Laugh Now, Cry Later [PA] - Cube, Ice (CD)

I have to admit it - this old man really has some balls.

Once the guy who wanted to burn Hollywood with Public Enemy, Ice Cube is now more recognized for his work in film and television than his music. Once the guy who released one album per year, Ice Cube has let six years pass since his last one. Once the author of definitive gangsta rap records, the last thirteen years have seen him release consecutive mediocre ones. Once the rapper with that menacing growl that could scare away the Devil himself, he was now staring in Disney movies like Are We There Yet?, where he was being scared - by kids.

Yep, things seemed to have changed, big time. Like I said before, this old man really has some balls. Which is what makes Laugh Now, Cry Later such an admirable effort. Despite recent history, Ice Cube was able to craft an album that is a far cry from the disasters of Lethal Injection and his War & Peace series.

If you think his socio-political days are firmly behind him, think again. Remember, Ice Cube did not exactly think all was peaches and cream during the reign of Bush I in 1990 and 1991. And it is no different for the reign of Bush II (even discounting the swipe he takes at Arnold Swartzenegger in The N***a Trapp ). Riding over the minimalist thump of a Scott Storch beat, Cube quickly gets to business in Why We Thugs , implying that, judging from the way his presidency has been run so far, George Dubya Bush is no different from the dictator he had removed three years ago ( Bush run s**t like Saddam Hussein ), and skims through the reasons why there are impoverished black neighborhoods in America.

As good as Why We Thugs is, Child Support is a more satisfying effort. The production team of Teak & Dre does a great job with those sharp drums and deep horn spurts. Here, Cube is concerned about the thousands of caricatures generated from a subgenre he helped establish rappers who do not have a modicum of the insight and cleverness he has. I'm the father of this gangsta s**t/Never thought that I have a bunch of bastard kids, he laments. He also decries the fact that million dollar n****s [are] killing million dollar n****s in an apathetic and predatory industry that would do anything to squeeze every single penny from them, even in death. Once the jheri curl-wearing teenager who mumbled, Life ain t nothing but b***hes and money in 1989 s Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube now chuckles in 2006: Emcees are funny/All you can rap about is p***y and money? It certainly shows that Ice Cube has grown wiser with age, and he is not shying away from reprimanding rap personalities who are on the wrong path.

And among such people is Flavor Flav. Once providing comic relief for the greatest socio-political group in rap history, the gigantic clock-wearing Flav has become better known as a skirt-chasing buffoon and money-hungry w***e on VH1 reality television shows than for being rap s greatest hype man. Ice Cube ain t having it. He recruits DJ Green Lantern for the Scarface-esque beat - perfect for his mission. Once he jacked a beat from Flavor Flav s crew in 1990 s Jackin For Beats now he is jacking Flavor Flav himself in The N***a Trapp reminding him of the Public Enemy logo where the silhouette of a black man stands right in the middle of a sniper s scope, questionable racial comment notwithstanding:

Flavor Flav with a white b***h - that is wack
Got to put the n***a 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

Cube doesn t even spare himself. I used to be lyrical, political/But now you want it sugarcoated like cereal? he states in the reminiscent Growin Up . Makes you think he wants to forget the lapse of his Don Mega period. Well, that s good for him it is a return to the introspection that characterized his best work, which is chiefly responsible for the strength of Laugh Now, Cry Later.

But I won t give all the credit to the reawakening of Ice Cube s social consciousness. The beats in this album are incredible. Say what you will about Lil Jon, but he brings the club heat in Go to Church which features Snoop Dogg; and Holla @ Cha Boy . Teak & Dre deliver again with the tinny and addictive electronic sounds in The Game Lord . Budda provides the hypnotic Far Eastern beat of Smoke Some Weed . There is also the aforementioned Why We Thugs , Child Support and The N***a Trapp . In fact, the production work is so consistent in quality it is hard not to talk about almost every single beat in this album.

And that s good for Cube, because he doesn t need nice beats only when he s rapping about social issues. He has never been famous for songs of braggadocio, but surprisingly Laugh Now, Cry Later is replete with quality ones. Doin What It Pose 2Do is a good example. With the powerful boom bap boom-boom-boom bap of the drum as the foundation of Emile s beat, Ice Cube kicks off with gangsta multi-syllables:

Had to come through, shine on you n***as
Stop lying on a n***a
Got my nine on your liver
F**k around and go blind on a n***a
Do time for a n***a
Put your mind on your mirror

It s better heard than read, believe me.

A better example, however, should be Click, Clack Get Back! Once again, it s Emile behind the boards. With a smashing rock beat that varies slightly at the hook, Ice Cube rips the mic to shreds:

I never take s**t from rappers
I turn them m***********s into cadavers
(Ka-plow!) I'm f*****g mo' n****s than Napster
Cause you se a trick and your ghostwriter is Casper
I heard you lost on Fear Factor
Cause you couldn't swallow these nuts, big as a tractor

It s awesome and hilarious at the same time.

With all this being said, Laugh Now, Cry Later could have been a better album. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, he could have done without the skits. They really slow things down. The Mike Epps-featured ones in particular are annoying. The dude is just not funny. Listening to him asking Cube to do another movie with him in Dimes & Nicks , he sounds like a nagging wife. What s even more annoying is that he has more unfunny quips integrated into some of the albums latter songs, so you cannot skip them at all. Speaking of the album s latter songs, the fourth quarter of Laugh Now, Cry Later is largely underwhelming. Some commercial concessions just don t cut it. Nice WC cameo in Chrome & Paint , but Cube should leave this kind of subject matter to the Houston rappers. Lil Jon falters with the very simplistic percussion of You Gotta Lotta That and the standard booty talk from Cube and Snoop (is this guy the all-time rap champion of album cameos or what?) does not help matters, either. And Spittin Pollaseeds , which starts off as promising with another WC cameo, eventually wears out its welcome when Kokane seemingly repeats the sung hook ad infinitum.

Besides, how convincing, really, is Ice Cube s gangsta image now, in 2006? Sure, he still has that lyrical fire, as evidenced in songs like Doin What It Pose 2Do , Click Clack Get Back! , The Game Lord and Steal the Show . But sometimes, I can t help but think of him squealing like a little b***h and being chased by this burly fellow in Barbershop, or him getting bumrushed by a horde of unruly kids in a school hall in Are We There Yet? I have to be honest, Hollywood has considerably softened his image. His gangsta isn t what it used to be, and he knows it, leading him to give half-hearted defenses like "To all you m***********s say I went Hollywood/I'm gangsta - I know when I got it good" in "Child Support". Sorry Cube, you're not quite the n***a everyone loves to hate anymore.

In any case, Laugh Now, Cry Later is a really good album, easily his best since 1992 s The Predator. Twenty years! I've been serving you fiends for twenty years! Why would you f**k with anybody else, hah? he says at the end of the last track, Holla @ Cha Boy . True, first as a member of N.W.A., then as a trailblazing solo artist, he has racked up an impressive body of work over the course of two decades. And Laugh Now, Cry Later can be chalked up as a comeback, after a string of musical disappointments. But with that being said, let s hope that the thirty-seven year old rap legend continues to bring the fire, just like to the skyline that he frowns upon on the album cover.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Definition of a West Coast G
2. Why We Thugs
3. Smoke Some Weed
4. Dimes & Nicks
5. Child Support
6. 2 Decades Ago
7. Doin What It Pose 2 Do
8. Laugh Now, Cry Later
9. Stop Snitching
10. Go to Church
11. The N***a Trap
12. A History of Violence
13. Growing Up
14. Click Back Get Back
15. The Game Lord
16. Chrome & Paint
17. Steal the Show
18. You Gotta Lotta That
19. Spittin Pollaseeds
20. Holla @ Cha Boy

REVIEWS IN MY ICE CUBE SERIES:

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990)
Kill at Will EP (1990)
Death Certificate (1991)
The Predator (1992)
Lethal Injection (1993)
Bootlegs & B-Sides (1994)
War & Peace, Vol. 1 (The War Disc) (1998)
War & Peace, Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) (2000)
Laugh Now, Cry Later (2006)