Ice Cube: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (CD)

In 1990, Ice Cube left NWA and entered the solo arena. He was a proven talent, writing some of NWA’s best lyrics and adding politics to their gangsta armoury, with a voice like an army sergeant spitting a rebuke into your face.

But a reputation brings a problem: you have to live up to it. And it’s one thing working within a crew; leaving it’s another thing entirely: you must build your own. And while Cube knew his funk and the noise he wanted to create on his debut album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, his experience as a producer was actually fairly limited.

At the time, it took the West Coast gangsta boogie up a notch; in NWA, Ice Cube’s attack was always slightly blunted by being dispersed, here it smacks you full in the face. It’s hard to imagine a better album of its type, and it boomed out of jeeps throughout the summer of 1990 without so much as a single wave of airplay. Now, however, it stands as a testament to its time: a fury of beats and rhyme that established once and for all just how strong Ice Cube’s work could be.

Pushed into a corner, Ice Cube fought his way out with intelligence, wit, anger, and tactics, and, once in a while, tipped you a nod that there was more to him than the gangsta style.

1. JD's Gaffilin'
2. Better Off Dead
3. The Nigga Ya Love To Hate
4. AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
5. What They Hittin' Foe?
6. You Can't Fade Me
7. Once Upon A Time In The Projects
8. Turn Off The Radio
9. Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside)
10. A Gangsta's Fairytale
11. I'm Only Out For One Thang
12. Get Off My Dick And Tell Yo Bitch To Come Here
13. The Drive-By
14. Rollin' Wit The Lench Mob
15. Who's The Mack?
16. It's A Man's World
17. The Bomb