Laugh Now, Cry Later is the seventh studio album by rapper Ice Cube, released on June 6, 2006. It is Ice Cube's first album to be released on his independently owned record label Lench Mob Records and his first studio album in six years since his previous album, War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc). After spending the previous six years mainly doing movie projects, it could be considered a comeback album. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 selling 144,000 copies in the first week.Laugh Now, Cry Later is the seventh studio album by rapper Ice Cube, released on June 6, 2006. It is Ice Cube's first album to be released on his independently owned record label Lench Mob Records and his first studio album in six years since his previous album, War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc). After spending the previous six years mainly doing movie projects, it could be considered a comeback album. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 selling 144,000 copies in the first week.false2025-10-04 00:38:07Laugh Now, Cry Later20062006-06-062006-06-0665Hip Hop1118042114720b0f9ec05-a8d1-4e9f-bf19-80247caa3ed71d11e2a1-4531-4d61-a8c7-7b5c6a608fd29b08efd6-cf73-35b9-8b66-6d20a0220735/media/data/media2/Music/Ice Cube/Laugh Now, Cry Later/folder.jpgIce CubeIce Cube feat. Snoop DoggIce Cube feat. Snoop Dogg & Lil JonIce Cube feat. WCIce Cube feat. WC & KokaneIce CubeO'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1988 album Straight Outta Compton contributed to gangsta rap's widespread 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. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of N.W.A in 2016.
A native of Los Angeles, Ice Cube formed his first rap group called C.I.A. in 1986. In 1987, with Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, he formed the gangsta rap group N.W.A. As its lead rapper, he wrote some of Dre's and most of Eazy's lyrics on Straight Outta Compton, a landmark album that shaped West Coast hip hop's early identity and helped differentiate it from East Coast rap. N.W.A was also known for their violent lyrics, threatening to attack abusive police which stirred controversy. After a monetary dispute over the group's management by Eazy-E and Jerry Heller, Cube left N.W.A in late 1989, teaming with New York artists and launching a solo rap career.
Ice Cube has also had an active film career since the early 1990s. He entered cinema by playing Doughboy in director John Singleton's feature debut Boyz n the Hood, a 1991 drama named after a 1987 rap song that Ice Cube wrote. He also co-wrote and starred in the 1995 comedy film Friday, which spawned a successful franchise and reshaped his public image into a bankable movie star. He made his directorial debut with the 1998 film The Players Club, and also produced and curated the film's accompanying soundtrack. As of 2020, he has appeared in about 40 films, including the 1999 war comedy Three Kings, family comedies like the Barbershop series, and buddy cop comedies 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and Ride Along. He was an executive producer of many of these films, as well as of the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton.