I'd consider myself a pretty moderate fan of Ice Cube's work...I've got most of his records, minus the last couple, and I was a really big fan of his roles in films such as Boyz-'N-Tha-Hood, and of course the classic Friday.
However, I can definitely draw a line as to where it all went wrong in his work, especially in the hip-hop realm. Between 1993-1998, he took a break from solo work, to focus on film and such, only recording a duet with fellow former member of N.W.A. Dr. Dre(1994's Natural Born Killaz), and the first Westside Connection album, Bow Down, in 1996. Otherwise, Cube pretty much just sat tight for the most part, acting in films, until 1998's War and Peace rolled around, in all of its mediocrity.
Even his last album before the hiatus, 1993's Lethal Injection, was largely considered as a derivative "sell-out" work, when compared to his previous three albums, riding off the coattails of a single featuring George Clinton(Bop Gun).
While I'm not a big fan of the term "sell-out", when you make records as angry and abrasive as Amerikkka's Most Wanted and Death Certificate were, only to jump to a more mainstream direction is a bit funny to watch. It seemed rather sudden, Ice Cube stopped rhyming about Pimps, sell-outs, and the 'hood in every track. At the same time, he erased a large amount of the racism and anti-semitism that existed in his first two recordings.
Some would think that the big change that occurred between Lethal Injection and War and Peace, had to happen. After all, Amerikkka's Most Wanted and Death Certificate were written and dropped in the early '90s, prior to the Rodney King incident, and the riots that followed. Cube was furious over the racial relations at this time, and used these records to let everyone know, "shit's fucked up, it needs to change. NOW." After the riots occurred, he was quoted as saying, "my records were warnings to the world that this was going to happen."
It seemed like right after the riots, he was less eager to let everyone have it. The Predator, while being a fantastic album in its own right, featured less bashing than Death Certificate, but still had its fair share of hateful jams. Lethal Injection also, despite how weak it is, features "Cave Bitch", a jam revolving around interracial gold-digging relationships.
Some might also say another factor was the breakup of N.W.A. Most already know the details when Ice Cube left N.W.A., but to those who haven't, he wasn't getting paid rightfully for his featuring work on Straight Outta Compton, as well as Eazy-E's solo debut, Eazy-Duz-It. He wanted more money for his work, and he couldn't hammer out a deal with the group's then-manager, Jerry Heller, so he went off on his own. By the time Death Certificate dropped, with its firey slam on N.W.A. in "No Vaseline", tensions were at an all time high between Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, leading to Dre leaving, subsequently disbanding N.W.A. in 1992. The breakup, as well as Eazy-E's death in 1995, left Ice Cube without another leg to stand on, in terms of content.
I just want Ice Cube to go back to his old hateful self. No gangsta rap records in my mind were as angry and reactionary as the duo of Amerikkka's Most Wanted and Death Certificate, and while they were probably incredibly tough to follow up, it's a bummer that we never really got anything as crazy as those two records out of Cube.
Hopefully when he's playing his single-laden set at The Gathering, he'll remember when he was "True to the Game".
And thus ends my angry rant. Enjoy some classic Ice Cube, because if you've read through this, you've surely earned it:
"Givin' Up the Nappy Dugout"
"Who's the Mack"
"True to the Game"
(Cube's steez...before & after.)
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