WC - Guilty By Affiliation

Label: Big Swang / Lench Mob

Release Date: August 14, 2007

Features: Ice Cube, The Game, Snoop Dogg

As rap has become ubiquitous, its artists have moved slowly but steadily away from the street-centered mentality that made the music so potent in the 1980s and early 1990s. Realizing that rap has lost its edge and intensity, Los Angeles rap icon and Westside Connection member WC returns rap to its creative roots -- exemplary lyricism, conceptual greatness, bone-crushing production -- on his masterful new album, Guilty By Affiliation.

Examining the reality of ghetto life in America has long been a staple of WC's work, a trend that continues with his new collection. "Growing up in a gang-related area, I realized that you can get caught up in the justice system, and I saw how it easily becomes the injustice system for us," WC explains. "I wanted to call the record Guilty By Affiliation for that reason. Also, being from the West Coast, there's been so many uphill battles just to get noticed."

WC details the pitfalls of life in Los Angeles ghettos and his struggle to ascend to music industry stardom on the intimidating "West Coast Voodoo," the confrontational "This Is Los Angeles" and the Butch Cassidy-assisted "Dodge Ball." Elsewhere, the title track details how being black isn't a job, but an adventure -- with police, rival gang members, drugs and other forces waiting to derail you.

WC then references the famous fairy tale on "Jack & The Bean Stalk," which signals the awakening of a sleeping giant -- WC, in this case. On this monstrous cut, WC flexes his visually arresting lyrical skills: "I'm harder than Michael Jackson's dick in a day care…I beat a rappin bitch up, too, 'cos I don't play fair." The piano-propelled "Paranoid" further showcases WC's twisted humor: "I'm nothin' nice, like Fantasia without no makeup on, on the mic I'm a ugly ass sight."

By documenting his own struggles with society and the still harrowing aftermath of America's institutionalized racism, WC has created music that is important and thought provoking as it is entertaining. "I'm dealing with being black, just having a jacket thrown on me for being black," he says. "Once that jacket is on you, there's so much that comes with it, from just stepping outside to what people expect you to do if you've had some success. It's like an ongoing rollercoaster. It takes a strong individual to not crack or break down."

Since appearing on the Ice-T-backed Rhyme Syndicate compilation in the late 1980s, WC has remained rock-solid and has established himself as one of rap's most important voices. He was the visionary behind Low Profile and the political WC And The MAAD Circle. With supergroup Westside Connection (Ice Cube, Mack 10, WC), WC flexed his gangster rap heritage to the hilt.

One constant throughout his distinguished career has been his uncanny ability to draw attention to his high-octane rhymes through his varied inflection, his wide-ranging delivery patterns and his constantly shifting rhyme speed. Long-time partner-in-rhyme and childhood neighbor Ice Cube has also been a constant in WC's career and is releasing Guilty By Affiliation on his Lench Mob Records. "Cube's not just a feature," WC says. "He's a part of the record now."

And it's a record that will send shockwaves throughout a rap community that has become too comfortable with its own success. "There's still problems in the ghetto that exist," WC says. "They're not over with. Until they're dealt with accordingly, there's going to be a lot of chaos out here. And I'm a product of that." Guilty as charged.


Hit the links below to download Dub C's latest street singles from "Guilty By Affiliation":

» WC - Addicted To It
» WC - West Coast Voodoo Feat. The Game

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