Stranger books editor Paul Constant is interviewing this dude onstage, but I would have suggested this reading anyway. The Night of the Gun is an obsessively fact-checked memoir in which the compulsion to fact-check becomes part of the story, a signal of the anxiety with which David Carr—now a reporter for the New York Times—revisits his escalating addictions to alcohol and cocaine, his rocky journalism career, and his habit of hitting his girlfriends. The truths hurt. (Douglass-Truth Library, 2300 E Yesler Way, 684-4704. 6:30 pm, free.)

Ensconced in an astronomical tax bracket thanks to savvy decisions made in Hollywood, Ice Cube occasionally steps off movie sets to rap his gritty, witty lyrics on stages and in studios. It's magnanimous of the ex-NWA member to spit his socially conscious brickbats and guffaw-worthy sexual tales for the masses. While the new Raw Footage pales compared to Cube's peak work (AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Death Certificate), the man is sure to entertain with scowling panache. Local lexicon tricksters Dyme Def undoubtedly will bring their A-plus game. (Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave, 628-3151. 8 pm, $35 adv/$40 DOS, 21+.)