isbell@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (06/17/91)
What up, G? Yo, today we gets two--that's right two--reviews for the
price o' one.
Let's bring ourselves up-to-date.
This time: _Amerikkka's Most Wanted_ and _Kill At Will_ by Ice Cube
Next time: You tell me. PE? KoolMoeDee? Ice-T? LL?
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Distinctiveness: High
Dopeness Rating: Much dopitivity here.
Rap Part: He tells a story and tells it well.
Sounds: Of all the things the Bomb Squad has put together, this is
by far the best. The sounds often switch depending upon
shifts of tone in the story. There are lots of nice touches
here. If Ice is talking about a bar, you can hear bar sounds
in the background.
Message: There are two sides to Cube. You could describe both as
street-wise.
Tracks: 16 tracks, 49 minutes and 7 tracks, 22 minutes
Profanity: Eh? Well, kids, if you are going thru that rebellious stage
and you want to alienate your parents, this is for you.
The profanity isn't forced (if you know what I mean) but
it's all here. Many, many times over.
Ice Cube is late of NWA (Niggas With Attitude). He left the group apparently
for financial reasons. In some ways tho', he seems to have brought them
with him. There are two sides to Ice Cube. One side is an angry, street wise
view of politics. His view of the cops is obvious, for example. On the
other hand, he's just a brother shootin' the sh*t with his boys on the
corner. When done right, it's funny. When done wrong, it can be offensive.
His language is peppered with "niggas" and "b*tches." In fact, every male
is a nigga and every woman is a b*tch or a ho'. So, he's an equal
opportunity offender. But, in this he violates the unwritten rules: you
can only use such language (publicly) about your _own_ group. That's
why Black people may casually use nigger, but White folks can't, men
can casually use nigga, but not b*tch etc (it's the same reason _I_ can
push my little brother around but you can't).
Or so it seems to me. As a result, some people don't want to listen to him,
out of hand. That's fine. I just want to warn you.
We begin with a one minute track "Better Off Dead." Ice Cube is being escorted
to the chair. There a lots of small bits like this on the CD. The voice at
the end, by the way, is Julian Bond's (from Eyes On The Prize II).
"Was America willing to maintain order, no matter what the cost?"
From there we see how Ice Cube sees himself: "The Nigga Ya Love To Hate".
The chorus is "F*ck you Ice Cube!" The sounds are good here (but then
you knew that) and Ice's lyrics are tightly done (but then you knew that,
too). This is one side of Ice Cube.
"'Yo you ain't doin' nothin postive for the brothers.
What you gotta say for yourself?'
'You don't like how I'm livin', well f*ck you.'"
"Who the f*ck you think you are, callin' girls b*tches? You ain't all that.
All I hear is b*tch, b*tch. I ain't nobody's b*tch."
But "Amerikkka's Most Wanted," the title track, is closer to his other side.
The sound effects are good here (there are nice takeoffs of America's Most
Wanted, the TV show).
"I think back to when I was robbin' my own kind,
the police didn't pay it no mind.
But when I start robbin the white folks?
Now I'm in the pen with the soap on a rope
I said it before and I'll still taunt it
Every mothef*cker with a color is Amerikka's Most Wanted."
"America's Most Wanted reports that Ice Cube is the leader of the Lench Mob.
Also in the group they have J. Dee, T-bone, Chill, Yoo-Yo, Del, KD.... Sounds
like a Black thing."
Back to tellin' stories. "What They Hittin' Foe?' is a relatively short
track about shootin' craps with the boyz. There are street sounds in
the background, people arguing and rolling dice. It works well.
"When it comes to gettin' in a circle
I hit sevens turin' broke niggas purple."
The game turns sour a bit when Cube starts winning big, but, of course, there's
no problem.
I also have no problem with "You Can't Fade Me," although some might. This
is a story about Ice meeting an old one night stand who claims to be carrying
his child. Since she's the neighborhood hussy, he becomes the laughing
stock of the hood and he's trying to figure out what to do about it.
"Then I looked down, she was fat in the front.
I asked 'How long?' 'Well, about seven months.'
'Oh how time files when you're havin fun.'
She said 'Yeah, but the damage is done.
Where you been?'
'On a little vacation. Oh, by the way, congratulations.
Who's the lucky man?' I don't have a clue.
Then she said 'The lucky man is you.'
I dropped my brew. <crash of bottle>"
There's a track indexed as number two inside this track (so it's one track for
those of us with CD's). It's called JD's Gaffilin'. It's maybe twenty seconds
long. It also doesn't make any sense.
Anyway, we get another story with "Once Upon A Time In The Projects." In
this one, Ice is visiting some woman in The Projects(tm). The sounds
as always are dope and while he's talking about the house you can hear
stuff going on in the background. Nice effect. Things in ()'s occur in
the background but don't interrrupt the flow of narration:
"Once upon a time in the projects, yo,
I damn near had to wreck a ho'.
I knocked (knock) on (knock) the (knock) door. 'Who is it?'
It's Ice Cube come to pay a little (ooooh,) visit (how) to (you) ya.
And (doing?) what's up with those niggas in the parking lot?
She said f*ck 'em, 'cause they get sparked a lot.
I sat on the couch but it wasn't stable
and then I (put your) put (feet) my (down) Nike's on the coffee table."
He sets up a change of direction with "Turn Off the Radio" which opens
with a message to the "oreo cookie" (courtesy of Do The Right Thing).
He immediately goes into dissin the pop-R&B radio stations.
"DJ face down in the river.
No, it's not a threat, but a promise.
I'm a crazy as they come see,
Momma didn't love me."
"Turn on the radio, listen for a minute.
Yo, G, stick a f*ckin' tape in it.
All the radio do is dangle
that R&B love triangle.
If you're out there kickin' it with the Brothers,
you don't care about lovers.
You wanna hear a young nigga on the mic goin' buck wild
throwin' and flowin' and showin' new style."
Even DAC, our resident flamer here at alt.rap makes an appearance.
"You know what? You know what? Basically those Black guys and those
rap guys don't know what the f*ck they're doin'. I hate those f*ckers,
I hate 'em."
The we get to "Endangered Species" with guest Chuck D. This is dope
stuff. It opens with a newscast explaining that young Black teenagers
are an endangered species: "when asked why [the government has done
nothing to perserve the Blacks], a top law offical adds, 'Because they
make good game.'"
"Peace. hah! Don't make me laugh.
All I hear is motherf*ckers talkin' sucatash
Livin' large, tellin' me to get out the gang.
I'm a nigga gotta live by the trigger.
How the f*ck do you figure
that I can say peace and the gunshots won't cease?
Every cop killin' goes ignored,
they just send anotehr nigga to the morgue,
a point scored, they could give a f*ck about us."
"You wanna free Africa, I'll stare at ya
'cause we ain't got it too good in America."
Then we drop back to "A Gangsta's Fairytale." This is just plain
funny. Again, with all the "niggas" and "b*tches" thrown about some
might have a problem with it.
(Kid to Ice:)
"Hey, yo, Ice Cube, Ice Cube? Why you always kickin' the sh*t about the
b*tches and the niggas? Why don't you kick the sh*t about the kids man,
the f*ckin' kids?!"
"There he saw the lady who lived in a shoe,
sold dope out the front, by the back, marijuana grew
for the man that was really important
who lived down the street in an Air Jordan"
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...
with a joint, drinking some 8-ball.
Three little pigs in a Coup DeVille,
lookin' for the wolf to kill.
They're f*cked up and they want revenge."
Or maybe I just have a sick sense of humor. It's not so sick that I liked the
next track: "I'm Only Out For One Thing" with Flavor Flav. It's silly,
especially Flav, but it's just stupid amd not funny. Luckily it's only
about two minutes long. This is worthy of 2 Live Crew maybe. Usually,
despite his "b*tches" and "ho's", he's not cursing and being sexist for
the sake of doing it. He's just saying "nigga" and "b*tch" for everything.
This, on the other hand, has no point.
In the same vien, we have "Get Off My D*ck Nigga and Tell Yo B*tch
to Come Here" wherein our boy tells all the male fans where he stands
on them hanging around him all the time. This one is much better.
This is followed by "The Drive By" a short track about two brothers
planning on doing just that. That's Peter Jennings at the end.
"Outside the south central area, few cared about the violence
because it didn't affect them."
The we come to "Rollin' Wit The Lench Mob" wherein we get to hear
about this Lench Mob Ice is now down with. It's the most standard
track the album, but hardly undope. It's comparitively plain, tho.
"Some rappers are heaven sent
But 'Self-Destruction' don't pay the f*ckin' rent.
So you can either sell dope or get your ass a job
I'd rather roll with the Lench Mob."
If you've heard Ice on radio or seen him in video, you've probably
heard either this next track "Who's the Mack?" or "Dead Homiez."
Neither is representative of his style--he's much harder than that--
and "Who's the Mack?" is, in fact, a radio-edit. There's no big
difference between the two versions except for a few starred words.
Not a bad track.
"He's name is Sonny and he knows the play
and hope to g*d that he don't find a runaway
that's lookin' to become a star.
He'll have your ass in and out of every car.
With every Ron and Rick, suckin' every John's d*ck
Come short of the money and find your ass kicked."
Then, as if he's self conscious about throwin' "b*tch" around, he let's
himself get trashed by Yo-Yo in "It's A Man's World." It starts off
with a string of "b*tches" follwed by him explaining what women are good
for. He's interrupted by Yo-Yo and a rap-conversation develops.
"'How you gonna rule the world when you're broke as a joke?'
'With your county check baby.'"
"'If it wasn't for me, you'd probably be pregnant,
complainin' that your back was aching,
shakin' and bakin' while I'm bringing home the bacon!'
'You're mistaken, it's not going that far.
I make brothers like you play the back door....
You used to flow with title but I took it.
Bring home the bacon, but find another ho' to cook it.'"
"To me you'e not a thriller.
Come in the room with your three inch killer
thinkin' you can do damage to my backbone
leave your child in the yard until he's full grown?
I'm gonna put it like this my man,
without us your hand would be your best friend.
So give us credit like you know you should
If I don't look good, you don't look good."
Well, it's interesting, anyway. Yo-Yo is very good here and has since
gone on to release her own material.
We end with "The Bomb." Good stuff, if straightforward.
Now, at this point, I should mention that I don't buy EP's. However, my
brother had recorded _Kill At Will_ and after listening to it, I had to
buy it. There are 7 tracks. The first is a remix of "Endangered
Species"--it is completely re-done, musically. Sounds pretty good. There's
also a longer version of "Get Off My..." and another version of "JD's
Gafflin'" (track 5.5 on the album).
In addition, he offers "Product" a super dope story of one man's life
from conception to twenty-one. It's followed by "Dead Homiez" a slow,
but nice track about, well, what it says. "I Gotta Say What Up!!!"
is just a verbal thank you and hello to various people. There's also
"Jackin' for Beats" wherein you boy takes popular backsounds from
everyone from Digital Underground to Public Enemy and "gives it that
gansta lean."
Ice Cube is a talent. There's no doubt about it. I think he'll
be even better when he weans the few cursin' to be cursin' tracks
he presents. Mostly, he's either deep or funny.
On the other hand, I don't think it's for everybody. If you've heard
any Ice Cube and liked it, you'll probably want the album. If you
haven't heard any, find someone to let you listen to "Product,"
"Endangered Species," "A gansta's fairytale," and "Get off...." You'll
know where you stand after you hear them.
Well, that's one Black man's opinion. What's yours?
Peace.
"When society acknowledges you as one of its victims
rather than one of its members, it no longer has
any responsibility to help you."
- Kyle Baker, Why I Hate Saturn