Ice Cube - Laugh Now, Cry Later

I love Cube. Ice Cube’s menacing grill, jheri curl, powerful voice and fuck all y’all attitude is pretty much what got me into hip hop in the first place. All those years ago when an older cousin gave me a tape of Straight Outta Compton, I was around ten years old and didn’t really know what the fuck was going on, but I memorised those verses the way I should have memorised my times tables. I followed Cube through his whole career, from Compton thug to the scariest political activist Amerikkka had ever seen, to laid back G and of course that forgettable Don Mega period. With ‘Laugh Now, Cry Later’, the aforementioned personas are all represented, along with the many others Cube has assumed throughout his career …

I love Cube. Ice Cube’s menacing grill, jheri curl, powerful voice and fuck all y’all attitude is pretty much what got me into hip hop in the first place. All those years ago when an older cousin gave me a tape of Straight Outta Compton, I was around ten years old and didn’t really know what the fuck was going on, but I memorised those verses the way I should have memorised my times tables. I followed Cube through his whole career, from Compton thug to the scariest political activist Amerikkka had ever seen, to laid back G and of course that forgettable Don Mega period. With ‘Laugh Now, Cry Later’, the aforementioned personas are all represented, along with the many others Cube has assumed throughout his career.

It’s a different Ice Cube on ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’, but at the same time, it’s an Ice Cube we’ve always known. Elements of Compton thug are still there; only he’s a little older and has kids now. We get glimpses the misogynist from the NWA days, and there is a tiny piece of Don Mega still in there. It’s largely a composite personality, with each character watered down a little until the grown man floated to the top. This album was released nine days prior to Cube’s 37th birthday, and his attitude has shifted accordingly.

So while the political mayhem of something like Fuck Tha Police or We Had To Tear This Muthafucka Up is no longer on the agenda, more subtle and considered political messages are interspersed throughout the album. The Nigga Trap for example bounces from issue to issue but maintains a backbone of an unjust legal system (“invented and designed for us to fail / where you gonna end up, dead or in jail?”). The fury has made way for the father, so even though all-out assaults from the days of Death Certificate are now quite rare, something like the following has taken their place.

“Flava Flav with a white bitch, that is wack / gotta put the nigga back in my Cadillac / take him to the hood, where it’s action packed / let him know that the target’s still on his back / it’s a hustle called capitalism / got my niggas in prison or stuck in the system / recognize who’s the hustler / George W, he’s the one that’s sittin back fuckin ya / with a big dick stuck in ya / I’m from the place where the fuckin Terminator is the Governor”

The soundscape provided by a wide variety of producers is in equal parts diverse and consistent. The excellent beat selection resulting in an album that never slips too far into dull generic hip hop and also has the cohesion of a good album. The beats are big and loud enough to match it with Cube’s dominant and authorative tone but never letting the vocal-production relationship become competitive. The production is rarely bigger than ‘Child Support’, featuring Cube issuing out beatings to the many bastard kids he has unavoidably birthed after fathering the gangsta genre.

Outside of the social messages dropped consistently throughout the album,
Cube is still catering for the streets. “Chrome and Paint”, “Click Clack Get Back”, “Doin What It Pose 2do” and “Spittin Pollaseeds” are some of the better songs on here, two of which feature Cube’s reliable long-time collaborator WC, who spits my favourite line on the entire album; “Fuck rap! I’m wearin a creased tee, eatin ribs”.

Laugh Now Cry Later is an unlikely return to form for Cube, who unlike most 37 year-olds, sounds as though he could make another two or three albums without a problem.