Ice Cube‘s new album, Man Down, dropped on Friday, before Kendrick Lamar surprised the world with GNX, but he’s not the bit least perturbed by the “secret record.”
“I’m interested to check it out,” he told Billboard of GNX, adding, “It ain’t no stepping on nothing. My fan base been waiting for this record and they gon’ check mine out.”
Ice Cube stressed to new artists the importance of cultivating a core fan base that will support your releases regardless of what music comes out.
“We can be on 1,000 different platforms, but it’s gonna come down to do fans come directly to you for what you have to give. That’s why Kendrick putting out a record that doesn’t hurt my mission of serving my fan base,” he said. “This record is for Ice Cube fans. I know Ice Cube fans gonna check me out and that’s why I said, ‘Mission accomplished.’ Feedback from my day ones is they love the record. It’s a beautiful day.”
Ice Cube’s Man Down features 19 songs, with features from Busta Rhymes, Killer Mike, Xzibit, Snoop Dogg and more. On the song “It’s Me Ego,” he raps that he was “Kendrick before Kendrick.” Ironically, he thinks there are similarities between “Not Like Us” and his N.W.A diss track “No Vaseline.”
“As a hit, it’s humongous. As a diss, it’s top-notch. It’s one of the best disses that’s ever been done,” Cube tells Billboard of “Not Like Us.” “Me and my homie Dub-C (WC) talked about it, when the battle first started — we were like, ‘The first one who does the battle off a hit beat, it’s gonna be a knockout blow.’ It’s gonna cause a lot of damage. Because that’s what ‘No Vaseline’ is: It’s a hardcore diss, but it’s over hit music.”
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