Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Ice Cube, George Clinton, M.C. Ren, Dr. Dre, Mack 10, Ms. Toi, Das EFX, Westside Connection, Mr. Short Khop (rap vocals). | | Producers include: Ice Cube, D.J. Pooh, The Bomb Squad, Budda, Dutch. | | Recorded between 1990 & 2001. | | Personnel includes: Ice Cube, George Clinton, M.C. Ren, Dr. Dre, Mack 10, Ms. Toi, Das EFX, Mr. Short Khop, Westside Connection (rap vocals). | | Producers include: Ice Cube, DJ Pooh, Dutch, The Bomb Squad, Budda. | | This includes a bonus DVD disc. | | Personnel: Ice Cube, George Clinton, M.C. Ren, Dr. Dre, Mack 10, Ms. Toi, Das EFX, Westside Connection, Mr. Short Khop (rap vocals). | | Producers include: Ice Cube, D.J. Pooh, The Bomb Squad, Budda, Dutch. | | Recorded between 1990 & 2001. | | Although the 17-track Greatest Hits covers all phases of Ice Cube's solo career in an extremely balanced fashion, it isn't quite the last word on one of the most seminal figures in hardcore and gangsta rap. It is definitely a worthwhile purchase, since it collects all the best singles from Cube's more uneven latter-day efforts; there are also two new cuts (although "In the Late Night Hour" has a lot of rewritten N.W.A. rhymes) and a couple that have never appeared on an Ice Cube album: the soundtrack contribution "We Be Clubbin'" and the Westside Connection single "Bow Down" (which are nice for collectors but not all that essential). That occasional filler makes it all the more frustrating that the classic "Dead Homiez" is inexcusably nowhere to be found, and that it apparently wasn't possible to license Cube's duet with Dr. Dre on "Natural Born Killaz." Selection issues aside, the singles from the post-Predator era prove that in his best moments, Cube could be a credible radio-crossover artist and keep up with contemporary production trends. As a storyteller (a facet of his work that's underrepresented here), Cube had a knack for keenly observed detail, as evidenced on "Once Upon a Time in the Projects" and his laid-back masterpiece "It Was a Good Day." Still, it doesn't quite add up to a truly classic compilation. Perhaps the problem is that while Greatest Hits is a fine, listenable portrait of Ice Cube the sometime hitmaker and full-time hip-hop celebrity, it doesn't completely capture the provocative, incendiary qualities that made him an icon in the first place (for that, listeners will have to go back to AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted and Death Certificate). For a fully fleshed-out picture of Cube's career, though, Greatest Hits is a very good place to go. ~ Steve Huey | | Ice Cube's ferocious frown is familiar now from multiple big and small screen appearances, but as this collection reminds us, he's still first and foremost the thinking street thug's rapper, one of the original gangstas. GREATEST HITS isn't sequenced chronologically, jumping frantically from 1998's "Pushing Weight" to 1994's "Check Yo Self" with its "Message" backing track, to 1990's furious Public Enemy-influenced "Jackin' For Beats" (Ice Cube's departure from P.E.'s rivals N.W.A. presaged his hooking up with the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's production team). But though the patchwork song list makes a clear overview of Cube's career difficult, it also makes for some thrilling twists and turns, for instance between the rowdy, early-'90s "The Nigga Ya Love to Hate" to the equally tumultuous but more sophisticated "Late Night Hour," recorded in 2001. What's obvious from even the most cursory overview of this set is Ice Cube's huge contribution to rap and hip-hop music, and over a decade's worth of unswerving dedication to putting his message across. |
Musical Guests | | George Clinton | | Mc Ren | | Dr. Dre | | Westside Connection | | Westsifde Connection | | Mack 10 | | Miss Toi | | Ms. Toi | | Mr. Short Khop | | Das EFX |
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