It’s moments like these when hip-hop heads like myself feel old the most!
I distinctly remember being is middle school when a jeheri curl wearing rapper named Ice Cube split from the most popular group in America at the time to start a solo career.
Shortly after, he would team up with one of the best production teams in rap to create a classic album.
Ice Cube’s Amerikka’s Most Wanted turns 30-years today. 3 decades ago, Cube unleashed on the world a type of in-your-face commentary that would be his theme for his entire career.
Powered by Chuck D and The Bomb Squad, Cube’s debut album was loud, demanding and unapologetically Black.
To get a good understanding of how hard Cube was coming in 91′, check out a track like “The Nigga You Love To Hate”. On one song, Cube dissed what he saw as watered-down rap “I don’t wanna see no dancing
I’m sick of that shit — listen to the hit ‘Cause yo if I look and see another brother On the video trying to out-dance each other” and media’s misrepresentation of the culture, “And say we promote gangs and drugs
You wanna sweep a nigga like me up under the rug Kicking shit called street knowledge Why more niggas in the pen than in college?“
And that’s just the begining. Ice Cube and The Bomb Squad were a marriage made in heaven. Hank Shocklee and Chuck gave Cube the same frantic energy that Dr. Dre delivered early in his career for N.W.A.
You can tell The Bomb Squads’ influence on Cube at the time definitely pushed Cube away from shooting up the hood, and forced him to start posing real questions. Take for instance this line from the title track.
“I think back when I was robbin my own kind. The police didn’t pay it no mind but when I start robbin the white folks. Now I’m in the pen wit the soap-on-a-rope.”
Overall, the album was something very 90’s and very on time. Songs like “Once Upon A time In The Projcets” was memorized by kids around my way.
The album overall was amazing and would the formal introduction on a man who would change the course of gangster rap.
Today, most people will know Cube from many roles in front of and behind the scenes in various movies and tv shows as well as his latest venture, The Big 3. I’m blessed to be able to say I’ve watched him grow into the position he is in own. That all started with this album.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his debut solo album, stream Amerikkka’s Most Wanted.