Answer Record Week 3, Day 6: Was Ice Cube Tha 1 After All? (NWA DIss)

And we turn the tables one last time to conclude this Answer Record Week, with NWA getting some unexpected feedback from the ladies. Youtube version is here.

Ice Cube and Chuck D Go Back To Hell

Run DMC go full new jack swing and Ice Cube and Chuck D show up on the B-side? Why does nobody talk about this wild record?

(Youtube version is here.)

Master P Vs. King Tee & Ice Cube

(Youtube version is here.)

NWA's "Express Yourself" - The Ice Cube Version?

(Youtube version is here.)

The Story of Ice Cube's Raiders' Cap

30 for 30 is some ESPN sports documentary series. Each episode is like an hour long and the topic's different every week. As a non-sports fan, I only know even that much because I just looked it up. But as a hip-hop fan, one episode is actually quite compelling, especially since each episode is sold individually as a stand-alone short film on DVD (although note that Amazon's currently replaced them with DVD-R versions), so you can pick it up with zero investment in all the golf, ice-skating, and whatever the rest of the series focuses on.

The episode/ short documentary film in question is Straight Outta LA (2010), directed (and narrated) by Ice Cube. And yeah, we all remember his sole past directorial effort was The Players Club; but don't let that scare you off. This is a tight, sincere film where Ice Cube gets to address the very noticeable connection between west coast gangster rap and The LA Raiders. But because it's got ESPN behind it, it also has the capital to bring in just about everybody from John Madden to Snoop Dogg for interviews. There's just tons of players, coaches, journalists, gang bangers, team owners and rappers on hand - and that's not even including all the vintage footage they've got to work with.

It's almost an embarrassment of riches. I can see a lot of smaller filmmakers putting something like this together, but this flick has the resources to really do a stand-up, definitive job. Breezing through topics from the history of the Raiders moving from Oakland to LA, to hip-hop's expansion to the west coast, some pretty names are brought in for some pretty short soundbites. You can tell Cube is struggling to fit the whole story into an hour-minus commercials. For the most part, that works in its favor, giving the film a very fast, watchable pace. But at the same time, it does make it feel a little too superficial. It would be great if we could just sit and visit with some of these interview subjects for more than fifteen seconds at a time.

It's too bad the DVD couldn't have included an expanded director's cut. But as it is, it still manages to plumb some interesting depths, like how the Raiders started making money just as a fashion brand thanks to gangster rap far beyond just team merch. We get to hear the Raiders' marketing guy talk about first meeting NWA and giving them team swag to wear in concert. Even people from other sports are introduced to talk about how their teams changed their colors to black and silver to get on that bandwagon. And we hear how it all started to slip away because the Raiders started losing games. Maybe it's a bit glossed over (Ice Cube talks so briefly about leaving NWA he doesn't even mention Jerry Heller), but it's all here. There's even a weirdo animated segment [right] on the origin of NWA's name.

The arc of the story is dramatically effective, too. Lawsuits, in-team disputes, schools banning Raider gear as being "gang affiliated." And as the film winds up showing us fiery footage of the LA riots, I had to admit, Cube did a great directing job. He introduces the film by claiming that even if you don't care about football or hip-hop, this doc will grab ya, which is kind of an obnoxious way to start a film. But he turned out to be right.

And it ends exactly the way I would've wanted to end the film!  ;)

Cube In Stereo

The previous video I'm referring to/ correcting: Cube In Action

(Youtube version is here.)

Ice Cube In Action!

(Youtube version is here.)

Corrections: It's Crew In Action, not Effect; I misspoke. And the first printing of this 12" came out in 1987, not 1988.

Malcolm X's Daughter's Posse Cut

Gamilah Shabazz, Malcolm X's daughter (one of six!), made her rapping debut on Big Daddy Kane's third LP, Taste of Chocolate. The next year, she followed that up with an appearance on 2 Black 2 Strong's album, and finally the year after that, she came out with her own single on BMG/RCA Records. Now, following up on the rap career of a famous politician's daughter - as opposed to, you know, an actual MC who's dedicated their life to making music - may sound like a job best left to the die-hard collectors with too much time on their hands. But like Shaquille O'Neal, Brian Austin Greene and other celebrities buying their way into hip-hop industry, she knew the secret was to pack her debut with compelling guest artists. And she certainly picked an interesting line-up.

"America's Living In a War Zone" features Ice Cube, 2 Black 2 Strong of MMG, Grand Puba, Mr. Biggs of The Soulsonic Force, Me Phi Me and some singer named Tanya Cooper. Certainly an eclectic mix, but not a bad one at all. The track is co-produced by 2 Black 2 Strong, Shabazz, and the underrated (I blame his name) Epitome of Scratch. It's the same kind of banging hardcore track you'd expect from 2 Black 2 Strong, and it features vocal snippets from Malcolm himself, and alternate sample sets for each MC, giving every verse its own identity.

Granted, it gets a little heavy-handed when Tanya stops the thing dead to sing "America the Beautiful" mid-song, and not every MC comes as strong as the one before him... It doesn't sound like Gamilah inherited her father's mastery of eloquent speech with her simple flow that consists of atonally shouting each individual word. But Puba and Cube are in top form (though Puba makes an odd point about black peoples' brains weighing seven and a half pounds, while white peoples' weigh only six... lol what?), and surprisingly Me Phi Me's verse is pretty nice as well ("there ain't a damn thing black in The White House except where/ they keep Clarence Thomas' pubic hairs"). And even the weakest verses are still pure, politically charged anger over a dope beat, so everyone at least earns a pass here.

Now I've got the cassette single up on display, but the 12" features the same picture cover and track-listing: the street mix, a radio edit, and an instrumental on the flip. This is definitely one of those songs that sounds dated... but kind of in a good way. And it can be easily scored for cheap, so to me it's a natural pick-up. Though it's probably just as well that we don't have a whole Gamilah Shabazz album floating around out there.