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Album Review
by Sly Statson
4-12-2003
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More on: Westside Connection
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| Ice Cube drops some Westside Connection |
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Westside Connection: 'Terrorist Threats'
(Priority)
Westside Connection: the new Ice (Cube) age blasts
There is all this fuss about Jay-Z’s romance with Beyoncé… pardon - impending retirement although we may do better by concentrating on another Hip-Hop hero’s long-awaited return. After three years away from the mic, Ice Cube is back - and he’s brought his rap super-group Westside Connection with him.
It’s not like Cube has been busy doing nothing. Successes with the ‘Friday’ series and ‘Barbershop’ have found O’Shea Jackson transforming himself from the nigga-ya-love-to-hate into a one-man movie industry - he acts, writes and directs. He’s preparing the romantic comedy ‘Are We There Yet?’ for next year, and he’s also set to inherit Vin Diesel’s mantle in the forthcoming ‘xXx’ sequel.
Of course all this film work means Cube the MC hasn’t been a significant playa in the music biz for a while. It’s been 13 years since he first set Compton aflame with his 1990 solo debut ‘AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted‘. He says Hip-hop has since gone “soft.” Once rappers would dig at the establishment; now their edge is blunted by bling-bling and pillow talk. Cube transformed the game with N.W.A., penning classics like ‘Boyz N the Hood’ and the infamous ‘F**k Tha Police’. Can he push the nation’s buttons again?
He and his Westside mates W.C. and Mack 10 certainly do their damnedest on ‘Terrorist Threats’. But where Cube once advocated insurrection, he now embraces his status as a guerrilla in our midst, advising his fellow O.G.s to “Pimp the System.” His new gangsta rap is as much about using your head as much as your Glock.
The issues that concern him now are, well - everything, as he explained to MTV: “I’m just taking pot shots at issues we’re dealing with everyday. Take a song like ‘Pimp the System’, which is sayin’, “Yo, y’all worried about pimpin’ ho’s?/ There’s no money in that.” This is an e-mail world. It’s all about taking that mentality corporate, figuring out how to make money the legal way, which is a new way of thinking. I also have a song called ‘SuperStar’ which talks about how nowadays you have to have a double murder to go double platinum or a criminal record to sell a record.
All those rappers looking for their next cheque from a new R&B collab, beware, Ice has spotlight on you. On the song ‘Rappers in Love’, the three MCs heckle those peers they think have undermined their own masculinity with said collaborations. [Clearly, Mack 10 has forgotten his thug-love duet with wife T-Boz, ‘Tight to Def’.] While many other rappers have skirted the issues of America’s recently terrorised past, there is no chance with Cube-man and he tackles it on few tracks.
‘Gangsta Nations’ features resident g-funk crooner Nate Dogg and was produced by frequent Snoop producer Fred Wreck. Westside Connection’s ‘Lights Out’, included here, doubled as the lead single for Mack 10’s recent compilation, ‘Ghetto, Gutter and Gangsta’.
The first WC LP, ‘Bow Down‘, was released seven years ago. Tdea of reconnecting for another record was alive in meantime but continually sidetracked while WC and Mack 10 released solo CDs and Ice Cube shared his time between music and movie worlds.
8/10
‘Terrorist Threats’ tracklist: ‘Intro’ - ‘911’ - ‘Potential Victims’ - ‘Gangsta Nations’ - ‘Get Ignit’ - ‘Pimp the System’ - ‘Don’t Get Out of Pocket’ - ‘Izm’ - ‘Rappers in Love’ - ‘Lights Out’ - ‘Bangin’ @ the Party’ - ‘Got to the Heart’ - ‘Terrorist Threats’ - ‘SuperStar’
Sly Statson
4-12-2003
Westside Connection’s ‘Terrorist Threats’ is released 09 December 2003 by Priority (Import)
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