Puneet Varma (Editor)

You Played Yourself

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B-side
  
"Freedom Of Speech"

Label
  
Sire Records

Released
  
April 5, 1990

Producer(s)
  
Afrika Islam Ice-T

Genre
  
West Coast hip hop, gangsta rap

Writer(s)
  
Ice-T, Charles Bobbit, James Brown, Fred Wesley, Afrika Islam

"You Played Yourself" is a 1990 rap single by Ice-T, from his third album The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say.

Contents

The song tells details several failures through hubris. One goes uneducated thinking he is a gangster when really he is nothing. Another is a rapper who offends his fans because he thinks he is above them but they turn on him - he is left unemployed with no one because he has offended them all. Another is a drug addict, paranoid and doesn't eat. He rips off his family for drug money and they disown him. He then tries to do an armed robbery to get money but accidentally kills someone and ends up on death row. The track heavily samples "The Boss" by James Brown from the Black Caesar (film) soundtrack.

Side A

  1. "You Played Yourself" (Remix) — DJ Aladdin, King Tee
  2. "You Played Yourself" (Remix Instrumental) — DJ Aladdin, King Tee

Side B

  1. "You Played Yourself" (LP Version)
  2. "Freedom Of Speech"

References

You Played Yourself Wikipedia
(Text) CC BY-SA