{"id":2318,"date":"2016-10-21T15:16:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T15:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/?p=2318"},"modified":"2016-10-21T15:16:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T15:16:47","slug":"surviving-compton-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/surviving-compton-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving Compton Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"surviving-compt-1\"<\/a>
Photo Credit: Billboard <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Author: Amy Nicole<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first saw the trailer for <\/span>Surviving Compton <\/span><\/i>I didn\u2019t have high expectations for the film, especially since it was premiering on the Lifetime network which doesn\u2019t have the best track record for biopics. I wasn\u2019t really familiar with Michel\u2019le besides her appearing on the reality show <\/span>Hollywood Divas <\/span><\/i>but I do remember hearing stories that Dr. Dre abused her back in the day when they dated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people speculated \u00a0she was releasing the movie for financial gain and that she was lying about the abuse endured by Dr. Dre. The fact that she has been so consistent with her story for so many years made me think otherwise.<\/p>\n

It took a minute for me to get into the film because of the narrative format and having to adjust to the actor\u2019s high pitch voice(which was very annoying!), but after a while I became intrigued with the story. I saw \u00a0the movie <\/span>Straight Outta Compton<\/span><\/i> which I really enjoyed so it was interesting to hear another side of the \u00a0story from a woman\u2019s point of view. I didn\u2019t realize how much of a role Michel\u2019le played in the group NWA or that she was signed to <\/span>Ruthless Records<\/span><\/i> which was Dr. Dre\u2019s record label back in the 80s. I can see now why she wanted to tell her side of the story being that she was not included in <\/span>Straight Outta Compton<\/span><\/i>. I thought it was crazy how she was taken advantage of by some of the guys from the group. The movie revealed that she was initially not getting paid for her vocals on a lot of their tracks.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"michelle-1\"<\/a>
Photo Credit: Monsters & Credits<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eventually Michel\u2019le is approached about creating her own album and that\u2019s when it seems like Dre\u2019s attitude towards her became aggressive. The first scene in the movie where Dr. Dre hits Michel\u2019le is almost unbearable to watch, he climbs on top of her in the bed while he is sloppy drunk and begins to punch her in the face until her nose starts to bleed. In the scene the real life Michel\u2019le walks into the room with her character and explains why she chose to stay with Dre. She explained how she was taught growing up that abuse was a sign of showing love. To cope with the pain of abuse she indulged in drinking alcohol and taking drugs.<\/p>\n

Although the film was supposed to highlight Michel\u2019le\u2019s singing career, the physical abuse overshadowed most of the movie. The most heartbreaking scene in the film is when Michel\u2019le is in the studio recording her popular single <\/span>Something In My Heart<\/span><\/i>; she is singing with a bruised face looking fearfully at Dre who threatened to beat her again if she couldn\u2019t sing the song correctly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scene was such a pivotal part of the movie because it sums up the emotions of what a lot of abused women go through. Many women equate love with physical pain which is very unfortunate. Most abused women feel helpless and trapped in relationships because of the fear caused by the abuser. I\u2019ve never been hit by a man but I always wondered why women decide to stay in abusive relationships.<\/p>\n

\"michelle-3\"<\/a>
Photo Credit: HipHopDX<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many people, especially men shunned Michel\u2019le because of her decision to date both Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, but the movie explained why she made that decision. When you\u2019re coming out of an abusive relationship and you find someone else who treats you great, it is easy to see how she could \u00a0fall for him so quickly. Although Suge eventually did hit her she explains in the movie that it was a one time occurrence. Later in the movie Michel\u2019le is coerced into marrying Suge which she later finds out wasn\u2019t a legal marriage; she also finds out that he was primarily using her to run his business while he was in prison.<\/p>\n

\"surviving-compton\"<\/a>
Photo Credit: The Boombox<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After ending the relationship with Suge Michel\u2019le is left drained and damaged from all the years of abuse and pain that she endured. The end of the film shows how she was able to get her life back on track and most importantly how she was able to survive. The majority of women in abusive relationships don\u2019t survive so her story was an important one to tell.<\/p>\n

For a Lifetime movie the film was decent and I think the network did a wonderful job with the casting. Rhyon Nicole Brown who formerly starred on the show<\/span> Lincoln Heights<\/span><\/i> did an amazing job portraying Michel\u2019le, especially with mimicking her voice. \u00a0Actor Curtis Hamilton also did a great job portraying Dr. Dre(He also wasn\u2019t bad on the eyes!).<\/span><\/p>\n

Surviving Compton<\/span><\/i> wasn\u2019t an amazing movie but it was definitely a story worth telling as I\u2019m sure it impacted a lot of women who have experienced abuse in relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Amy Nicole When I first saw the trailer for Surviving Compton I didn\u2019t have high expectations for the film, especially since it was premiering on the Lifetime network which doesn\u2019t have the best track record for biopics. I wasn\u2019t really familiar with Michel\u2019le besides her appearing on the reality show Hollywood Divas but I … Continue reading “Surviving Compton Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[125,174,197,202,208,227,254,259,331,344,349,374,409,419,459,462,463,471,489,495,518],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-film","tag-bloggers","tag-curtis-hamilton","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-dr-dre","tag-eazy-e","tag-film-review","tag-hip-hop","tag-ice-cube","tag-michelle","tag-movie-review","tag-music","tag-nwa","tag-rap","tag-rhyon-nicole-brown","tag-straight-outta-compton","tag-suge-knight","tag-surviving-compton","tag-the-double-scoop","tag-tupac","tag-twins","tag-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoublescoop2.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}