Ice Cube may not be an active rapper, but he’s definitely not sitting around twiddling his thumbs.
The West Coast rap legend has made a new documentary about his beloved Los Angeles Raiders American football team, now known as the Oakland Raiders. He has always donned the colors of the sports franchise over the years, so it’s no surprise that he would make a movie about it. Ice Cube and the hip-hop super group N.W.A. helped popularize The Raiders’ merchandise by wearing the teams’ signature black and silver clothing.
In an interview about “Straight Outta L.A.,” Ice Cube told AllHipHop.com that N.W.A., the group he founded, brought national attention to the Raiders, increasing its popularity.
“The music, lyrics and images that I created with N.W.A. as a solo artist and as an actor helped turn the Raiders into something more than a football team,” Cube said. “To this day, kids all over the world buy Raiders gear, imitate the ‘Gangster Rap’ style and try to connect with the South Central L.A. vibe that we brought to the masses.”
“Straight Outta L.A.” chronicles the rise and fall of the team during its time in Los Angeles and recounts the origins of The Raiders from their time as an Oakland-based team until 1982 when a court decision allowed the team to move to Los Angeles.
The film will make its worldwide debut at the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival in April.
“We are thrilled to launch this year’s Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival with a film that show how sports are intertwined in so many other cultural arenas, ESPN senior VP for content development Keith Clinkscales said in a statement. “All of the sports documentaries in this year’s festival truly illustrate that the reach of sports in society extends far past solely athletics and into such disciplines as music, language, art and of course, film.”
It will be screened on April 23 at the film festival and make its television debut on May 11 on ESPN.
