TonyVanDam said:

Just goes to show what a limited actor Cube is then, doesn't it? And he is an actor, because that whole gangsta schtick of his was just that - acting. Unlike Ice Cube, Wesley Snipes was a great actor (dunno where his talent went) who made a few great films. Sadly all he's doing now is crappy straight to video bollocks like The Marksman. I met the director of said flick, who told me that all Wesley did on set was coke, booze and hoes. Anyway, back to Cube. What did you make of his last album? I thought it was intermittently interesting, but he should stick to remaking Another Five Fridays After Next Friday And The Friday Before That.

Actually, now that Wesley's making shit films, maybe he should team up with Ice Cube, then together they could make a REALLY CRAP film. Just a thought ...
[Edited 9/18/06 0:39am]

why is it that everytime somebody makes a statement we as people start picking their character apart instead of just listening to the message? all Cube said at the time was be true to the game. The St Ides commercial was done before he even joined the nation of islam, when he still had a jerry curl. and even if he is a hypocrite in his personal life who cares, its a good song with a decent message something that is rare in hip hop these days

Shapeshifter said:

I stop buying Ice Cube's music after his 6th album, Bootlegs & B-Sides.

TonyVanDam said:

Wise place to stop. Wish I had. But you know me, Tony, I'm true 2 tha game, so I still buy whatever he puts out in the hope that it'll be a "return to form".
[b][Edited 9/20/06 7:12am]

Shapeshifter said:

how was the last album?

Meloh9 said:

Melody free, boring and forgettable. He's stuck in "I Started This Gangsta Shit - And this the Muthafukkin' Thanks I Git" mode. Nothing to say anymore and really out of touch. Whatever you liked about the Ice Cube who came up with "How To Survive in South Central", "It Was A Good Day" et al, you won't hear a hint of in the new album. Probably never recovered after Suge Knight filched the backing tracks of the album he was working on with Dre and turned them into All Eyez On Me.

Meloh9 said:

Melody free, boring and forgettable. He's stuck in "I Started This Gangsta Shit - And this the Muthafukkin' Thanks I Git" mode. Nothing to say anymore and really out of touch. Whatever you liked about the Ice Cube who came up with "How To Survive in South Central", "It Was A Good Day" et al, you won't hear a hint of in the new album. Probably never recovered after Suge Knight filched the backing tracks of the album he was working on with Dre and turned them into All Eyez On Me.

Shapeshifter said:

I was just wondering because I friend told me that the track "why we thugs" takes the listeners back to the more concious Death Cetificate era. Any truth to that?

Also do you agree with anything that the allmusic review says?

they gave it three and a half stars



As Ice Cube's 2006 Laugh Now, Cry Later was landing in stores, all the chatter was about whether or not Cube was back, and whether or not he could recover from a couple of lackluster solo albums that came out years ago. Did his major contribution to Westside Connection's satisfying 2003 album Terrorist Threats slip everybody's mind and do we have to consider that release "slept on"? Laugh Now picks up right where Terrorist Threats left off, and while Cube does a little "this is why I'm important" posturing on the excellent "Child Support," this isn't a forced "I'm back" effort in the least. After a short intro, Cube goes right for the upper classes' throats with "Guns and Drugs," a track that acknowledges that there was a George Bush in office when he began his solo career, there's a George Bush in office as he returns to it, and he doesn't much care for either. Switching gears, the following club track "Smoke Some Weed" gives everyone the finger in a much less socially conscious manner. The track's rain stick and East Indian vocal loops constructed by producer Budda give the album its most riveting beat, the competition supplied by various upstarts and, surprisingly, Lil Jon, who upstages the heralded Scott Storch and his underwhelming contributions. Lil Jon tweaks his usual crunk juice and blends some West into his South for the low-riding "Go to Church" and "You Gotta Lotta That," both with Snoop. Just as satisfying, "Doin' What It 'Pose 2 Do" is a modern banger that's well aware of the 2006 success of folks like Bun B and Z-Ro. It's only when Cube jumps on the "Stop Snitchin'" bandwagon that he sounds the least bit unnatural. He also scores a lyrical triumph with the title track, but unlike his early classics, Laugh Now stumbles occasionally and fails to keep the momentum going through the whole fourth quarter. This is his first effort on his own independent label, so if the album lacks a little final product-minded polish, it trades it for a homegrown feel that's distinctively direct. Strip a couple redundant tracks and you've got that bitter, edgy, and sharp Cube album you hoped for.

Funny y'all talking about this song/video because i was listening to "Death Certificate" a few months ago. It was my first and only Ice Cube CD I ever owned.
I like just about every song on the CD and I always found humorous shit in his lyrics I can relate to just from living around crazy shit.

Meloh9 said:

Very generous review. When it comes to music I agree with my ears, mind, heart and feet. None were remotely touched by Snore Now, Snore Later.

Look, the guy USED to be brilliant - the best in his era, I think - don't get me wrong, and I'll always buy his stuff, but he should stick to making crap films.

you lot do know that these songs are now very old,

and Ice cube no longer holds the views he once had

hence his move into more mainstream movies like xxx, are we there yet,

i dont think he hates like he used to,

Shapeshifter said:

I saw the video for church last night, nothing groundbreaking at all. I still want to hear the song "why we thugs" but I don't want to buy the album at this point.

Meloh9 said:

Cube's melted and turned to a dribble. It's a shame, but rappers have no longevity. Apart from The Roots.

JazzyJ said:

Plenty of humour on that album - parts of it are funny as fuck - but the flipside is anti-semitism, homophobia ("true niggas ain't gay"), blatant racism and a blatant plug for St Ide's Brew (sorry, Meloh ), which are pretty hard to ignore.

I think that the term sell-out needs to be made more clear. Is a rapper who makes commercials and does family oriented movies considered a sell-out? I remember an Ice T interview where he said "If someone offers you 1 million dollars to sell shoes, Soft drinks, Fast food etc, You have to be one arrogant M-Fer to turn it down" I have to agree.

Shapeshifter said:

I was just talking about be true to the game, accepting the song on its on terms. I was a big fan of death certificate back in the day. but Common did step in Cubes ass for those very contradictions on the bitch in you.

I think alot of rappers represent that internal struggle. walking the fine line between what is right and what is wrong. thats real to me. as opposed to somebody who is going to act all high and mighty and pretend that they don't fuck up at all. the same things that Common dissed Cube for, he admitted to himself later

"Dealing with alcoholism and afrocentricity
A complex man drawn off of simplicity"

- Common from The 6th Sense, Like Water For Chocalate

Common The Bitch In Yoo Lyrics....

A bitch nigga wit an attitude named Cube
Step to the Com wit a feud
Now what the fuck I look like dissing a whole coast
You ain't made shit dope since AmeriKKKa's Most
Wanted to cease from the Midwest to the East
On the dick of the East for your 1st release
Your lease is up at the crib, house niggaz get evicted
And videos wit white boys talking you get Wicked
Natural Born Killa, nigga you natural born God
Read, rich, got the nerve to say you rob
Hyprocrite, I'm filling out your Death Certificate
Slanging bean pies and St. Ide's in the same sentence
Shoulda repented, on the 16th of October
Get some beats besides George Clinton to rock over
Rap career is over, better off acting
What trouble I see, you're managing WC and Wack 10
You backed in to a Four Corner Hustla
Lying on your dick, said you was fuckin' her
Use Higher Learning, don't take my words out of text
Went from gangsta to Islam to the dick of Das EFX
It'll take the Nation of Millions to Hold Me Back
From giving you mouth shots or hit wit the pipe Ralph got
Chris Tucker ain't around, it's your Friday, it was good
I wasn't salty, she was wit the Boyz N the Hood

Chorus:

I see the bitch in you when you don't speak your mind
The bitch in you, looking me in my eyes lyin
I see the bitch in you, to be hard you tryin'
The bitch in you but yo it's coming out

Verse Two:

The ump on this rap shit, Cube, I'm calling out
I break in and smack niggaz that's in the Slaughterhouse
This ain't no East coast, West coast, none of the above
I'm from Chi, I went to Cali, niggaz gave me love
There's a thin line between the fake and the real
Grafted ass nigga, I see through your Glass Shield
Had skills once upon a time on this project, yo
I'm a have ta wreck a Ho'shea
I heard a ho say you her favorite rapper
(So what) so I had to slap her, ugn
And violate you, a Muslim drinking brew
Your guy ain't no Mack 10, he a 22
I seen you, you ain't say shit in ATL
Cube, I like that diamond charm, I might cuff it, then sell
It out, like you sold Kam and Threat
A year ago, you wasn't talking shit about the West
Guess you knew you're shit was done plus the one got you cable
Hoo Bangin, you ain't banging shit but the table
in the Circle Mad, ain't got no choice but to fight
Ain't none of y'all muthafuckas got a chance on the mic
Anytime you come out, jo, I'm a talk about you
Until you let that bitch in you, walk up out you
Any last words before I hit the switch
From the immortal words of one, a bitch is a ...
[Edited 9/20/06 13:52pm]

ThePunisher said:

yeah Ice T said he came up poor, and that he doesn't turn down nothing but his collar. that's real. But I think sell - out is aimed at people who change their whole persona up and everything that they once stood for to gain mainstream success. Ice T married a porn star, still dresses and acts the same, still has his own web site that sells his own brand of gangsta/playa rap. So I agree, you can't truly say a person sold out based on financial success alone.

Shapeshifter said:

I was just talking about be true to the game, accepting the song on its on terms. I was a big fan of death certificate back in the day. but Common did step in Cubes ass for those very contradictions on the bitch in you.

I think alot of rappers represent that internal struggle. walking the fine line between what is right and what is wrong. thats real to me. as opposed to somebody who is going to act all high and mighty and pretend that they don't fuck up at all. the same things that Common dissed Cube for, he admitted to himself later

"Dealing with alcoholism and afrocentricity
A complex man drawn off of simplicity"

- Common from The 6th Sense, Like Water For Chocalate

Common The Bitch In Yoo Lyrics....

A bitch nigga wit an attitude named Cube
Step to the Com wit a feud
Now what the fuck I look like dissing a whole coast
You ain't made shit dope since AmeriKKKa's Most
Wanted to cease from the Midwest to the East
On the dick of the East for your 1st release
Your lease is up at the crib, house niggaz get evicted
And videos wit white boys talking you get Wicked
Natural Born Killa, nigga you natural born God
Read, rich, got the nerve to say you rob
Hyprocrite, I'm filling out your Death Certificate
Slanging bean pies and St. Ide's in the same sentence
Shoulda repented, on the 16th of October
Get some beats besides George Clinton to rock over
Rap career is over, better off acting
What trouble I see, you're managing WC and Wack 10
You backed in to a Four Corner Hustla
Lying on your dick, said you was fuckin' her
Use Higher Learning, don't take my words out of text
Went from gangsta to Islam to the dick of Das EFX
It'll take the Nation of Millions to Hold Me Back
From giving you mouth shots or hit wit the pipe Ralph got
Chris Tucker ain't around, it's your Friday, it was good
I wasn't salty, she was wit the Boyz N the Hood

Chorus:

I see the bitch in you when you don't speak your mind
The bitch in you, looking me in my eyes lyin
I see the bitch in you, to be hard you tryin'
The bitch in you but yo it's coming out

Verse Two:

The ump on this rap shit, Cube, I'm calling out
I break in and smack niggaz that's in the Slaughterhouse
This ain't no East coast, West coast, none of the above
I'm from Chi, I went to Cali, niggaz gave me love
There's a thin line between the fake and the real
Grafted ass nigga, I see through your Glass Shield
Had skills once upon a time on this project, yo
I'm a have ta wreck a Ho'shea
I heard a ho say you her favorite rapper
(So what) so I had to slap her, ugn
And violate you, a Muslim drinking brew
Your guy ain't no Mack 10, he a 22
I seen you, you ain't say shit in ATL
Cube, I like that diamond charm, I might cuff it, then sell
It out, like you sold Kam and Threat
A year ago, you wasn't talking shit about the West
Guess you knew you're shit was done plus the one got you cable
Hoo Bangin, you ain't banging shit but the table
in the Circle Mad, ain't got no choice but to fight
Ain't none of y'all muthafuckas got a chance on the mic
Anytime you come out, jo, I'm a talk about you
Until you let that bitch in you, walk up out you
Any last words before I hit the switch
From the immortal words of one, a bitch is a ...
[Edited 9/20/06 13:52pm]

Meloh9 said:

I hear u on the sell-out thang but hell.....no one is putting $$ in your pocket, make money the way u can. If u sell your soul or your people in the process, there is a price 2 pay 4 that.

ThePunisher said:

yeah Ice T said he came up poor, and that he doesn't turn down nothing but his collar. that's real. But I think sell - out is aimed at people who change their whole persona up and everything that they once stood for to gain mainstream success. Ice T married a porn star, still dresses and acts the same, still has his own web site that sells his own brand of gangsta/playa rap. So I agree, you can't truly say a person sold out based on financial success alone.

Meloh9 said:

I don't begrudge Ice T a single thing - including that blow-up doll he's married to, and the fact that his last decent album came out seventy nine years ago.