This week’s installment of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series (airs tonight at 8), Straight Outta LA, examines the intersection between sports and culture, or more, specifically the Los Angeles Raiders and gangster rap. Ice Cube is the driving force behind the film, with some help from our friends at No Mas. Once again they’ve teamed up with animator extraordinaire James Blagden to bring some of Ice Cube’s words alive. We’ve slept a bit on the whole 30 for 30 series, but hopefully you’ve been watching. It’s probably the best thing Bill Simmons has ever been involved in, @celticschants notwithstanding.

Blagden’s famed Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No video is after the jump, because it’s pretty much my favorite thing ever.
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Things to read while waiting for the UPS man to throw Ape’s book at your face. For those of you looking for a bit of summer reading I’d like to wholeheartedly recommend checking out Stephen Rea’s Finn McCool’s Football Club: The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead. Good title. Lofty title. In all seriousness this is the true story of a New Orleans pub and its soccer team before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina told by Rea, a Northern Irish expat (and Chelsea fan). Even if soccer and hurricanes aren’t your thing you’re still likely to enjoy the hell out of this book because Rea has a great story to tell. [Amazon]