Live Review: Ice Cube

While crowds swarmed to catch a glimpse of the illuminated sails of the Sydney Opera House on the opening night of Vivid, the rap fans were seated within, eagerly awaiting the arrival of hip hop legend Ice Cube.

They heard the Compton rapper before they saw him, his voice ringing out around the concert hall: "In the beginning, God created hip hop, and he saw that it was good," he preached while a montage of iconic '90s rappers appeared on a large screen, the audience cheering for each one.

Every member of the audience jumped out of their seats as Ice Cube took to the stage, opening with NWA tracks Straight Outta Compton and Fuck Tha Police, they remained standing for the rest of the show. He made it clear that the night was supposed to be a showcase of part one of the history of Ice Cube as black and white photos from the early days of his career were displayed behind him. Ice Cube didn’t need any other theatrics, his music was spectacle enough to captivate punters throughout the entire show.

He moved onto his second solo album, Death Certificate, prefacing No Vaseline by discussing how the other members of NWA had dissed him. He faked offence at some crowd members not singing along to the famous line, "I never have dinner with the president", leaving the stage because of "Trump supporters" in the audience. It wasn’t Ice Cube who returned to the stage for the next song, but his son and star of the 2015 hit movie, Straight Outta Compton, O’Shea Jackson Jr - definitely a nice surprise for fans. 

When Ice Cube did return, he spoke about the significance of performing in the iconic building, "Rap should have been in this building a long time ago, this music deserves a platform like this," before launching into the '90s hit Check Yo Self.

Ice Cube engaged with his audience, explaining and giving context to each song he performed. He talked about not being able to sleep during his childhood in Compton because of the constant helicopters flying overhead before Ghetto Bird, finally working with Dr Dre again before Natural Born Killaz, and about working on 1995 film Friday before performing the movie's titular song.

He insisted Snoop Dogg would tear the place up, speaking about how ridiculous it was for him to be banned from entering Australia (although Snoop has actually returned Down Under since his 2007 ban) - which then turned into a pro-weed, anti-pills spiel. Another elaborate speech saw him encouraging everyone to get off the internet and re-integrate into reality.

He finished with arguably his biggest hit, It Was A Good Day - his son joining him and Cube's hype-man, rapper WC on stage as a sea of hands waved in the air - and returned for encore You Can Do It. Often referenced as one of the inventors of gangsta rap, Ice Cube managed to condense his 30-plus year career into a well-timed, incredibly entertaining and musically impressive show.