Rhyme Pays
Rhyme Pays is the debut studio album by American rapper Ice-T. It was released on July 28, 1987, by Sire Records and Warner Bros. Records.
Music and lyrics
The album, especially tracks like "6 'N the Mornin'", is considered to have defined the gangsta rap genre. Ice-T claims that this would be his first hip hop album to be carrying a parental advisory warning label,[1] although, it was years before the industry-standard explicit-lyrics sticker was developed and Too $hort's first album that also had to be carried with an "Explicit Lyrics" warning back in 1985. The 1988 CD release included four bonus tracks.
Ice-T stated on his autobiography, that Seymour Stein took the exception to the song 409 for the line "Guys grab a girl, girls grab a guy/If a guy wants a guy, please take it outside", which he saw as homophobic.[2] Ice-T insisted that those lines were not meant to be homophobic, but simply a statement of his own preferences.[2] (He later went on to condemn homophobia on raps such as Straight Up Nigga and The Tower.)
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 93 on the US Billboard 200 and number 26 on the Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts. It also became the first hip-hop artist album to released on Sire and Warner Bros. Records.
Critical reception
Rolling Stone gave the album three stars. In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave Rhyme Pays a "B" and credited DJ Afrika Islam for helping flesh out Ice T's crime-themed raps: "Can't know whether his streetwise jabs at Reagan and recidivism will make a permanent impression on his core audience, but his sexploitations and true crime tales are detailed and harrowing enough to convince anybody he was there."[3] According to AllMusic's Alex Henderson, who later gave the record three-and-a-half out of five stars, "the West Coast was well on its way to becomining a crucial part of hip-hop" when Rhyme Pays was released.[4] Los Angeles Times writer Dennis Hunt said the album helped popularize gangsta rap.[5]
Track listing
| 1. |
"Intro/Rhyme Pays" (interpolates "Tubular Bells" and samples "War Pigs") | Ice-T, Storrs |
6:29 |
| 2. |
"6 'N the Mornin'" | Ice-T, Afrika Islam |
7:11 |
| 3. |
"Make It Funky" (samples "Make It Funky") | Ice-T, Islam |
5:09 |
| 4. |
"Somebody Gotta Do It (Pimpin' Ain't Easy!!!)" | Ice-T, Islam |
3:03 |
| 5. |
"409" | Ice-T, Islam |
5:20 |
| 6. |
"I Love Ladies" | Ice-T, Islam |
4:44 |
| 7. |
"Sex" | Ice-T, Islam |
2:57 |
| 8. |
"Pain" | Ice-T, Islam |
3:36 |
| 9. |
"Squeeze the Trigger" | Ice-T, Islam |
6:12 |
| 10. |
"Make It Funky" (12" mix) | Ice-T, Islam |
5:58 |
| 11. |
"Sex" ("bonus beat"; instrumental) | Ice-T, Islam |
3:52 |
| 12. |
"Somebody Gotta Do It (Pimpin' Ain't Easy!!!)" (12" mix) | Ice-T, Islam |
3:27 |
| 13. |
"Our Most Requested Record" (long version, samples “Heartbreaker” and “Whole Lotta Love”) | Ice-T, Islam |
6:45 |
Charts
References
- ↑ Ice T; Sigmund, Heidi (1994). The Ice Opinion. Pan/St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Books. p. 163. ISBN 0-330-33629-0.
- 1 2 Marrow, Tracy; Century, Douglas (2011). Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—from South Central to Hollywood. Random House. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-0-345-52328-0.
- ↑ Christgau, Robert (February 23, 1988). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice (New York). Retrieved April 26, 2016.
- ↑ Henderson, Alex. "Rhyme Pays - Ice-T". AllMusic. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
- ↑ Hunt, Dennis (April 21, 1991). "POP MUSIC : Q & A : A Rapper Goes Hollywood : Can Ice-T, the pioneer of L.A.'s gangsta rap, keep his street edge now that he's moved far from the ghetto and into the movies?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
- ↑ "Ice-T – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Ice-T. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
- ↑ "Ice-T – Chart history" Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for Ice-T. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
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