Released a year before N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton, Ice-T’s solo debut secured his place as a savvy storyteller and provocateur in West Coast gangsta rap. With a monster beat from producer Afrika Islam, “6 ’N the Mornin’” is one of L.A.’s definitive street anthems, complete with references to Crenshaw Boulevard and the LAPD. The ferocious “Squeeze the Trigger” takes aim at media hypocrisy and racial profiling, while the title track lays out Ice’s no-nonsense philosophy over a Black Sabbath riff.