Ice-T

Before pioneering the rapper-turned-actor movement, Ice-T was one of the game's dopest emcees, bringing a criminalistic element to hip-hop several years before N.W.A. On Rhyme Pays, his classic 1987 debut, the Iceman's steely flow rides over chunky old school beats, resulting in legendary jams such as "6 'N The Morning."

With heavy help from DJ Afrika Islam, this reformed criminal is the rap equivalent of pimp-turned-paperback-writer Iceberg Slim. 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. Wish I was sure he'll never go back. (Grade - B)