In Newsweek, Allison Samuels hypes the latest music from Ice Cube. Over a full-page black-and-white photo of the rapper, his latest “social commentator” lyrics from his song “Why We Thug” are highlighted boldly in capital letters:
“Since I was little not a damn thing changed / It’s the same ol’ same / Bush runs things like Saddam Hussein.”
Most of these words are in green, but “Bush” and “Saddam Hussein” are in white letters for emphasis. Newsweek’s Samuels is giddy: “He was a savagely angry (and wickedly witty) social commentator on N.W.A.’s late-‘80s benchmarks ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and ‘F—- tha Police’…Cube’s new album may be the his best since the searing ‘Amerikkka’s Most Wanted’ in 1990.” Samuels lauds this junk as part of “rap’s long tradition of politically righteous anger.”
At times, other music critics in the liberal media elite have been less agreeable with Ice Cube's lyrics. Here, at the end of the NQ report, you'll note that you know they don't like you when they compare you to...right-wing Republicans:
"[Rap musician] Ice Cube spreads a thin veneer of political correctness over his writing, but his ringing endorsement of gun ownership, male superiority, and Asian-bashing makes him sound much more like a right-wing Republican than he'd ever admit."
-- Washington Post music critic Geoffrey Himes, November 3, 1991.
The guys here floating around watching for World Cup scores wonder whether Ice Cube really wants to contend that Bush would lob poison gas into the ghetto like Saddam did at Halabja….or whether Cube is trying to get the angry-rapper label back after doing very mainstream kiddie movies like Are We There Yet?
