Gangsta Rap (Special Edition)

Twenty years after his debut album and hundreds of episodes after Law & Order made him a mainstream celebrity, Ice-T aims to reaffirm his street credibility with Gangsta Rap, and when it works, it works very well. “Real Talk,” “Pimp or Die” and “Twice the Game” strike a good balance between old-school simplicity and modern ferocity. Even when the beats become slightly clumsy, or T’s rhymes get bogged down in clichés, his delivery is always sharp. There are few rappers who could make an ‘80s rap flow credible in 2006, but Ice-T has enough charisma to pull it off. If there is one flaw to the album, it’s that T cedes too much space to other rappers — he’s at his most powerful when playing the lone wolf. Regardless, the album’s best track is “Everything Is Going to Be Alright,” a duet between Ice-T and Smoothe da Hustler. The song offers some of T’s most convincing rhymes, as he refuses to apologize for his success: “I had my days of being broke / No mom, no dad / No sisters, no brothers / No whip, no pad / Like any other poor ghetto youth / I stepped my game up gangsta / What’s your excuse?”