''Rhyme Pays'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American rapper Ice-T, released on July 28, 1987, by Sire Records. The album peaked at number 93 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and number 23 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, and was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA).

Music and lyrics

The album, especially tracks like " 6 'N the Morning", is considered to have defined the

gangsta rap Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, emerged in the mid- to late 1980s as a controversial hip-hop subgenre whose lyrics assert the culture and values typical of American street gangs and street hustlers. Many gangsta rappe ...

genre. Ice-T claims that this would be his first hip hop album to be carrying a parental advisory warning label, although, it was years before the industry-standard explicit-lyrics sticker was developed and Too $hort's first album that also had to be carried with an "Explicit Lyrics" warning back in 1985. The 1988 CD release included four bonus tracks. Ice-T stated on his autobiography that Seymour Stein took the exception to the song "409" for the line "''Guys grab a girl, girls grab a guy/If a guy wants a guy, please take it outside''", which he saw as homophobic. Ice-T insisted that those lines were not meant to be homophobic, but simply a statement of his own preferences.

Critical reception

'' Rolling Stone'' gave the album three stars. In a contemporary review for '' The Village Voice'',

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

gave ''Rhyme Pays'' a "B" and credited DJ Afrika Islam for helping flesh out Ice T's crime-themed raps: "Can't know whether his streetwise jabs at

Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

and

recidivism Recidivism (; from ''recidive'' and ''ism'', from Latin ''recidīvus'' "recurring", from ''re-'' "back" and ''cadō'' "I fall") is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of th ...

will make a permanent impression on his core audience, but his sexploitations and true crime tales are detailed and harrowing enough to convince anybody he was there." According to AllMusic's Alex Henderson, who later gave the record three-and-a-half out of five stars, "the West Coast was well on its way to becomining a crucial part of hip-hop" when ''Rhyme Pays'' was released. '' Los Angeles Times'' writer Dennis Hunt said the album helped popularize

Commercial performance

''Rhyme Pays'' debuted at number 93 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and number 26 on the ''Billboard'' Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts. It also became the first hip-hop album to be released on

Sire Sire is an archaic respectful form of address to reigning kings in Europe. In French and other languages it is less archaic and relatively more current. In Belgium, the king is addressed as "Sire..." in both Dutch and French. The words "sire" a ...

and Warner Bros. Records. The album was eventually certified gold by the

(RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Certifications

References

1987 debut albums Ice-T albums Sire Records albums Albums produced by Afrika Islam {{1980s-hiphop-album-stub