Ice Cube News

The recent knock against Ice Cube is that he spends too much time playing Hollywood mogul and not enough in the recording booth. Consequently, his seventh solo disc, "Laugh Now, Cry Later," is an attempt to allay fears that the elder statesman has lost his gangsta rap mojo.

Cube has his moments, remotely sounding as angry and controversial as he did on 1993's "Lethal Injection." The first single, "Why We Thugs" is a Scott Storch-produced track critiquing the prison system: "But who's the animal who built this prison/ Who's the animal who invented lower living?" And on "The Na Trap," he takes aim at a diverse set of so-called victimizers and sellouts, from President Bush and California Gov. Schwarzenegger to the black church and Flavor Flav for loving white women.

Still, the incendiary sentiments can't mask the tepid production and uninspired rhymes about familiar hood pastimes. Lil Jon regurgitates his unmistakable crunk sonics on several tracks. Meanwhile, on "Stop Snitchin'," Cube invokes that popular rap catch phrase while Swizz Beats' dissonant synths plod along underneath. There's also a ganja anthem for the brain-cell-killing set ("Smoke Some Weed") and a predictable nod to West Coast car culture ("Chrome & Paint"). Only near the disc's end, on the G-funk workout "Spittin' Pollaseeds," does the rap vet hint at the organic Cali rap sound he helped create in the late '80s and mid-'90s."

For now, it seems Cube has applied what he's learned in Tinsletown all too literally. "Laugh Now" sounds too scripted and market-researched for its own good.