Ice Cube

When rap exploded creatively and commercially in the late 1980s, Ice Cube was at the forefront of the expansion. As the lyrical brains behind N.W.A, the Los Angeles-based rapper instantly became a major player in the music game by leading a musical revolution with brutal, profane, politically-infused music that, for the first time in the genres history, sold millions of albums with N.W.As Straight Outta Compton. As a solo artist, Ice Cube became raps premier act with the release of the searing masterpieces AmeriKKKas Most Wanted and Death Certificate.

Now, after becoming Hollywoods most bankable actor thanks to his Barbershop and Friday franchises, Ice Cube returns to his first artistic love, rapping. Laugh Now, Cry Later, the multi-platinum, award-winning music icons first solo album in six years, simmers with celebration, as well as the rage, reflection and introspection that are the hallmarks of timeless music. I feel Laugh Now, Cry Later is the state of the world, of America, of urban America, of hip-hop, Ice Cube explains of his seventh solo album. It seems like everybody is playing and nobodys worried about anything.

On the explosive Scott Storch (50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Beyonce) produced Why We Thugs, Ice Cube blasts an oppressive system that cripples Americas ghettos and fosters the perpetual ruin of such areas as South Central, Compton and Long Beach, Los Angeles metropolitan areas that have been war zones for decades.

If you pump drugs and guns into our community -- or any lower class community -- and not give the people any outlet, any way out, or make it real difficult, then what do you expect the outcome is going to be? Cube asks. Its funny how people who aint never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. Its funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, Get up. Whats wrong with you?

Now, with the impending release of Laugh Now, Cry Later, his first solo album released on his own Lench Mob Records, Ice Cube is on top of his creative game and relishing in his ability to make his latest album at his own pace and on his own terms.

Im putting my money where my mouth is because theres nothing a major label can do for me that I cant do for myself, he says. Not being signed to a particular label, putting it out myself, not having to worry about what a company or anyone else has to think about the record, being able to just go in and do it how I feel it with no timelines or deadlines, it made me comfortable. I was able to recommitment myself to rhyming and rapping. That all molded the way that this record sounds, which is important because I want my records to last the rest of the year when they come out.

Truth be told, Laugh Now, Cry Later will last well into the next decade.