>>PREVIEW
ICE CUBE
Thursday, January 18
The Corral
Before your mom bopped her head to the latest Eminem tune in her minivan. Before Hollywood declared the end of racism in America with a flurry of awards for Crash. Before Hurricane Katrina smashed New Orleans into its terrible palm. Before all that, there was Ice Cube.
Back in the day, he was considered a radical and dangerous voice in an America unafraid of the N-word. His perpetual scowl came to represent a disillusioned African American community no longer willing to just take it. To middle-America, he was the face of the great boogie man threatening violence. Law enforcement agencies and politicians condemned his work in N.W.A. and his solo career, blaming him for inciting shootings and attacks. Continuing the work of KRS-One and Public Enemy, Ice Cube brought a political conscience to the gangsta rap game. Fearless, he was willing to blame white America for its oppression and police brutality that formed life in the Compton streets he grew up in. And he got rich doing it, making millions off rhymes like, "White man is something I tried to study, but I got my hands bloody."
That was then. America soon went back to tip-toeing around racial tensions and success seemed to make for a less angry Ice Cube. A hiatus from the rap game became a play for Hollywood stardom. Ask people about Ice Cube these days, and you get a joke about Are We There Yet? He’s about to change that. His new album, Laugh Now, Cry Later, marks the rapper’s attempt to return to the game. He’s teamed up with Snoop Dogg for a tour to remind the kids how he did it back in the day. Ice Cube talked with Fast Forward about the new landscape of hip hop he finds himself in.
Fast Forward: You started at a time of heightened racial tensions, a government disregarding civil rights and a war in Iraq.
Ice Cube: Yeah, nothing’s changed. Still lot of gang violence, it’s just not popular enough in pop culture to examine. People just roll around doing their own thing. Everybody knew what they was gonna get with President Bush. Nobody’s fooled or surprised that we in a war. I’m not going to pretend things have changed. Evidently, this is what the people want.
FFWD: Would you be able to do a record like Death Certificate or The Predator now?
Ice Cube: People really respond to (my early) records. If you do that type of record now, you get called old-school. Everybody wants to have fun and not even think about their problems. That’s the hyphy movement in the Bay of California, it’s basically all escapism – talk about weed, girls, cars, money. You come with a record telling somebody about what’s going on and they don’t wanna hear it. Radio and video don’t promote those kinds of rap anymore. Dismiss them, don’t even play them. Most young rappers don’t even remember that kind of rap and don’t do it. If the message ain’t in the music, the music ain’t worth shit, excuse my French.
FFWD: So, the market just isn’t there for socially aware hip hop?
Ice Cube: Hearing a record from Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, and Poor Righteous Teachers – any groups like that affects the status quo. Point of views that need to be heard, that are never heard in mass media. Thank God for rap, where we get a chance to really try and understand each other. Hearing records talking about shake with it, lean with it, rock with it, you know, that does not affect the status quo at all. The people who wanna keep things the same, say, "Why we putting Public Enemy on TV when we can just put up the Ying Yang Twins? Why are we doing that to ourselves?" That’s the meeting I’m seeing at the big places like Viacom and the other major communications people.
FFWD: Considering your level of success, are you implicated in the consumerism and institutions you condemned earlier in your career?
Ice Cube: I’m a victim of it. Hell yeah. My kids wanna buy every damn thing. You know what I mean? You can only have so much stuff. Me? I haven’t weaned myself off of it. You just wanna buy shit. Most of the time, you never use it to its full capacity. You never make yourself happy buying stuff. I know that. A lot of people who don’t have stuff don’t know that yet.
FFWD: Looking back, how do you feel about your career now?
Ice Cube: I feel like I’m very blessed in that I can make my own path and not conform to anything. I do my records how I want to do them, and for the most part, I’m doing the movies I want to make. I know the game. |
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