Blurbs about "Death Certificate"

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For a Mass Comm class I'm doing a paper on the social impact of "Death Certificate." I'm relying pretty heavily on Jeff Chang's chapter in Can't Stop Won't Stop, but I'm on a search for blurbs that I can use to open and/or close the paper pithily. My citation ethics are pretty loose, and given that a handful of critics traffic ILM I figure my professor would let a non-substantive citation slide.

Anybody want to throw out a one-liner about how incindiery etc 'n shit?

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:12 (nineteen years ago)

In the September 2006 issue of FHM, Ice Cube stated in an interview that he did not regret the controversial statements made on the album. Regarding the offence caused to Koreans, he said, "If there's still a problem, it's their problem."

― gear (gear), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:18 (nineteen years ago)

That album rocks my balls.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

each Atomic Dog sample better than the last

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:21 (nineteen years ago)

The bigger the cap, the bigger the peelin',
who gives a fuck about a punk-ass villain?
You're gettin' fucked real quick,
and Eazy's dick, is smellin' like MC Ren's shit.
Tried to tell you a year ago,
but Willie D told me to let a hoe be a hoe, so
I couldn't stop you from gettin' ganked,
now let's play big-bank-take-little-bank.
Tried to dis Ice Cube, it wasn't worth it
cuz the broomstick fit your ass so perfect.
Cut my hair and I'll cut them balls,
cuz I heard you're, like, givin' up the drawers.
Gang-banged by your manager, fella,
gettin' money out your ass, like a mothafuckin' Ready Teller.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:21 (nineteen years ago)

best dis track ever? its so wrong and so funny and so genuinely angry all at the same time.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

the racism and antisemitism is kind of a fucking drag though

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 9 November 2006 23:55 (nineteen years ago)

I habitually skip "Black Korea", "Horny Li'l Devil" cuz yeah I can't take the lyrical sentiments.

as a Jew, Cube's anti-semitism never really bothered me. It always seemed sorta incidental and cartoonish.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:04 (nineteen years ago)

too bad about the misogyny, etc

― gear (gear), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I know gear, if you just ignore it long enough it stops bothering you I guess - Death Certificate ruined one of my favorite rappers for me, guess I should learn to just go "oh hey that's his opinion eh?"

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

hey dude i'm agreeing with you

― gear (gear), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

"Death Certificate ruined one of my favorite rappers for me"

I dunno, is it really THAT much more in-your-face offensive than NWA or "Amerikkka's Most Wanted"? "Get Off My Dick And Tell Your Bitch To C'mere"? "I Ain't Tha 1"?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:25 (nineteen years ago)

if you just ignore it long enough it stops bothering you I guess

It never stops bothering me, but I come to accept it as part of a complex persona i.e. damn Cube's got some funny/sad/lyrical critiques of health care, police brutality & white privilege, but his misogyny and anti-Asian sentiment make me like him significantly less. He's an angry dude, and when he directs that anger at women or Koreans it can get ugly. No caveats.

But I still bump "My Summer Vacation," "Alive on Arrival," and a handful of others on the regular. That's all I'm saying.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:37 (nineteen years ago)

I guess I would rather deal with the troubling misogyny/racism of an otherwise genius album than suffer through the wack "A GAME OF HORSESHOES" alternatives.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

Shakey "I Ain't Tha 1" always gave me fits for sure but NWA's whole schtick was misanthropy - it wasn't like they were advancing any positive values beyond drinking 8-ball and killing people. Considerably more cartoonish than the ideologically-driven Death Certificate, which does seem to have some positive values, not the fuck-everything-up-just-'cause spirit of NWA.

sorry gear I thought you were goin' "oh here comes Thomas with his tired old objections to misogyny"

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 10 November 2006 00:49 (nineteen years ago)

Steady Blurbin

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Friday, 10 November 2006 02:39 (nineteen years ago)

Between "Dead Homiez," which mourned murdered friends in a voice some called soft, and Boyz N the Hood, which required him to simulate thought, the St. Ides spokesperson was worried about his image. To use the only noun in the hard lexicon that suggests normal human sensitivities, he was acting like a "faggot." So here he reclaims his perpetually threatened manhood. Early on he mitigates the usual gangsta shit--gat as penis and pit bull, female body as pestilence and plague--with such touches as an antigang track and a nurse with attitude. But eventually he breaks new ground. In addition to many fascinated rhymes on the complex subject of who fucks who in the ass and how, he nuts out on white devils who crave "a taste of chocolate" because "white bitches have no butt and no chest." He inveighs against "Jap" and "Jew." And he proposes a "nationwide boycott" of Korean-owned inner-city businesses that escape the torch, poking gentle fun at the Korean accent along the way. Call him Ice KKKube--a straight-up bigot simple and plain. C+

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 10 November 2006 02:44 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but this is from a guy who says The Chronic changed hip-hop for the worse while maintaining a belief in the genius of Eminem. Dude knows a little something about contradictions.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Friday, 10 November 2006 03:07 (nineteen years ago)

In the mid-nineties I was working for a record store that wouldn't carry Skrewdriver despite plenty of requests. I felt like a hypocrite about that when Death Certificate came out - it was the store's top seller for a while - I remember asking co-workers if they thought it was better to have a double standard or no standards at all.

― dad a (dad a), Friday, 10 November 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

"I guess I would rather deal with the troubling misogyny/racism of an otherwise genius album than suffer through the wack "A GAME OF HORSESHOES" alternatives."

hahahaha SOOOOOO OTM

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 November 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

Xgau totally ridiculous as usual

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 November 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

NWA's whole schtick was misanthropy - it wasn't like they were advancing any positive values beyond drinking 8-ball and killing people.

Don't forget self-expression!

― Zwan (miccio), Friday, 10 November 2006 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

I'm confused about Thomas' use of NWA's misanthropic schtick to damn Cube for daring to be contradictory vs. NWA's wholehearted misanthropy (which is debatable too but assuming he's right).

― deej.. (deej..), Friday, 10 November 2006 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

The Predator is my favorite Cube album these days. "Wicked" is way underplayed.

― deej.. (deej..), Friday, 10 November 2006 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

another thing that's always bothered me abt critical evaluations of Cube's material - and this was especially true at the time of their release - was that everyone always talked/talks about the lyrics and the problematic politics and the racism/mysogyny etc. while completely ignoring the sonics/beats of the actual music on the records. Xgau, for ex., makes no mention of the music AT ALL. But the production on the first four Cube records is groundbreaking, insanely dense, deeply engrossing stuff, far and away some of the most inventive sample-based music ever made, and the music adds an appeal and a depth to Cube's material that totally bowled me over and still gives me lots to pick out and pore over even 10+ years on. I remember seeing a review of "The Predator" in Time Magazine when it came out and the whole thing was focused on Cube's lyrics - when to me the major shock/thrill of the album was that initial monstrous blast kicking in after the Queen drumloop on "When Will They Shoot".

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 November 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

I mean a song that marries Queen (totally gay btw) to X-Clan! COME ON!

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 November 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

My girlfriend has this belief that any objectionable lyrical content completely overrides and cancels out any positive musical aspects of a record. I suspect she's not alone in this belief. It's been the subject of so many bitter arguments between us that we completely avoid discussing rap music these days.

How the hell do you engage people with this viewpoint? Can it be done?

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 11 November 2006 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

I don't mean to suggest that such a viewpoint is invalid, it's just one that's so alien to me that I honestly don't know how to engage it.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 11 November 2006 00:47 (nineteen years ago)

NWA's whole schtick was misanthropy

"Something 2 Dance 2"! Plus "Fuck Tha Police" is about the innocent childlike joy of firing potato guns at a bus shelter.

― dommy p is alright WHICH IS A LOT MORE THAN I CAN SAY ABOUT A LOT OF PEOPLE (Dom, Saturday, 11 November 2006 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

i loved death certificate at the time (though even then i skipped "horny little devil" and "black korea" -- or listened to them the same way that i would listen to, say, GG allin, as a sort of a horrifed onlooker). nowadays, i actually prefer the predator which, at the time, i thought was a bit of a let-down.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 11 November 2006 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

i also miss x-clan, FWIW -- they were pretty good and their DJ had a real interesting voice & style.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 11 November 2006 01:01 (nineteen years ago)

But the production on the first four Cube records is groundbreaking, insanely dense, deeply engrossing stuff, far and away some of the most inventive sample-based music ever made, and the music adds an appeal and a depth to Cube's material that totally bowled me over and still gives me lots to pick out and pore over even 10+ years on.

i also agree 100% -- i think that cube's then-rivalry with NWA (read: dre) spurred him to up the ante regarding the production (e.g., getting the bomb squad and muggs). would niggaz4life (which, with its own questionably-tasteful lyrics still sounds great) or even the chronic have come about had o'shea decided NOT to leave NWA? maybe, but part of me still wonders if dre would've been so inspired had ice cube not left.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 11 November 2006 01:08 (nineteen years ago)

beyond the idea that extracting music from a work of music+words is a pretense, you're not ignoring musical qualities when you attack a work in which both music and lyrics are part of the same program (which is most works), as shakey illustrates...

the major shock/thrill of the album was that initial monstrous blast kicking in after the Queen drumloop

you listen to cube for shock/thrills, and only turn him off on the songs when you can't pretend to yourself that isn't true. the difference between em and dre is that em thinks hard about shock/thrill and how his audience responds to it and that thought is both revealed in and often the subject of his work.

and Xgau does write about the music. like when he devotes 60%+ of his Chronic review to advising you to recognize that Dre, well, sucks...

The world he hears in his head isn't the up-to-date P-Funk fools say they hear--that would be too hard. Instead he lays bassline readymades under simulations of Bernie Worrell's high keyb sustain, a basically irritating sound that in context always signified fantasy, not reality--stoned self-loss or, at a best Dre never approaches, grandiose jive. This is bell-bottoms-and-Afros music, its spiritual source the blaxploitation soundtrack, and what it promises above all is boom times for third-rate flautists--sociopathic easy-listening. Even if it's "just pop music," as some rationalize, it's bad pop music.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 11 November 2006 04:34 (nineteen years ago)

but you might think differently if say you heard Dre before you ever heard P-Funk. or early Outkast.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 11 November 2006 04:47 (nineteen years ago)

i also miss x-clan, FWIW -- they were pretty good and their DJ had a real interesting voice & style.

there's a new Sadat X album and it's pretty good if you don't mind the occasional "I hate faggots" bit (i.e., once every other song)

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Saturday, 11 November 2006 05:11 (nineteen years ago)

there's a new Sadat X album and it's pretty good if you don't mind the occasional "I hate faggots" bit (i.e., once every other song)

i thought that sadat-x was from brand nubian?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 11 November 2006 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

you might think differently if say you heard Dre before you ever heard P-Funk

See I heard that synth whine on "Let Me Ride" years before I heard Bernie on the keys. To my ears Chronic represented precisely the sort of hazy hyperreality that Xgau's talking about (and to my ears Dre pulls off hazy hyperreal way better than P-Funk, who had the market cornered on the acid-induced unreal).

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 11 November 2006 06:57 (nineteen years ago)

But I'm quibbling between hyperreal and unreal (i.e. spinning into vauge nonsensical bullshit), so wtf do I know.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 11 November 2006 06:59 (nineteen years ago)

Dre should call his next album "Boom Times for Third-Rate Flautists"

― Tiki Theater Xymposium (Bent Over at the Arclight), Saturday, 11 November 2006 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

"and Xgau does write about the music. like when he devotes 60%+ of his Chronic review to advising you to recognize that Dre, well, sucks..."

fair enough, I was specifically ref'ing the Death Certificate review posted... personally I always preferred the Sir Jinx/Bomb Squad/Muggs stuff to Dre, possibly for reasons similar to what XGau cites (I was already a huge P-Funk fan and wasn't all that taken with Dre's "update" of the sound with louder drums and newer keyboards - also I think Dre was copping key sounds more from Junie Morrison and Zapp and Roger than he was from Bernie Worrell, but that's a minor point).

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

but you might think differently if say you heard Dre before you ever heard P-Funk. or early Outkast.
-- gabbneb (gabbne...), November 11th, 2006 4:47 AM.

huh???

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

I also disagree that Em thinks any harder about how he's being 'shocking' than Dre et al

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

(I also couldn't parse this: "you listen to cube for shock/thrills, and only turn him off on the songs when you can't pretend to yourself that isn't true")

(and totally agree with deej abt the awareness of how shock/thrills work in regards to Cube and Dre, gimme a break)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

'the chronic' has good music. not as good as 'death certificate', though.

― gear (gear), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

I mean the whole gangsta meme that Dre/Cube helped give birth to is SUPER-self-aware about its shock tactics.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

x-post

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:24 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and MY PAPER IS COMPLETE AND FULL O BLURBS no thanks to yalls nerdassery.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Monday, 13 November 2006 23:37 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

u can new jack swiiiiiiiiing on my nutz

― am0n, Saturday, 8 December 2007 19:05 (eighteen years ago)

I love the album but won't profess to agree with a lot of what he said

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 8 December 2007 19:19 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, HOOS has been posting for over a year?

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 8 December 2007 19:37 (eighteen years ago)

Time HOOS when you're having STEEN.

― jim, Saturday, 8 December 2007 19:48 (eighteen years ago)

KarlHOOS STEENhausen RIP.

― jim, Saturday, 8 December 2007 19:49 (eighteen years ago)

good hoos posts in this thread

― deej, Saturday, 8 December 2007 22:57 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, HOOS has been posting for over a year?

-- Dom Passantino, Saturday, December 8, 2007 7:37 PM

Been here quietly for almost two years.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 8 December 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)

Cube had some funny fucking one-liners on this album.

but nothing beats the rapping condoms

"if you're going bareback, without the barefacks
You'll get creepy crawlies crawling on your nutsack!"

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 9 December 2007 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

bare FACTS...ugh!

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 9 December 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

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