Sick Day

Sorry for the lateness on this one. Battling a fever and a stomach virus.

In the late '80s and early '90s, rap was famously known as "The black CNN." But growing up in the late '80s and early '90s, I saw a lot of well-to-do high schoolers blasting NWA from their BMWs. And to be honest, I think a lot of rappers took advantage of this suburban type of urban fantasy by embellishing some of their bios. It's not different than what some outlaw country artists did a few decades before.

But Ice Cube was a different story. I wasn't too keen on gangsta rap in early '90s for its incessant posturing. But one listen to Ice Cube's "Today Was A Good Day" changed my outlook almost instantly. Instead of hearing stories about drive-bys and revenge, we heard Ice Cube detailing an utterly normal day to middle America, but a rarity for someone who is actually living in the environment Ice Cube routinely painted.

Cube expertly weaves in a few monotonous details - watching Yo MTV Raps, getting a fat burger at two in the morning and not getting pulled over by the cops. Cube also weaves in more poignant details - "plus nobody I know got killed in South Central L.A." Cube's frank delivery gave that line a stark realism that was missing in more than 90 percent of gangsta rap at that time. It was one of the few times where the information felt more like a letter from a warzone than a Grand Theft Auto fantasy.