POP/ROCK - Nov. 25, 1991

Ice Cube Speaks Out: Rapper Ice Cube denied that his latest album is a racist attack on Jews and Koreans or that it advocates violence. The fact that trade magazine Billboard attacked his record, “Death Certificate,” in an editorial last week is an attempt at censorship that itself smacks of racism, the rapper told the Associated Press in Memphis, Tenn. “This (rap music) is the first time America can look at the views of a black man uncensored through music,” said Ice Cube. “The editor of the Billboard has a right to give his opinion . . . but when he says think twice before you buy this, that’s a form of censorship.” Billboard claimed the album crossed the line that divides art from advocacy of crime.