Ice Cube / Everythangs Corrupt / 2018
That New Funkadelic
loose, cocky, celebratory
This is a party track built on P-Funk's legacy, celebrating California's weed legalization, casual sex, and West Coast nightlife over a slinky, funk-indebted groove. It's less concerned with narrative or message than with atmosphere -- a loose, boastful invitation to move, get high, and hook up.
hedonism and pleasure-seeking California pride and regionalism funk lineage and homage sexual bravado weed legalization
Who's speaking
Ice Cube speaks in first person as host and hypeman, addressing an unnamed crowd or potential partner directly; the voice is boastful and unbothered, not reflective or vulnerable
What happens
There isn't much of a plotted story -- the song moves associatively through a night out, from the hook's dance command through a boast about an uncle's promiscuity, into a call-and-response about who's secretly a freak, a come-on about paying for dinner rather than sex, a toast to weed legalization, and a victory lap over how much attention the song and its author command.
How it's built
The track is hook-heavy and repetitive by design, built around a central chant that returns three times, interspersed with shorter, thematically loose verses that function more like party MC banter than through-composed storytelling. There's no real bridge or turn -- structurally it mimics a DJ set, looping back to its central hook to close.
Section by section
Opening hook
The chant that opens the song establishes the physical, danceable pleasure at its center before any verse content arrives -- the groove itself is the argument.'
Chorus/title hook
The recurring chant naming the song's own title functions as both branding and command, positioning Cube as curator of a specific funk-rap experience and urging listeners to spread the word.
Uncle verse
A brief, comic character sketch about a lecherous relative injects raunchy humor and reinforces the song's easy embrace of casual sexuality without any moralizing.
Freaks on the floor
This call-and-response section turns the song outward, inviting the audience to self-identify, which shifts the track from boast to shared ritual.'
Trickin' vs treatin'
“I ain't into trickin', I'm into treatin”
Cube frames himself as generous rather than transactional, a small character beat that softens the bravado elsewhere with a wink toward old-school romantic posturing.
Weed legalization verse
“I heard weed was legal”
This section ties the party mood to a specific real-world development, treating legalization less as policy than as a communal blessing worth toasting.
Closing boast verse
The final extended verse piles up braggadocio about fame, sexual desirability, and toughness, closing the song on pure self-assertion rather than resolution.
Craft
- homage/allusion
- The title and groove directly invoke Funkadelic, situating the track within a lineage of P-Funk hedonism and West Coast funk-rap that Cube has drawn from throughout his career.
- call and response
- The 'freaks on the floor' sections use a question-and-answer structure typical of party rap, implicating the listener and turning the song into a participatory chant rather than a narrated scene.
- double entendre
- The recurring line about trickin' versus treatin' plays on both the literal (buying someone dinner) and sexual/transactional connotations of the words, letting Cube claim old-school gallantry while still boasting about getting what he wants.
- simile
- Comparisons like the beat to booty and desire to barbecue keep the imagery physical and appetitive, reinforcing the song's fixation on bodily pleasure.
Reading it
The most straightforward reading is that this is a celebratory, nostalgia-tinged party record -- Cube reaching back to Funkadelic's grooves to make a modern West Coast anthem about weed, sex, and regional pride, with little interest in the social commentary that defined his earlier work. A secondary reading might note that even here, references to legalization and 'West Side celebration' carry a faint political undertone, framing pleasure itself as a form of freedom worth claiming, especially against the album's title implying broader corruption. But the song mostly resists deeper interpretation by design -- it's meant to be felt, not parsed.
Context
Everythangs Corrupt (2018) marked something of a return for Ice Cube after years away from solo rap, and the album mixes political material with looser, funk-driven tracks like this one. The explicit nod to Funkadelic situates the song within the P-Funk tradition that has long influenced West Coast hip-hop production, including much of Cube's own catalog going back to his work with the Bomb Squad and DJ Pooh. I don't have specific production or sampling details for this track and want to flag that as uncertain.
Listen for
- how the central chant functions almost like a DJ drop, branding the track
- the call-and-response 'freaks' section and how it invites crowd participation
- the shift in tone during the trickin'/treatin' lines toward mock chivalry
- the toast to weed legalization as a moment of communal celebration rather than protest
- the layered funk instrumentation underneath the boasts, echoing classic P-Funk arrangements
About Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson, known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His efforts on N.W.A's 1989 album Straight Outta Compton contributed to gangsta rap's popularity, and his political rap solo albums AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990), Death Certificate (1991), and The Predator (1992) were all critically and commercially successful.
b. 1969 / United States
Full biography and catalogue