Ice Cube

Suburban America may know Ice Cube as the ruff-but-lovable star of family-friendly films such as Are We There Yet?, Are We Done Yet? and The Longshots, but how will the picket-fence contingency react to the hailstorm of gangsta rap spite their shining star has dropped into their laps? His voice is the same destructive weapon it has been since the N.W.A. days, and Ice Cube attacks Bush, the war, FEMA, racism, corporate America and whoever else steps in front of him as he plows over his commercially clean-cut image with his eight album, Raw Footage.

While this disc might be a little more polished than what we've heard from Ice Cube recently, Raw Footage is an edgy and bitter reflection of the times in which it was written. A nod to the likes of Public Enemy, "It Takes A Nation" is a hard-hitting anthem for unification. "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" takes an introspective look at Cube's past, present and future, while "Hood Mentality" is an ode to overcoming the very lifestyle the rapper has portrayed throughout his career.

The inclusion of guest stars Young Jeezy ("Got My Locs On"), The Game ("Get Used To It") and Musiq Soulchild ("Why Me?") helps Ice Cube to bridge the gap between his glory days and the new generation of rap fans, but ultimately he makes a strong enough statement on his own. If mainstream success has left old-school fans and loyalists wondering if the almighty Ice Cube has sold his soul and spite, Raw Footage is a resounding, "No!"

–Ryan Ogle
09.17.08

Dealing with the good, the bad, and especially the ugly, Raw Footage is an appropriate title for Ice Cube's eighth album. Some kind of subtitle that mentioned the yin and yang of life would have made it perfect because the tracks here are as inclined to paradoxes as the man himself and offer just as few excuses. If you want insight into how a man justifies making family fun movies by day and hardcore rap by night, the only answer offered is that you grow up in this cruel world and you deal any way you know how, something that drives the great "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It." This key track may not be "fair and balanced," but it's honest and revealing as Cube embraces what he wants from the good -- a literate life that damns those who "read your first book in the penitentiary" -- and the commonly accepted bad as he attacks Oprah and everyone else who has a problem with hardcore rap using the "N" word. The 187 in "Why Me?" could be a metaphor for the attacks from Cube's detractors ("You want to take the life God handed to me/Send it back to him 'cuz you ain't a fan of me") while "Jack in the Box" suggests he's already won the war with "Fool, I'm the greatest/You just the latest/I'm loved by your grandmamma/And your babies." The album's guiding principle, "only thing I expect is self-check," is dropped in "Get Money, Spend Money, No Money," but the great news is that all these standoffish and self-serving rhymes are written with that whipsmart wit and sit on a bed of wonderfully minimal beats from lesser knowns like Young Fokus and Emile. The only time things sound slick are when an Eddie Kendricks sample meets Angie Stone's vocals on "Hood Mentality," or when the so-big-in-2008 Young Jeezy shows up for the disappointing and out of place "I Got My Locs On." The bombastic intro and interludes with Keith David could go too, but otherwise this no-answers, gritty ego trip will satisfy his fans while pushing everyone else away even further. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide