jelly
i guess they really weren't ready for mine:
Common Sense may have given up meat, but Ice Cube shows that he does more just than rap husky.
The Commodore Ballroom is the venue that Vancity has inadvertently offered up to both artists to show where they’ve been in the past year. April 30, 2006 was Ice Cube’s chance to challenge Vancouver’s fans to check their hating tendencies at the giant inflatable hand flashing a Westside on the stage.
Cube and WC opened the set with “Bow Down” and it was hard not to be moved. People question the validity and the virility of gangsta rap, but it’s the emotion of the music that holds their attention engaged. The bangin’ west coast funk beats work to cement the captivation, and Cube continues to contribute royally.
He took the crowd on a fantastic voyage of California love through his hits of the last decade, making teasing pit stops at his new material slated to drop this summer, with the true destination of setting up camp at thoroughly rocking the jams of yore.
Speaking of emoting, there was plenty of drama laced into the set as he got the crowd good and live, then exited stage right. WC was left to hold the mic and build the energy of the room. The fans showed their willingness to participate, and there’s something to be said of a packed crowd (that’s thoroughly blazed) hollering “FUCK ICE CUBE” in hopes of baiting him back.
It was a genius move to recall his past influence, as he may as well have gotten the crowd to yell “FUCK THA POLICE”, and it the perfect segue to NWA tracks. Carrying a few more pounds, Cube still rocks the same black uniform he did then, perhaps more so now to flaunt the ice that laces his appendages.
He warned the “rap bastards” to check themselves before they recked themselves”, and recounted a brief history of his work, reminding folks that he’s earned the title of “the Father of this gangsta shit” after twenty years in the game. He addressed the movies, the money, the power of hip hop unity, (“I look around this room and I see all colours together, hip hop did that. Now we just gotta do that outside”), and got the fans to throw up peace signs because “It Was A Good Day”. In other words, Cube has exemplified the notion “revolutionary but gangsta”.
The rapping on a curfew (he hit the stage at 10:30pm and was off by 11:30) might have thrown some off, and the looped PSA for the pop radio station framing his recorded tracks may have left some wishing he would’ve done more live, but any doubt that Cube can still rock a show was succinctly shelved.
At a time when some rappers are showing their longevity in the business as saturation to the tune of heavy rotation and Jennifer Lopez videos, Ice Cube proves that he’s still running everything West of the Mississippi.
just as a compare/contrast.
