But yeah, like you said, Cube wasn't focused when he did WAR & PEACE--on WAR, I remember Cube trying to get on that Rock-Rap thing on "Fuck Dying" (w/ Korn) and the song "War & Peace" basically interpolated No Doubt's "Don't Speak." Also, a friend of mine who's a little more up on this kind of thing than me listened to the CD when I played it for him back in '99, and he said: "it sounds like Cube's trying to get the Gothic (or Goth)/Industrial fans, w/ the cover/CD booklet imagery and w/ the 'European' sound of some of the tracks." I don't know if I'd call it an "embarassment", but it wasn't what folks wanted to hear from Cube, I'll tell you that. As for PEACE...I don't know...it sounded like Cube was trying to go for some weird hybrid of L.A. Gangsta sounds and (like the CD booklet said) Dance/Club-type stuff.
The funny thing is, I remember that when that WAR & PEACE were first announced in '97, Cube described them as being more concept-like in nature...he said that WAR would be straight-up Gangsta-type songs, and that PEACE would be more "conscious" material. Neither CD really did turn out that way...I still wonder if Priority put pressure on Cube to make the CDs more commercial and maybe wouldn't let him put them out the way he wanted them--after all, both of them got pushed back a whole bunch of times. But yeah, I like what I heard on the new one (LN, CL), and I'll definitely cop it next week. Hope Cube does well w/ this one...PEACE!
