Since leaving the massively influential N.W.A in 1989, Ice Cube has done a lot of things that would take away from his early reputation as one of the founders of gangster-rap. The most blatant, being Columbia Pictures’ family-friendly movie Are We There Yet?, is a far cry from Ice Cube’s ferocious lyricism on Fuck Tha Police.
On Drink The Kool-Aid, the listener hears the aggression that originally made Ice Cube famous but, instead of lashing out against prejudice and injustice, he knocks established stars in modern hip-hop. By knocking Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and the “New” West Coast movement, Ice Cube attempts to assert his position as “the chaperone” of modern rappers. Meanwhile, Ice Cube probably reached the apex of his rapping career in a prior decade and Drink The Kool-Aid sits in a collection of tracks that threaten, but offer little to replace, the music it critiques. For those of us who want a little more from our music than an attack on a hip-hop titan’s rightful successors, Drink The Kool-Aid leaves much to be desired.
Drink The Kool-Aid is the lead single off of Ice Cube’s The New West, which is slated for release on September 28th of this year.
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