We discuss "Straight Outta L.A.', the 2010 ESPN 30 For 30 documentary directed by Ice Cube, which explores the tight bond between the NFL's Raiders and gangster rap, especially by N.W.A.

Also check out:

"No Mas Presents: Dock Ellis and The LSD No-No" by James Blagden

Credits

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie.

And remember:

Don't hate...on the Golden State!

Check us out:

Our next live event is SET IT OFF on March 18, 2026 at SteelStacks in Bethlehem PA. Save the date!

Check out our live event schedule and more at our Linktree.

Hip Hop Movie Club on:

Facebook

Instagram

Threads

Bluesky

Substack (newsletter)

Website

This is Hip Hop Movie Club, the show for serious hip hop fans who want to deepen their

cultural knowledge.

2

We've watched over 75 hip hop themed films.

3

In this episode, we will be discussing the 2010 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Straight Outta

LA, directed by Ice Cube, which explores the tight bond between the NFL's Raiders and

4

gangster rap.

5

I'm Dyno Wright, filmmaker-

6

designer, longtime hip hop fan, and I'm passing the mic to JB.

7

I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time hip hop fan, and once again back is the

incredible Boogie.

8

Yeah.

9

What's up?

10

I'm Boogie and I'm a DJ and a long time hip hop fan.

11

Welcome.

12

Let's dig into this documentary Straight Outta LA, which again talks about the

marriage between gangsta rap, more specifically NWA and all the acts they spawned and the

13

Raiders of the NFL.

14

mean just two behemoth institutions and they're tied at the hip for many reasons.

15

So yeah, I enjoyed this one.

16

How they became intertwined is interesting and it's iconic symbolism there between the

silver and black and the gangster rap who adopted these logos and their colors.

17

Yeah, I mean, I remember when this trend right here, hit like a bomb.

18

mean, you got NWA in your face, like gritty, raw, uncut.

19

And then that Raiders logo, man, it's such an iconic logo.

20

You got the pirate man, everybody was wearing it, everybody.

21

It was crazy.

22

Yeah, the eyepatch.

23

I'm an Eagles fan still, but I get it.

24

totally get it.

25

It was definitely cool.

26

Cube said that's when he became a full-fledged fan is when they beat the Eagles in that

Super Bowl.

27

The ‘80 season, occurred in 81.

28

Yeah.

29

Jim Plunkett at the helm of the Raiders versus Ron Jaworski.

30

Yeah.

31

It was Oakland.

32

Yep.

33

Mm-hmm. In ‘82 to move to LA, and that really started to pop it off.

34

Yep.

35

Oh yeah.

36

And they ended up winning Super Bowl in ‘83, once again with Marcus Allen.

37

They showed his nifty moves Marcus Allen is an LA icon.

38

He went to USC and that move to LA was just perfect for him.

39

He just thrived in that environment.

40

Although as you saw later on, the venerable Al Davis ended up benching him due to some

personal disputes that were a little bit.

41

undetermined as to the real meaning behind it.

42

They definitely tiptoe around it.

43

They don't really come out and say it.

44

In the documentary, they don't really address they mention it, but they don't explain what

really happened.

45

You probably will never know.

46

Yeah.

47

I mean, just as a perfect marriage between the Raiders and Gangsta Rap, because as they

say in the documentary, like the Raiders changed the rules of the game and so did we.

48

That was like a quote from Ice Cube and the Raiders are that renegade franchise.

49

They play by their own rules.

50

They played a little bit dirty.

51

They were loud and brash and even their fan base became the almost, gangsters thugs.

52

And unfortunately there was a lot of incidents over the years with violence.

53

They're talking about in their tailgates, they played tackle football on the concrete and

it's like wild.

54

Yeah, man.

55

Quite a persona that the team and the fans adopt.

56

Yeah, that's a straight hurt thing, because we definitely played tackle football on the

concrete when I was a kid.

57

I we played at lunchtime in the middle of the street.

58

Yeah, it was bad.

59

Yeah, that's a hood thing right there.

60

Like, get it in.

61

Get it in.

62

No equipment, no pads.

63

Just straight raw.

64

Bam.

65

I know it's funny, this wasn't documented this documentary, but I remember reading

articles in Sports Illustrated about some of the people that would dress up with the face

66

paint and silver and black and the big spikes and everything.

67

Some of those were like really high class professionals, like doctors and lawyers.

68

Like they would take on that persona, just like a KISS concert or something, but that was

their weekend gig.

69

weekend warriors

70

Yeah, exactly.

71

Literally.

72

They said they looked like the road warriors from W W WF and early 80s, LA was popping in

the sports world.

73

They mentioned you had the 84 Olympics, the Showtime Lakers with with Magic and Kareem.

74

You had Fernando Mania, Fernando Valenzuela burst on the scene in the early 80s, the

Mexican superstar pitcher.

75

And

76

Again, but the Raiders moving over there, that was just the place to be.

77

And that was actually perfect timing when Cube, Dre, Eazy-E, Ren, Yella, they were just

forming and meeting each other and starting to produce music.

78

there's a few years until straight out of Compton, but that was perfect timing for the

Raiders to move there as they were coalescing.

79

Right.

80

I just love all these 30 for 30’s myself.

81

Like I could just, I pop them like M&M's I just love these things.

82

I've watched a whole bunch of them.

83

There's a good one out there called Broke and it's about all these athletes

that literally go stone cold broke.

84

it's sad to see you've seen that one.

85

Yeah.

86

For any number of reasons.

87

And there's one called it.

88

I hate Christian Laettner That's literally the title.

89

I hate Christian Laettner because

90

He was kind of a bully and he's got that pretty boy persona and Duke is a very polarizing

team.

91

That's a really good one, so I'd recommend that also, but not to get too far off the

subject.

92

This was really well done.

93

You had Ice Cube, directing it.

94

And the fact that they had Al Davis in multiple interviews, and I was just looking at the

timing of this, unfortunately, the poor guy passed, you can see he looked a little weary

95

in and he did pass away about a year later.

96

he started off pretty progressive too.

97

I mean, they were saying that, you know, he was one of the youngest owners in the league.

98

He had great ambitions, you know, hiring the first Black head coach and first coach of

Latino descent.

99

really wanted to have a really great team

100

when you decided to move to LA, mean, we said, there were people that were split.

101

Some people didn't want to go, you know, they were like, others were like, yo, prime real

estate right there.

102

can go there and become superstars and superstars they did become.

103

I mean, they said that fans really embrace them right off the bat.

104

But Al had, some very lofty ambitions to say the least.

105

What other franchise a slogan like that?

106

Commitment to excellence, Commitment to excellence?

107

You don't see that.

108

see that in English soccer and like world soccer teams, but it's not really a thing in say

American sports as much.

109

right.

110

Yeah, Just Win Baby, that is a classic quote that everybody quotes, like Al Davis, Just

Win Baby.

111

Even in the hip hop song, All I Do Is Win, know, features T-Pain, Ludacris, and several

others, and DJ Khaled, and they even quote, I think Snoop Dogg's part, it says, just like

112

Al Davis, all I do is win, or just win baby, yeah, exactly.

113

So that part of our normal lexicon is quoting Al Davis.

114

I love to see some of these,

115

Interviews also with the late great John Madden, talking about the Raider way and the

demands of Al Davis and Howie Long, you still see him every Sunday on the Fox pregame

116

show.

117

It's a funny dichotomy with him because he's a guy from Villanova and he's talking about

how when he was playing at Villanova here in Philly and there's like

118

priests out in the field and stuff like that.

119

Then you go over to this culture and it's totally culture shock

120

Yeah, Howie was my guy man.

121

I liked Howie Howie and Marcus Allen, man.

122

I like those guys

123

Howie's likable.

124

And he gave us Chris Long, the Eagles Super Bowl champion.

125

He had won the Super Bowl with New England and then with the Eagles.

126

He had a couple sons in the NFL.

127

But I mean, the Raiders, winning your way, doing it your way, the silver and black goes

hard, just like NWA.

128

It's just, like I said, it's a perfect marriage.

129

And the Raiders merchandise just skyrocketed due to the meteoric rise of gangster rap.

130

floral colors to the hardcore silver and black in here yeah it's crazy

131

The Kings didn't have much success in their purple and gold until they traded for Wayne

132

They have Bruce McNall talking, the former owner of the Kings, asking Al Davis if he could

wear silver and black and Al Davis didn't like it.

133

I didn't know that.

134

I didn't know that.

135

But that definitely made a renaissance out of the Kings.

136

you know, they started to have celebrities

137

in the stands watching Kings games and I, Gretzky is my favorite player and so I have

Jersey too.

138

still have one from then.

139

Yeah, other teams besides LA, like Chicago White Sox, they're wearing the all black.

140

And I thought that was so sharp.

141

I remember buying a Chicago White Sox hat just because I loved the logo and the black hat.

142

And I think they showed the Colorado Rockies as well.

143

So you see a lot more teams adopting the black.

144

I remember when the Atlanta Falcons went to all black, like in the late 80s slash early

90s, when they had Deion Sanders and Andre Rison was like, oh, that is sharp right there.

145

Like the all black is.

146

And this is more alternate uniforms these days.

147

Yeah, there's a lot of black for black’s sake, but...

148

When they Brooklyn.

149

Yeah.

150

Yep.

151

I remember I had a Raiders hat.

152

I had a Kings hat.

153

I had a Sox hat.

154

You were the sixth member.

155

Yeah, you couldn't tell me, man.

156

You couldn't tell me I wasn't.

157

Couldn't tell me I wasn't.

158

So I know I've told you guys this in the past, but I had somewhat of a family connection

with the Beckerman family, right?

159

So they showed David Beckerman, who was the founder of Starter, and Starter obviously is

huge for all the apparel.

160

That was the clothing for any sports fan.

161

And they showed Beckerman.

162

He's the founder.

163

He literally lived across the street from where my mother grew up.

164

And so in my grandparents' house in New Haven, Connecticut, like across the street.

165

story is that his son Brad took over the company years later Brad ended up marrying Paula

Abdul and it was a short-lived marriage but my grandfather was invited to the wedding.

166

And I thought that was so funny.

167

He's telling me, I got invited to Paula Abdul's wedding and I was like, did you go?

168

He like, no, no, he didn't wanna go.

169

Cause I think he had to fly out somewhere.

170

I don't know if this is California or.

171

Ha ha ha.

172

now he was my grandfather was older and he just thought it was a funny thing.

173

I wish he had kept that invitation though, but that was kind of cool.

174

But man, I had so many Starter satin jackets over the years.

175

was like the envy of a lot of friends because I was in there in the 80s, like mid to late

80s before they became super commercial and everywhere.

176

And they actually were called first string first.

177

I don't know if people knew that it was called first string and then it became starter.

178

And there was like these warehouses that they would have and we would go and they just

have piles and piles of clothes and almost like prototype jackets.

179

And I was just like, even teams I didn't like, I just liked the way that looked that look.

180

My brother had like a bright green, like Celtics jacket with the clover on it.

181

Um, I had all different types that I would get like UNLV and just all types of things that

were popular at the time.

182

It was cool.

183

Yeah.

184

Yeah.

185

It was cool.

186

went nuts.

187

I would've went nuts in there, man.

188

my God.

189

was like, kind of like my dad was like, all right, no, you know, he was throwing them

like, but it was discounted prices.

190

And I think they gave us a deal on top of that because we knew the family.

191

I mean, it was, was nuts.

192

And I would get some for some friends.

193

have some friends of mine.

194

my good friend, Chris, I remember I got him a flyers jacket for like super cheap.

195

I would bring back.

196

had a 76ers was blue satin with the big 76 logo.

197

Yeah.

198

My, my favorite of all time.

199

I have a pullover Houston Oilers with the baby blue pullover parka.

200

that's the classic way there, Man, that one was popping.

201

that everybody had the Charlotte Hornets one, but I never had that one.

202

Ha ha ha ha.

203

Yup, yup.

204

After the Raiders, that was the one that everybody was wearing around here.

205

Charlotte Hornets, It was like trends.

206

was there was a trend when everybody was wearing the Raiders.

207

There was a trend when everybody was wearing Charlotte Hornets.

208

And there was another trend when everybody was wearing UNLV.

209

It was like, there was like trends, like clear trends.

210

It was like, my God.

211

Everybody, everywhere you look is the same color in a row.

212

Yeah, those are some good times.

213

For me, this showed the greatest link between hip hop and sports was this Raiders look.

214

I couldn't think of another that was much more prominent than this.

215

The only thing can think of was Yankee hats, was not the same level.

216

People aren't walking to identify with a whole genre rap.

217

Yeah, definitely not.

218

Nah.

219

Nah, because I mean, the Yankees hat yeah, the Yankees hat you got just like regular

tourists walking around with those on.

220

This was completely different.

221

this is a different statement and it's not like that anymore.

222

I struggle to think, know, listener, you have something stronger than this, please let us

know.

223

time came and went and I don't think we'll ever get that back.

224

Now you would see groups wear a lot of sports gear all the time, like our guys Tribe

Called Quest, you'll see them with like a Atlanta Braves hat or the Seton Hall jersey in

225

some of the videos.

226

But there's just nothing consistent like this, but like that consistent marriage of this

genre with the Raiders, inseparable, right?

227

Yeah.

228

Yeah.

229

all black and this like like we couldn't do purple and gold because if they want to like

that that's not them they're not all flowery and Colorful like that.

230

They wanted to make a statement So they were wearing all black before that and then when

they like don that Raiders cap to match that was literally finishing touch Yeah, yeah for

231

sure

232

And it didn't help that like the Raiders at the time, where it was like one of the

winningest teams in football too.

233

I was like, wow, the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

234

I was like, wow, they were really on a roll too.

235

the thing.

236

Like if they were crappy, like we wouldn't have this happening, but success helps.

237

Absolutely.

238

Yeah.

239

with the Raiders apparel, you saw that video clip in the documentary of the teachers or

the superintendent, somebody saying, is considered gang apparel.

240

And I was like, can you imagine wearing just a sports team and like, you're not allowed to

wear to school because it's symbolized gangs and potential violence.

241

which player it was, but he was saying that his daughter, they told his daughter that she

couldn't wear anything to the school.

242

And I'm like, wow, you want to wear the gear that your father, you know, your father's

team and they're telling you that you can't wear it because it's gang affiliated.

243

That's bonkers.

244

Yeah.

245

Especially now schools have a lot of like school spirit days or team spirit days in the

playoffs or something and you couldn't wear your team's gear.

246

It seems kind of strange these days.

247

then there was some history in here.

248

They of the Rodney King incident and the city was burning and the ice cube was like that

kind of marked the end for the Raiders in LA.

249

That was in 92.

250

had been bad actually for a while.

251

So that's exactly what you guys were saying.

252

Like if you're good, everything's great.

253

Everyone's there But if the team starts suffering and then they started the late 80s and

early 90s, they went through a really rough patch and they're winning like five games, six

254

games and

255

you didn't want to really be associated with a losing team.

256

It was the Mike Shanahan of all people.

257

So the Mike Shanahan Raiders, like he wanted to, he was really more structured and doing

things his own way.

258

I mean, he did find success with the Broncos, but like that little spurt right there.

259

Now his son, Kyle Shanahan is your coach over there at the Niners and uh that whole

legacy, but.

260

interesting enough that was kind of like, all right, that's the beginning and literally LA

was burning.

261

And interestingly enough, there was a deal in place to move the team to Hollywood Park, but the league wanted two teams there, I think.

262

And Al Dave didn't want that.

263

He was threatening to move them to a small town called Irwindale, which all they had was a

rock quarry.

264

Yeah, it's like an hour away or something.

265

Yeah, I mean, the parallel, we said, Al Davis, he did things his own way.

266

He was always battling with the commissioner, Pete Rozelle for a big chunk of his career.

267

And just like NWA was battling with authority.

268

Like they're battling with the police, they're battling with...

269

Again, authority figures, so there's so many parallels.

270

thought the outro was funny too.

271

Did you see when they were rapping?

272

Howie Long's rap?

273

That was fun.

274

uh

275

string of cheesy rap videos from football teams.

276

Yeah.

277

Yeah, I remember you sharing me the one with the Rams the one time.

278

That was really bad.

279

The rams one.

280

80s was the bad time for think every team has to have Super Bowl shuffles.

281

Many teams tried this and failed.

282

It definitely didn't age well.

283

No, stick to sports.

284

oh

285

they must have showed that clip on the Fox pregame show at some point just to tease Howie.

286

Yeah, sure.

287

Michael Strahan and Terry Bradshaw and JB kind of uh tease him on that.

288

for that.

289

Yeah, it was crazy the Raiders, stock started tanking out with them having losing seasons.

290

I saw, Ice Cube's was quoting someone when he first left NWA and he went solo.

291

He had the lyrics on his second album.

292

said, I stopped giving juice to the Raiders because Al Davis never paid us.

293

I was like, ouch.

294

Yeah.

295

Call them out by name.

296

m

297

game.

298

Mm-mm-mm.

299

And I had, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention John Facenda right?

300

That was his voice when they, the NFL films like in the beginning when they, has

unforgettable voice.

301

If you ever watched those NFL films they showed a couple of clips from him early on.

302

They used the Autumn Wind, which is like his most famous voiceover about the Raiders being

on Autumn Wind.

303

It's really great.

304

It's probably the best of his work.

305

and inject those NFL films into my veins.

306

Those are just remarkable with the music and John Facenda's voice.

307

legendary.

308

So ironically, you know, I don't know how many audience, big sports fans, but just the

history of the moves, right?

309

The Raiders moved from in 82 is when they moved from Oakland to LA in 95, they moved back

to Oakland.

310

Now they didn't mention this due to the timing.

311

This was in 2010, but they would now, now they're in Las Vegas as of 2020.

312

So there's no more connection to even California with the Raiders, although

313

As Ice Cube said in this film, the Raiders logo and symbol is gonna always be connected

with Los Angeles, even though they were only there for 12 years, right.

314

Yeah, but that, in the whole history of the Raiders franchise, that's not a ton, but they

will always be associated with LA, and I think it's because of that tie with Gangster Rap

315

and NWA.

316

Yeah, Compton, South Central.

317

Definitely.

318

You had other hip hop groups wearing the Raiders, so many probably from that era.

319

from 82 to infinity.

320

I wonder how someone like Too $hort feels about it because he's an Oakland guy.

321

So he lost his team and then he got him back, but now he lost him again.

322

Right.

323

Or Hammer too.

324

Hammer was flirting with the Falcons for a while when he did the Too Legit to Quit.

325

Like he was hanging out with Deion and stuff, but he's an Oakland guy.

326

But lot of guys wore Falcon stuff, especially when they were wearing black.

327

that tracks, but yeah.

328

Yeah.

329

That must be tough.

330

Now, Vegas is getting the uh Oakland A's too.

331

So Vegas keeps usurping the Oakland franchises.

332

They just can't support the team.

333

The irony for NFL is that LA being one of the biggest market, they went several years

without a team because the Rams had moved out.

334

Yeah.

335

Like back in the 80s, was LA Rams, right?

336

When that's when Eric Dickerson broke the rushing record and then they moved to St.

337

Louis, I think it was around 95 timeframe.

338

Now they're back as of several years ago.

339

Now there's two franchises and now the Chargers.

340

So they went from having zero NFL franchises and now they're back to having two sharing

SoFi Stadium.

341

Let’s rate it.

342

So, BooGie for the 30 for 30: Straight Outta LA.

343

Would you bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

344

Bring this Funky Flick back, highly entertaining, very reminiscent.

345

It took me back, because I remember those times and it was just, it was cool to see it

again.

346

And here's some little tidbits of some behind the scenes stuff that I didn't know about.

347

Definitely.

348

Dyno Wright for Straight Outta LA, would you bring this funky flick back or leave it in

the vault?

349

I'll bring this funky flick back.

350

I should mention, at least, there's a set of animations in here by an animator named

filmmaker named James Blagden, who also did a really great video about Dock Ellis, who

351

threw a no-hitter on LSD.

352

So we can link that in the show notes.

353

But I was really happy to see that in here, because his work is really great.

354

That's funny, I visited Pittsburgh this past summer and there was like a Pittsburgh Pirate

team shop.

355

There was a t-shirt of Dock Ellis and it just had all like psychedelic stuff like tie-dye

and yeah, that's an amazing story.

356

Insane, but awesome.

357

I would also bring this funky flick back.

358

I'm a huge sports fan and I love to see the tie in between hip hop and sports.

359

Thanks for tuning into the Hip Hop Movie Club Show.

360

I'm Dyno Wright, filmmaker, designer, longtime hip hop fan, and my favorite hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988.

361

Yeah, the Great One.

362

I'm JB, 80s and 90s and sound a junkie, longtime hip hop fan.

363

I used to own a reversible mesh, Tim Brown, of course starter jersey.

364

I used to wear when I played pickup football games.

365

One of the great raiders.

366

Yes.

367

Yeah, man.

368

And I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan.

369

And the Raiders, I mentioned before, were actually my backup team behind my San Francisco

49ers.

370

And it was good to see Howie Long, Marcus Allen in the film.

371

And also some notables was Bo Jackson and Jerry Rice after he left the Niners.

372

They all played for the Raiders.

373

And remember, don't hate on the golden state.

374

Hey!

375

You know I love when Chris Berman does his fastest three minutes and the way he says he's

like the Raiders.

376

That's my favorite when he says that.

377

Me and my son get a kick out of that.