"Barbershop" presented a kinder, portlier version of Ice Cube than I remembered from his N.W.A. years, but hey, we all have to grow up sometime.
But for those of us who need intelligent machismo and swaggering bravado from Ice Cube, Capitol Records is re-releasing the first four Cube albums under the banner, The Albums That Shook a Nation. Amerikkka's Most Wanted and Death Certificate will be available Feb. 24, and The Predator and Lethal Injection will be out March 11. All albums will feature bonus tracks and remixes.
So here's the deal -- I have always been a big hip-hop fan. Currently, my tastes run more toward the Mos Def, Talib Kwali, J5, Aceyalone or even Wyclef Jean-style of thought-provoking discourse. Part of my hip-hop education came from these artists who showed me that rap could be about more than violence and sexuality, and that the common image of a rapper presented by the media was only a further perpetuation of bigoted thinking -- the media wants you to think of the black male as a dangerous individual.
I feel guilty about my affection for west coast gangsta rap. The first albums I bought of music of any genre were Dre's The Chronic, MC Hammer's Feel My Power -- that one was hard to admit -- and Ice Cube's Death Certificate. I think many hip-hop aficionados started with a similar collection.
So yeah, Ice Cube's re-release is novel for its nostalgia, and some consider it politically significant as well. Songs like "It Was a Good Day" which depicts a calm day in Compton by addressing what the day is without. His press release writes him out as some kind of political psychic stating, "The message construed in his rhymes presaged Los Angeles's incendiary reaction to the outcome of the Rodney King trial. America was listening to Ice Cube."
Maybe that's an overestimation of Ice Cube's prowess, but in the mainstream rap world of the early '90s, he was a kind of renegade. He broke with N.W.A. at the height of its notoriety and disregarded the East coast/West coast rivalry by joining with New York's biggest contender, Public Enemy. They formed the production team the Bomb Squad to produce Amerikkka's Most Wanted.
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Though he remains in the musky, profane tone of typical gangsta rap, Cube really is anything but average. His work is consistently well thought out, and he remains one of the leaders in the genre. But how can such a media icon really be considered a political figurehead?
Though his work does represent one aspect of societal discord in brutal honesty, this is only one tiny view of a portion of a culture that is as multifaceted as any other. But this is what the people who sell us stuff want us to see, and for some reason, we keep buying it.
And let's not forget, Ice Cube brought us such stereotypical and unfulfilling films as "Next Friday" and "Friday After Next." Talk about beating a dead horse until money starts to come out of it.
It's also telling when a letter from Michael Ruthig, a person who works in Catalog Marketing for the distribution company is included in the press packet.
"You had PE's politics mixed with N.W.A.'s cold reality but there was no foil like Flav or Eazy to lighten the message," said Ruthig. "I never claimed to understand it but it showed me I was ignorant."
So should you buy the repackaged Ice Cube albums? Chances are if it's something you're interested in, you already have the music you want from this conflicting figure.
