Los Angeles emcee, songwriter, actor, movie producer, CubeImaginative and prescient founder & BIG3 founder Ice Cube not slowing down musically along with his twelfth album. The cousin of Del the Funky Homosapien & Kam, he began as a part of the C.I.A. gained notoriety as a member of N.W.A till departing after their historic debut Straight Outta Compton. Cube later received his personal Priority Records deal as a solo artist, teaming with The Bomb Squad for his personal debutAmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted & later Kill at Will. Death Certificate went on to develop into one other west coast hip hop landmark attributable to a few of its racially & politically charged content material, along with his Lench Mob Records debut The Predator primarily addressing plenty of the racial tensions within the United States on the time. Lethal Injection was extra g-funk heavy and the War & Peace double-disc effort marked the top of the previous Westside Connection member’s Priority contract. Laugh Now, Cry Later distributed by Virgin music & EMI Records was a stable comeback nearly 2 a long time in the past subsequent summer time after primarily specializing in performing through the first half of the 2000s & then Raw Footage had it’s highlights though it was first rate as an entire. I’m the West turned his most negatively obtained physique of labor & the Interscope Records-distributed Everythang’s Corrupt confirmed to be an enchancment though nonetheless common. Man Down final fall was a fairly nice homage to his Day 1s & the sequel Man Up is right here 10 months later.

“Man Power” produced by E-A-Ski begins by asking if one has masculine talents from inside whereas “What You Gonna Do About It?” disses the sort of people that solely communicate of doing issues as an alternative performing upon it. “Freedumb” consciously discusses how persons are getting spied on by means of their smartphones whereas “Guess What?” talks about being within the lower determining if the focused suspects are both for or towards him.

We have Cube making it clear as day that one ought to “Forget Me If You Ain’t wit Me” main into the one single “Before hip hop” speaking about life prior to creating music over a Hallway Productionz instrumental. “Act My Age” that includes Scarface dabbles with entice a bit for an ode to MCs over 35 simply earlier than “Ratchet Ass Mouth” cautions in regards to the sort of ladies you shouldn’t date.

“Respect My Space” poses the query if anybody needs to battle him whereas “California Dreamin’” provides off a g-funk vibe for a tribute to the sunshine state. “That Salt & Pepper” exhibits off his grown man standing for 115 seconds over a cool Erick Sermon beat & after “Bring Everybody” charismatically talks about being untouchable, “All Work No Play” finishes with a message to the O.G.s who really feel the identical method he does.

In spite of what others should say about Ice Cube’s music in previous 2 a long time or so & don’t get me began with War of the Worlds flopping, I’d say that Man Down is the higher of the two albums we’ve gotten from him prior to now 10 months though Man Up’s very a lot first rate. I admire that he solely received 1 visitor on right here in distinction to the quantity Man Down had, however the manufacturing here’s a little weaker as an entire.

Score: 6/10