Hollywood, California - September 9, 2008 - World-famous rap artist and film star Ice Cu...

Hollywood, California - September 9, 2008 - World-famous rap artist and film star Ice Cube has personally compiled and sequenced 18 of his top solo hits and standout tracks for a new Capitol/Priority collection titled Ice Cube: The Essentials.  Available September 16 on CD and digitally, Ice Cube: The Essentials offers, in one hard-hitting collection, the best recordings of Ice Cube's 18-year solo music career, including a track from his new album, Raw Footage.

In the late 1980s, Ice Cube began his career as a member of Compton, California's pioneering, critically acclaimed and notorious gangsta rap group, N.W.A. On his first solo album, 1990's platinum-certified AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Ice Cube's razor-sharp sociopolitical and cultural missives from the streets went beyond N.W.A's gangbanging braggadocio, and he dismissed bicoastal rap rivalries to collaborate with New York's hip-hop heavyweights Public Enemy. Rolling Stone awarded the album its highest 5-star rating, the album's title track topped Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart, and the album peaked at #6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

Firmly established as a solo artist, Ice Cube became a musical and cultural lightning rod, his music attracting alternating praise and disdain from the media and moralists. Despite being singled out in an unprecedented public statement of condemnation from Billboard upon its release, Cube's 1991 album, Death Certificate, debuted at #1 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop chart and at #2 on the Billboard Top 200, and was soon certified platinum.

In 1992, Ice Cube made his film acting debut with his acclaimed role in John Singleton's epic film, Boyz N The Hood. That same year, his third album, The Predator, made chart history by being the first album to ever debut at #1 on both the Billboard Top 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop charts and went double-platinum, cementing Ice Cube's reign as the West Coast's premier multi-platinum hip-hop artist. 1993's platinum-certified Lethal Injection debuted at #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Lethal Injection would be Ice Cube's last album for five years, as his focus shifted to film acting and screenwriting and music producing.

Ice Cube is one of Hollywood's most bankable and versatile talents.  His film career is off the charts with his blockbuster Friday and Barbershop franchises and executive producer work for several other hit movies, including Beauty Shop, All About the Benjamins and The Player's Club.  Cube's music career is also back in full swing with his recent solo albums from his own Lench Mob Records label, 2006's gold-certified Laugh Now, Cry Later and his new album, Raw Footage, released today, which has been awarded four and a half stars by Rolling Stone.

Recent songs featured on The Essentials, including "Cold Places" (from Raw Footage), "Go To Church," and "Spittin' Pollaseeds," show that Ice Cube is as sharp lyrically today as he was when he first embarked upon one of the greatest careers in rap history. 

"Cube commands attention and respect with anything he does; no matter the venue, Ice Cube's presence simply cannot be discounted." (Peter Relic, Rolling Stone Album Guide)

www.icecube.com

 Ice Cube: The Essentials (CD, Digital Album)

1.      Go To Church (with Snoop Dogg & Lil Jon)

2.      Bird In Hand

3.      Ghetto Vet, with background vocals by Mack 10 & Mr. Short Khop

4.      Greed    

5.      Supreme Hustle            

6.      It Was A Good Day       

7.      Spittin' Pollaseeds (featuring Dub C & Kokane)           

8.      Rollin' With The Lench Mob 

9.      The Wrong Nigga To Fuck Wit

10.   When Will They Shoot? 

11.   Why We Thugs/Smoke Some Weed (live medley)      

12.   Givin' Up The Nappy Dugout      

13.   A Gangsta's Fairytale     

14.   Check Yo Self (with Das Efx)    

15.   What Can I Do? 

16.   War & Peace     

17.   Dead Homiez     

18.   Cold Places