Costume Designer Laughs Off White Sox Hat Controversy

“Straight Outta Compton” hit theaters on Friday and with it…controversy.

But people weren’t upset with the language, violence or even the portrayal of the iconic rap group N.W.A…people were upset about something else.

People were upset with this.

Maybe it’s a big deal. Maybe it isn’t. To me…it’s definitely worth more than a mention. Unfortunately, the movie’s costume designer, Kelli Jones, is just shrugging it off.

“I think it’s fucking hilarious that people are making a big deal about that,” Jones recently told UPROXX. “And the fact is, that font came out in the 50’s, I believe. It was reintroduced in’91. So it’s not a font that we just made up. It’s a font on a hat that people associate Eazy-E with. In that scene, we’re setting up the movie, and a lot of people associate Eazy with that hat. So the only time we took creative license was with that hat. But that font was introduced decades before, so it’s not like I pulled a font from the future. Do you know what I mean?”

Yes, I do know what you mean. Yes, the font was used prior to 1991. And, yes, she doesn’t say it, but the Chicago White Sox actually did use that font for the better part of two decades. However…you can’t just pull a hat from the future and put it in your movie because a font existed.

She goes on.

“I didn’t want to use a Raiders hat, because that was Cube’s in the next set up. And I didn’t want to use a Dodgers hat, because that was Dre. And the LA Kings hat didn’t work, it was just too much,” Jones added. “I thought the Sox hat worked really strongly for the opening scene. Most people just seem to associate Eazy with that hat. When you Google image search Eazy-E you see that hat. It was just a small creative license we felt we should use.”

And Jones is right. Kinda.

I mean, do a Google search of “Eazy-E” and, yes, you’ll find plenty of images of him wearing that black and white Sox lid.

Sure, it’s basically the different incarnations of the same picture of the rapper over and over, but the image of him in a Sox hat does exist. Granted, it’s post-1991 (and not from five years before the hat was introduced), but it’s there.

That said, there are also pictures of Tupac and Ice-T, so let’s not use “do a Google image search” as your rationale as to why you chose to do something.

Back to her comments about the Los Angeles Kings hat not working. Since I’m assuming she’s referencing the Kings popular black, silver and white color scheme, yeah, it wouldn’t work and you know why? It wasn’t used until after the scene introducing Eazy-E in the movie.

Just like the White Sox gear Jones chose to use.