Death Certificate (album)

Background

The recording and writing for Death Certificate began in early 1991, and carried on throughout most of the year. While making the album, Ice Cube was also heavily involved in several other projects, including Yo-Yo's debut album Make Way for the Motherlode, his younger cousin Del tha Funkee Homosapien's I Wish My Brother George Was Here, and perhaps more importantly, his film debut, Boyz n the Hood, which he co-starred with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Laurence Fishburne. Similar to AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Ice Cube was very active in the album's production, though the overall sound differed. Unlike AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, which featured The Bomb Squad's hard edged beats, Death Certificate featured a slightly more West Coast-oriented sound in comparison, with heavy use of 70's Funk and Soul samples. A number of the tracks also use samples taken from acts such as Zapp (Ohio) and Fishbone (California).

Content

While making Death Certificate, Ice Cube was said to be affiliated with the Nation of Islam, which had a large impact on the majority of the album's content, although he has denied being part of the organization. Death Certificate was roughly organized as two thematic elements of a larger whole, and opens with Cube's explanation: "The Death Side: a mirror image of where we are today; The Life Side: a vision of where we need to go." The first half, therefore, is replete with the tales of drug dealing, whore-mongering and violence expected of a gangsta rap album in 1991.

The Death Side's "A Bird in the Hand" laments a young man's slide into a life of drug-dealing after finding that the best jobs available to him with little education and a jail record simply won't pay the bills.

The Life Side's "Black Korea" threatens rioting and arson alongside Black entrepreneurship as a response to the preponderance of Korean grocery stores in ghettos across the United States. The track was seen as a response to the death of Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African American girl who was shot to death by a Korean store owner on March 16, 1991 in an altercation over a bottle of orange juice. Since the release of the track preceded the Los Angeles Riots, in which many of the people targeted were of Korean descent, Ice Cube was accused of inciting racism by African Americans towards Asians.

The track "Look Who's Burnin'" tells of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases in low income neighborhoods, while "Alive on Arrival" tells the story of a young man caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout who slowly bleeds to death while in a hospital waiting room, being questioned by police. "Color Blind" preaches neutrality and brotherhood between gangs, such as the Bloods and Crips. Although Ice Cube's previous album avoided direct attacks on N.W.A, Death Certificate contained "True to the Game" and most notably "No Vaseline," which were diss tracks aimed at his former bandmates.

Unlike Ice Cube's other albums, Death Certificate was not released in a censored version. The tracks "Steady Mobbin'," "True To The Game," and "Givin' up the Nappy Dug Out," were, however, recorded with clean lyrics and released for airplay.

Reception

Death Certificate received critical acclaim. AllMusic called the album "even harder and angrier than AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted ... It continues the sharp insights and unflinching looks at contemporary urban lifestyles that his solo debut only hinted at; in short, it's hardcore without any gangsta posturing." They also call it "funkier, noisier, and more musically effective (than AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted)." Initially giving a four-and-a-half out of five "mic" rating, The Source gave the album a five "mic" rating in a retrospective list of "5 Mic Hip-Hop Classics" with its 150th issue. "His homophobia may be irksome," wrote Ted Kessler in Select, "but the shock value of these views has been blunted by lesser rappers. It's the sublime combination of '70s P-Funk and Ice Cube's excellent, taut delivery of rhymes calculated to jolt that pleases." Spin wrote that it "integrates vitriolic politics with raw street knowledge" and "achieves an almost George Clinton-esque sense of celebratory freakiness".

Death Certificate received a meager $18,000 promotion budget, and neither of its singles received much airplay, although the album's two singles, "Steady Mobbin'" and "True to the Game," received music video treatment.

Accolades

Controversy

In 1992, as a result of the album's controversy, the state of Oregon declared any display of Ice Cube's image in retail stores throughout the state illegal. This ban also included advertisements for St. Ides Malt Liquor, which Ice Cube endorsed at the time. In the September 2006 issue of FHM, Ice Cube stated in an interview that he did not regret the controversial statements made on the album.

Due to fear that laws against racial incitement in the United Kingdom could see the album banned, the original United Kingdom release removed the tracks "Black Korea" and "No Vaseline". Island Records, the distributor of this version of the album, deleted these tracks with the consent of Priority Records, but not Ice Cube himself. "We're very excited about Ice Cube," said Island MD Marc Marot, "but on a personal level I just could not take those two songs. I understand that self-censorship after the NWA case puts us in a strange position, but we're not going to support minority racism or antisemitism. We came to a compromise with Profile that was acceptable." The tracks have since been reinstated on a CD reissue readily available in the UK.

Commercial performance

The album sold 105,000 copies in its first week and debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at number 2, and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number 1, while it eventually went on to sell over 2 million copies in the US and sold over 5 million copies worldwide. On September 4, 2015 Death Certificate went back on the Billboard 200 chart and ranked at number 99 with 14,000 sales in its week; also, Greatest Hits and AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted came back on the Billboard 200 in this week with Greatest Hits charting at #118 with 11,920 sales and AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted at #150 with 8,300 sales.

Sample Credits

All credits taken from WhoSampled