"Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" is the first single from Ice Cube's studio album, Raw Footage. It was released with a music video directed by Jonathan Silver on his MySpace page on January 3, 2008 The song contains a "chopped and screwed" line from Cube's previous single Child Support ("...you niggas know my Pyroclastic flow..."). Several members of Westside Connection make cameo appearances in the video.[1] In the song Ice Cube comments on the exploitation of gangsta rap as a scapegoat for society's problems.[2]
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"Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" | ||||
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Single by Ice Cube | ||||
from the album Raw Footage | ||||
Released | January 3, 2008 | |||
Recorded | 2007 | |||
Genre | West Coast hip hop, gangsta rap, hardcore hip hop, political hip hop | |||
Length | 4:45 | |||
Label |
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Songwriter(s) | O'Shea Jackson, Vaushaun Brooks | |||
Producer(s) | Vaushaun "Maestro" Brooks | |||
Ice Cube singles chronology | ||||
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A remix to the song was made featuring Nas and Scarface. It is credited to being featured on the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
The video was directed by Jonathan Silver and[3] begins in a classroom of the year 2020 (12 years after the song's release). A teacher wearing a uniform, flanked by two American flags, condemns gangsta rap for the vices of society, rape, murder, etcetera. When a child asks if Compton was dangerous before the emergence of gangsta rap, the teacher yells, "Wrong! Compton was a nature preserve for bunny rabbits! When gangster rap came along they tore down the country clubs and put up housing projects!" The room darkens and Ice Cube's face is projected on a screen smoking a cigar, rapping that gangsta rap is allegedly the root of all crimes. Several video clips of actual shootings in the U.S. and Iraq are shown, as well as the Virginia Tech Massacre including the infamous image of Seung-Hui Cho pointing a gun at the aforementioned massacre. It also features footage of the Michael Richards Laugh Factory incident (during the lyric "If I call you a nigga"), Don Imus ("If I call you a nappy-headed ho") and Chris Benoit (referring to the Benoit murder/suicide). The video features cameo appearances by WC and DJ Crazy Toones.
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