Ice Cube Album: “Death Certificate”

It is hard to say if DEATH CERTIFICATE or AMERIKKKA'S MOST WANTED is Ice Cube's best album.

This album has so many good tracks on it I probably could list them all -- some are: "Wrong N**** to F*** Wit", My Summer Vacation", "Steady Mobbin'", "Man's Best Friend" (one of the 1st tracks to sample George Clinton's "Atomic Dog"), and "Bird in the Hand".

This album has great funk-induced beats (that was popular in 1990's rap), and Ice Cube covers several issues of that time in the album.

It is an essential album, but the material may seem dated for the youngin's.

Quite simply one of the best rap albums of all time. Cube really came into his own on his second effort and pulled no punches going after every group.

Has to be one of the top ten lps of all time in hip hop along with "Amerikkka's Most Wanted".

"NO VASELINE" pretty much ended N.W.A. as a group and is probably one of the most vicious comeback/rap battle songs of all time. If you listen closely to the lyrics of that song, he individually took each member of N.W.A. and basically cut them down to size by basically telling the truth. With the exception of M.C. REN, lyrically N.W.A. was finished after CUBE rolled out. DR. DRE'S production kept them afloat on EFIL4ZAGGIN but that's about it.

I love this album! This was a classic in the early nineties and it's even more of a classic now. My favorite song is "A Bird In A Hand". I also believe it was his best rhyme. His style started to change after Predator but from Predator back CLASSIC albums.

This album is arguably 'Cube's finest (AMW afficionado's will digress), being conceptually, lyrically, and musically even tighter than his solo debut (hard to believe but true). This album was the first 'gangsta' rap album I purchased serving as an introduction to the genre as a whole (a good choice as it turned out, Cube is a lyrical giant). As vulgar as Cube's lyrics often become, they are almost always insightful, making the sentiments expressed in this album complex: neither entirely commendable or condemnable. That said, I believe 'Death Certificate' to be one of the great hip-hop albums with some of the best music (courtesy of Sir Jinx) and lyrics (A Bird in the Hand, Us, Color Blind) ever put on wax. Sadly, 'Cube would never make a statement this forceful again.