The third single from Ice Cube’s Raw Footage album. The video was released earlier this week:
Archive for the ‘Ice Cube’ Category
Hip Hop Beef, Vol. 1
August 28, 2008In this series I’m going to look at and analyze hip hop rivalries that have happened in the past.
The first one I am going to look at is the Ice Cube vs. N.W.A beef.
Ice Cube vs. N.W.A
How did it start?
After the success of N.W.A’s second album, “Straight Outta Compton”, Ice Cube approached their manager (Jerry Heller) about the royalties that he was owed for writing a large portion of the album. A dispute ensued as Ice Cube was adamant that he was owed a lot more money than he was being offered and subsequently left the group on bad terms.
The Beef
The first time the beef became notable was on Ice Cube’s debut album “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” in 1990, as Ice Cube said “Think about it… fuckin sell out” on a skit titled “A Message to The Oreo Cookie”, which was possibly directed at N.W.A member Eazy-E. On N.W.A’s “100 Miles and Runnin'” EP later that year, N.W.A referred to Ice Cube saying “We started out with too much cargo, so I’m glad we got rid of Benedict Arnold”, referring to Cube as Benedict Arnold who was a traitor of the American Revolution. On the song “Real Niggaz”, they dissed Ice Cube by saying “How the fuck you think a rapper lasts, with your ass sayin shit, that was said in the past, be original, your shit is sloppy, get off the dick, you motherfucking carbon-copy”. There was also a small reference to N.W.A on one of the songs on Ice Cube’s “Kill At Will” EP on the song “Jackin For Beats” which implied that N.W.A were nothing without him.
On the groups 1991 album, “Niggaz 4 Life”, they had a skit titled “A Message To B.A.” which featured fictional phone callers dissing Ice Cube. This ended up fueling Cube to come back with a diss song on his next album. The diss song released was the legendary song “No Vaseline” from the album “Death Certificate” where Cube viciously attacked the members of N.W.A and their manager, Jerry Heller. The song contained a skit similar to “A Message To B.A” with phone callers dissing N.W.A and then broke into the main song. Cube alluded to one of N.W.A’s previous disses saying “I started off with too much cargo, dropped four niggas now I’m makin’ all the dough”. The artist that Cube focused slightly more attention on was Eazy-E claiming that he and Heller were screwing the other members out of money and had a homosexual relationship. This song was virtually the climax of the beef.
Aftermath
Not long after “No Vaseline” was released, N.W.A split up after another money dispute with Dr. Dre being the first to leave. He and Eazy-E went on to record diss songs aimed at each other. But Dre, Cube and Eazy squashed the beef as soon as it was revealed that Eazy-E was suffering with the AIDS virus and was close to death. Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and MC Ren went on to record songs together again and a possible N.W.A reunion abum was planned but never surfaced.
Diss Songs Released:
N.W.A – “Real Niggaz” (YouTube link)
Ice Cube – “No Vaseline” (zshare link)
Who won the beef?
It is generally considered that Ice Cube won the beef with his former group mates. The song “No Vaseline” is believed to be one of the greatest diss songs of all time and it was this song that made Dr. Dre confront Heller and Eazy about the money he was owed which led to the group being disbanded.
Album Review: Ice Cube – Raw Footage
August 16, 2008
It’s only been 2 years since Ice Cube’s last album, which is a much shorter gap than between previous Ice Cube albums. So it seems Ice Cube is intent on keeping a firm foothold in the rap game with this release which has been creating a buzz ever since “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It”(watch video here) was released back in January. Ice Cube said he was going to come really political and hardcore on this album. Did he stick by what he said?
The album gets off to an indifferent start with “I Got My Locs On” featuring Young Jeezy, this song seems like it would fit more on a Jeezy album with the southern style beat and hook but Cube holds up well with the beat. The album then goes into some songs with real food for thought including the aforementioned “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It”, “It Takes A Nation”,, “Why Me?” (one of my personal favorites) and “Hood Mentality” (where Cube attempts to look at the mind state of young people in the hood), then there’s the cocky “Jack N The Box” where Cube claims to be the “greatest” and reminds us what we would be missing if it weren’t for him. There are one or two tracks that seem designed for the club, like “Do Ya Thang”. And some really nice tracks like “Tomorrow” where Cube talks about the effect of illegal downloading of music and “Get Use To It” featuring WC and Game which is basically just a West Coast battle cry. “Stand Tall” doesn’t seem like it would work because of the beat which doesn’t seem remotely Cube-esque but it ends up being one of the strong points of the album. And the album goes out on a high with the brilliant Butch Cassidy assisted “Take Me Away”.
Overview:
Overall the album is a really decent offering as there is some really raw lyricism on here, some thought provoking subject matter and Cube’s delivery is amazing and exactly what you would expect from Cube with that “pyroclastic flow”. That being said, Cube didn’t seem to stay fully committed to having it as a fully political and hardcore album as there are one or two tracks that just don’t seem right for the album and some that don’t even seem like Ice Cube tracks. The production is really good for the most part but there are some are a couple of generic beats that take away from the album. We knew we were weren’t going to get another “Death Certificate” because at 39 years old, Cube just isn’t in that mind frame anymore, but he does still deliver with an album that is perfect for this time in hip hop, gets the brain working and is definitely worth buying.
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
New Albums
August 16, 2008It’s a busy period in hip hop right now. And here’s the 2 newest albums to leak this week:
And in case you missed it, here’s a download link for the new Ice Cube album, Raw Footage, which is out this Tuesday. Download Raw Footage here
We will post a link for the dirty version of LAX when it leaks.
Make sure you buy these albums when they come out. Support the artists!
***For Those Of You Who Couldn’t Wait***
August 14, 2008
Forget August 19th.
Ice Cube’s Raw Footage just leaked all over the internet. Expect a review from our team very soon and for now you can download the entire album right here.
Your Welcome!
1. What is a Pyroclastic Flow?
2. Jack In the Box
3. It Takes a Nation
4. Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
5. Hood Mentality
6. Why Me? (ft. Musiq Soulchild)
7. Cold Places
8. Do Ya Thang
9. Thank God
10. Here He Come
11. Get Money, Spend Money, No Money
12. Get Use To It (ft. The Game & WC)
13. Crack Baby
14. Tomorrow
15. Stand Tall
16. Take Me Away (ft. Butch Cassidy)
List #3- Top 10 Ice Cube Songs
August 10, 2008
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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