I AM THE WEST...is the name of my new record. After completing about 65% of my music, this is the perfect title. This shit is cocky, no apologies, West Coast gangsta shit. I can't help it. That's what I do. June seems too tight for a release, but July is very doable. We'll see how things go. Now that I have my title, I can work on the concept of my photoshoot and artwork. I want to provide early merch before the drop date.
For 7 or 8 years now the West Coast has been trying to do music that appeals to the South and Mid-West. The words, "too West Coast" would be heard throughout the industry whenever our music was played. Even by our own dj's. Left coast MC's were now trying to change their sound to cater to all the followers. We lost our way. Thank God for b-boys like Snoop, The Game & WC for keeping the West alive, but we were all guilty of over reaching. No more. At least not from me. I do it how I feel it; not how I think it should be done. Radio fucked us up. I hate the politics at radio. I don't know who to pay to get my shit played. Having a hot song is not enough. Ridiculous.
I AM THE WEST. It's coming....
Keep It Gangsta
Ice Cube
I knew, as soon as I named my record, I AM THE WEST… Suckas would come out the wood work and have something to say about it. First of all, it’s true. I am the west. I have a few O/G’s in hip-hop that I show respect to for help starting the West Coast movement. Like Ice-T, Dr. Dre, King Tee, DJ Pooh, DJ Quik, Too Short, MC Eiht and everybody from NWA of course. But the rest of these MC’s out here are some how some way just branches on the NWA tree. So basically, if you didn’t have a record out before 1986…you probably can’t tell me shit.
Anyway, back to the business at hand. The first single off the record is called, “I Rep That West”. It’s a fuckin’ banger. This one might be too West Coast for the West Coast. It’s getting mastered as we speak. You’ll be able to hear it and buy it first right here on icecube.com. We shoot the video on the 17th. I would give you guys the concept but I’mma save that and let you see it for yourself. Now I know it seems like my record is West Coast crazy…yeah it is. But I got a lot of real shit to say on this record just like I always do. So my political fans won’t be disappointed. But sometime the Big Dog gotta piss on a few trees to let these puppies know what it is. They can’t fuck wit me lyrically or physically. They all talks shit from a distance cause they know, I may do comedies but I ain’t no joke.
I wanna take time and thank all the Westsider Riders who’ve been hitting me up with love in your messages. You fuel my fire and desire to never retire. I look forward to hearing from everybody who’s truly down. It’s been a few days since my last blog. A lot of things have been going down. I skipped both of those movie premieres. I can‘t deal with this Hollywood shit sometimes…too fake. But my daughter’s sweet 16 party was dope. Crazy Toones took them youngsters back to the 80’s. She loved it. I had to coach my son’s basketball team’s playoff game. His coach had to go out of town. It’s hard to get 9 year olds to understand the triangle offense. So the outcome was not a W. My son had a good game so I was proud of him anyway. I went to the Lakers vs. Nuggets. Ron Artest finally earned his money by shutting down Carmelo. Even though the Nuggets had help from the refs. They still got their asses kicked. Kobe is the real King not LeBron.
Today, I flew to Oakland to interview Al Davis for my 30 for 30 ESPN documentary. It was a very good interview. He’s a G. One on one with the hardest owner in sports. I respect Al, he does it his way. At some point, I will post my whole interview with him on my site.
As you know I’m starting to use my twitter account. Don’t look to hear from me until I got something interesting to say. Updates about what’s going on with the music or the movies. Too much chatter is nerve racking. Now, I wanna answer a few questions you have for ya’ boy…
Beats by Dre? Not yet. Haven’t asked him, but I will.
Any collabos? Not yet. It’s only room for one star on this record. But I might make room. It has to be organic. I don’t do collabos just to do them. That’s record company shit.
New Westside Connection? Nothing planned. But just for the record. I own the rights. I put Mack-10 in the Connect gang, he didn’t put me in. That’s my shit.
Is Eazy’s wife dropping 60 unreleased songs from him? I don’t know. I’ll ask around.
Mid-West tour? Working on a promotional tour that’ll take me to the Mid-West.
Mixtape? I’m working on a mixtape with Crazy Toones for my sons OMG & Doughboy. They spit fire. Look for them on the home page of the site in a few days.
I’ll never be on Cribs.
Haven’t talked to Threat in 14 years. Don’t know where he’s at.
No beats by Terrence Martin on this record.
I heard Jerry Heller was teaching classes at USC & UCLA. He knows nothing about hip-hop.
Any advice to young actors? Make friends with a good casting agent. They’ll get you work.
Shot outs to: Dublin, Hawaii, Cleveland, Ottawa, Poland and Germany
P.S. Keep West Ridin’ and bumpin’ that gangsta ish. Oh yeah, I can help anyone with advice on anything, but don’t ask for money. It’s not happening.
Keep the poems and advice coming. We fam…
Keep it gangsta!
Cube
I AM THE WEST… it’s coming.