With the release date for Ice Cube’s new album Raw Footage looming (August 19th), I thought I would take a look back at the career of one of the pioneers of gangsta rap and make a top 10 list of his songs..
(All links are YouTube links)
10 – You Can Do It
Although this isn’t the type of song that is expected of Cube, nobody can deny that this was a major hit charting highly in the U.S. and the UK, not to mention a big hit in the clubs so I guess this has to be mentioned.
9 – The Nigga Ya Love To Hate
This was the first song (excluding intro) from his debut solo album AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. The smooth production worked great with Ice Cube’s vocals. And nobody can forget the ringing chorus of “F*ck you Ice Cube!”.
8 – My Summer Vacation
This track, from the album “Death Certificate”, is another brilliantly produced song, this time by the Boogiemen. This is story-telling Ice Cube at his best, a quality that I feel he doesn’t get enough credit for.
7 – The Wrong Nigga To F*ck Wit
This is also another introductory song, to the album “Death Certificate”. This is hardcore gangsta rap at it’s finest. From the word go Ice Cube uses his venomous delivery to tell us what he’s been thinking since his last album.
6 – Why We Thugs
This is the most recent song on the list, from the 2006 album “Laugh Now, Cry Later”. This is a political and militant Ice Cube coming back into form after a 6 year hiatus from the solo game over a brilliant West Coast influenced Scott Storch beat.
5 – Friday
The title track from the classic “Friday” movie. A hard hitting beat and a classic West Coast song from the mid-90s.
4 – Ghetto Bird
This is from the album “Lethal Injection”. This is pure West Coast gangsta rap. The infectious QD3 beat is hard to forget as Ice Cube tells us how he escapes the L.A. “Ghetto Birds” (choppers) among other things.
3 – No Vaseline
This is the infamous diss track to his former group mates, N.W.A. This is generally regarded as one of the greatest diss songs of all time and it was included in XXL’s top 20 diss songs of all time. N.W.A took the courage to “set it off” on their last album, “Efil4zaggin (Niggaz4Life)”. But they weren’t prepared for what Cube had in store. The group split up shortly after the release of this song.
2 – Check Yo Self (Remix)
This is one of the songs Cube is most renowned for. The use of “The Message” instrumental on the remix was genius and paid off well on this classic song. It was also commercially successful reaching the top 20 of the Billboard charts.
1 – It Was A Good Day
Simply one of the greatest hip hop tracks of all time….
Side notes: I realize that there are a lot of classics I left out but I felt these ten tracks best summarized the solo career of Ice Cube. I also thought it was best not to include Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It because this is a pre-Raw Footage list…
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