"Here comes another rapper with a song about hope/ all you wanna hear is a song about dope / and how a nigga got more money than the pope / but he'll never tell you when he drop the soap, no... "
Yeeea, that's the man who's been goin' at Uncle Sam since he was able to put his voice on a record. The same man who was in hood favorite "Boyz In The Hood," and starred in "Friday." The same man who brought you the testy series "Black And White," and probably the 1st rapper to say "Fuck Oprah," lol. Anyway, the rap legend came back on the scenes this year with the song "Gangster Rap Made Me Do It." Of course he wasn't shy about talkin' about White America blamin' hip-hop for everything. And he also assisted Big Mike on his track "Pressure," that was on the same type of tip. But can the OG still bring that FONK like he did back in the day?
One thing that most older rappers have to do when puttin' together an album these days is to try not sound like it's still the early 90s. So, they hafta adjust their style to these new beats, and still hafta make a good album. And if you're not pushin' albums out on a consistent basis like say: Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, OutKast, or a Busta Rhymes.. It may be alil' difficult to get out that old mind state. Even the great Ice Cube has alil' problem adjustin' to the 2008 as far as how he throws his bars out, n some of the songs he has. For instance, his intro song with Young Jeezy, it's not a bad song, but you can tell that that type of beat and style of spittin' is real foreign to him. A few songs are pretty average, like Jack In The Box, I understand the concept, sayin' what he has gave him the big head, but it's kinda like he's tryin' to hard to do sumthin' new to keep current. Now one thing that's REALLY new, it's a track on there that's "rumored" to be the new WC Connection. Now, it's bad enough Mac-10 ain't part of it, but what really bothers me is that he picked The Game to fill in the rest of the trio. (And if you wanna go through the list of reasons of whats wrong with The Game, holla at me, n I'll post a shit-load of stuff.) Anyway, it's not a bad track, and The Game does what he usually does, name names, and jock a style. But I gotta admit, him tryna sound like Ice Cube ain't sound to bad.
"Still The Only Rapper Who Wants To Fist Fight The President!"
Now it's one thing Ice Cube won't do in any album, sell out. Cube stays true to his roots and takes it to Uncle Sam's ass and does what he can to make "pop-followin' " niggas to wake up by throwin' insults their way, or jus straight up tellin' 'em the real deal. One song is pretty much a big slap in the face where he says "It takes a nation of niggas to hold us back." Or sayin' shit like "You muthafuckas worry 'bout flossin' so much, you don't know the fundamentals, you forgot how to brush, These 32 teeth will give you ass grief, bite you like a fat burger if you got beef, so who's it gone be, you favorite MC, you scared of the government, they scared of me!" Now he does go into bigger reality checks, one song in particular "Hood Mentality," he talks in 1st person like he's a myspace nigga who wanna chase those rap / dope dreams. And while he's doin' so, he's showin' you how ignorant they sound. But he did have a pretty smooth few lines on there. "I got the heart of a Pittsburgh Steeler, black nigga draped in gold wit a nine milla, love money, love jail, love that penitentiary mail, love tha way them niggas smell, keep comin' back, can't you tell?" He also has a song where he's talkin as a person who got shot and killed for no real reason with Musiq SoulChild on the hook. Now Ice Cube is a favorite of mine, so I can dissect alot of songs here, so I'll jus say he has quite a few jems on this cd.
Now as far as the whole project, it's definitely a bangin' CD. For those hard-core Ice Cube fans, a bit of a let-down cuz he's not pissed off the whole CD, but in these days in times it's a breath of fresh air. The CD does compliment the Killer Mike and Nas CDs pretty well, as far as subject matter. It's definately not a CD for the lightweights.
"Ice Cube Is here to drop you a note / cuz some of our people use to hang from a rope / some of our people use you hang from trees / now the only thing that's hanging mu'fucka is these "
Album Ratin' - 4.2
Worth buyin' - Yep
Fav Songs - It Takes a Nation, Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It, hood Mentality, Why Me, Get Money Spend Money No Money, Tomorrow, Stand Tall, Take Me Away
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