Ice Cube

"It's the nigga ya love to hate!" Roaring out of the blocks, holding his mike like a Glock, Ice Cube opened his 1990 solo debut with those words, and for the first half of the '90s, the man born O'Shea Jackson lived up to his pledge with a vengeance. One of the most ferocious and effective rappers ever to pick up a mike, Ice Cube was the first member to defect from notorious gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A, and no matter where you rank him on the shortlist of the Greatest MCs of All Time, it's clear that Cube changed the hip-hop game. While a student at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, CA (where he was bused from his home in South Central L.A.), Cube, who had learned how to combine profanity with hilarity from Richard Pryor records, wrote the seminal story-rap "Boyz N Tha Hood." At the time, Cube had a group called CIA with his buddies Sir Jinx and Kid Disaster. Then Eazy-E recorded "Boyz" and released it in 1987 as the first record on his Ruthless label; the single's success led directly to the creation of N.W.A, a group that consisted of Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren, and Yella. Cube had gone to Phoenix, AZ, to get a one-year degree in architectural drafting, but returned in time to rap and write many of the rhymes on N.W.A's 1988 debut, Straight Outta Compton. A genuine street-level phenomenon, Straight Outta Compton aroused the ire of the FBI and sold more than 3 million copies with nearly zero radio airplay.

A beef with N.W.A's management prompted Cube to go solo, and Cube teamed up with the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's production team and the preeminent beatmakers of the time. Together they made AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, an album of menacing, unflinchingly fierce rhymes that took millions of listeners deep into the terrors of South Central L.A.

A year later, Death Certificate continued the brutal sonic and lyrical assault, but the multiplatinum al-bum found Cube growing more articulate even as he grew more vulgar. The man who once wrote "F -- Tha Police" now took lyrical aim at LAPD Chief Darryl Gates: "Turn him over with a spatula/Now you got Kentucky Fried cracker." Factor in the sensational violence of "Black Korea" (a song that apparently condoned the burning of Korean-owned convenience stores) and Death Certificate was roundly condemned by a rattled news media, including Billboard magazine. But hey, if you didn't like it, well, like Cube said, you could new jack swing from his nuts.

Followup The Predator debuted at #1 on both the pop and R&B charts, the first album ever to do so. With the Bomb Squad out of the mix, production duties were handled primarily by Cube, Sir Jinx, and DJ Pooh, and their collective fondness for P-Funk and Isley Brothers–derived loops was amply evident. By this time Cube had shaved off his Jheri curl and felt comfy enough to release his first laidback classic, "It Was a Good Day." (The fantastic remix of "It Was a Good Day" on Bootlegs & B-Sides uses a loop of the Staple Singers' "Let's Do It Again" that ups the blissful sentiments of the original.) The Predator also included "Check Yo Self," Cube's hit collaboration with duo Das Efx. On 1994's Lethal Injection, Cube's original power seemed to have waned, but typically ill tracks like the musically sweet lowrider classic "You Know How We Do It" shone.

Cube and his estranged running partner Dre eventually buried the hatchet and recorded the duet "Natural Born Killaz" (which appears on 1997's so-so compilation Featuring . . . Ice Cube), and in 2000 Dre took Cube out on his Up In Smoke tour (immortalized on a DVD of the same name). Fanatics should also ferret out Cube-related releases by Westside Connection (Cube's group with W.C. and Mack 10), protégés Yo-Yo (1991's Make Way for the Motherlode), Kam (1994's Neva Again), and Da Lench Mob (1994's Guerillas in tha Mist), as well as the soundtracks to films Cube has starred in, including Higher Learning, Dangerous Ground, Friday, and Barbershop. The out-of-print Kill at Will EP, released in 1990, is also worth finding for the awesome "Dead Homiez." While latter-day Cube releases have been maligned as soft (just about anything would seem lightweight when compared to his early work), both War & Peace discs have at least a couple great party jams. Now a proven Hollywood actor and screenwriter, Cube commands attention and respect with anything he does; no matter the venue, Ice Cube s presence simply cannot be discounted. – Pete Relic

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide