Raw Footage [PA]

Performer: Ice Cube
Artist: Young Jeezy; Musiq Soulchild; Doughboy; The Game; WC; Butch Cassidy
Engineer: Bruce Buechner; Tom Brock
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Keith David, Musiq (Soulchild) (vocals); Warryn Campbell (various instruments); G. Koop (guitar); George Mathews , John Murphy (keyboards); DJ Crazytoones (scratches); Romeo Johnson, DeVere Duckett, Shareef Jackson, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Angie Stone, Traci Nelson, Barbara Wilson, WC (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Dave Lopez . Recording information: Fever Studio, North Hollywood, CA. Photographer: Eric Williams. Despite Ice Cube's having translated his success into a cuddly family film empire, the N.W.A. veteran doesn't need to provide any gangsta disclaimers on RAW FOOTAGE. While the track "It Takes A Nation" may take the route of brandishing his braggadocio, Cube's flow is still wholly distinguishable in its force and clarity. True, the official album-opener, "I Got Locs On," also announces his adaptability, as it borrows some production techniques from his Houston-bred contemporaries. But just as he was the Madonna of hip-hop, Cube can take a current trend and own it to the point where you forget who influenced who. RAW FOOTAGE isn't without its social commentary, either (e.g., the sermonizing on tracks like "Hood Mentality"). But the fact is that Ice Cube doesn't have to articulate his role-model status through his music (his movies already achieve that). He only has to come with conviction, which FOOTAGE more than accomplishes. Dealing with the good, the bad, and especially the ugly, Raw Footage is an appropriate title for Ice Cube's eighth album. Some kind of subtitle that mentioned the yin and yang of life would have made it perfect because the tracks here are as inclined to paradoxes as the man himself and offer just as few excuses. If you want insight into how a man justifies making family fun movies by day and hardcore rap by night, the only answer offered is that you grow up in this cruel world and you deal any way you know how, something that drives the great "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It." This key track may not be "fair and balanced," but it's honest and revealing as Cube embraces what he wants from the good -- a literate life that damns those who "read your first book in the penitentiary" -- and the commonly accepted bad as he attacks Oprah and everyone else who has a problem with hardcore rap using the "N" word. The 187 in "Why Me?" could be a metaphor for the attacks from Cube's detractors ("You want to take the life God handed to me/Send it back to him 'cuz you ain't a fan of me") while "Jack in the Box" suggests he's already won the war with "Fool, I'm the greatest/You just the latest/I'm loved by your grandmamma/And your babies." The album's guiding principle, "only thing I expect is self-check," is dropped in "Get Money, Spend Money, No Money," but the great news is that all these standoffish and self-serving rhymes are written with that whipsmart wit and sit on a bed of wonderfully minimal beats from lesser knowns like Young Fokus and Emile. The only time things sound slick are when an Eddie Kendricks sample meets Angie Stone's vocals on "Hood Mentality," or when the so-big-in-2008 Young Jeezy shows up for the disappointing and out of place "I Got My Locs On." The bombastic intro and interludes with Keith David could go too, but otherwise this no-answers, gritty ego trip will satisfy his fans while pushing everyone else away even further. ~ David Jeffries

Rolling Stone (p.86) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Throughout his eighth solo album, Cube augments his blustery flow with vendettas against politicians and corporations....RAW FOOTAGE proves that even though he's middle-aged, he's still hungry." Billboard (p.41) - "[T]he impassioned delivery and stripped-down G-funk grooves are still more potent than plenty of efforts by rappers half Cube's age." XXL (Magazine) (p.123) - "Evoking memories of his AMERIKKKA'S MOST WANTED days, Cube aggressively combats the government on tracks like the epic-sounding 'Cold Places.'"

A founding member of seminal West Coast gangsta rap group NWA, Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson) has managed to achieve longevity in the notoriously short-lived world of rap stardom. His earlier solo albums (LETHAL INJECTION, DEATH CERTIFICATE) are among the most uncompromising rap records ever made. Despite accusations of rampant homophobia and misogyny in his work, Ice Cube sold millions of records in the '90s, and his G-funk style proved enormously influential to subsequent rappers. Along the way, he even managed a successful career in films (FRIDAY, BARBERSHOP, BOYZ N' THE HOOD).

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