HARD-CORE RAPPER COMING TO ROANOKE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 7, 1992                   TAG: 9202070228
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Tracie Fellers
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
HARD-CORE RAPPER COMING TO ROANOKE
As a genre, rap music often generates controversy - but when Ice Cube addresses inflammatory issues, he brings simmering social tensions to a full boil.
On his latest album, "Death Certificate," which has sold more than 1 million copies, Cube directs angry and sometimes violent words toward Korean grocers, Jews and the white establishment. Groups that monitor anti-Semitism and racism have found the album so offensive that they've urged record stores not to sell it.
Cube, 22, also put himself on the firing line last fall when he appeared in commercials for St. Ides malt liquor and implied that the liquor would boost male sexual performance. Critics charge that Cube and other rap artists who do malt liquor commercials glamorize the beverage, which has a higher alcohol content than beer.
Now Cube, who made his debut last summer as an actor in the film "Boyz N the Hood," is bringing his hard-core brand of rap to Roanoke.
He headlines the Steady Mob tour, which stops at the Roanoke Civic Center on Feb. 21. Tickets are $15 for the 8 p.m. show. Rap acts Black Sheep, Leaders of the New School, Nice and Smooth, Del the Funkee Homosapien, and W.C. and the Maad Circle are also on the bill. Yo-Yo, a female rapper who paid her dues as a member of Ice Cube's former group, the Lench Mob, hosts the show.
Tickets may be purchased by calling the civic center box office (981-1201). Box office hours are 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB