HIP HOP RELEASE: Ice Cube - Raw Footage

"Eschewing big-name producers in favor of the uncluttered, cinematic funk of his N.W.A days, Cube spits some of his sharpest rhymes in years." - Rolling Stone Magazine

Galvanising a generation with his raw lyricism and radical persona, Hip Hop icon Ice Cube has become legendary for his ability to examine uncomfortable topics in uncompromising, unflinching ways.

"I’m Raw Footage,” the Hip Hop veteran says with a smirk. “Lyrically, [it’s] what I’m all about, how I think, what I say and what I do. The album is really about music for the brain and not the booty. I can’t really show it visually, but I can speak it in a visual way by delivering it raw.”

The collection’s lead single, Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It, has been hailed by MTV as the first great rap song of 2008 and earned a coveted slot in The Source’s Fat Tape section. Ice Cube wants listeners to use Raw Footage as a source of information and a resource to look toward for inspiration and solutions. “The worst thing we can do is give up,” he says. “Because once you do, the system will devour you.”

Ice Cube has been looking at untouched topics since his emergence as the lyrical mastermind behind N.W.A in the late 1980s. His solo material, including the classics AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted and Death Certificate, solidified his place as rap’s most important and socially aware artist.

Ice Cube has remained prolific, with 14 releases as a solo artist and as a member of some esteemed groups (Da Lench Mob, Westside Connection), including the blockbuster release of Laugh Now, Cry Later - the first album on Ice Cube’s own Lench Mob Records and the most successful independent Hip Hop release of 2006. It all adds up to a remarkable rap career that continues expanding and evolving. With the stellar Raw Footage, Ice Cube extends his bulletproof musical legacy. "This is not hip-hop with a super-inflated ego," he says.

"I don’t believe this is a preachy record. It’s just real and raw. It’s a spiritual record in a lot of ways too. It’s not just hardcore. It’s a record that hopefully touches people deep down inside of them and is not just something that they hear and are like, ‘That’s cool.’ I want it to be something they feel."

Raw Footage is available on U.S. shelves now through Lench Mob Records, with an Australian release on September 20 through Lench Mob/Inertia.