1991. Ice Cube is still the most dangerous MC alive in the world. His second album is hard, pure, violent and unstoppable: a million pre-orders arrive and the album is practically platinum even before being released, then certified by the RIAA the following December, two months after its release.
The rapper wisely decides to divide the LP into two halves: the first part, called «Death Side», illustrates the evils that afflict the black community and is full of light-hearted braggadocio, violent and gangsta cuts, while the second part, called «Life Side», shows a personal vision of the rapper to try to find a solution to get out of stereotypes, poverty and attempts to ghettoize the black people, here are inserted the most socio-conscious and political tracks, pro-black, where he faces the drug dealing and the violence of the ghettos.
Demonstrates that he possesses excellent lyricism, touching on various themes including social injustice, life in the ghetto, racism, girls, drugs, sexual diseases, weapons, and police in the first part, and then also exposes topics such as the war against the government and the white men, against Koreans (linking to the death of Latasha Harlins), against blacks trying to be white, against medical malpractice, sexism, racism, white women, fighting for peace between street gangs and narrating his childhood with a spectacular narrative style and often using storytelling for his songs, with few hints to the Nation of Islam, which he joins during the recording of the disc.
His gangsta and pro-black bars take on more and more nihilistic outlines, sometimes heated by humorous traits and cleaned up by introspective and autobiographical reflections, he's still pissed off as before, more than before, against everyone: O'Shea Jackson delivers with his style, spitting angry, raw, hard, pure. Musically, the MC gets rid of the Bomb Squad production that made their solo debut masterpiece and calls Boogiemen and Sir Jinx to create a sound similar to that one of Public Enemy producers, but with more funky samples to give West Coast vibes to the rhythms, in order to create a hard and funky sound: the production is excellent, dope, clearly inspired by George Clinton's p-funk.
Every single track deserves a separate consideration, however the skit "Black Korea" is of vital importance: on March 16, 1991, due to an altercation over a bottle of orange juice, a 15-year-old African American girl, Latasha Harlins, is killed shot by a Korean shop owner. On this track, the rapper vents against Koreans and the album predates the 1992 Los Angeles riots, in which most of the people targeted by the crowd were of Korean descent, which is why this album was indicted by the institutions.
The disk, completely excelled both from a lyrical and aural point of view, is closed by "No Vaseline", dissing against the N.W.A now elevated to the «classic status», where he kills his former group in one of the most evil and ruthless dissing ever, rightly considered [one of] the greatest dissing in the history of hip-hop: the only filler of the entire project, here, Ice Cube dedicates a verse each to Dr. Dre, MC Ren and Eazy-E, annihilating them all with precise bars and an unstoppable flow, on a dope rhythm. He accuses the group of having forgotten their roots and having lost contact with the street and with Compton, moving into white and wealthy neighborhoods, while Eazy-E himself and Jerry Heller, the manager of the group, are still tricking them all.
O'Shea Jackson combines political, socio-conscious and gangsta in a single album: it's a tough, cold, lucid, clean product in its immense raw and angry mood, the record consolidates him as the best rapper alive of the period, as the most dangerous rapper still alive, and as one of the best storytellers of the period. Cube equalizes the debut with another legendary LP, considered even better than the debut, and this is incredible because the debut is untouchable: unassailable despite the numerous controversies it unleashes, it's a basically perfect sophomore, authentic and flawless, it's his second best hip-hop album of the year (consecutive), one of the most important concepts of the genre and one of the best albums of the decade.
Rating: 9.7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment