AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted

I preferred Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood!

2.5 meh

Funky shit. The beats had my head nodding for sure. The lyrics aren't telling me anything too deep or meaningful but they're probably not trying to. With modern ears, the attitude to women here is a problem. I can't deny the power and quality of the music but it has dated badly

It’s got quite an interesting sound to it. It has elements of 80’s rap and hip hop, as well as some of the sound that became more prominent in the 90’s. I’m surprised at how funky it is, and I’m actually pretty down with most of it. I’m guessing this was at the earlier end of having skits on records, and of course, they remain painfully unfunny.

There’s a strong feeling of Public Enemy about this (and actually after writing this I re-read the intro and realised it was the same production crew) – and the more politically charged tracks do work well - but it’s kind of undermined when he also starts rapping about going at a hoe with a coat hanger. I made the mistake of actively looking at the lyrics for one of the songs and…. eeeeesh. I made a concerted effort to ignore them as much as possible after that point.

Firstly, I don't care about what people deem offensive or not. Giving something a 1 because of offensive lyrics is silly.

In Ice Cube you have a proven fake gangster who ditched rapping and started acting the second he got a chance and didn't look back. Having listened to some of the most important 'gangsta rap' albums I'm finding 95% of these guys are cardboard gangsters and they seem to end up harming their communities more than helping. The 'gansta rap' genre is a joke and this album is super dated and cringey. 2/5.

I'm not in the mood to deal with the misogyny man

I'm not easily offended. Drew the line at You Can't Fade Me.

Solid ass album

Yes, some of the lyrics and themes are dated, but this is still pretty good.

If this album (or any of the so-called-classic records from this genre of hi hop really...) was released today, I wonder how it would be received? My guess is that it would be immediately panned. I mean I guess that shows how far we've come in some respects over the past 30 years. But it's interesting listening to this because basically all of the racial and social problems from this album are just as bad now. Probably worse.
But it's another one of these hip hop albums that promotes violence, degrades women, and serves as basically a vehicle for boasting about yourself based on some weird idea of what you think would impress people. I really don't get why people like this. I’ve said it before, true here, this is objectively bad music and I wonder what Ice Cube would honestly think about it today. Every time one of these hip hop albums come up I resignedly sigh and question my vow to listen to every album on this list all the way through. 1/5

I feel like I need to preface this by saying I love a lot of hip hop, because I see a lot of unnecessary hate laid on the actually good hip hop albums on this list.

However, for me to actually enjoy hip hop (no matter how good the flow or the production), the lyrics have to be clever and insightful, or at least funny in a tasteful way. I mostly prefer political hip hop, and I can tolerate a good bit of bragidoccio. But I draw the line at the sort of horrible misogyny on display all over this album, not just You Can't Fade Me. There's just no excuse for it, and we don't have to perpetuate it by immortalising albums like this.

Elements of this are noteworthy, and I did enjoy the Chuck D feature. But overall, it doesn't bring anything to the table that N.W.A. hadn't already brought with Straight Outta Compton, and it has aged even worse than that album.

Grotesque misogyny.

It became an agonizing listen too quickly, and I couldn't wait for it to end

Sounds so dated, but it has its moments.

2.5/5.0: Mixed

i didn't hate this one but can't say i really enjoyed it

Ice Cube, fresh out of NWA with production from The Bomb Squad! This is pretty much everything I've ever wanted in hip-hop. Some GREAT (and powerful) social commentary on here. Conscious but aggressively so. I just wish some of the more misogynist sentiments were missing, but those seem to be something you just have to endure to enjoy a lot of hip-hop from this era.

Ice Cube voice is just so iconic. It is not my genre of choice, but it was still enjoyable. Plus there were minimal/no skits and interludes.

Surprised I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than I was expecting. I actually really enjoyed the "ugly" beats and samples; the backing tracks almost remind me of industrial music at times. Ice Cube's rapping is definitely angry, but I dug it. The political songs are still relevant and important, but the misogyny has aged incredibly poorly. Also, I've said it before, but I can't stand Flavor Flav.

I enjoyed this way more than I expected to. I think I just really like Ice Cube as a lyricist, even if I don't like what the lyrics are about. The protest songs and angry songs are good, the misogynistic ones do not age well at all.

But color me surprised, I was really into the whole album. Probably loses a star because of how badly some of the content has aged, but still, I was surprised.

On one hand, this album is clearly immensely influential to future rap albums.

A lot of the lyrics have aged terribly, the beats are dated and monotonous.

"It's a Man's World" is straight Cringe.