''I Am the West'' is the ninth studio album by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

rapper Ice Cube. It was released on September 28, 2010 by

Lench Mob Records Lench Mob Records is an record label owned by Los Angeles rapper and actor Ice Cube. Founded as Street Knowledge Records, it was once home to many of Cube's former allies such as DJ Pooh, and Lench Mob's own Chilly Chill, Del the Funky Homos ...

and

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

Background

Ice Cube said this album would be different from any one of his others, having a different direction. The album was released independently under his label Lench Mob. Ice Cube stated that "being independent is beautiful because we can do things 'out the box' that record companies would usually frown at. Instead of working from a ready-made cookie-cutter marketing plan, we can tailor make a marketing plan specifically for me". In an interview with Baller Status, Ice Cube spoke on two songs that were going to be on the album, "Man vs. Machine" and "Hood Robbin". "'Man vs. Machine' is talking about our obsessions with machinery and how it's taking over. Automation is taking over human beings in all our relevancy in this world. Pretty soon, machines are gonna take over and that's just real... Hood Robbin'is talking about how big corporations is now stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. It's a whole thing about the things we're going up against with housing and medical insurance ... just everything people are going through. Real shit that ain't got nothing to do with money, cars, and all the shit most rappers talk about." Young Maylay made guest appearances on the album. Ice Cube confirmed that

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

would no longer be on the album in August. He received beats from West coast veteran producers such as

DJ Quik David Marvin Blake (born January 18, 1970), better known by his stage names DJ Quik or Da Quiksta, is an American rapper and producer, known for his production in the G-funk style of West Coast hip-hop. Blake has collaborated with Snoop Dogg, ...

E-A-Ski Shon Adams (born September 17, 1968), better known by his stage name E-A-Ski, is an American rapper and producer from Oakland, California. He served as both a rapper and producer for No Limit Records, producing on Master P's early records and ...

, and

Sir Jinx Anthony Wheaton, professionally known by his stage name Sir Jinx, is an American hip hop producer and rapper from Los Angeles. He is a cousin of multi-platinum producer Dr. Dre. He began his career as a member of the C.I.A. in the mid-80s with ...

, not having worked on a solo album with the latter in nearly 20 years. ''I Am The West'', like several previous Ice Cube/

Westside Connection Westside Connection was an American hip-hop supergroup formed by Mack 10, WC and Ice Cube. The group's debut album, '' Bow Down'', reached the number 2 position on the ''Billboard'' 200 in 1996, going platinum that year. Biography Westside ...

albums, features interludes by

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

Singles

The album's lead single "I Rep That West", was released on April 25, 2010. The album's second single "Drink the Kool-Aid", was released on July 27, 2010. The album's third single "She Couldn't Make It On Her Own" featuring Doughboy and OMG, was released on August 31, 2010. A music video for "Too West Coast" (produced by

Hallway Productionz Hallway Productionz is a 3x Grammy Nominated, Dove Award-winning music production duo made up of producer/mixer/engineer/multi-instrumentalist Teak & Dee Underdue. The pair reside in Stockton, California. Teak and Dee's production is most notably ...

) was released on October 5, 2010.

Reception

Early reviews perceived to be generally positive gaining a 62% out of 100 in

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Jeff Weiss from The L.A. Times music blog gave it 2 and a half out of 4 stars stating "Even the greatest can use a little help from their friends, and all too often this feels like how the West was one-dimensional." Allmusic reviewer David Jeffries said "I Am the West shows the younger generation how to cross 40 while retaining their freedom and baller status. Middle age hip-hop is born here, and if the game follows his lead, it will be one monster of a genre. "

Commercial performance

The album debuted at #22 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and sold 22,000 copies in its 1st week.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2010 albums Ice Cube albums Albums produced by Bangladesh (record producer) Albums produced by Tha Bizness