Power

Ice-T’s second album, from 1988, lacks some of the giddiness of his debut, 1987’s Rhyme Pays; tracks bear grim one- and two-word titles (“Power,” “Drama,” “Heartbeat,” “Grand Larceny”). But the music is killer, employing judiciously chosen samples (“I’m Your Pusher” is an interpolation of Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman,” from Super Fly) but just as often constructed using synths more commonly heard on techno records. Ice-T delivers his rhymes in multiple styles, sometimes barking them at breathless, almost hardcore punk speed (“Power”) and other times delivering slowed-down, cooled-out narratives (“Drama”). On the album’s final full track, “Soul On Ice,” he adopts a pre-rap street-poetry style in direct tribute to Robert “Iceberg Slim” Beck.