Derekjackson2
Banned
The Audience changed. Albums like predator & the lench mob will never be made again because people don't listen to rappers calling out police chiefs & politicians. The audience is everything but black now.
Ice Cube's War & Peace series gets unwarranted levels of criticism
- Thread starter Inspect Her Deck
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- ice cube war & peace
When people look at Ice Cube's discography, they say he peaked too early and then he had one of the biggest fall off's in hip-hop and never recovered.
The War & Peace series is often attributed for representing the beginning of said downfall, starting with the first album: War & Peace Vol 1 (War Disc), released in 1998.
Prior to that, Cube had released Straight Outta Compton (w/NWA), AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Kill at Will, Death Certificate, The Predator, Lethal Injection & Bow Down (w/Westside Connection), all whilst murdering guest features within that 1988-1996 timeframe and not to mention his writing of Eazy-Duz-It and his common featuring in and producing of Da Lench Mob's Guerrillas in tha Mist album. So his track record was damn near impeccable in that period.
When he returned to solo work with the War & Peace series, he adopted the Don Mega persona where he presented himself as a business mogul or high powered authority figure much to the chagrin of much of his large fanbase.
There's no doubt Cube fell off from the lofty heights of AMW and DC (two of the greatest albums in music history). But it was because of the impossibly high standards he set early on that anything to be released thereafter not up to par would immediately be labelled a disappointment - such was the case with The Predator (seen nowadays as a classic or near enough) and Lethal Injection. So War & Peace was inevitably considered a disaster couple of albums and the beginning of the end of Cube's hip-hop career.
However, visiting these albums recently, I believe that they are very solid albums (3 to 3.5 mic level material equivalent) and if people judged the quality of these albums as standalone projects rather than relative to his earlier discog, they would receive much more praise.
The consensus is that most of the songs on each album are wack. If I had to be as unbiased as possible, I'd say the following are the wack songs on each project (with the rest ranging from decent to spectacular).
War Disc
Cash Over Ass
Limos, Demos & Bimbos
Peace Disc
The Gutter shyt
Can You Bounce?
and across the two discs we've been blessed with some of Cube's greatest tracks including Ghetto Vet, Penitentiary, Until We Rich, Hello and more.
What do y'all make of these albums? Do they get too much hate? Or is the criticism warranted?
@StillNotSoft @Da King
I got lyrics that wake up spirits
They show me how to make big hits and spend digits
Can you dig it?
It's hard to understand the shyt he's saying alot of times
If an album like Predator was put out as is by a prominent artist the media would be in a complete uproar
Listening to Vol 1 and got through song 7. Only two good songs.
Ask About Me
Ghetto Vet
And Ghetto Vet was old at the time b/c it had come out on a soundtrack.
His flow just sounds so damn corny.
Dr. Frankenstein??
The hell was he thinking?
Then that song with Korn
@Inspect Her Deck so far this album is terrible
just like i remembered
Ask About Me
Ghetto Vet
And Ghetto Vet was old at the time b/c it had come out on a soundtrack.
His flow just sounds so damn corny.
Dr. Frankenstein??
The hell was he thinking?
Then that song with Korn
@Inspect Her Deck so far this album is terrible
just like i remembered
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
nikkas just hate the don mega persona,nothin else to explain it really....same way nikkas hated the esco persona of Nas when he switched it up on It Was Written....i didnt hear AMW or DC as my introduction to Cube,so i was already used to the change in delivery he started using later....i feel like on Predator or Lethal Injection we had already started seeing flashes of Don Mega Cube style wise,and i loved it
fukk what these nikkas talkin bout,theyll dikkride Lupe rapping as a cheesburger,but downplay something like this and call it corny
I hate baseball,but Cube got you feelin like u got the best seats in the house,and i was more emotionally invested then ever have been with any world series game
Cube got the highest standards of any artist ever,and to make matters worse he was always in the position where he was expected to make music that catered to the east coast,as well as the west coast because he had done it masterfully before,and thats how he came in....but times changed and sound wise that was more difficult to do...i think Cube did a good job in trying to balance the two.
Lastly he never had a album wack enough prior to these two,that made people lower they expectations.....i cant think of another rapper people expected to be as good as they were in they debut after 10 years in the game
Standards dropped drastically for all yalls favorite rappers a decade in,and many of they sub par albums get more credit then they deserve because standards were dropped TOO LOW...Cube mistake was always showing too many flashes of prime,in his not so prime
Ill say the criticism is fair though,but the criricsm is a testament to Cubes high level performance over a pretty long period,much longer than 99% of rappers....most rappers drop a disaster about 2 to 3 projects in if they lucky....cube was about 6 or 7 projects in before his first disaster,the disaster allegedly being War
fukk what these nikkas talkin bout,theyll dikkride Lupe rapping as a cheesburger,but downplay something like this and call it corny
I hate baseball,but Cube got you feelin like u got the best seats in the house,and i was more emotionally invested then ever have been with any world series game
Cube got the highest standards of any artist ever,and to make matters worse he was always in the position where he was expected to make music that catered to the east coast,as well as the west coast because he had done it masterfully before,and thats how he came in....but times changed and sound wise that was more difficult to do...i think Cube did a good job in trying to balance the two.
Lastly he never had a album wack enough prior to these two,that made people lower they expectations.....i cant think of another rapper people expected to be as good as they were in they debut after 10 years in the game
Standards dropped drastically for all yalls favorite rappers a decade in,and many of they sub par albums get more credit then they deserve because standards were dropped TOO LOW
...Cube mistake was always showing too many flashes of prime,in his not so primeIll say the criticism is fair though,but the criricsm is a testament to Cubes high level performance over a pretty long period,much longer than 99% of rappers....most rappers drop a disaster about 2 to 3 projects in if they lucky....cube was about 6 or 7 projects in before his first disaster,the disaster allegedly being War
Khadafhi
50 States
I liked the war album. The Peace album ehh..
Inspect Her Deck
Skins of all colours come together as brothers
Listening to Vol 1 and got through song 7. Only two good songs.
Ask About Me
Ghetto Vet
And Ghetto Vet was old at the time b/c it had come out on a soundtrack.
His flow just sounds so damn corny.
Dr. Frankenstein??
The hell was he thinking?
Then that song with Korn
@Inspect Her Deck so far this album is terrible
just like i remembered
At least you gave it a go. I know Nas stans aren't accustomed to hearing good music so it sounded a little strange to you.
Why is the flow corny though? Different for sure but what do you dislike?
Inspect Her Deck
Skins of all colours come together as brothers
nikkas just hate the don mega persona,nothin else to explain it really....same way nikkas hated the esco persona of Nas when he switched it up on It Was Written....i didnt hear AMW or DC as my introduction to Cube,so i was already used to the change in delivery he started using later....i feel like on Predator or Lethal Injection we had already started seeing flashes of Don Mega Cube style wise,and i loved it
fukk what these nikkas talkin bout,theyll dikkride Lupe rapping as a cheesburger,but downplay something like this and call it corny
I hate baseball,but Cube got you feelin like u got the best seats in the house,and i was more emotionally invested then ever have been with any world series game
Cube got the highest standards of any artist ever,and to make matters worse he was always in the position where he was expected to make music that catered to the east coast,as well as the west coast because he had done it masterfully before,and thats how he came in....but times changed and sound wise that was more difficult to do...i think Cube did a good job in trying to balance the two.
Lastly he never had a album wack enough prior to these two,that made people lower they expectations.....i cant think of another rapper people expected to be as good as they were in they debut after 10 years in the game
Standards dropped drastically for all yalls favorite rappers a decade in,and many of they sub par albums get more credit then they deserve because standards were dropped TOO LOW
Ill say the criticism is fair though,but the criricsm is a testament to Cubes high level performance over a pretty long period,much longer than 99% of rappers....most rappers drop a disaster about 2 to 3 projects in if they lucky....cube was about 6 or 7 projects in before his first disaster,the disaster allegedly being War
Perfectly said.
For me I was introduced to vol 2 Cube....hell the first song I heard was You Can Do It
So maybe that transition to the rest of his discog was easier for me than say someone who started with SOC or AMW. When I went back and heard those?
And I really liked Vol 2 Cube as well lol
ghetto vet being the highlight!!
this nikka
Suspicious Dingo
Superstar
fukking THIS. Still can't believe Cube tried to put that dude on
Sidenote: What ever happened to K-Dee?