Everythangs Corrupt

With over 30 years in the game, including membership in gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A., Ice Cube’s earned triple-platinum OG status. There’s no secret to his longevity; he told Beats 1 host Zane Lowe that it’s all about being true to yourself. “You got to do what you do best. You can’t go chasing trends,” Cube said. “You’ve got to give them what they expect and what they want.”

His tenth solo album, Everythangs Corrupt, does just that. His booming voice is too big for trap and the beats are just as monstrous. Cube’s propensity to outrage and be outraged is sharp and intact. If crooked cops were his target back in 1988, Everythangs Corrupt widens the scope in 2018. He bodies 45 with lethal bars on “Arrest the President.” “Chase Down the Bully” curb-stomps racist tiki-torchbearers, while “On Them Pills” is a rare anti-addiction statement, done with classic in-your-face style. “We are corrupting our bodies, we corrupting our neighborhoods, we corrupting our minds,” he said. “We got to figure out what kind of world we want to live in.”

That said, life is still good for Ice Cube, with a successful movie career and a 3-on-3 hoops league. A celebratory feeling courses through tracks like “That New Funkadelic” and the slow-and-low cruise “Ain’t Got No Haters” with Bay Area legend Too $hort. The album shows that being an elder statesman of rap has its privileges, including the ability to speak your mind and, occasionally, check yourself before…you know. “I’m trying to just tell my truth as I see it,” he said. “And nobody’s exempt—I talk about everybody, even myself. Every pencil needs to be sharpened every now and then, so hopefully my record is a pencil sharpener.”