He’s paid his dues. He fought in the rap wars. Nobody could really blame Ice Cube if he just sat back and rolled around in the royalties from Barbershop, occasionally appearing in goofball comedies and doing expensive cameos on other rappers’ records. However, the force is strong with this one, and he’s come back with an absolutely kicking, angry, energised record, with jabs at the government, multinational corporations (“Fuck Viacom” he shouts on ‘It takes a Nation’), fake ghost-written rappers, money-obsessed peers (“Get Money, Spend Money, No Money”) and censorious prigs (“The Gangster Rap Made Me Do it”). He also mentions G.O.D. a few times, who initialised like this I initially mistook for someone in Cube’s crew. Which I’m sure, in a way, he is.
Now this is an egotistical gangster record, so sometimes it does get a bit ridiculous. I mean does anyone truly believe that Ice Cube does what he does to feed his kids, as he suggests on a couple of tracks? Unless he feeds them gold or human flesh, I can’t imagine it’s a serious financial issue. But even where it’s silly, Raw Footage, is still darn good. Take the best song, ‘Thank God’ (as in “Thank God the Gangster’s back!”). Essentially it’s a song in which Cube says, “Thank God for me!” a sentiment that’s usually the prerogative of small children, simpletons, sales staff, and people with personality disorders – but Cube has the balls to put it out there with brilliant beat and a string or rhymes which reference everything from Mr. Drummond in Different Strokes to rappers in mink. Thank God the Gangster’s back indeed.