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TERRORIST THREATS
(Capitol)
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The X-tra large trio of Ice Cube, Mack 10, and WC reunite as Westside Connection to try to breathe some life into the bullet-ridden body of West Coast gangsta rap. This is the trio’s second effort, and it arrives seven years after their bold and brutal debut, Bow Down, hit the streets. The ’hood has changed since ’96, when a gangsta paradise of swaying palm trees, bitches and ’ho’s, and souped-up low-riders dominated rap. Now, the South holds sway, and 50 Cent holds court over a commercially reinvigorated hip-hop nation. That doesn’t stop Westside Connection from dropping a retro yet feisty and clever album that’s full of tough but playful reminders of what made this stuff appealing the first time around. Although Ice Cube is more into acting than rapping these days, Terrorist Threats proves he’s still more adept with rhymes than with lines. As he puts it on "Call 9-1-1," "I’m straight off the slave ship/My style is ancient/I’m rich and I’m famous/I’m all and I’m dangerous/I came with that language/It’s mad, it’s brainless/You studied at Cambridge/I’m fuckin’ your main bitch." He’s not the angry young man of The Predator and Death Certificate, but there’s plenty of socio-political venom in "Potential Victims," where he warns the young, black populace, "Look nigga, you fit the description/This is dedicated to potential victims/The crucifixion ain’t no fiction/Too much bitchin’ get your ass beat into submission." Mack 10 and WC ably support Cube, who’s in the Westside Connection driver’s seat for most of the disc. The production doesn’t break any new ground — it’s just as slick and polished as the cars that cruise Crenshaw Boulevard. But it has more than enough of Cube’s subversive charisma to get by on attitude — and rhymes — alone.
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