Lethal Injection

Vinyl LP pressing. Back-to-back tracks in the middle of Lethal Injection are 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. Ice Cube is a mesmerizing storyteller, a seductive vocalist, and a brilliantly inventive producer of aural collages.