ICE CUBE - MAN DOWN (Offical Discussion)

[teecee]

compton was a different style of dre but still sounded on point in terms of flow and rhymes

and you like the way snoop is rappin on gorgeous while to me it sounds over contrived and somewhat copy + pasted

at the end of the day can’t argue opinions

Agreed; we lookin for different things from our legends.  I just want a little more charisma from Cube, and originality mixed with a classic sound.

[Westdog]

Cube really can rap better, with dope flow. It feels like he just took songs that were already recorded and were sitting on the shelf and threw them into an album. the flow really needs some work. It was killer in 1996-1998.

[gfunk2024]

I want some WSC Bow Down Cube. That was my favorite era of Cube's flow. Like someone said, 96-98. Don't get me wrong, his earlier albums are very dope, but I think his flow was best from probably 95 (Friday) through 98 (War album).

[Laconic5261]

This album is really a grower for me. At first listen, I was highly disappointed but then I sat down with some headphones and digested it more. It's a really solid record IMO.The only track I wasn't really feeling was Especially You even though I know what he was trying to do with it.

Bangers:
Rollin' At Twilight
So Sensitive
It's My Ego
Not Like Them
Break the Mirror
Ego Maniacs
Ghetto Story
Imma Burn Rubber
Let's Get Money Together
etc.

[Malcy]

This album is really a grower for me. At first listen, I was highly disappointed but then I sat down with some headphones and digested it more. It's a really solid record IMO.The only track I wasn't really feeling was Especially You even though I know what he was trying to do with it.

Bangers:
Rollin' At Twilight
So Sensitive
It's My Ego
Not Like Them
Break the Mirror
Ego Maniacs
Ghetto Story
Imma Burn Rubber
Let's Get Money Together
etc.

Good headphones/proper speaker set-ups are a must for music in general. The bass on It's My Ego was thumping and a good teaser for what to expect sound wise for the album. I'm due another listen but for me there was only one shit song on the whole album and that was 'No Cap'.

[Laconic5261]

Good headphones/proper speaker set-ups are a must for music in general. The bass on It's My Ego was thumping and a good teaser for what to expect sound wise for the album. I'm due another listen but for me there was only one shit song on the whole album and that was 'No Cap'.

I actually liked No Cap on first listen.

[Malcy]

I actually liked No Cap on first listen.

Each to their own. I hate the phrase "no cap",  just say 'lie'. So that didn't help. When listening it just feels like it doesn't fit for me as well.

[Sccit]

I actually liked No Cap on first listen.

i initially didn’t like no cap but wifey enjoyed it when i was bumpin the album and it made me appreciate it more

[Laconic5261]

i initially didn’t like no cap but wifey enjoyed it when i was bumpin the album and it made me appreciate it more

No doubt!

[The Predator]

Ice Cube Reaches A New Career High With His Latest Album

Dec 5, 2024

Ice Cube doesn’t release new music as often as he used to, but that’s not uncommon when it comes to musicians who have been in the industry for as long as he has. The rap legend is back with his first new project in more than half a decade, and the set helps him reach higher than ever in his career on one chart.

Man Down, Ice Cube’s latest full-length, debuts on a pair of charts in the United Kingdom this week. The set didn’t perform well enough to land on the main albums tally, but it does bring the hip-hop powerhouse to a never-before-seen high point–which is not commonly seen for rappers who have been at it for decades.

Ice Cube’s latest project opens at No. 18 on the Official Album Downloads chart, the list of the top-selling albums via download stores like Amazon, iTunes, and others. No. 18 now stands as the rapper’s loftiest placement on the tally, though he hasn’t scored many wins on the ranking, despite the fact that he’s been a legend in the genre for years.

Before Man Down arrived, Ice Cube’s highest-ranking appearance on the Official Album Downloads chart was his most recent effort, Everythang’s Corrupt. That title debuted and peaked at No. 27 in 2018, when it was brand new. Until now, it marked his only top 40 win on the downloads-only tally.

Ice Cube has only sent three projects to the Official Album Downloads chart throughout his career. He first reached the ranking in 2015, nearly a decade ago. That year, his debut full-length AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted debuted, and it peaked at No. 77. The set landed on that roster 25 years after it was first shared with the public.

Man Down’s debut inside the top 20 on the downloads tally is notable, but there are many other new releases–and some older titles that finally enter the race–that beat him. 11 projects land ahead of Ice Cube, including the Wicked soundtrack and albums from artists such as Kendrick Lamar, U2, Marilyn Manson, and Opeth, among others. The rapper does best the likes of Wizkid, Joan Armatrading, and even the Moana 2 soundtrack, which could climb in the coming weeks.

As it launches inside the top 20 on the downloads-centric list, Man Down narrowly misses entering the same space on another tally. Ice Cube is back on the Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums chart with his new full-length, which begins its time on that genre-specific, sales-only ranking at No. 21.

[The Predator]

Ice Cube on His Son O'Shea Jr.’s Andrew Schulz Comments: 'Light Work’

O'Shea Jr. and Schulz clashed over the comedian's controversial Kendrick Lamar joke.

Ice Cube didn’t bat an eye when O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Andrew Schulz knocked heads last week.

TMZ caught up with Cube at LAX, asking his thoughts on how his son dealt with the situation.

“He can handle that all day, any day,” Cube said. “That’s light work.”

When the reporter asked if Cube had a message for Schulz, he said, “Come with some better jokes, homie.”

On Dec. 4, O’Shea quote-tweeted a clip of Schulz from his Flagrant podcast, where the comedian responded to Kendrick Lamar appearing to reference him on the GNX album cut, “Wacced Out Murals.” "Don't let no white comedian talk about no Black woman, that's law," Dot rapped.

Schulz responded on his podcast, making an odd joke about how if he ended up in a jail cell with Lamar, he would “make love” to him and smiled as he remarked that, "the only thing that he could do is decide if it's consensual or not."

O’Shea responded, calling Schulz a, “Weird ass n***a.” That prompted Schulz to name drop Jackson Jr.’s father. “Google ‘No Vaseline’ by Ice Cube,” Schulz wrote.

O’Shea didn’t let the remark slide. He fired back: “A metaphor about getting fucked business wise by your manager is not the same homie. He ain’t call you a bitch. He ain’t say fuck you. Didn’t even say your name. And your response was buck breaking. Shit was just crazy.”

Jackson Jr. wasn’t the only one who thought Schulz’s joke was strange. Meek Mill, TDE’s Punch, and Peter Rosenberg also responded.

"White man saying they'll rape Black men openly is extreme... and then say it's just a joke," Meek tweeted. "Black manhood is not a joke! I seen the same guys saying I was gay on his stand up! My white friends like it's a joke! We don't joke like that in the Black community at all!"

[U.N.T.O.U.C.H.A.B.L.E.]

Decent album by Cube for today's standards 

[The Predator]

'Tis the Season to Revisit a Holiday Cult Classic
[THE MAIN EVENT]



Film executive, actor, and rapper Ice Cube

Why Ice Cube centered Friday After Next around Christmas.

Seasoned filmmaker Ice Cube explains why he went with a far-from-festive Christmas storyline for Friday After Next

UpRising: As a writer, Cube, how did you land on the Christmas premise for Friday After Next?

Ice Cube: I wanted to do a California Christmas movie. No one would ever do a Christmas like us. I've seen Christmas [on the West Coast] my whole life. And so I set out to blend the two from not just being a Friday movie but wrapped up in a holiday so I can really show how we celebrate Christmas on the West Coast where there’s no snow on the ground. It's Christmas lights on palm trees and shit like that. I just wanted to cinematically show how we do Christmas on the West Coast.

Do you recall the studio’s reaction to the script?

When it comes to Friday movies, I really don't need the studio reaction because it is nuanced comedy. The way that I'm trying to [deliver the] comedy is not the average stuff you would normally laugh at or see, but if you're from the neighborhood, you see it all the time and it is funny. So I just think their perspective is not as welcomed in those situations as it is with an action movie or something different. I might really be into the collaborative stuff [in those kinds of films], but with a Friday movie, we know how to do this.

As much as people enjoy Hallmark Christmas movies, audiences look forward to holiday films that fall into unexpected genres. It’s how we get debates over Die Hard being a Christmas film.

I'm not a big fan of Christmas, to be honest. So beating Santa Claus’ ass with a Christmas tree is funny to me. That’s just the hood version of some of the Christmases we've had to go through or experience or heard about. Everybody heard about all the presents being gone and stolen from somebody. You just know some kids are going to be crying. People are going to be yelling, talking shit, mad at the community for breaking in their house. So I wanted to go on that. I think that's more of a Craig and Day-Day story and the fact that they're security guards at Christmastime just adds to their chaos. Could you imagine a guy working a little mall or a strip mall as security during Christmas when it's crazy people fighting over parking spots. His Christmas ain't good, he ain't having fun. I just wanted to have an anti-Christmas theme in the Christmas movie.

Katt Williams appears in the next MACRO film, One of Them Days. Director Lawrence Lamont recently spoke with UpRising about his gift of improvisation. Did you realize Katt Williams was such a special talent when you filmed Friday After Next?

Yeah, I mean just seeing him in his costume and wardrobe, you just started laughing, hearing that voice. Some people got a voice where they can almost say anything and make you laugh. It's the sound of their voice. Chris Tucker is another guy who can do it with the voice. Even John Witherspoon. So when you got people like that, you could tell very quick that whatever we give them is going to snap and pop. It's going to have that energy that you want in a movie.

What we did was have him run the script as-is and then we say, okay, once you comfortable with it as-is, how would you do this scene? Go for it. We ready for [your character to say] anything. And in those readings, sometimes you get the jewels, you get the ad-lib parts that are not scripted but works perfectly with the scripted lines. The more you do that, the more jewels you get for the editor. It's really the editor who has to balance what's in the script and where the ad-libs can enhance the script.

You said you don’t really enjoy Christmas movies, but if you were forced to watch one that wasn’t Friday After Next, which would you select?

I love Home Alone. That's the top to me. [National Lampoon's] Christmas Vacation is pretty cool, you know what I mean? I like the Vacation style filmmaking. Die Hard is dope and I consider it a Christmas movie. And to be honest, I look at Trading Places as a Christmas movie because it is done at Christmastime.

You’ve released a new album, Man Down, and masculinity is a theme throughout the work. What are your thoughts on masculinity and where it stands today?

There's a line between true masculinity and being an asshole, right? For some reason when you hear the word masculinity, you think somebody want to be an asshole, a bully, somebody pushing his weight around, that's where masculinity is. But that's not what that is. It’s being your true comfortable self. You know what I mean? That's what it is. Men are apologizing for being themselves and that shit gotta stop. There's no survival in that. There's no future in that. We need men, youngsters, and boys for the world, for the infrastructure, to stay together in this world. So it's a bad word now that we got to turn around.

Speaking of masculine personas, you and Busta Rhymes worked together on John Singleton’s Higher Learning. You two reconnect on “Ego Maniacs.” His lyrics, along with Killer Mike’s, salute you. What was your reaction when you first heard his verse?

I was honored when I heard the verse. I was blown away that he could spit all the facts in a quick 16 [bars]. I was amazed at his wordplay on the record. It was all love from him and Killer Mike—love that I didn't expect. So it was very cool. You doing something right when you got two ferocious MCs giving you props, you know what I mean?

The West Coast is having a moment. You have an album in cycle, Dr. Dre and Snoop just released Missionary, and Kendrick’s GNX album debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 319,000 sold in its first week. The city also has the Olympics coming in 2028. DJ HED recently said this West Coast reign could run several years, so people should get comfortable.

We’re having a moment for sure. Whether it would last two or three years, I don't know about that part. The thing is, you keep releasing good music, keep doing cool stuff, and hopefully the attention stays. But this is hip-hop. The tides flow. You got to understand that you don't have two years. You got a moment, so take advantage of it. You never know a whole new sound can come from somewhere that just blow people away. I remember when everybody thought they had a moment and then Nelly came out from St. Louis and just put the moment somewhere else. We can't sleep. We got to keep doing good stuff, keep doing good music.

What is it about the West that unifies those participating in the culture? That unity appears to be different than other regions.

I think you got a major gang culture out here, so people are used to linking up and we've had major movements like gang truces and peace treaties and things like that. When you have the feeling of brotherhood and unity, it just makes it feel larger than life as a connection. And so we've had those moments. Kendrick with The Pop Out was a moment where you see there's unity in the air, it looks like an army of people all moving in the same direction. That's very powerful. I don't think other regions have the gang culture in a way where if it ever linked up and locked up and connected that it could be as formative. And it is all up and down California and then you feel it in Arizona, you feel it in Vegas, you feel it in Seattle. We've all unified it behind the W, that West Coast symbol. It gives the perception of major unity.

Revisit Friday After Next this holiday season and spin Ice Cube's new banger, Man Down, as you ring in the New Year.

[Jay_J]

I already forgot ice cube released an album. I just listened to it only once from start to end the day it came out. Following few days i listened to 2 or 3 songs from album in repeat. It was so average and i didnt see any professional effort by ice cube. Both lyrically and production wise. As i said i already forgot it if i dont see the topic above in dubcc. Very forgetable album.

But im still happy ice cube is not retired and releasing albums. I am just sad it was not dope and i have to wait for another cube album for at least 4 years.

[Sccit]

I already forgot ice cube released an album. I just listened to it only once from start to end the day it came out. l

imagine if you woulda did this wit missionary