At first this was going to be another in the occasional series on my dismay at the public adoration of Tupac. My contention is that Ice Cube was the MC that Tupac wanted to be. There are some strong parallels to their careers, and there would probably be a lot more had Tupac not died when he did. I’m not taking it in that directon right now, though. Instead of comparing him to his inferior, I’ll just let it suffice to say that Jheri Curl Ice Cube was the greatest MC ever from the West Coast.
Now, I’m specifying Jheri Curl Ice Cube(JCIC) as opposed to the later incarnations, because there’s a definite difference in tone and quality. Death Certificate, his second full-length solo LP, I still count as JCIC, even though he had cut his hair by that point.
Ask anybody who has a historical sense of hip-hop and they’ll tell you that after Straight Outta Compton, everything was different. I’ve said that a few times myself. This time, I’m not trying to place it in any kind of sociological context or any of that, I’m just talking about an album. There had been gangsta rappers before, but nothing in the world could compare to Straight Outta Compton. Ice Cube either wrote or co-wrote all the important songs on there. Now this is not to say that Cube was a one-man show. On my breakdown of favorite groups, I said that NWA had the first complete starting 5 in the modern era of hip-hop (no disrespect to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5). MC Ren was nice. A lot of people front on Ren, but Ren was the truth. And even though he wasn’t an official member of NWA, The D.O.C. was second only to Ice Cube in terms of lyrics and delivery. As the ghostwriter, however, Cube gets more credit.
So Cube is basically the one who gave gangsta rap its name, with the song, “Gangsta, Gangsta.” He’s also the one who brought incessant vulgarity to the forefront. But in the era in which NWA came, nobody would have paid them any attention if it hadn’t been for the lyrics. That’s what made NWA so dope, Cube was a stone-cold writer. From Parental Discretion Iz Advised:
I’ll be what is known as a bandit
You gotta hand it to me when you truly understand it
Cause if you fail to see, read it in braile
It’ll still be funky — so what’s next is the flex
of a genius, my rapid-stutter-steppin if you seen this
dope, you hope that I don’t really mean this
But if played, made the grade a high-top fade
Is not my trademark when I get loose in the dark
You guess it was a test of a different style
It’s just another motherfucker on the pile
Drivin your ass with the flow of your tongue
You hung yourself short, the after-knowledge was brung
to your attention, by the hardest motherfuckin artist
that is know for lynchin any sucker in a minute
Stagger ‘em all
When I start flowin like Niagara Falls
Ice Cube is equipped to rip shit in a battle
Move like a snake when I’m mad; and then my tail rattle
I get low on the flow so let your kids know
When I bust, parental discretion is a must
Or from the brother song, The Grand Finale, from The D.O.C.’s sublime No One Can Do It Better
Picture a nigga that’s raw
Amplify his ass and what you see is what’s on
Muthafuckas I slaughter, blow em out the water
Word to me, fuck the father
My medley is deadly as a pin in a handgrenade
5 seconds before you get played
You can’t throw me, I guess you’ll blow up
Ever see a sucker scatter, it’ll make ya throw up
Then I take advantage, you can’t manage
To get up, all you can do is sit up, I get lit up
Hit up, Ice Cube tearing shit up
Like a dude you can bet on
Collide like a head on
Collision, stutter steppin is an incision
Of a nigga saying exactly what I vision
Because I’m gone, you think I left you all
But I stay in yo’ ass like cholesterol
When I blast some solid as alcatraz
And if you escape, you better swim fast
‘Cause I’ll catch ya, physically and mentally
And the capital punishment’s the penalty
Sit in the electric chair, grab a hold
Pull the switch, yo’ body twitch, your eyes explode
Out your skull ’cause being dull on a flow
Is an N-O, niggas didn’t know that I can go
Off and show off to throw off the law
Turn, take 10 paces then draw
What’s left is a muthafucka dead in the alley
Ice Cube is the shit on the grand finale
Kool Moe Dee only gave cube an 80 on battle skills, but I beg to differ. Jheri Curl Cube was a MONSTER. Personally, I think Rakim was the best that ever did it, although I have to acknowledge that KRS-1 has a legitimate claim as well. And if Big Daddy Kane was not quite on the same tier as those two, he’s only micrometers below. In any case, Jheri Curl Cube would give any of those dudes fits. The craziest part is that they were all at the top of their games in the same time period. These young cats try to tell me that ‘94 was the year, or ‘98 or somethin’…naw, dawg. ‘89 was the number. I’m not even gonna bring Chuck D into the discussion.
For all Cube’s work with NWA, it’s when he broke camp and recorded solo that he became simply devestating. Amerikkka’s Most Wanted was by almost all accounts an instant classic. I remember getting a letter from my friend that summer. He was like, “That’s the hardest nigga I ever heard. I’d hate to run into him in an alley.” But it wasn’t just that. It was hard and funny and thought-provoking all at the same time. See, to tip my hand on the 2Pac argument, in addition to the elements I described before, a big part of Pac’s reachability, of his “everyman-ness” was the fact that he wasn’t an outsanding lyricist. He was approachable in that way. Cube, on the other hand, the average listener knew…there was no way they could ever get it like that.
Then there was Spectreman. Space Giants I remember vaguely. Spectreman, on the other hand, I actually remember the music and some of the dialogue from that. It looks cheesy now, but it’s just the prequel to the Power Rangers. Spectreman was hot, though. It used to come on channel 26, WCIU. When I was in grade school, it came on around the same time as the Space Giants. Later, when I was in Junior High, it came on before school, at about 6:30. Best believe I made sure to get up and hit the shower so I could eat my Lucky Charms and watch Spectreman.
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