Album of the Day

The title of Ice-T's fourth album, O.G. ORIGINAL GANGSTER, fit the performer perfectly; robbery had been a source of income before his music career took off. But beyond that criminal background, what makes the 1991 Warner Bros. collection a gangsta rap classic is its broad and thought-provoking vision of life on the streets. Ice-T is by turns thoughtful, boastful, angry and compassionate on these two dozen tracks, which include such highlights as “Mind Over Matter,” “The Tower” and “New Jack Hustler,” and the accompanying beats hit as hard as the rhymes. Perhaps the most famous song here is “Body Count,” a statement of purpose for the rapper's thrash metal group, and while it stands apart musically, its focused aggression is absolutely of a piece with the album. A Top 20 hit, O.G. ORIGINAL GANGSTER is Ice-T at his very best.