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Ice Cube
1990 - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted.
1991 - Death Certificate.
more Ice Cube.
way more Helter Skelter.

May 16, 1990 - 2020: 30 years of: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted.

Fuck you Ice Cube !

South-Central Los Angeles in the late 80s, Ground Zero for the crack epidemic and related gang violence. We're talking about fully-automatics and the dead-end of the American-dream. The decadent decade's darkside, kept low by the mainstream-media, because it dwells within the colored minorities from the wrong-side of the track. Hiphop was the sound of these angry youths and N.W.A. became their voice. 1988's Straight Outta Compton LP is a genre-defining record for hiphop, rap and now gangsta-rap and the brain behind this West-Coast chaos stands tall: Ice Motherfuckin' Cube !

After some internal conflict against N.W.A.'s manager, Cube bailed-out and shit got real hardcore. Middle-America got the middle-finger and Ice Cube was the man with the rhymes, the "beats" (see what I did there) and the motherfuckin' rock-hard mojo. Comfortable on the electric-chair ...Cube's last words: "Fuck all o' ya"

First cut, a high stamina-track. The words attack left to right, relentlessly hitting you in the jaw, just to make sure your ass doesn't forget that Ice Cube is "The Nigga You Love To Hate". The massive down-beat roars on the short "What They Hittin' Foe ?" no warning-shot, just pure tribal rhythms.

Ice keeps his legendary cool on the "You Can't Fade Me" where probable-parenting never sounded so dope. His street-cred reaches another level on "Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside)" and "I'm Only Out For One Thang", both tracks features apparitions from PUBLIC ENEMY's Chuck D and Flavor Flav respectively.

"Don't try to apprehend him" a caution most should stick to. The title-track kicks and pisses on all non-believers ...and remind us to "always keep one in the chamber". Ice Cube will swarm on any motherfucker that stands between him and the mic, real hardcore shit straight from the "source" (see what I did there).

Produced by The Bomb Squad, the house that produced PUBLIC ENEMY and other East-Coast posses, made Ice's debut solo-release one of the most revered explosive classic from this then underground movement. Surrounded by a new crew, his hoodlums, tha Lench Mob, Ice Cube was their leader and MC and was unmistakably America's most wanted. With no mainstream-support, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted became Platinum RIAA-certified and the later lethal Kill At Will EP confirms the man is the wrong nigga to fuck wit !

With no vaseline, Cube fucked N.W.A. sideways, raw in and out. They never where the same without him and they rapidly disintegrated after the catastrophic 1991 Niggaz4Life CD. The famed West-Coast / East-Coast highly mediatised hiphop rivalry didn't start here, this shit was a personal guerilla ghetto-war who happens to include all the players from one of the most important rap powerhouse of all-time.

...and now, the drive-by.

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Who's The Mack ? = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko0llmBIELI
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6crXoQ1oboU&list=OLAK5uy_mw1wDF2C9nSXalVkOUSctNOtsUC91Ikuk
Interview in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgmqNwaIErg
Live in L.A. in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwRvei0Y0Vc
The making of AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2G-i_QIV34

October 29, 1991 - 2021: 30 years of: Death Certificate.

"Yo Dre, stick to producin' !"

A war of words, not from rival gangs, but from rival ex-bandmembers. From the ultimate nucleus of the gangsta-rap genre N.W.A., the divorce was less than amicable. Ice Cube set the bar higher with 1990's incendiary AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted CD and now the gloves are comin' off !

Drop a old-school beat and Cube makes it crystal-clear, he's "The Wrong Nigga To Fuck Wit". Totally raw and cap peelin' hiphop that once again resets the game. Some kinky Catholic schooled seventeen gets called on "Givin' Up The Nappy Dug Out" and "Man's Best Friend" shines light on the beloved 9mm. Ice highjack yer stereo on the deep-bassed lines of "My Summer Vacation", the drivin' rhythm of "Steady Mobbin" and the volatile "Doing Dumb Shit" is pretty self explanatory. Fun timez !

You wanna war ? ...the niggaz are 'bout to get some.

"No Vaseline" is the focal-point of this rivalry and their sorry asses are being served on a silver platter. Name-droppin' and fuck givin', Cube Mike Tyson 'em all into oblivion. The Mother of all diss-tracks, all beef, no compromise, just aggressive rhymes spewed by one of history's most pissed-off MC. And unlike Eazy-E ...he never had diner with the President !

The 25th anniversary special-edition CD packs some 2016 extra-tracks for extra modern-mojo.

Los Angeles's inner-city struggles and low-economics, the early 90s hit hard and Cube was the real nigga with an attitude. The Lench Mob is in full effect, making boomboxes bop like there's no tomorrow ...because we do more before 7am, than most brothers do in their whole lifetime.

*
Steady Mobbin' = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOcxkk5mRbM
Death Certificate = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPEHrRWCYo&list=PLJaQqb1_vqOR61QOgVgb9femXfFW6BDZz
Death Certificate 25 = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v16qe49A6tA&list=PLHzu3Vn0JCOiLMLz6-mYoe0eMeONBQd4O
Interview and live in Amsterdam in 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOoI7b1rPpE

more Ice Cube:

N.W.A.