"If one album encapsulates the racial strife in L.A.'s concrete jungle before the 1992 riots, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted is it. The densely sequenced, frenetic Bomb Squad production laid down the rich sonic terrain for Ice Cube to rage against Oreo-cookie-sellouts, gestapo tactics, and female manipulation on this West Coast counterpart to Public Enemy's Nation of Millions. Humor and vitrol are juxtaposed, producing a visceral classic: "I think back when I was robbin' my own kind / The police didn't pay it no mind / But when I started robbin' white folks / Now I'm in the pen with the soap-on-a-rope." (Vibe, 6/02). The Adler Hip Hop Archive has a clipping that says, "It's the end of gangster rap," Chuck D said of Ice Cube's solo debut AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted in a fax from Public Enemy publicist Harry Allen last week. "That shit's so hard it's scary. You gotta cut it off, catch your breath, and then turn it back on. Cube says the word 'bitch' 83 times on that album." Chuck may be overstating the case. A preliminary Bitch Count revealed 51 occurrences of the B word. A F#ck Count, however, turned up 72 f#cks, or variations thereof (motherf#cker was included; pretty f#cking often, in fact), among them hiphop's first Andrew Dice Clay sample." In his 30th Anniversary Retrospective, Dart Adams adds, "Ice Cube’s output and evolution between 1988 and 1992 is easily one of the best and most impactful 5 year periods of any Rap artist in the genre’s history. It’s insane to think that span only covers Ice Cube between the ages of 18 to 23. By the time he was 25, he was considered a legend who was instrumental in launching several Rap careers, including Yo-Yo, Del The Funkee Homosapien (and Souls Of Mischief & Hieroglyphics), Threat, Da Lench Mob, Anotha Level & Kausion amongst others." Lastly, check out Brian Coleman's The Making of Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted HERE. Happy 30th Anniversary, listen to it HERE.
