In all the controversy (that bac -up by Da BFX on it
word again?) that' urrounded chorus.
his career since he wrote a tune
.called "Boyz N The Hood" for his
homeboy Eazy-E five years ago,
there's one thing that journalists
ometimes forget to mention
about Ice Cube: he's one of the
most mesmerizing MCs in hip­
hop.
Well, that's an issue quickly
put to rest on "Wicked,·" the first
ingle off his new album, The
Predator. What's the song about?
"I just wanted to get loose," he
says, laughing. "I entertain, too. I
make records and I can bust. That
song describes the way I feel
when I'm doing a show and the
crowd's going crazy: I feel wick­
ed."
A bouncy, noisy jam, "Wick­
ed" typifies Ice Cube's approach
to music making. "I don't stick to
one producer. That's why my
records sound so different, " he ex­
plains. "Otherwise it'll sound
stale." Cube hooked up with Tor­
cha Chamber, who laid the tracks
for "Wicke� "in an unconvention-
al way. "I've known this guy
�Jme4 Train, who llIOd to OJ for
JJ Pad. One day, I ran into his ..
brother and he told me thaJ he w
doing tracks. I as like, 'Yeah,
yeah.' But then he' played the
beats and it was, like, the new
s---. "
"MUGGSIST kind of guy
who'll wor 11 night if he to.
The trip thing about him i that
he'll crea whole ong and will
top and say, 'F--- it, I don't like
it.' He'll er the loop that he
worked ten hours on and replace
it with a better one.
Ice.
ube
•
lOne
of the
mo t
•• •
me menzing
Me
•
In
hip-hop.
In addition to longtime Lench
Mob crew members Pooh and
Jinx, Cube was joined in the
studio by Mixmaster Muggs of
Cypress Hill who injected his
gangsta swagger in three tracks:
"Now I Gotta Wet 'Cha," an
ominous warning to cowards and
punks, "We Had To Tear This
M.F. Up, " a look back at the Rod­
ney King uprising which is full of
horns and a furious acoustic bass,
and "Check Yo Self," featuring
Most people can't criticize
themselves enough to do that, to
create a whole song and turn
around and say it's wack. Their
ego is too big to starr over," Be­
tween the enthusiasm .of new­
comers like Tore a Chamber the
professionalism of vets like
Muggs, Jinx and Pooh, The
Predator's sound is anything but
boring."
The Predator differs from
Death Certificate in that last
year's flavor was more of a con­
cept album, with it's "Death" side
and "Life" side. "I didn't wantto
..
. ,
,',
YAKlDK
o with format on thO record. I
just wanted to do the trac th t I
anted to do." Did you find that
i limiting in w y?" 0, I didn't
find it limiting. I just felt if it'
Ire dy been done nd I'm not
into doing records that' �lre dy
been done or trying to recreate
any old records. "
The only exception is
"Gangsta's Fairy tale 2," which
continu where the first ch pter
ended on AmeriKKKa's Most
Wanted
"Gangsta's Fairy tale 2, (/HIrt
OM)" is an obvious metaphor for
life in South Central Los Angeles,
which has changed dramatically
since the events which kicked off
on April 29.
"The riots or uprising in L.A.
proved my point on certaln i ues
that people were giving me heat
on like the Korean issue. They're
saying that there was no tension
between Blacks and Koreans and
I'm creating the tension. Well, a
lot of the people who rioted have
never heard my record. So it
showed that the tension was al­
ready there ... " he says.
..
OU cAN'T ACCV 'Ice
Cube of Iklrtlll I .. u . He'.
simila ly unapologetic about ac­
cusations of preceived anti-semi­
tism. "I don't bite my tongue for
nothing because what I said last
year I meant ... It doesn't make
any sense for me to be anti-semi­
tic. What do I gain by that? I'm
trying to uplift my people, not put
anybody else down. "
On ongs like "Dir��Mack"
and "Now I Gotta Wet 'cha;"
Cube continues to confron social
issues.
"The uprising put a 'period' on
the stuff I was saying for a long
time. And now people are asking
Manuela Barbara Kamosi
Maose Djogi was born in Zaire,
Central Africa, and was raised
there and in Kenya. At thc age of
11, she moved to Belgium. She
soon became friends with kids
who were interested in hip hop
and it's culture.
Manuela composed a nick­
name Ya Kid K.
"Hip Hop has no boundaries or
limits, and because of that, it's
easier for me to express myself in
rap. It allows me to feel more
real." Her fascination with the
beats and attitudes of hip hop ex­
panded as she formed her own
group, "Kick The Bass. H "We
would go around club and parties
in Belgium and Holland and per­
form."
It 'was her growing rep with
"Kick The Bass" that caught the
ears of producer Jo Bogaert, who
was looking tor a female rapper to
write lyrics to some music he had
composed. The song she wrote
was "Pump The Up Jam;' she
kicked the lyrics and the rest, as
the cliche goes, is musical history.
"From there," Ya Kid K says in
her understated manner, "every­
thing else started. "
EVERYTHING ELSE was a
triple platinum album which in­
troduced the techno groove to
clubs and airwaves of the world,
ICE CUBE
me What's going to happen next.
I think it's gonna happen again in
a hurry. I did a song called 'We
Ha,d t» Tear This M.F. Up' be­
cause that's the only way that
Black people can get respect We
had to bum L.A and put them out
of bus mess for th� days and now
they wanna talk and rebuild and
look back on what happened. I
loved it, every bit of it. "
Those who've followed Ice
Cube's career might be a little
(pleasantly) surprised by "It Was
A Good Day." " .. .1 just wanted to
do a record on a day where every­
thing was cool and it wasn't no
beef. But the next day it goes back
to the same oJ' thing. That's why
I put 'We Had To Tear This M.F.
Up' right after that song."
"I have people scared to come
up and say 'what's up' to me
'cause they think that I'm the
meanest mother------ ever. I'm
.not mad 24 hours a day, but I'm
thinking 24 hours a day. " .
and made Billboard dance chart
history by staying at #1 for two
months straight.
"I've been all over and I con­
sider myself a citizen of the
planet!" declares Ya Kid K. "I
"Hip op has
no boundarie
or limit and
beau ofthat,
it" air for
a to
. expre � her. elf
. thr ugb rap. "
-VA KID K
don't believe in artificial boun­
daries and borders. "
One World Nation is Tech­
notronic rapper Ya Kid K's debut
solo album on SBK Records, and
like the first Technotronic album,
Pump Up The Jam, One World
Nation i both energizing and ex­
plosive.
One WorldNation contains 11
hard-hitting jams with countless
flavors and seriously slamming
grooves. All of the songs were
, co-written by Ya Kid 1(, and in­
cluded is the international Top
Ten smash "Move This" (the
remix), which has become the
Revlon/Cindy Crawford
trademark.
This pumped-up version of
"Move This" marks Ya Kid K's
only reunion with Technotronic
since the end of Madonna'
"Blonde Ambition" tour. One
See VA KID K, 810
. ,