Rhyme Pays
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Rhyme Pays is the debut studio album by American rapper Ice-T. The album was released on July 28, 1987, by Sire Records and Warner Bros. Records.
The album, especially tracks like "6 'N the Mornin'," is considered to have defined the gangsta genre. Ice-T claims that this was the first hip hop album to carry a Parental Advisory warning label, although it was years before the industry-standard explicit lyrics sticker was developed and Too $hort's first album had carried an "Explicit Lyrics" warning in 1985. The 1988 CD release included four bonus tracks.
Ice-T stated in his autobiography that Seymour Stein took 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 the line was not meant to be homophobic but simply a statement of his own preferences. (He later went on to condemn homophobia on raps such as Straight Up Nigga and The Tower.)
Rhyme Pays peaked at number 93 on the Billboard 200 music chart and number 26 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums. Rolling Stone gave the album three stars. It was also the first hip-hop artist album released on the Sire and Warner Bros. labels.