The Compton You Haven't Seen On Screen - NPR

Straight Outta Compton is a music biopic that captures the dramatic rise and evolution of rap supergroup N. W. A. But there's one character that doesn't change much in the film, and that is the city itself — the City of Compton. From the movie's opening scenes in 1986, viewers see a city defined by strife and crime, as the camera follows soon-to-be rap star Eric "Eazy-E" Wright to a darkly lit house in Compton, right before a drug raid. Almost 30 years later, I went to visit a Compton cricket player — right before a quinceañera. Sergio Pinales is Mexican-American and a product of the Compton streets. He's also a longtime member of the Compton Cricket Club, an unlikely organization whose players and cofounders are part of a current exhibition in England's prestigious National Portrait Gallery. Outsiders have a lot of stereotypes about Compton, but it's impossible to pigeonhole Pinales, who grew up during the rise of N. W. A and other Compton-bred gangsta and reality rap groups. " It turns out his mom, Maria Pinales, is more excited about the Straight Outta Compton movie than he is. "I'm old," Maria Pinales says, "but I love all that music. Thanks to cricket, her son became a new kind of Compton star, and achieved something she could never have imagined. His life reflects an odd collision with the Compton you know and the Compton you don't — which is clear as his jovial voice narrates our driving tour of the city, including different cricket practice fields as well as dividing lines, including one. Source: www.npr.org