Westside Connection Terrorist Threats CD

Additional personnel includes: Nate Dogg, K-Mac, Skoop, Young Soprano, Butch Cassidy, Knoc "Turn" Al.

As if Ice Cube didn't have enough going on in the first few years of the 21st century with his successful and prolific film career, the rap superstar unveiled TERRORIST THREATS, the second Westside Collection album, in late 2003. Reuniting with fellow West Coast rappers WC and Mack 10, Cube leads the Connection on tunes that pull topics from the headlines, such as the title track and "Call 9-1-1," where lyrics remind listeners that "911 ain't an area code/it's a gangsta mode." Whether riffing on terrorism or espousing the virtues of gin, the Connection crew gets its point across with the subtlety of a sledgehammer--and they wouldn't have it any other way.

This view is driven home on the scathing "So Many Rappers in Love," which takes a brutal swipe at romantic R&B-oriented rappers and mockingly features strings and falsetto vocals. However, the G-funk-approved singing of Nate Dogg turns up on "Gangsta Nation," a tune that simultaneously bounces like it's the early-1990s gangsta-rap heyday, and proves that these West Coast rappers are still major contenders in the hip-hop world.

Westwide Connection includes: Ice Cube, WC, Mack 10.

Producers include: The Notorious T.R.E., Fredwreck Farid Nassar, Ron "Neffu" Feemster, Bruce Waynne.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.Mojo (Publisher) (p.103) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Cube sounds fired up for the first time in a decade."