Ice Cube Laugh Now, Cry Later Review

Since gracing those Oscar-winning classics Anaconda and Barbershop II, it's difficult torememberthat Ice Cube was once considered US Public Enemy #1. After baiting the moral majority with NWA, the title of his first solo record, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, could have been taken quite literally - as could its follow-up, Death Certificate.

Given his love of the silver screen, it's tempting to treat his first album in five years as some sort of mid-budget action flick from the State where, as "The Nigga Trap" would have it, 'The f**king Terminator is the Governor'.

In truth, it's better than that. Cube's rapping talents certainly get a good workout and production big hitters - including Dre, Scott Storch, Lil Jon, Swizz Beatz and DJ Green Lantern -have their finger fully on the G-button circa 1991.

Although there's something faintly bewildering about the self-proclaimed 'definition of a West Coast G'still bragging about guns ("Click Clack Get Back!") and- yawn -how much hay he can toke ("Smoke Some Weed"), this exercise in nostalgia is,on the whole,a thrilling one.