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Ice Cube
Though he helped introduce a whole generation of white suburban teens to the inner city reality of gangsta rap, Ice Cube didn't come from the hood he's written about so often. Born O'Shea Jackson and raised in middle-class South Central L.A., Cube only started rapping and writing rhymes while in high school. However, his skills quickly got the attention of aspiring stars like Eric Wright (Eazy-E) and Andre Young (Dr. Dre), and after spending a year in a Phoenix architectural school, Cube returned to Cali and joined the fledgling N.W.A. with Eazy and Dre. The band's second album, 1988's Straight Outta Compton, caused a sensation with controversial hits like "F---Tha Police" and was the first big gangsta rap record. It was also Cube's last with the group, as left to go solo amid financial squabbles that left bitter feelings for years afterward. Nevertheless, Cube's first solo effort, 1990's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, (produced by Public Enemy's Bomb Squad) showed he didn't need N.W.A. to be successful. And a role in John Singleton's film Boyz N The Hood -- named after one of Cube's first compositions -- also won praise. Cube upped the ante for 1991's Death Certificate, inviting charges of racism with "Black Korea," which some said encouraged blacks to burn out inner-city Korean merchants, and "No Vaseline," a crude attack on NWA manager Jerry Heller, a Jew. But it was 1992's The Predator that gave Cube his biggest hit, the more reflective "It Was A Good Day." After his next album, Lethal Injection, suffered slipping sales in the wake of the G-Funk created by his old bandmate Dre, Cube took time off to star in films like Higher Learning, Anaconda, and the surprise comedy smash Friday, which he also wrote. He also produced tracks for Da Lench Mob and Kam, before returning to his solo career with the first half of his own epic War and Peace in 1998. The War Disc was followed two years later by The Peace Disc, which features everyone from old homey Dre to comedian Chris Rock. |
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