Kizz My Black Azz

Produced with veteran Bobby "Bobcat" Ervin (who was producing for King Tee and LL Cool J in the mid-'80s) and DJ Train (who also worked with J.J. Fad and Kam), each beat on the Kizz My Black Azz EP suits MC Ren's stern, straight-ahead flow and grim lyrics. Sometimes it's difficult to discern whether he's trying to outdo or parody his former group's shock factor, as in the single "The Final Frontier": "I hit a n***a off in the head with a chair/The reason for that, the motherf*cker he was standin' there"; "So when you're at my show, let me see you throw your hands up in the air and slap a ho." With 100 Miles and Runnin' and Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted two years old, he probably felt the need to hit as hard as possible. Nonetheless, if there is a case to be made for Ren's status as N.W.A.'s best MC — he was undeniably the least appreciated — there's plenty of support to be heard here. The tales, which slightly outnumber the boasts, can be as graphic as a movie rated NC-17, and they're occasionally bold to the point of being tough to digest, but based purely on sound, Kizz My Black Azz is halting from start to finish. Never again would he be so fierce. (Life Sentence, the follow-up album promised on the back of the EP's original release, developed into 1993's Shock of the Hour.) [Priority reissued the disc in 2003, adding the video for "Final Frontier" as a bonus.]