Long before Jay-Z dropped The Story of O.J. on us, Ice Cube gave us the Prequel. The O.G. (Original) OJ Story, is True To the Game.

This classic comes off of Ice Cube’s classic album Death Certificate, which also included hits like Steady Mobbin, and My Summer Vacation. True To The Game dropped in 1991, and it addressed this problem within the black community. Because it isn’t new. Blacks been dealing with house niggas for centuries now.

Cube just re-released Death Certificate, to celebrate it’s 25th Year Anniversary. Yea … it’s literally Crazy to think that album came out that long ago!  Telling my age … this was the soundtrack on the way to all our high school basketball games, in my walkman!

True To The Game though… a reminder, that has always stuck with me throughout my life comes in verse 2……

When you first start rhyming it started off slow, and then you start climbing
But it wasn’t fast enough I guess, so you gave your other style a test
You was hardcore hip-hop
Now look at yourself, boy you done flip-flopped
Giving our music away to the mainstream
Don’t you know they ain’t down with the team?
They just sent they boss over
Put a bug in your ear, and now ya crossed over
On MTV, but they don’t care
They’ll have a new nigga next year
Ya out in the cold
No more white fans, and no more soul
And you might have a heart attack
When you find out the black folks don’t want you back
And you know what’s worse?
You was just like the nigga in the first verse
Stop sellin’ out ya race
And wipe that stupid-ass smile off your face
Niggas always gotta show they teeth
Now I’ma be brief, be true to the game – Ice Cube, True To The Game, 1991

They’ll have a New Nigga Next Year!

Over the last 25 years, I’ve seen ‘them’ do this very thing. There is always a hot negro, and then he falls off. They take him down one way or another…. (Bill Cosby).

That’s also what I can say about Cube. He’s also kept that advice close to his own heart, and really those are the kinds of people you can respect. People who take their own advice, are usually worth listening to. None of us have seen Cube get on that ‘coon’ shit.  We haven’t seen him throw on a dress, or do anything that puts him in a compromised position. He’s repped where he’s from, but has also expanded out, specifically in his choices of movie roles.

He’s allowed cats like Kevin Hart, Chris Tucker, and Mike Epps to ‘play the fool’ in most of their film collaborations. Meanwhile, like a saavy businessman, Cube has simply been Cube. He’s stayed True to the Game. He’s used them, the same way they’ve wanted to use him.  All while realizing, ‘The Nature of The Threat” ….

True to the game, 25 years later, the OG OJ Story…. still a classic single in the annals of hip hip history!  A lesson, and a roadmap for us all to follow….

My Summer Vacation, also from “Death Certificate”, 1991

Update: June 4, 2018 – Daz Dillinger used this Same Track to Diss Kanye West – check it out… Part 2, to the Game