Ice-T

First of all let me make one thing clear. I *hate* rap music. Hate it, hate it, HATE IT. But it wasn't always that way. Back in the day before hip-hop conquered the world, and MTv would actually play 3 or 4 heavy metal videos per hour, I had a passing interest in some of the then-underground rap bands Public Enemy, Ice-T, and the original N.W.A. Then, I moved in with a guy to whom rap (in particular, "gangsta rap") was his bread & butter -- he played it CONSTANTLY, and not just the good stuff, but the really nasty stuff like Too Short, 2PaC, Geto Boys, etc. etc. It drove me mad...literally! It all came to a head one day when I shoved a gun in his face (not joking here!!) and said that demons were living in his rap CDs and were burrowing themselves into my skull! Thankfully, from that day forward, he listened to headphones. :-)

But several years have passed, long enough for me to have recovered from that trauma, so I've decided to let a few classic rap acts sneak into my collection. (Forget about crap like Snoop Doggy Dogg & Notorious B.I.G. -- no wonder these niggaz are always shooting each other, if I had to listen to rap music 24/7, I'd go on a murderous rampage too!!) However, used rap CDs are extremely rare (they get stolen too quickly), and when they do turn up, are often scratched to hell (I've actually bought 3 or 4 rap CDs already, just to find out they were unplayable.) Well, I suppose that's probably for the best...

Okay, now that I'm done ranting, gotta talk about the artist. :-)

Well...Ice-T was always one of the more accessible gangsta-rap artists. Not only does he mostly take his samples from old-school funkadelic (a style of music that I actually like), he's the only one I know of who's crossed over into heavy metal: specifically, with his band Body Count, plus collaborations with Slayer (on the Judgment Night soundtrack); Black Sabbath (on the album Forbidden -- and while on that point, let me say that Ice-T is the ONLY artist I know of who can sample Black Sabbath properly!); and Motorhead (on Airheads soundtrack.)

"Rhyme Pays"

  1. "Intro/Rhyme Pays" (6:29)
  2. "6 'N the Morning" (7:11)
  3. "Make it Funky" (5:09)
  4. "Somebody Gotta Do It (Pimpin' Ain't Easy!!!)" (3:03)
  5. "409" (5:20)
  6. "I Love Ladies" (4:44)
  7. "Sex" (2:57)
  8. "Pain" (3:36)
  9. "Squeeze the Trigger" (6:12)
  10. "Make it Funky"--12" mix (5:58)
  11. "Sex (Bonus Beat)"--instrumental (3:53)
  12. "Somebody Gotta Do It (Pimpin' Ain't Easy!!!)"--12" mix (3:27)
  13. "Our Most Requested Record"--long version (6:45)

Now this is what gangsta rap is supposed to sound like! A wonderfully minimalist collection of street rhymes about crime, sex & partying down, free of the over-sampling and talentless East/West Coast bashing predominant in modern rap. Okay, a couple songs do contain obvious samples (Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" in "Our Most Requested Record", and Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" in the title track) but he knows how to do samples RIGHT! Other highlights include the classic "6 'N the Morning" (pure poetry!) and "Squeeze the Trigger" -- on the other hand, I'm not terribly excited by some of the pointless "Let's Party and Fuck" rhymes, such as "Sex" and "I Love Ladies". Finding this disc for $7.99 used was a lucky score.

"The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say"

  1. "Shut Up, Be Happy"--spoken word (2:36)
  2. "The Iceberg" (4:21)
  3. "Lethal Weapon" (4:33)
  4. "You Played Yourself" (4:14)
  5. "Peel Their Caps Back" (3:42)
  6. "The Girl Tried to Kill Me" (4:08)
  7. "Black 'N' Decker"--spoken word (1:16)
  8. "Hit the Deck" (3:46)
  9. "This One's for Me" (4:33)
  10. "The Hunted Child" (4:27)
  11. "What Ya Wanna Do?" (8:57)
  12. "Freedom of Speech" (4:11)
  13. "My Word is Bond" (5:07)

Hmm, kind of an odd place to start collecting Ice-T, since this is one of his most hip-hoppy albums, and most of the songs annoy the HELL out of me...but, on the plus side, it's got two of his most memorable tracks: the hilarious novelty song "Girl Tried to Kill Me", and the incredible album-opener "Shut Up, Be Happy", which is basically an announcement of martial law being declared over a sample of Black Sabbath's eponymous track -- "We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin! America is now under martial law....Anyone caught outside their subdivision sectors after curfew WILL BE SHOT!!...Stay in your homes! Your supervisor will be around to collect urine samples in the morning. Anyone interfering with the collection of urine samples WILL BE SHOT!!!" Worth the $3.99 I spent just for those two songs.

"O.G. Original Gangster"

  1. "Home of the Bodybag" (2:12)
  2. "First Impression"--spoken word (0:45)
  3. "Ziplock" (1:19)
  4. "Mic Contract" (4:23)
  5. "Mind Over Matter" (4:12)
  6. "New Jack Hustler" (4:43)
  7. "Ed" (1:10)
  8. "Bitches 2" (5:24)
  9. "Straight Up Nigga" (3:43)
  10. "O.G. Original Gangster" (4:43)
  11. "The House" (0:57)
  12. "Evil E - What About Sex?"--spoken word (0:45)
  13. "Fly By" (3:28)
  14. "Midnight" (5:48)
  15. "Fried Chicken" (1:00)
  16. "M.V.P.s" (4:19)
  17. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous" (3:51)
  18. "Body Count" (6:07)
  19. "Prepared to Die" (0:38)
  20. "Escape from the Killing Fields" (2:35)
  21. "Street Killer" (0:41)
  22. "Pulse of the Rhyme" (4:16)
  23. "The Tower" (3:57)
  24. "Ya Shoulda Killed Me Last Year"--spoken word (1:41)

Easily the best album of Ice-T's career. Highlights include "Midnight" (a prequel to "6 'N the Morning"), "New Jack Hustler" (the theme song to New Jack City, Ice-T's first acting role), and a "sneak preview" of the heavy metal side project, Body Count.

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