To a 16–year–old, a pair of car keys is probably the most profound symbol of autonomy and freedom in the known world. This was especially true in my native Los Angeles, where car keys and a freshly–minted driver's license (awkward, pimply photo and all) transformed the city from an un–walkable wasteland into a sea of opportunity. My friends and I, intoxicated with newfound freedom, would often put on Ice Cube’s classic “Down for Whatever” as we traversed LA’s streets. Cube’s smooth, flowing rhymes spoke to us on a new level, higher than the irony of some white kids in a Jetta blasting the basslines of a West Coast rap scion. Aside from a few choice lines (“Now pimpin’ ain’t easy but it’s necessary”), the song perfectly reflected our liberated ethos.
Like Cube, we really were “down for whatever” — and even as the mystique of independence fades, a replay of this track is a reminder of the simple pleasures of just being.
