The conventional wisdom is that Donald Trump has no real chance of becoming the Repꦫublican nominee. Maybe so. But Trump fits perfectly in what’s turning out 🤡to be a harsh, tough-talking, non-PC cultural moment.
Co🥃nsi♓der: Few would have predicted that a biopic of a vulgar, offensive, two-decade-old rap group would find much audience in 2015 — or any year, for that matter.
Instead, moviegoꦇers this weekend flocked to see “Straight Outta Compton,” the celluloid origins of NWA (N- - - az With Attituﷺde), to the tune of $56.1 million — the biggest August opening ever for an R-rated film.
But still, a tough-talking white billionair꧅e from Queens and thuggish black rappers from Los Angeles? What could they have in common?
More than you might expect.
NWA, a five-man rap group from a south Los Angeles suburb, formed in 1986. The group gave rise to famed solo rappers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. In “Gangsta, Gangsta,” one of several anti-establishment anthems on NWA’s debut album (also called “Straight Outta Compton”), the chorus declares, “It ain’t about a salary, it’s all about reali🉐ty.”
T🦂rump opens “The Art🃏 of The Deal,” his 1987 best-selling book, in similar fashion: “I don’t do it for the money . . . I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”
NWA describe their music as “reality rap” — exposing a world that is harsh, often violent, vulgar, racist, misogynistic. In the film as they did in real life, they use appallingly explicit terms to display unfair treatment at the hands of the police.
Polite people dismiss their music, club owners fear it and music industry people predict “radio will never pla⭕y it.”
As with NWA, predictions that Trump can’t break through to mainstream listeners seem at fi▨rst rational — then quaint and naïve.
In ꧋a standout scene in the movie, NWA is served by the FBI with a letter admonishing their inflammatory “F - - - Tha Police” track. Nervous ma🐓nager Jerry Heller recommends they not play the song in their next show.
Flawed and ultimately tragic leader Eazy-E instinctively knows that a visionary entrepreneur gets the world to conform to him, not the other way 𝓡around🀅. He declares they’ll use the letter and release it to the press — immediately elevating their profile as victims of government overreach.
Entrepreneurial reality star in his own right, Trump rapped his way to the top of the polls by zeroing in on illegal immigration — accusing Mexico of “sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting⛄.”
The words were blunt, uncompromisiꩵng — and politically incorrect. While most Republicans with designs on national office call for strict border control — and many backed away from previously endorsed ideas of a path to citizenship — few would go so far as to throw down the gauntlet tying immigrants coming to the United🎃 States with criminal behavior.
In the midst of a firestorm of criticism following his announcement (incl🍸uding Univision and NBC severing ties with him), Trump refused to back down.
His don’t-give-an-eff stance gave♊ him standing, just two weeks later, to shine a light on the San Francisco murder of Kathryn Steinle — randomly shot at the hands of an illegal immigrant 🔥deported multiple times. Trump’s campaign had its I-told-you-so moment.
In the early ’90s, th🔥e Rodney King beating, police trial and 𝕴subsequent riots brought new attention to NWA’s message — as ubiquitous smartphones today put police behavior in a broader context. Over two decades, Ice Cube became a popular filmmaker while Dr. Dre became a near-billionaire by selling his Beats Music to Apple. (The “Deal of the Art”?)
Vulgarities aside, the F-word the respective fans of Trump and NWA might revere the most is “fearless.” Spokesmen for perspectives that “polite society” ignores or oversimplifies, billionaire and band — genius marketing entrepreneurs both — created a market more willing to give them a fairer hearing than any so-called experts in their fields ev♊er predicted.
NWA’s politically incorrect fearlessness was rewarded on t🀅he music charts and now at the box office. So far, at least, Trump’s own fearlessness is being rewarded in the polls.