The Ice Cube song that came from a “crazy ass process”
For most of the younger generation Ice Cube is known primarily as the angry police captain from the Jump Street movies. Many would be shocked to know of his influence on the development of hip-hop as a social movement in the 1990s. The LA native who gained mass notoriety for his involvement with NWA, alongside Eazy-E and Dr Dre, can lay a huge claim to be a forefather for the establishment West Coast gangsta rap.
He was never one to shy away from speaking about the social issues at the time through his music and his work on Straight Outta Compton, NWA’s most successful album. The project evoked strong emotions – good and bad – across America, with tracks like ‘Fuck Tha Police’ shining a light on the mistreatment of African Americans and ‘Express Yourself’ letting the oppressed population know that they should be able to gain self-actualisation, despite infringement on their civil liberties.
Before the release of his solo project Raw Footage, in 2008, producer Teak “Da Beatsmith” Underdue, spoke to Worldwide Rap and Hip Hop Music Lifestyle Network about how Cube had made something which was particularly meaningful to him when they collaborated on the track ‘Why Me?’, which highlighted the senseless violence and suffering which was abundant in America at the time, punctuated by the line “Hell on Earth is being stuck in the 80s”.
In a message to all the “would-be-killers” out there, he said: “That song really strikes home. In February, my wife’s little cousin was a victim. He was 13 years old. He was at the park with his mom and he was the victim of someone shooting and he died. It was ironic that Cube had recorded that song. It happened in my family, so that song is really personal to me. My whole family is still just getting over his death.”
“His name was Aaron ‘Bubba’ Kelly Jr It’s amazing how that song worked out to me because I now have this piece of artwork that I can take with me and really promote it since it actually did happen to someone that I loved. I first got the song after he laid down the demo track around this time last year. It was August of last year, and the death of my cousin occurred in February of this year. After my cousin died, I kept listening to the song. It was like he was talking to me about the situation that just happened.”
Given the emotional connection to the subject matter, Teak would go on to employ an unusual process for creating the perfect beat for the track. “I have a crazy ass process a lot of times when I am making this music. With that particular song, I had started it with the basic beat. I had the bass line and pretty much the whole song done but it wasn’t quite ready, so I let it sit in my computer file for like a month before I went back to it.”
“Sometimes you’ve got to just wait until the vibe gets you to really finish off a beat. So when I went back to it, I added a lot of the percussions. I made the drums bang harder and once I did that, the shit was ready. The mix too is really important when you first present a beat to your client. Once I added all of the stuff that made the beat bang, I sent it out to Cube in about a day for approval. Then we have ‘Why Me’ a few months later.”
Despite the subject matter being so morbid, the beat is uplifting as Teak makes use of strings on top of a simple drum beat. Perhaps as a way to process his grief, Teak aimed to see the silver lining in a tragic situation.