Ice-T: Greatest Hits - The Evidence

(Coroner/WB)

Herald rating: * * * *

Review: Russell Baillie

From the most dangerous man in hip-hop to straight-to-video movie star, what a long, strange journey it's been for Ice-T. This 17-track collection makes for a solid retrospective, from his pimp-strut early stuff of late 80s (the Curtis Mayfield-sampling I'm Your Pusher, the jovially rude L. G. B. N. A. F), through to his initially riveting reports from the frontline of LA gangland (O. G. Original Gangster, Colors) through to a diversifying career as rapper by appointment to Hollywood (New Jack Hustler) and sideline thrash metaller with band Body Count (represented by their title song and There Goes The Neighbourhood but curiously not the notorious Cop Killer ).

Ice-T has increasingly swung towards self-parody in recent times but the early stuff here is enough to fuel the argument: was the real Tracy Marrow was as good in his day as the real Slim Shady is in his?