Sure he's doing commercials for fucking Coors Light today but back in 1991 no one could fucking touch Ice Cube. The guy leaves a lead vocalist spot in the seminal, multi-platinum N.W.A. to drop AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted with East Coast rivals Bomb Squad producing. Goes platinum in two months. Keeps it real the whole time - shills for St. Ides, moves back to South Central - I remember catching some random MTV Raps expo on him (probably when Kill At Will came out) that showed his crib in Inglewood or wherever; it might have technically been a mansion but it still looked fucking ghetto as shit. And when this fucker of an album dropped my sophomore year in college - it did not leave my fucking CD player for over a month. From start to finish, Death Certificate is probably the smartest and most socially relevant rap album ever released. It is easily Cube's best work and still holds up to repeated listens two decades after it was released. Nearly every song is a classic - from the opening "The Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit" to the hilarious "Givin' Up the Nappy Dug Out" and epic closer "No Vaseline". N.W.A. actually thought they had the high ground with their silly "Benedict Arnold" jabs on Efil4zaggin. Surprise fuckers! They had nothing compared to the absolute beatdown received in "Vaseline" - without a doubt the best (and funniest) musical dis ever recorded. The beats and production by Sir Jinx are flawless; "My Summer Vacation" and "Alive On Arrival" are my personal faves. Revisit this classic now.
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