Ice Cube is not here to make people feel comfortable with his new album, Man Down, which is slated for a Nov. 22 release. The project features 19 tracks and guest appearances from the likes of Snoop Dogg, E-40, Too Short, October London, Kurupt, Xzibit and a few others. Thus far, he has dropped off singles like “Ego Maniacs” and “It’s My Ego.”
The body of work signifies the West Coast icon’s first solo LP since 2018’s Everythang’s Corrupt. He has already promised it is “the album my fans have been waiting on” in a tweet published earlier this month. In a new interview for Complex’s “Idea Generation,” the Compton-bred rapper said that the compilation of songs, like others in his lengthy discography, would be an unfiltered lyrical examination of the world from Cube’s perspective.
“If I ain’t making somebody mad, I’m not doing something right, and it’s not like that’s my purpose, but the truth shows all blemishes, you know, the mirror… Some people don’t like the truth. But if you ugly, you can’t blame it on the mirror,” he told interviewer Noah Callahan-Bever. One of the truths Cube is tackling is the fact that, “Everybody a little too sensitive right about now.”
On the record’s third track, “So Sensitive,” the N.W.A. co-founder raps, “N**ga, facts over feelings, f**k your feelings, we ain’t the villain/ And this ain’t a drill, gotta keep it real, f**k how you feel.” Even the album’s title is symbolic of the theme. “The name of the record is Man Down, so hopefully the next record is Man Up,” Cube said. “It’s like we can’t keep apologizing for who we are just to make other people take over and [be] comfortable. That’s really, you know, what’s turning this society upside down if you ask me,” he added.
Further into his and Callahan-Bever’s conversation, he more pointedly shared his take on things. He explained, “A lot [of] men are just sitting around watching the show and not, not doing what they need to do to make sure everything is going right. Everybody is worried about how they feel — that’s the change… Forget doing what you need to do, doing what’s right, doing what’s supposed to be done. It’s all about how you feel, and [if] you don’t feel like it, you don’t do it. Nobody feel like it, nothing get done.”
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