Launched on the tail finish of 1993, Ice Dice‘s fourth studio album pairs the Los Angeles MC’s reliably uncompromising lyricism with more and more tuneful P-funk musical influences. “One nation under a groove getting down for the fuck of it/ Tear the roof off this motherf***er like we did last night, son/ And hit you with the bop gun,” brags Dice on “Bop Gun (One Nation),” a luminous eleven-minute tune that calls on the help of Parliament/Funkadelic founder George Clinton to push residence Dice’s funk bona fides.
Hearken to Ice Dice’s Deadly Injection now.
Flush from the crossover success of 1992’s “Today Was A Good Day,” key moments on Deadly Injection trace at Dice’s transition from agitated rap spokesperson to mainstream popular culture determine. The album’s second single, “You Know How We Do It,” is like an unofficial sequel to “Today Was A Good Day,” with Dice using a relaxed backdrop that’s primarily based round “Summer Madness” by Kool And The Gang. “Chilling with the homies, smelling the bud/ Double parked and I’m talking to Dub/ About who got a plan, who got a plot/ Who got got, and who got shot,” raps Dice, relaying his day by day operations in unhurried style whereas peppering his verses with name-checks to fellow west coast hip-hop contemporaries together with Compton’s Most Needed figurehead MC Eiht.
There’s a equally melodic lilt to giant sections of Deadly Injection. “Make It Ruff, Make It Smooth” co-stars Okay-Dee from Dice’s Da Lench Mob collective and spotlights the 2 MCs participating in a sport of lyrical distinction over its elegant synth-centric sway; “Down For Whatever” is a slinkily growling slice of G-funk delivered by Insanity 4 Actual; and “When I Get To Heaven” spotlights Dice coating his lyrics in a religious sheen as he calls out the tenets of sure organized religions over pillowy bass and flute.
“Listen to the preacher man, but are you talking to me?” questions Dice on the outset of the tune, which closes out the album. Then the MC will get prickly mode and reminds us that – even when matched with manufacturing to appease – he has hearth within the stomach: “I can’t hear you with a mouth full of pig’s feet/ If I should need the swine flesh/ Your body is a mess, but you’re blessed/ With a father, son, spirit and the holy ghost/ But my whole neighborhood is comatose/ Looking for survival/ The devil made you a slave and he gave you a bible.”
Hearken to Ice Dice’s Deadly Injection now.
In celebration of hip-hop’s fiftieth anniversary, uDiscover Music is publishing 50 album critiques all through 2023 that spotlight the breadth and depth of the style. The Hip-Hop 50 emblem was designed by Eric Haze, the thoughts behind iconic graphics for EPMD and LL Cool J.
