Fourth studio album in three years for Ice Cube, one of the greatest rappers of the nineties and one of the best MCs between 1988 and 1991: counting the first album with NWA, up to that point, no one has dropped three classic albums in such a short amount of time, including two solo in under eighteen months, and no one will be able to do it again for a long, long time. In the same year that the East Coast regains hip-hop leadership, with his fourth effort, Ice Cube finally falls and undergoes the lethal injection of his career.
O'Shea Jackson, until a few months earlier known for his aggressively hardcore lyricism focused on main socio-conscious and political themes, against everything and everyone, pro-black and anti-racism, makes a meaningless twist to casual gangsterism, misogyny and the g-funk trend sound: he almost completely renounces the political and socio-conscious, which perhaps after two and a half albums they would no longer sell, and embraces a generic, ignorant and bored gangsta lyricism, who have adopted almost all his competitors over these few years, but whose royalties should go to him and Eazy-E.
In the middle of the record, there are some passable funny excerpts, but he no longer impresses, he seems calm and sounds quiet, he's no longer angry, he no longer spits with the hardcore style that had characterized his entire career: some songs sound better than others thanks to the production, however, Cube's pen here seems to be struggling like never before. He decides to deliver his stanzas dull and tired throughout the whole disk.
The rhythms, which in previous albums have always blessed him, leave him on this LP: there are seven different producers, Sir Jinx, Derrick McDowell, Lay Law, QD III, Brian G, 88 X Unit and Madness 4 Real. Most of them provide light and accessible g-funk production: Sir Jinx exaggerates ("Lil Ass Gee"), QD III choices don't adequately support rapper's flow most of the time, despite the happy choice of "You Know How We Do It", with a soft and nostalgic g-funk rhythm, while Madness 4 Real sinks the entire product ("Down for Whatever" and "Enemy" are two completely wrong rhythms, the former, at the time, being the worst beat in Cube's career, probably).
The end result is messy, patchy and far too long, clearly his worst one so far: it's the beginning of the end, but the boy manages to save some tracks, he's still one of the best rappers of the period. Distributed by Priority, the album, although devoid of bangers or classic cuts, reaches first place among rap records and the fifth one in the Billboard 200, becoming an international success and obtaining platinum certification: it's all completely effortless, and takes a back seat as the rap game solo debut of K-Dee, member of Lench Mob and rapper with Cube in C.I.A. The suppression of Birchmeier on AllMusic, of Touré on Rolling Stone and, maybe of an institution even greater than these two put together, Zephos on RYM, are the sign of the great disappointment that this record has unleashed in the hearts and souls of its own fans, reason for which I don't recommend it.
Highlights: "Really Doe", "Ghetto Bird", "You Know How We Do It", "Bop Gun" (ft. George Clinton also in rapping; the track is both sublime and exhausting at 11 minutes), "When I Get to Heaven".
Rating: 7/10.
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