Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992 TAG: 9202210226
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By TRACIE FELLERS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A SIZZLING RAP
Rapper Ice Cube - otherwise known as O'Shea Jackson - can be as chilling as his adopted name.As a member of N.W.A. in the late '80s, Cube rapped about life in rough Los Angeles ghettos. He wrote more than half of the songs on "Straight Outta Compton," the group's first album, including "---- tha Police," an explosive song that reflected resentment against police actions in the black community.
N.W.A.'s album caught on with rap listeners, selling more than 1 million copies. Cube's song captured the attention of the FBI, which condemned it for its anti-police sentiments.
In 1990, Cube went out on his own with "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" - hailed by some for Cube's powerful rap delivery, criticized by others for his hateful words about women.
Now, it's the uproar over Cube's latest effort, "Death Certificate," that has yet to cool down. In the words of a Wall Street Journal writer, the album has something to offend almost everyone - even music-industry bible Billboard magazine, which published an editorial decrying the album's content after its release.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human-rights organization, and other civil rights groups have urged record stores not to sell the album because of its angry, sometimes violent lyrics. Those groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, have been particularly disturbed by the threatening rhymes Cube directs toward his former manager, who is Jewish, and toward Korean merchants who own stores in black neighborhoods.
But "Death Certificate," Cube spares no venom toward other groups: white men who undermine black men and lust for black women, blacks who - as he sees it - aren't true to the race.
Since the album's release late last year, Cube has told publications from New York Newsday to Newsweek that "Death Certificate" is intended to educate his audience, not to advocate violence. In a story on rap music in this month's Musician magazine, Cube said: "They figure when you're pro-black, you've got to be anti-whatever. But see, that's guilt from the pain they inflicted on blacks. We aren't pro-black to be anti-white or anti-Korean, anti-Jewish. We're pro-black so we can look back at history and make sure that it doesn't repeat itself."
Ice Cube, who made his debut as an actor last summer in "Boyz N the Hood," headlines the Steady Mob tour, which stops at the Roanoke Civic Center tonight. Tickets are $15 for the 8 p.m. show. Rap acts Black Sheep, Leaders of the New School, Nice and Smooth, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and W.C. and the Maad Circle are also part of the show. Yo-Yo, Ice Cube protege and one of rap's rising female stars, hosts the show.
With "Death Certificate," Cube's reputation in the rap genre known as hard-core is rock-solid. In his liner notes, he calls the first half of the album - "The Death Side" - a reflection of where blacks are today. In his words, that's in "a state of emergency." He sees the second half, "The Life Side," as "a vision of where we need to go. . . . To get there, blacks have to experience rebirth through economic self-sufficiency, community pride and self-knowledge. So sign your death certificate," he concludes.
He defends the album's most controversial cuts, including "Black Korea," which warns Korean grocers that if black customers aren't respected, their businesses may burn, and "No Vaseline," in which he refers to N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller as a "white Jew."
On the subject of black-Korean relations, he told New York Newsday: "I don't have a problem with Koreans coming into black neighborhoods, opening stores and making money because until black people get their act together, somebody's going to make the money. I do have a problem with black people being disrespected when they're simply trying to make a purchase. Koreans like that don't need to be in our neighborhoods. And we're gonna get you out any way possible. If that means burning your store down, that's what's going to happen."
And in a interview with Scott Poulson-Bryant in the March issue of Spin magazine, Cube dismisses charges of anti-Semitism. "I'm not trying to advocate nothing against nobody," he said. "If the Jewish community would like to better relations between blacks and Jews they should hear me, what I'm saying. Words aren't threatening. If you can't hear our cries, how can we better things? That's what I want to change."
Steady Mob tour featuring Ice Cube is tonight at 8 at the Roanoke Civic Center. Tickets, $15. 981-1201.
Keywords:
PROFILE