Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel includes: Ice Cube, Khop, Dr. Dre, Westside Connection, George Clinton, Das EFX, Chuck D, Yo Yo, WC, The Madd Circle, Scarface, Mr. Mike, Ice T, Kool G Rap, D.J. Polo. | | Personnel: Ice Cube (vocals). | | Featuring...Ice Cube gathers up an excellent collection of team-ups indeed featuring Ice Cube. It's a simple idea for a compilation, and it works well for Priority Records, who had a lot of Cube material to draw from and a lot of hungry fans at the time. The majority of the inclusions come from Cube's pre-War & Peace albums ("Bop Gun (One Nation)" with George Clinton; "Check Yo Self," Das EFX; "Endangered Species," Chuck D; "It's a Man's World," Yo-Yo), a few from soundtracks ("Natural Born Killaz," Dr. Dre; "Trespass," Ice-T), and a few from the albums of others ("Game Over," Scarface; "West Up!," WC). Everything here is available elsewhere yet in very scattered fashion. Odds are you've heard many of these songs before but not all of them, so Featuring...Ice Cube is a welcome inclusion in the rapper's catalog. Not essential but certainly welcome, as essentially every team-up here is a classic from Cube's prime years. ~ Jason Birchmeier | | FEATURING..., like much of Ice Cube's work, forsakes jeep-beats and "everybody-party" lyrics in favor of an intense, focused anger spurred by the urban violence and cultural deterioration it so vividly describes. Whether or not his first-person accounts of murder and turmoil are part of a self-perpetuating downward spiral, his skills as a storyteller and sonic architect are undeniable. Ice Cube is joined on each cut by a guest artist, and he makes the most of his compatriots' contributions. On "Endangered Species" he takes advantage of Chuck D's presence to scoop up some ominous, Public Enemy-style polyphony. With some help from Yo-Yo, he pokes fun at hip-hop's ubiquitous misogyny in the long-overdue sexist parody "It's A Man's World." There are no radical stylistic departures here, just some solid, West-Coast hip-hop, as essayed by one of the genre's most adept practitioners. |
Producer: Scott Young (Compilation); Michael Wilson (Compilation) |
Musical Guests | | Dr. Dre | | Yo Yo | | Mr. Mike | | George Clinton | | Ice-T | | D.J. Polo | | Das EFX | | WC | | Kool G. Rap | | Chuck D | | Scarface | | Khop |
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