Amerikkka's Most...Docile?

To...


Like many a person who came of age during the NWA heydays, watching Ice Cube do his movie thang is confusing yet somehow gratifying. Let me explain.

1. Cube will be forever know as the dude who kicked it all off with the classic verse from "Straight Outta Compton". " Straight outta Compton, crazy mutherfucker named Ice Cube, from the gang called Niggaz Wit Attitude", was the introduction to many a kid to arguably the angriest man in America (outside of yours truly and Louis Black), pardon, Amerikkka. So it's kind of confusing to see Cube on screen playing different roles, when you can clearly remember the debates about how "real" his Boyz N Tha Hood character was.

2. But at the same time, it is also gratifying to see a cat who now can transcend the moniker that put fear into so many parents back in the late 80's early 90's to become a household name in most of the country. I guess Dough Boy grew up and got a jobby job. Plus, it's hard to hate on a cat that can claim his movies grossed over 600 mil worldwide. Yatzhee!

So today, The Funk is going to take you back to the days where Cube was ready to kill anything that moved and if you caught his mean muggin' in person, you surely would have either turned to stone or morphed into some sort of spineless gelatinous blob. I heard that happened once. Seriously!

Endangered Species - Ice Cube feat. Chuck D
Dead Homiez - Ice Cube
Jackin' For Beats - Ice Cube
A Bird In Hand - Ice Cube
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" Endangered Species" the better version was found on the Kill At Will EP, of which I have just run across in my attempt to catalog all my music stuff. I won't go into the story on how I "lost" all my old O.G. tapes cause it's too dag gum sad. But "Species" came out as the gang epidemic in LA was reaching it's fever pitch in the early 1990's. Previous to the 1992 LA Riots, mainstream folks outside of the inner city rarely heard about/saw/understood the conflict between the police and the residents. "Species" was one of the many call to arms/call to attention that tried to bring awareness to the ever growing problem of gangs vs cops and the results of that conflict. From a musical standpoint, The Bomb Squad did it's usual thing on this track with the guitar/hard beat/and obligatory James Brown sample. Chuck D came as hard as ever on his verse...joint still gets me amped. It's lost on some people that after Cube left NWA, he was an unofficial compatriot of The Bomb Squad and PE.

"Dead Homiez" shows that rare side of Cube, the introspective hood if you will. Based around the events of a homie's funeral, "Dead Homiez" reflects on some of the ills and effects of the gang life that many young men in LA were and to some degree are still going through. In my personal opinion, "Homiez", with lines like " How strong can you be when you see your pops crying" and "That's why Ice Cube's dressed up, cause the city is so fuckin' messed up" force the listener to reflect on some of the decisions that they may have made in their lives that could have been different. One of his best songs to date.

"Jackin' For Beats" is just cube getting busy over other people's beats of the day. If memory serves me correctly, this was the first of those "using other peoples beats" records (please correct me if I'm mistaken). Not to be confused with the later attempts of Puffy and his cronies, who just used other people's beats in their entirety, Cube and Chilly Chill used snippets of some of the more popular tracks in 1990.

"A Bird In Hand", beginning with the Big Bird sample, is a short but to the point declaration of frustration from a recently graduated Cube who is entering the workplace with a child in tow and debt mounting. Written and released during the Bush I empire, the last line "a bird in a hand is better than a bush", speaks to the disdain that many inner city residents had with Bush 1 and his domestic policy towards the poor. For those uninformed, a "bird" was slang for a kilo of coke. Hence the "Birdman" stuff from Cash Money Records. Just so you can use it at your next dinner party. It's a conversation starter!

As a whole, Ice Cube's music career went from bangin' to blah in the past few years (linking up with Mack 10 can do that to you) but at one point Cube was the purveyor of all thangs hardcore. And for your information, I have not yet seen XXX: State of The Union. I can't decide if I'd lose some cool points for doing that or not. May have to be a TiVo style video rental, ala "Screwed". And also for the record, you apparently cannot trust a black man named Chip. Just so you know.

I spent my Sunday afternoon at the Chateau De Tallentire with some of my friends and our professors. I think we cooked enough food to end hunger in at least 4 SE Asian countries. Burgers, Dogs, Ribs, Potato Salad, Cookies, Cakes, Brew, some Wine....it was a feast of biblical proportions. This has no real relevance to today's post, just thought I'd let you in on my outings from time to time. Oh and LA spilled the first beer on the new hardwood floors! Tell EVERYBODY you know!

Brother B.