Ice Cube Raw Footage CD

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 ...