''Straight Outta L.A.'', a 2010

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

'' series, and directed by

Ice Cube An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be p ...

, covers the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

team

Raiders Raider(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Paul Revere & the Raiders, an American rock band * "Raider", a track from the 1969 album ''Farewell Aldebaran'', by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester * "Raiders", a track from the 1987 album ''Young an ...

' time in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, from 1982 to 1994, and how this overlapped with the local hip hop's transition from party jams to gangsta raps, a move led by the group

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American Hip hop music, hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is wide ...

, which seized Raiders symbolism. The film premiered at the 2010

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...

, and aired on ESPN on May 11, 2010. Produced by Hunting Lane Films, the documentary, beyond interviewing N.W.A founding member Ice Cube, interviews other music figures as well as local civic leaders, Raiders owner

Al Davis Allen Davis (July 4, 1929 – October 8, 2011) was an American football coach and executive. He was the principal owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) for 39 years, from 1972 until his death in ...

, other Raiders administrators, and contemporary Raiders players, including, among others, lineman

Howie Long Howard Matthew Moses Long (born January 6, 1960) is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons as a defensive end, spending his entire career with the Raid ...

and running back

Marcus Allen Marcus LeMarr Allen (born March 26, 1960) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the Los Angeles Raiders. Considered one of the greatest goal line and shor ...

. In 1982, after the NFL had blocked the Raiders' planned move from

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

to Los Angeles, the Raiders and the

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was ...

had filed an antitrust lawsuit. After a mistrial, the second jury sided with the plaintiffs, clearing the Raiders' move to Los Angeles. At this same time, the

crack epidemic The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in Ameri ...

began to unfold in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

's predominantly black communities such as

South Central Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as ...

and Compton which, arguably disadvantaged by the

economic policies The economy of governments covers the systems for setting levels of taxation, government budgets, the money supply and interest rates as well as the labour market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into t ...

of then-President Ronald Reagan, witnessed large increases in gang violence, illegal weapon use, and police brutality. By 1987, as Los Angeles hip hop, with its dance sounds and party raps, struck some residents as increasingly out of touch, Niggaz with Attitude (N.W.A), had begun recording what it called "reality rap." Joining the national stage in 1988, N.W.A would favor a unified look representing its hometown area. Donning black, one of the Raiders' two colors, and Raiders ball caps, N.W.A extended the Raiders brand's reach and penetration. Ice Cube, a South Central native and Raiders fan, maintains that this backstory is crucial to understanding the Raiders franchise's interaction with Los Angeles. Ice Cube also performs the documentary theme, ''Raider Nation'', which has the first and last quartets of ''

The Autumn Wind "The Autumn Wind" is a sports-themed poem adapted from Mary Jane Carr's "Pirate Wind" by former NFL Films President and co-founder Steve Sabol (son of founder Ed Sabol) describing the atmosphere of autumn weather, as it relates to pro football ...

'' as an introduction.''Raider Nation'' – Ice Cube
YouTube

References

External links

"30 for 30" - ''Straight Outta LA''
*
Ice Cube Revisits L.A. Raiders Glory Days
{{30 for 30 Documentary films about American football American sports documentary films 30 for 30 Documentary films about hip hop music and musicians Los Angeles Raiders N.W.A Documentary films about African Americans Films shot in Los Angeles National Football League in Los Angeles 2010 documentary films 2010 films History of Los Angeles Films directed by Ice Cube 2010s English-language films 2010s American films