Ice Cube said this album would be different from any one of his others, having a different direction. The album was released independently under his label Lench Mob. Ice Cube stated that "being independent is beautiful because we can do things 'out the box' that record companies would usually frown at. Instead of working from a ready-made cookie-cutter marketing plan, we can tailor make a marketing plan specifically for me".[3]
In an interview with Baller Status, Ice Cube spoke on two songs that were going to be on the album, "Man vs. Machine" and "Hood Robbin". "'Man vs. Machine' is talking about our obsessions with machinery and how it's taking over. Automation is taking over human beings in all our relevancy in this world. Pretty soon, machines are gonna take over and that's just real...['Hood Robbin'] is talking about how big corporations is now stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. It's a whole thing about the things we're going up against with housing and medical insurance ... just everything people are going through. Real shit that ain't got nothing to do with money, cars, and all the shit most rappers talk about."[4]
Young Maylay made guest appearances on the album.[5] Ice Cube confirmed that Dr. Dre would no longer be on the album in August.[6]
He received beats from West coast veteran producers such as DJ Quik, Dr. Dre, E-A-Ski, and Sir Jinx, not having worked on a solo album with the latter in nearly 20 years.
The album's lead single "I Rep That West", was released on April 25, 2010.[7] The album's second single "Drink the Kool-Aid", was released on July 27, 2010.[8] The album's third single "She Couldn't Make It On Her Own" featuring Doughboy and OMG, was released on August 31, 2010.[9][10] A music video for "Too West Coast" (produced by Hallway Productionz) was released on October 5, 2010.
I Am the West was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 62 based on eight reviews.[11]
AllMusic's David Jeffries praised the album, writing "most won't have the skills to follow his playbook, either on or off the field, but Cube's utterly unique I Am the West shows the younger generation how to cross 40 while retaining their freedom and baller status".[12] Steve 'Flash' Juon of RapReviews wrote: "on the tracks of I Am the West that work the best, he's still got the vintage gruff demeanor, lyrical ferocity and hard hitting beats to claim some significant ownership of the Pacific shoreline. At other times he desperately desires to have a contemporary sound, and that's where things fall apart, but those mistakes can be overlooked or easily skipped compared to the quality of the overall presentation".[16] Jeff Weiss of Los Angeles Times stated: "on his ninth album, the independently released I Am the West, he retreats to self-satisfied taunts about his legendary status, the enervated state of the Left Coast, and his rivals, both real and imaginary".[14]
In mixed reviews, Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone found Ice Cube's "rants get boring over track after track of bland Nineties G-funk (a promised collaboration with his estranged N.W.A homey Dr. Dre never came through)".[17] Huw Jones of Slant concluded: "judging by moments like these, when Cube's performance is allowed to take center stage, I Am the West becomes an engaging hip-hop record".[18] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork resumed: "so even if I Am the West is little more than another reminder of what Cube's day job was before becoming a Hollywood supermogul, if it does result in someone's hearing AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted or Death Certificate for the first time in 2010, it's done its job".[15]
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