Straight Outta Somewhere / #StraightOutta

About

Straight Outta Somewhere is a series of parody images based on the original theatrical poster for the upcoming 2015 biographical hip hop drama film Straight Outta Compton. Since the launch of the image generator site for the promotion of the film in July 2015, the images have been circulating on social media.

Origin

The Red Band trailer of Straight Outta Compton was released on February 8th, 2015, and will be released on theaters on August 14, 2015. The film shows the rise to popularity and disbandment of the 1990s rap group N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudes). The title of the biopic film was borrowed from their debut album of the same name.^[1]

On July 23th, 2015, a promotional site for the film named Straight Outta Somewhere was created as an image generator based on the film’s logo. The images made from it can be saved and shared via Facebook and Twitter.^[2]

Spread

Most of the images are posted on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag “#StraightOutta” or “#StraightOuttaSomewhere.” As of August 9, 2015, both hashtags have a total of approximately 206,000 tweets.^[3] On August 7, 2015, Vine comedian LeJuan James posted on a picture from the site on Twitter with the caption “HISPANICPARENTS #StraightOutta #TeamLeJuan” (shown below, left), and has acquired 140 retweets and 195 favorites. On August 9th, 2015, rapper Lil’ Kim posted a picture also made from the generator on Instagram, with the caption “#StraightOutta BROOKLYN!! @beatsbydre” (below, right). The image has gained over 16,100 likes and 360 comments.

Also on August 7th, the 120 Sports Facebook page^[6] posted a video about the pictures from the site, specifically the sports-related ones. The video currently has over 1,700 views and 62 likes.

On the same day, Dime Magazine^[4] published an article about the NBA-related images from the generator, featuring pictures poking fun of DeAndre Jordan, Chris Broussard and other NBA star athletes. On August 8th, USA Today’s sports news site For The Win ran an article on mixed martial artist Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino’s post on Instagram to “troll” Ronda Rousey (below, right). The article currently has more than 8,000 shares.^[5]

On August 13th, The Obama administration chimed in on the #StriaghtOutta sensation by sharing its own parody with the caption “Straight Outta Uranium” via the White House’s newly launched @TheIranDeal account, which garnered roughly 900 retweets within the first 24 hours. However, the official White House tweet was quickly struck down by many followers on Twitter as a self-congratulatory remark with less-than-accurate implications, since the agreement doesn’t actually call for complete removal of Iran’s uranium stockpile, as BuzzFeed subsequently pointed out in the article titled “The White House just completely ruined the ‘Straight Outta Compton’ meme.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References