by Andrew Calvio
Gangsta Rap pioneer Ice Cube came to Moody Center on his Truth To Power: 4 Decades of Attitude tour. The evening was structured as a walk through an expansive career reaching back 39 years. Appropriately, the first five songs of the night were from the N.W.A. catalog. Middle fingers flew into the air as Ice Cube started with “F*ck tha Police” followed by “Dopeman”. Cube took a minute to share memories and appreciation for former collaborator and Cofounder of N.W.A. Eazy-E before welcoming Lil Eazy-E onstage to perform “Boyz-n-the-Hood”. Closing out this decade was the hit song “Straight Outta Compton” making everybody move to the beat.
The middle portion of the concert featured video segments telling the story of how Ice Cube went from being in a group to a solo artist. He praised director John Singleton for his persistence by pushing him to pursue film and stated that he “wouldn’t be here today without him.” There were few breaks during this portion as Cube rolled through the 90s featuring “No Vaseline” and “Check Yo’ Self.” Setting up for the end of this block, Cube again spoke of Singleton who encouraged him to dive into screenwriting. He quoted Singleton by saying “if you can write an album you can write a movie.” This decade of solo work ended with “Friday,” “We Be Clubbin,” and “You Know How We Do It.”
The final set featured rapper WC from Westside Connection, a supergroup / side project during the late 90s. The highlight of this portion was “The Gangsta, the Killa and the Dope Dealer” with a clever sample of NIN’s “Hurt” as the base layer. WC stayed on stage for the 2000s portion of the show. Ice Cube made a quick wardrobe change into a white jersey and white hat to signify the change in decades. The two rappers traded verses in “Natural Born Killaz’ and “Hello” before closing with “You Can Do It.”
As is standard, Ice Cube saved his best for last. The slow groove of “It Was a Good Day” started as a mini Goodyear blimp flew through the Moody Center with a scrolling banner that read “Ice Cube’s a Pimp.” It was the perfect end to this night packed with nostalgia and retrospective on a legendary rapper’s 40 year career.
Check out all our photos from the show on Austin 101.
