrities, so it comes as no surprise that ‘Amy’ – the documentary on the life of the late Ms Winehouse – should have become the second-biggest documentary at the UK box office, grossing £3.44M. After all, as The Stranglers once sang, everyone loves you when you’re dead.

ShilohZen
SAVAGE & THE ZEN
(SSR)
Quite what brought ShilohZen over to these shores is unclear, but the Florida-based MC seems to have made friends pretty quickly.
Teaming up with Savage Sound System, this debut album bears the hallmark production of the Edinburgh collective.
Opener ‘Soul of a Lion’ sets the tone, an off-kilter sparse dub with muttered vocals.
Flitting between genres and styles, there are touches of Dizzee Rascal or Young Fathers on ‘How You Been, another stand-out point.
Overall, 13 tracks of laid-back rap with enough changes of pace to keep the interest without ever getting too frenetic.
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