Ice Cube -- Hipster Music

Death Certificate

I only had AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted on cassette, so I've missed out on Ice's finest for years now since my tape deck hit the skids. This one opens with a skit like most early-nineties rap albums should. And then it's n-word mutherfucker this and bitch that and fuck America/whitey/Koreans that. Wow, what a dirty mouthed mutherfucker he is. Do you think George Clinton was thinking about gangsta rap when he wrote all those 70s classics? I mean, really, how many words do rhyme with the word "cracka?" Rapping about cops and drug dealers and shootings and all that other stuff he had become too rich to hang with, Cube sounds raw and tough on this album. This is the shit that scared white America (and not Are We There Yet?) Misogynistic? Oh, you bet. I mean the guy has a little ditty called "Givin' Up the Nappy Dugout" that's hardly about the clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. I just like that he tries to rhyme "douche" with "Operation PUSH" (pronouncing it "dush"). I honestly think this thing is more consistent than that sucka MC Dr. Dre's biggie, but what the hell do I know about the hood? It is absolutely amazing that after releasing this album that mainstream young adult society has allowed this guy to survive.

Kill at Will

Just a nice slice of pissed off between major albums; this thing packs a real punch. Cube takes a break from hating white people--sorry, "devils"--and takes it insular, rapping about the bitches in the 'hood and the "Dead Homiez." This was the EP he wrote to get the white college kids to forget about him. Why, after all, would us white folks buy an album that didn't make fun of us and call for our deaths every other chorus? This one isn't as political or grandiose, but it certainly feels just a little more personal and from the heart. It is indeed, for his homies.

Lethal Injection

So this album starts off with a skit where Cube apparently shoots an innocent white guy at a doctor's office who comes in to get a shot (well, he got what he asked for, right?). Hmm, this feels just a little over-the-top and silly. The production on this one does sound pretty good, and there are bright spots (I like "Ghetto Bird"), but a lot of the songs sound like rehashes and Dre rip-offs ("You Know How We Do it"). I mean really how hard did he try on the anti-white-woman rant "Cave Bitchî? That's just dumb. Are white chicks really a threat in some way to Cube's way of life? Me thinks he doth protest too much. Smoothed out just ain't his style, and he tries it a few too many times here. Where's society's angry commentator? I guess there just isn't enough to get pissed about. Thank God for Farrakhan and his idiocy. After all, who would interject dumb shit in this album? Jargon and dogma just doesn't do anything for authenticity.

The Predator

Wow, this one starts off angry, too! Ice Cube really hates this Uncle Sam guy. I mean what did he ever do to the black people? "They're trying to fuck me with no Vaseline, just match and a little bit of gasoline." What a paranoid freak! Sampling everyone from the X-Clan to whothehell knows, this album is just plain dense. There is a lot going on here, as Ice Cube's sound gets heavy (repeated on his sort of side project, Da Lench Mob). There is a ray of light on his MTV hit, "It Was a Good Day," but overall this thing is as dark as the LA riots were. There is also some kinship with fellow Los Angelinos, Cypress Hill, which becomes evident with this album. I believe DJ Muggs appears on this album, so that makes sense. It's especially interesting Cube ended up in Hollywood with his anti-Semitism (or at least the mentions of him being anti-Semitic). I mean look what happened to Mel GibsonÖ Oh. By the way, this spawned my favorite saying of all time (and one that I use at work all the time): "You can't trust a big butt and a smile!"