Wiki
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Length
4:36
In the explosive, incendiary opening track to his 1992 album The Predator, Ice Cube picks up right where he left off with his previous effort Death Certificate by focusing on the LAPD's brutal racial profiling policy, while also addressing accusations of "anti-Semitism" accrued over the years. The song's instrumental prominently samples Queen's "We Will Rock You," providing a thunderous backbeat for Cube to express the bitter anguish of Black Americans following the 1992 LA riots, precipitated by decades of violence at the hands of police, and culminating with the exoneration of all four officers in the Rodney King case. He references former LAPD chief Daryl Gates by name, along with four revolutionary Black thinkers: Nat (Turner), Huey (Newtown), Malcolm (X), and Louis (Farrakhan). Ice Cube having dinner with Farrakhan is also mentioned, with the rapper clarifying that he is not a member of the Five-Percent Nation despite supporting the broader movement of Black solidarity in this so-called "post-racial' United States. Cube also addresses long-standing accusations of misogyny with the lyrics: "A black woman is my manager, not in the kitchen/So could you please stop bitchin'?"
Many of these themes were covered in subsequent tracks, namely the aforementioned Los Angeles riots, where National Guard and US military were deployed on United States citizens (resulting in 63 deaths and over well 2,000 injuries). The unrest began in South Central LA, where Ice Cube's hometown of Westmont is located.
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