I'm not sure if Cube's eleventh solo album - assuming I've counted right - is his greatest, but there's a chance it might be, my only doubts arising from the possible absurdity of narrowing it down to just one record given that no two of them sound like quite the same deal. Man Down expands on the sound of Everythangs Corrupt in certain respects yet the overall impression is of something like an old school soul album - and soul as in Al Green, Stevie Wonder, even Luther Vandross and those guys with the synth-bass funk, electric piano and so on; and I mean soul as something predating R&B in the modern sense, except it's soul with rapping as the main feature, a natural blend rather than a hybrid. Of course, this shouldn't be a surprise given quite a lot of the man's back catalogue, but the emphasis of the album as a whole is slightly different, a little breezier, a little more uptempo even when he's lyrically angry as fuck. More than anything, this is the sound of a man who enjoys what he does and doesn't feel any obligations towards whatever the rest of us might expect. It's grown man music.
You'll be familiar with the subject matter from the back catalogue, and because some of that shit is even worse than last time we were all here, but the undiminished punch of righteous anger is carried with maturity, better understanding, and an emotional depth you may not have noticed on previous albums. Other MCs may deliver greater lyrical acrobatics, but no-one tells a story or draws you in like Ice Cube, to the point of his almost occupying a field of one. It's still angry, still funny, but this time it could make a grown man cry - as the saying goes - in addition to anything else.
I don't know if he'll get to the point where he feels like he's said everything he has to say, or how many more of these we can look forward to. I hope there'll be more, but if there isn't, this is a fucking amazing finale.
