Ice Cube doesn’t seem as tough as he used to be.
Ice Cube, one of the founders of legendary rap group N.W.A. and the gangsta rap genre, released his twelfth solo album on Sept. 12, titled “Man Up.” The project serves as a follow-up to “Man Down,” which Ice Cube released in 2024, more than 35 years removed from the group’s hit release of “Straight Outta Compton.”
These days, most people know Ice Cube for his role in lovable films like “Boyz n the Hood” and “21 Jump Street,” rather than as a pillar of the West Coast rap community. In N.W.A.— which notably featured rappers like Eazy-E and Dr. Dre — Ice Cube was the lead rapper and lyricist, writing most of the lyrics for their biggest hits. However, he left the group early on over contract disputes, going solo in the early ’90s and eventually pivoting into what remains an active acting career.
I like Ice Cube — “It Was a Good Day” frequents my queue, especially when I’m on aux — but I did not have high expectations for “Man Up.” I hadn’t heard of any new Ice Cube releases in years, which is just how it goes with some of these older rappers — for example, Snoop Dogg isn’t really relevant as a rapper anymore, but he’s still put out some music while being more known as a personality. As their careers grow longer and longer, the music just doesn’t have the same quality, as if they’re chasing the glory days. The fear of becoming irrelevant pushes some artists toward trying to fuse their sound with popular music at the time. Unfortunately, I don’t think Ice Cube pulled off this fusion very well on this project.
Ice Cube initially rose to fame because of his writing and not his rapping. However, I found the lyrics to be one of the most lacking parts of this new album. Ice Cube relies way too heavily on repetition, making his lackadaisical delivery seem even slower when you have to hear the lyric twice. His flow falls very flat, not meshing with the beat in time and lacking energy. I can envision Ice Cube peering over the microphone with a pair of glasses, reading off each lyric scrawled on a piece of paper. He certainly isn’t able to bring the same kind of energy that we came to know and love from acclaimed songs like “Straight Outta Compton.”
The production of “Man Up” is mediocre. The majority of the beats have sharp drums — reminiscent of the ‘90s West Coast style and feature ad-lib mixing that sounds like it came straight from an old school turntable. I found that the different tracks on the album lacked variety — the beats on many songs would be the same 16-bar section repeating over and over again, no fils or transitions in the drums. Beats like these have a certain amount of mundaneness, like a ticking time bomb before it just gets old.
Ice Cube got creative with the sampling he did on “Man Up” and used these inclusions to pay homage to his love for film. Most notably, he samples an interview scene from Al Pacino’s “Scarface” on the intro track “Man Power.” Ice Cube also used bits from “The Killers,” “The Mack” and “Hollywood Shuffle.” Only a few songs on this 14-track album actually begin with an immediate beat drop. Instead, Ice Cube builds up to his songs through sampling cultural artifacts. On a song titled “Act My Age,” Ice Cube opens with a skit of a woman talking, saying “If you over 35 and still rappin’, keep rappin’, my boy / Keep goin’ to that studio, f–k all of that, ‘Oh, I’m gettin’ old’ s–t.” Creative inclusions like this spice up music, drawing from the works of past generations and bringing to life something new.
“Unc.” “Washed.” Whatever you want to call him, it seems Ice Cube is more adept on the big screen than in the studio right now. I would much rather listen to the older works of Ice Cube from the N.W.A. days, back when he was still writing for my favorite ‘90s rapper, Eazy-E. Ice Cube has an undeniable legacy as one of rap’s pioneering figures, his influence deeply rooted in today’s rap music. While “Man Up” doesn’t necessarily reflect that, it doesn’t diminish Ice Cube’s position as one of the greats.