[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzeZhCt5PVA[/youtube]

Even though Ice Cube’s last album, Laugh Now, Cry Later, was hailed by most for its resurgence in the street politician of old, for the most part, his core audience stopped paying attention once Are We There Yet? crashed Cineplex’s across the country in ’05.

The domineering thought in the back of everyone’s minds seemed to be that, while Cube’s main forte will always be music, it’s just not where his heart was anymore. Actually, maybe it wasn’t even his heart as much it was that he was out of touch with his roots. As a grown man with children and companies to his credit, the man once hailed as Amerikkka’s Most Wanted had seemingly grown out of his old creased khaki suit.

As 2007 approached the rearview, however, O’ Shea Jackson debuted his new single, aptly titled “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It.”

Immediately, everyone who’d seemingly lost faith in the South Central legend’s pen was vindicated by this rehabilitated fervor of the Cube of old. Over Maestro’s best Dr. Dre impersonation, the Don Mega speaks on how everything wrong he, or anyone else, has learned over the years through society can easily be blamed on the subgenre of hip-hop he helped create. Obvious contradictions, as rappers like him are only speaking on those ills themselves.

Now, since the single has garnered enough e-buzz to generate a coinciding video, Cube has found the perfect means to compliment his scathing words with the right visuals.

Digging deep into his old bag of tricks, and the CNN video vaults, the former front man of the Westside Connection calls outs everyone who uses gangsta rap as a scapegoat though some choice news clips from the past ten years or so. Without specifically calling out names, he picks apart Don Imus, polygamists and Dick Cheney, among others, by layering each of their own mishaps from over the years as the backdrop to his complimentary words. In one instance, he uses clips of Michael Richards’ racially-slurred break-down last year to enhance his own thoughts on the word that causes more tension than it does good. “I can say what I wanna say, ain’t nothin’ to it, gangsta rap made me do it/ If I call you a aggin, ain’t nothing to it, gangsta made me do it.”

“Gangsta Rap…” will be featured on Ice Cube’s next album, Raw Footage. If it’s any indication of the rest of the disc, the fact Cube brought out the Dough Boy look for this video wasn’t just a coincidence.

============================================

The Smoking Section Stickers

Stickers

Respect My Fresh Tees

Tees