These days XXL is never a magazine I would spend money on; sure they have the occassional interesting article or reviews but the majority is spent on BS. Back in the day however, XXL had some extremely powerful articles and photoshots fot the true hip-hop heads. In one of their finest moves they gave several page spreads on the making of classic '90s allbums including "Illmatic", "Only Buit 4 Cuban Linx", "Ready to Die" and "Life After Death", "All Eyez On Me", "Capital Punishment" and of course Ice Cube's timeless solo debut "AmerikKka's Most Wanted". The latter was for me the final article I got my hands on. After I recently started revisiting this unbelivable classic a whole lot recenly, I was determined to find the XXL article - preferably with scans as XXL's own website only have a small excerpt of the article.
Together with "Death Certificate", "Amerikka's Most Wanted" is my favorite Cube album and stands as two of the finest West Coast albums of all time. And especially the 1990 debut this post is about really succeeded by juxtaposing the finest things from both the East and West sounds due to the project being overseen and produced by both The Bomb Squad and Sir Jinx. Luckily enough I was able to find scans of the entire XXL article via a Tumblr Acount a while back which truly made my day. I decided to share it with my trusted Lost Tapes readers, so I strongly suggest you press play on your CD or, cassette or LP, pump up the volume and start reading.
A huge thank you goes out The Martorialist Blog amd it's webadmin Si Maine Price so be sure to visit his site for more gold. Until then, download all the 8 pages in good quality via Mega.co.nz! Very interesting reading which indeed comes highly recommended!
ICE CUBE / "Amerikka's Most Wanted" @ XXL
ICE CUBE / "Amerikka's Most Wanted" @ XXL
Played it every summer since it dropped back in 90.
ReplyDeleteCube performing 'AmeriKKKas Most Wanted' back in his Jehri curled heyday:
1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOoI7b1rPpE
2:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ice+cube+show+1991
wow thanks a lot man!!!!!
ReplyDeletewould you mind if i made a post on that in a bit (of course mentioning you for props)
btw, which Cube album is your favorite?
Go ahead, you're write-ups are really dope.
DeleteI didn't up the video, you can prop the uploader if you wish to.
A friend of mine lent me a cool rare double cassette case with AMW on the front and DC on the back.
They are both equally great for different reasons.
At the time I thought he made 3 classics in a row with Predator.
ReplyDeleteWhen Cube rocked the Apollo, word was that even local players and hustlers started to throw money on stage.
ReplyDelete''This is the original The Best of Both Worlds. You've got the East Coast and the West Coast together. And you've got Ice Cube at his maddest. He was the mack. I remember when Ice Cube played at the Apollo on this tour. Every rapper in town was there. It was like seeing Jimi Hendrix or some shit. From 1990 to 1994, Ice Cube was unquestionably the best rapper in the world -- without peer.'' - Chris Rock
Incredible run -
1988: Straight Outta Compton
1990: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
1990: Kill At Will
1991: Death Certificate
1992: The Predator
1993: Lethal Injection
1994: Bootlegs and B-sides
1996: Bow Down