Ice Cube
When rap exploded creatively and commercially in the late 1980s, Ice Cube was at the forefront of the expansion. As the lyrical brains behind N.W.A, the Los Angeles-based rapper instantly became a major player in the music game by leading a musical revolution with brutal, profane, politically-infused music that, for the first time in the genre’s history, sold millions of albums with N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton. As a solo artist, Ice Cube became rap’s premier act with the release of the searing masterpieces AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted and Death Certificate.
Now, after becoming Hollywood’s most bankable actor thanks to his Barbershop and Friday franchises, Ice Cube returns to his first artistic love, rapping. Laugh Now, Cry Later, the multi-platinum, award-winning music icon’s first solo album in six years, simmers with celebration, as well as the rage, reflection and introspection that are the hallmarks of timeless music. “I feel Laugh Now, Cry Later is the state of the world, of America, of urban America, of hip-hop,” Ice Cube explains of his seventh solo album. “It seems like everybody is playing and nobody’s worried about anything.”
On the explosive Scott Storch (50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Beyonce) produced “Why We Thugs,” Ice Cube blasts an oppressive system that cripples America’s ghettos and fosters the perpetual ruin of such areas as South Central, Compton and Long Beach, Los Angeles metropolitan areas that have been war zones for decades.
“If you pump drugs and guns into our community—or any lower class community—and not give the people any outlet, any way out, or make it real difficult, then what do you expect the outcome is going to be?” Cube asks. “It’s funny how people who ain’t never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It’s funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, ‘Get up. What’s wrong with you?’”
Ice Cube, who took a break from the big screen to focus on his new album, keeps the vitriol coming on the spectacular, serious “The Nigga Trap.” Rapping over a piano-propelled beat, he criticizes everyone from President Bush to California Governor Schwarzenegger for helping create a mentality and a reality that locks ghetto-raised blacks into a cycle of poverty and failure. “It’s just me getting things off my chest,” Cube explains. “The stuff with George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger is obvious. The ghetto really is a nigga trap. There’s all kinds of pitfalls, all kinds of ways for them to get you either in the penitentiary or the cemetery. That’s what the song is about.”
Given his standing as rap’s premier commentator, Ice Cube has earned the right to reflect on his remarkable career, something he does on the revealing “Growin’ Up.” He was inspired to write the introspective song once he heard the beat for the song, which samples Minnie Riperton’s classic “Memory Lane.” “It made me go back to how I felt when I was youngster and that song would come on the radio,” Cube says. “It feels kind of like ‘It Was A Good Day.’ It’s a meaningful song and not just a rap. I think you need
some of those to really make a good album, a strong album. You need to let people in a little deeper.”
Another way Ice Cube is connecting with people on Laugh Now, Cry Later is by promoting himself directly to the streets. Underground, unserviced single “Chrome + Paint,” featuring long-time rhyme partner WC, has been a staple on radio from Los Angeles to Memphis, and the ground-breaking video is enjoying a tremendous buzz in the streets.
The thumping “Child Support,” Cube’s metaphor for his status the father of gangster rap, is another leaked song that has enjoyed radio play in several markets. “The DJs didn’t even get the clean version that we have,” Cube reveals. “They took the dirty version from somewhere and chopped it up. People doing that kind of stuff, it lets me know that people are interested in the record. We haven’t begged one person to play the record. We just gave it to them.”
But for all the hard-hitting, thought-provoking material Ice Cube included on his new album, he didn’t want to overdo it. “I think it’s a mistake to just have a record that’s dealing with social commentary and not dealing with the fun of just being young and into hip-hop,” he explains. “I think it’s important, especially on this record, to have for every ‘Why We Thugs,’ ‘Child Support’ and ‘The Nigga Trap,’ to have records like ‘Steal The Show,’ ‘Smoke Some Weed,’ ‘Go To Church.’ I thought it would be a perfect balance and that the record would feel fun to listen to.”
“Steal The Show,” another blazing Scott Storch production, is a club banger that features Cube’s braggadocio and flirtatious sides, while “Smoke Some Weed” is a mind-blowing ode to herb smoking. One of the most fun songs on the album, the aggressive “Go To Church,” features Snoop Dogg and Lil Jon. “Whenever you’re in the studio with Lil Jon and Snoop, you know you have the perfect ingredients for a hit song,” Cube gushes. “You’re starting off with an All-Star group. It’s all about doing your job. You know the music is going to be dope. You know that Snoop, just by being on the song, that we were all going to be at the top of our game.”
Now, with the impending release of Laugh Now, Cry Later, his first solo album released on his own Lench Mob Records, Ice Cube is on top of his creative game and relishing in his ability to make his latest album at his own pace and on his own terms.
“I’m putting my money where my mouth is because there’s nothing a major label can do for me that I can’t do for myself,” he says. “Not being signed to a particular label, putting it out myself, not having to worry about what a company or anyone else has to think about the record, being able to just go in and do it how I feel it with no timelines or deadlines, it made me comfortable. I was able to recommitment myself to rhyming and rapping. That all molded the way that this record sounds, which is important because I want my records to last the rest of the year when they come out.”
Truth be told, Laugh Now, Cry Later will last well into the next decade.
