O.G. Original Gangster

Some fairly primitive hip-hop. Real OG shit to be sure. Ice T can definietly rap, but this album didn't do a whole lot for me. I probably just need to be more gangster.

My god, O.G. Original Gangster was so bad. It's a shame that it's as bad as it is because i remember liking a song by his band Body Count called Carnivore back in high school. Unfortunately, this album does not carry that same quality. The production is okay for the most part with some good moments but other than that, it's not worth talking about. However, what is worth talking about is the lyrics and just how much they suck. Almost all the lyrics on offer are just Ice stroking his ego and talking about how he gets bitches and all that. And don't get me started on the skits because one of them is literally just a woman further stroking his ego. This album represents so much of what i don't like about rap music. A guy just stroking his ego and saying how great he is just isn't enjoyable to listen to at all. Not even The Tower is able to save this from a 1
Best Song: The Tower
Worst Song: First Impression

Day 42

The lady on First Impression says everything

Fav track: Midnight

72mins? Why can't rappers produce a tight 40min album? First Impression was hilarious. The rest was mid but its getting hit for being too long and rapping to the Halloween theme is cringe. 2/5.

Pues otro más en la línea del que escuché justo antes de Limp Bizkit. En este caso es más rap que rock, pero hay mezcla. Me guardo: Mic contract, New Jack hustler, O.G. Original Gangster, Midnight, Body count y The Tower.

A bit meandering and a touch too long, but pretty slamming overall. Interesting how Ice's flow seems to get more interesting a few tunes in - possibly symptomatic of this record being made in a fairly transitional period for hip hop.

Listened before? No

Familiar with the artist? Yes, but unfortunately more for Law and Order than for the music 🙃

Thoughts:
- I was a bit worried after the first track, but by the time I got into the 'meat' of the album I was having a great time. Surprisingly funny, too.
- Rap is still largely new to me, but between this, the Beastie Boys album a couple of weeks ago, and what I know from A Tribe Called Quest, I think the 90s will be my favorite time for it.

Favorite track(s): Mind Over Matter, Body Count

Least favorite: I could do without the skits and the acknowledgement section as a song (M.V.P.s)

I was a young rap fan in 1991. I saw Ice-T in concert that year. I remembered this being really good. It's not. It's really lame rapping and beats.

Après m’être farci deux gros blocs de glace avec AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted et The Predator, me voilà devant le cube de T. Mais avant d’entrer dans le vif du sujet, une question existentielle me traverse l’esprit : bordel, comment un mec qui hurlait « Cop Killer » au début des années 90 a-t-il pu finir dans le costard repassé d’un inspecteur modèle de la police new-yorkaise sur le petit écran ? Ce grand écart artistique et professionnel de Mr. Tracy Marrow me laissera toujours pantois. On parle d’un type qui incarnait la menace numéro un de l’Amérique puritaine et qui passe désormais ses journées de tournage à traquer les pervers dans New York, Unité Spéciale. C’est toute l’ironie du showbiz américain résumée en une seule carrière, mais ne boudons pas notre plaisir : avant de devenir une figure rassurante du PAF mondial, Ice-T était un véritable patron du bitume.

Revenons donc à nos moutons avec ce O.G. Original Gangster, qui a débarqué dans les bacs en 1991 sur le label Sire/Warner Bros. Disons-le franchement sans tourner autour du pot : c’est un disque monumental de gangsta rap, vif, arrogant, vicieux, qui part dans tous les sens et toujours dans le bon sens du terme. Alors que la côte Ouest était en train de redéfinir la hiérarchie du rap mondial sous l’impulsion des productions massives de Dr. Dre ou de la rage brute d’Ice Cube, Ice-T a posé sur la table une galette gargantuesque de plus de soixante-douze minutes avec vingt-quatre pistes au compteur, pas un gramme de superflue, et surtout une énergie de sale gosse doublée d’une lucidité implacable sur la société américaine.

Ce qui frappe, c’est cette capacité qu’a Ice-T à ne jamais s’enfermer dans la simple caricature du gangster bas du front. Bien sûr, l’imagerie est là, clinquante et dangereuse : les flingues, la rue, le proxénétisme, les règlements de comptes et les bagnoles qui fument le pavé. Mais contrairement à une meute de suiveurs qui ont transformé le genre en bande dessinée complaisante, le bonhomme use d’une plume de conteur hors pair pour disséquer la misère urbaine et les pièges du ghetto. Il balance des histoires crues, parfois à la limite du film d’horreur psychologique, tout en injectant des avertissements cinglants. Sur des morceaux comme « Ed », il te torche une mise en garde tragique contre l’alcool au volant sans jamais sonner comme un curé en chaire, tandis que sur « Bitches 2 », il s’amuse avec un cynisme désarmant à redéfinir les codes de la manipulation humaine, élargissant l’insulte aux mecs malhonnêtes pour tenter de justifier la misogynie légendaire du milieu.

Musicalement, l’album est une véritable usine à baffes orchestrée par The Rhyme Syndicate. La production refuse le formatage propret et mise sur des breakbeats minimaux, secs et agressifs, des caisses claires qui claquent comme des coups de feu et des lignes de basse suffocantes. C’est rugueux, direct et sans fioritures inutiles. Le sommet d’angoisse est sans doute atteint sur un titre magistral comme « Midnight », où un sample magistral emprunté au « Black Sabbath » des pionniers du metal britannique vient draper un récit nocturne et terrifiant dans les rues de South Central. Le flow d’Ice-T y est impitoyable, froid, articulé avec cette diction inimitable qui découpe les syllabes comme des lames de rasoir.

Mais l’autre grand coup d’éclat d’Original Gangster, c’est évidemment d’avoir été le laboratoire de son groupe de funk-metal, Body Count. En glissant le morceau fondateur éponyme au milieu de la tracklist rap, Ice-T dynamitait déjà les frontières entre le hardcore hip-hop et la fureur du rock lourd, annonçant le tremblement de terre médiatique et politique qui allait suivre quelques mois plus tard autour du fameux brûlot anti-flics. Cette bâtardise stylistique parfaitement assumée prouve à quel point le bonhomme n’en avait absolument rien à foutre des étiquettes et des chapelles. Il prenait ce qui cognait le plus fort, d’où que ça vienne.

Au final, O.G. Original Gangster reste l’acmé créative d’un pionnier qui a su capturer l’esprit d’une époque explosive, à l’aube des émeutes de Los Angeles de 1992. Un disque dense, nerveux, bavard mais toujours captivant, porté par une présence au micro absolument gigantesque. C’est arrogant, intelligent, violent et jubilatoire d’un bout à l’autre. Pour moi, c'est un très solide et superbe 4 sur 5 qui s’impose sans sourciller dans toute discothèque idéale.

The rhymes were incredible, but I don't particularly like this kind of music. The Halloween song won me over and the sign off.

This is awesome

Es ist kein Totalausfall, aber es schrammt oft gefährlich nah daran vorbei. Ice‑T wollte 1991 das große Manifest des Gangsta‑Rap liefern – und man hört den Anspruch. Nur leider auch die Schwächen: Das Album ist überlang, zerfasert, und viele Tracks wirken eher wie rohe Skizzen als wie zwingende Statements. Zwischen einzelnen starken Momenten liegt viel Füllmaterial, das heute eher museal als kraftvoll wirkt.

Favorite track(s): Mic Contract, New Jack Hustler, O.G. Original Gangster, Midnight

A 24 tracker, huh? Buckle up, me.

On the plus side, I just realised that the common use (or at least, common use by me when talking about covers) of OG for "original" is probably an extension of the "original gangster" meaning, and wiki backs me up! Ice-T probably helped to popularize it, although I think it was common parlance in LA already. Pretty cool... pretty cool.

He actually has 2 Grammys.

Themes here are not totally terrible. Mostly about being a gangster, but some lamenting violence to balance the glorifying it. However, I have no nostalgia for this album, and so even though I can take it more seriously than your Public Enemy & Run DMCs, I still find it mostly offensive and mostly boring. Lyrics aren't funny unintentionally, but also not really funny intentionally. (OK, I did give a mild smile at 'Body Count' being a random rock song.) Performance isn't bad, but isn't especially impressive either. Plus, did we need an entire song of shoutouts ('M.V.P.')? What is this, Koffi Olomide? Kind of interesting as a historical snapshot, I guess, but 1985-1995 is so deeply inferior to 1996-2006 musicwise.

Slur count = 126.

(Lyrical) highlight: Ice-T doesn't care if you're gay! Pretty rare sentiment for 1991 rap.

(Lyrical) lowlight (ironically, musical highlight): 'Bitches 2' 😮‍💨 (even if you aren't asserting something about ladies, you're still presupposing it, Ice-T!!!!)

I am broadly uninterested in this.

Hey Ice T, do you think you could brag about being straight and having a big dick one more time?

I’m at a 5. Maybe a little higher, even.

I was skeptical as hell going into this, especially with the 2.97 on the site. I know Ice-T’s career has been boiled down to “the Law & Order guy” these days, and I’m as guilty of falling into that as anyone. I knew he was a rapper, but I assumed the reason he transitioned into acting was just because he wasn’t quite at the same level as his peers. My assumption going into this was that it would be a totally fine 72 minutes that only had a handful of good tracks & the rest would all prove me right.

I am so glad to have been so fucking ignorant – Ice-T can fucking rap. This is as good as any early ‘90s rap project we’ve gotten so far, and as a bit of a swan song to the late ‘80s style of the genre blended with just a touch of the West Coast style to come, I think it knocks everything out of the park. It does start a little slowly with the trio of skits (with “Home of the Bodybag” as an especially strange starting point for the album), but once everything truly kicks off with “Mic Contract”, this thing shoots into overdrive. Given that there’s 24 tracks here, leaving notes on each one would feel bloated, but make no mistake – practically all of the main tracks have merit to them. I think my very favorites are “New Jack Hustler”, the title track, “Midnight”, & everything from “Lifestyles of the Rich & Infamous” onward, but they’ve all got something cool behind them, whether it’s in Ice-T’s fast flow, a great atmosphere from some of the best early ‘90s beats I’ve heard, a surprise shift to a metal rap vibe on “Body Count”, or some really strong storytelling that sits just behind Public Enemy’s style as some of the best rap of the era. Really, I’m stunned.

I think for my tastes, Ice-T’s album has easily beaten out Ice Cube’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”, which is a genuine surprise that I wouldn’t have predicted. There’s way less misogyny (yes, even on “Bitches 2”), there’s way more concise messaging with a stronger intent behind it (especially near the end of the album), there’s an outright rejection of homophobia on a few tracks (genuinely progressive for gangster rap of the era), and I think the beats, flows & storytelling are all better. This is one of the best early ‘90s rap albums we’ve gotten so far, and to say that 907 albums deep is a real surprise to me. With time, this could genuinely get up to a 10. It’s that damn good. Even the skits & shorter tracks fly by in a way that makes them feel less like filler & more like appropriate interludes to pace out the album well. I’ve never been happier to be wrong about someone’s talent & acclaim – Ice-T really might be the original gangster. I think this is a 5, if not a bit higher. Great pick for the list.

ovo će neočekivano dobiti trojku od mene, premda sam mislio da će biti puno niže... kao prvo, semplovi su jako jako dobri. zbog toga je i sve nekako raznovrsnije. premda je dužinom zamorno, dinamičnost pomaže da se lakše sve skupa odsluša. a onda pretkraj dođe sasvim nerep stvar, »body count«, koja me potpuno zapanji. i što sve nakon toga reći? dojam je nakraju pozitivan, premda mi se nije svidjelo. evo ti trojka, ledeni čaju, potrudio si se i dalo je neke dobre rezultate

Not the rapper I think about most often. A real icon though, even though he sold out to Iced Tea Lipton commercials. This one had quite a few bops on it. Especially towards the end it had a lot of nice Rock infused and politically charged songs on it. Probably don't need to listen to the entire thing again, but there's a bunch of worthwile stuff here.

I'm excited for when I finish this challenge and never have to listen to gangster rap again