Lethal Injection
Back-to-back tracks in the middle ofLethal Injectionare all the proof we need that Ice Cube is a great talent. "What Can I Do?" opens with a strings-and-wah-wah motif from an early-'70s blaxploitation film and follows with a "Superfly" tale about a high-level drug dealer. Next up is "Lil Ass Gee," the story of a 12-year-old wanna-be gangster. Just a few years ago he was playing with G.I. Joe dolls, and now he's playing with real guns and making real babies. On both numbers, the rapper's rich, resonant baritone bleeds into the synth strings with a sense of fatefulness that's chilling to hear. But Ice Cube's career is a tragedy. A mesmerizing storyteller, a seductive vocalist, and a brilliantly inventive producer of aural collages, the Compton homeboy has squandered his talent on a vision so poisoned by right-wing racism and sexism that it has lost all credibility. --Geoffrey Himes