In this lifetime, doing any job at a consistently high level for 40 years is quite the accomplishment, but in the world of entertainment — hip-hop specifically, being able to do that is relatively unheard of.
Rapper, producer, director, basketball league owner Ice Cube has defied the odds and continues to make headway in industries he has taken up large amounts of space for quite some time.
As the Goodyear blimp appropriately sailed the skies outside Rocket Arena, the rapper brought his Truth to Power tour to the stage. The concert celebrated the mogul’s 40 years in the industry.
As the lights went down, a music video for “Before Hip Hop,” a single from Cube’s latest album Man Up, was projected onto large curtains covering the stage. A vignette highlighting some of Cube’s early societal and musical influences played, citing historical happenings like the assassinations of JFK and Malcolm X along with the Watts Riots.
Once those curtains fell, the NWA front man took to the stage with the group’s breakout hit “F*ck The Police” as an eager crowd erupted with excitement. Other foundational tunes followed including “Dopeman,” “Gangsta Gangsta,” “Straight Outta Compton” and “Boyz N The Hood.” The late Eazy-E’s son, Lil Eazy joined Cube on stage to perform the latter.
Another vignette showed how Cube and NWA received threats from Tipper Gore and the FBI (there is a letter from the FBI to the group on display the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame into which the group was inducted into in 2016) along with him eventually leaving the group and working with the likes of Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad production team.
That collaboration led to the creation of Ice Cube’s first solo album with 1990’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. He performed a few songs from that release that he said usually don’t see the stage during tours like “Jackin For Beats” and “Once Upon a Time in the Projects.” Cube took the time to let the audience know that the microphone is on, he’s a real MC who’s not using AutoTune and he would not be pointing the mic at them to perform the songs for him.
He would go on to perform a heavily sanitized version of “No Vaseline,” a record aimed at his former NWA crew which many hold as the greatest diss track of all time. In a very classy move (since the group members have long since reconciled), this rendition did not say anyone’s name in particular and the most obscene moments were either altered or omitted completely.
The next vignette spoke on how Cube met film director John Singleton, who cast him as Doughboy in his first movie role in Boyz n the Hood. He said that he owes his entire career in film to the late director.
Songs from the film’s soundtrack and also some tunes from his Death Certificate (“Steady Mobbin” and “My Summer Vacation”) and Lethal Injection (“Ghetto Bird,” “Really Doe,” “Bop Gun” and “You Know How We Do It”) followed.
In the midst of the beef with NWA and LA Riots, Cube said that he felt it was time to squash the BS and move in a different direction, which led to him writing and creating what he jokingly called “a little movie called Friday.”
He performed a few songs from that soundtrack along with songs from his other classic film, The Player’s Club. Before taking a brief break, Cube said that he came with a few gifts for the audience. The first one was a surprise appearance from Houston MC Scarface, who performed a medley of some of his most popular tunes including “Mary Jane,” “Smile” and “Mind Playing Tricks.” The other surprise was WC, who also dug deep into his bag to perform some of his songs as well.
After a wardrobe change, Cube once again took to the stage as they performed songs from the Westside Connection era and Crip walked atop large video monitors between the front ends of what had have been 64′ Impalas.
Cube’s foray into the 2000’s saw collaborations with Dr. Dre for NWA’s “Hello,” Mike Epps for “Why We Thugs” (along with a slew of movies), Lil Jon and Snoop Dogg (“Go To Church”).
Things began to wind down with “I Ain’t Got No Haters” and the Scarface-assisted “Man Down” which brought him back to the stage.
Rocket Arena went dark and Cube asked if he could do one more. The audience of course obliged and when the lights came back on, Cube gave everyone what they wanted in the form of his classic track “It Was a Good Day” from The Predator.
The pageantry was taken up a notch when a miniature Goodyear blimp flew above the crowd with a scrolling message of “Ice Cube’s A Pimp” for all to see, recalling the timeless lyric from the song.
After 40 years of success and sustained relevance in multiple fields, it’s easy to think that Ice Cube is satisfied enough to rest upon his laurels and sail off into the sunset — but if this two hour-long tip of the iceberg retrospective is any indication, Cube has much more to say and do in the decades to come.
