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Laugh Now, Cry Later

album by Ice Cube

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ686509 ↗
Source-derived summary

Laugh Now, Cry Later is the seventh studio album by rapper Ice Cube, released on June 6, 2006. It was released on his independently owned record label Lench Mob Records. This album is 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 received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 selling 144,000 copies in first week. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in August 2006.

Background

Unlike Cube's previous album, Laugh Now, Cry Later features only a handful of collaborations. These include songs with West Coast rappers Snoop Dogg and WC, and Southern rapper Lil Jon. Laugh Now, Cry Later was preceded by the street single and accompanying video "Chrome & Paint".

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Laugh Now, Cry Later” is album by Ice Cube. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Laugh, Later and album, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2006-06-06. For this dossier, Laugh, Later and album is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “album by Ice Cube” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q686509. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Laugh Now, Cry Later”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Laugh Now, Cry Later primary sources, Laugh Now, Cry Later archive and Laugh research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Laugh Now, Cry Later”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Laugh Now, Cry Later” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.