Ice Cube
Tuesday, September 9
The VooDoo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino
Better Than: Higher Learning
By JASON HARPER
Photos by JOHN BERSUCH
In modern music, there are many boys, there are few men, and there are very few men, period, like Ice Cube. Founding member of N.W.A. and Da Lench Mob and a successful solo artist at the same game, he’s nothing less than a father figure to fans of gangsta rap of all races, creeds and genders: Red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight. Ice Cube loves the children of the world and has been helping them get high for two or three decades now.
Almost as impressive as the energy of the totally stoked, mostly older, mostly black, capacity-or-near-it crowd at the VooDoo Lounge last night was the connection that Ice forged with the people at his show, which he could have done almost without trying. From the moment he bounded on stage, cocky as all hell, the folks in the crowd married themselves to his familiar, famous face. Ice Cube had us in his hands so completely that, at any given point, he could have rolled out a cart full of vegetables and sold us heads of lettuce, which we would have happily bought. Or he could have stopped the music and lectured us on astrophysics – peppered with plenty of aggressive “y’all know what I’m saying?”s, it would’ve sounded like gospel. But fortunately, Ice, with help from his co-rapper, hype man and longtime Westsider WC (pronounced "Dub C") and Dub’s brother DJ Crazy Toones, stuck to kicking out the jams, crip walking and prognosticating on street values for nearly an hour and a half. All while looking so goddamn cool, you sweated for them. I hope it’s alright for a whiteboy to say: it was fucking gangsta heaven.
From a stage setup featuring a giant banner showing off the cover of the rapper’s new one, Raw Footage (basically him scowling in sunglasses), and the requisite raised platform for Crazy Toones, Ice and company did older ones like “Smoke Some Weed,” “Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself,” “Bow Down,” “A Good Day,” and a medley of N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” and “Gangsta Gangsta.” They did plenty off the new album and more recent ones that, while no less hard-hitting as the classics, were less familiar. “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It,” a satirical indictment of loudmouths who blame America’s ills on Ice Cube’s chosen craft, is probably the most memorable of the new batch.
Topics discussed:
1. Ice Cube’s acting career (see below)
2. marijuana (“What’s up, KC? It should smell like a Christmas tree in here!”)
3. When Ice Cube will retire (answer: never)
4. N.W.A. (all members’ names read off record sleeve)
5. The Westside pledge of allegiance, which promises “luxury and riches for all” (all fans invited to join)
6. The vilification of gangsta rap (“They wanna blame the ozone on gangsta rap. Gangsta rap ain’t nothin’ but a mirror.”)
7. Where scared motherfuckers go (answer: to church)
But wait – the movie thing. Talk about burying the lede. As an actor, Ice Cube has been in nearly 30 movies, ranging from ones close to his personal background (Boyz N the Hood, Friday, the Barbershop films), to B-movie flicks (Anaconda, The Ghosts of Mars), to screwball family comedies (Are We There Yet?). It’s even been rumored that he’s going to play Mr. T’s part in a remake of the A-Team. All this, plus the use of his songs in films -- i.e. “Straight Outta Compton” in Who’s Your Caddy -- would make you think that Ice Cube doesn’t need to play mid-size venues in the Midwest, even if he is promoting a new album.
This topic was addressed early on in the show, after about the fourth song. Ice Cube got on the mic and began a monologue, “Everywhere I go, everyone asks me the same question: When are you gonna retire?” A profanity-laced diatribe ensued in which Ice Cube explained that he was never going to retire from rap and just do movies. The haters, WC theorized from stage left, are just jealous of Ice Cube’s “movie money.” “I’m never gonna retire!” Ice proclaimed, “So you better check yourself … before … you wreck yourself!” And lo, that was the song into which they launched, with massive crowd approval.
Is Ice Cube only bothering to play places like Kansas City because he’s desperate to maintain his “street cred?” The very question is somewhat misguided. An artist like Ice Cube who wants to go on tour behind a new album will book the tour that is most cost effective, that doesn’t conflict with his other goals (movies, family, etc) and that generally makes the most sense. Technically, Ice Cube lost his street cred when he started appearing in Hollywood films, but the thing is, what celebrity, having been removed from the regular person’s experience of life, really has street cred? Maybe some rich rappers are involved in crime and thereby claim to have maintained credibility by still participating in the activities about which they rap. But does that make their music more satisfying to listen to? I hope not.
The main thing in this context, I think, is to come out, put on a kickass show, convince the audience that you’re a badass, and, most of all, make them feel like this show they’re witnessing means the most to you personally of any show you’ve played in the past year. That, Ice Cube accomplished with flying colors. I got the feeling from last night’s show that Ice Cube tours and makes music because he genuinely enjoys it and wants to do it.
He probably has fun on the movie set, too.
Critics’ Notebook
Personal Bias: I pretty much had no feelings about Ice Cube either way before this show. But, perhaps predictably, Three Kings is my favorite of his movies.
Complaints: There were three bartenders at either bar. That’s three people serving, at any given time, about, I don’t know, 80-100 people around the bar. Even at a ridiculously crowded show, it should not take 20-30 minutes to get a drink, HARRAH’S. Hire some more goddamn bartenders, even if they don’t know fucking “flair.” Also, the shows start too early. Everyone misses the openers. And while I'm at it, would all y'all mainstream rappers and R&B singers quit abusing AutoTune and that fucking vocoder bullshit? It's annoying!!! Thank you.
By the Way: Locals Skatterman and Snug Brim opened, but I missed them (see above). Tech N9ne evidently joined them for a song. All were hanging out backstage.
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