Ice-T (Tracy Lauren Marrow) doubtfully needs any introduction, whether you know him from his rap career, his metal project Body Count, his film career, that guy on Law & Order, or all of the above. But you may need a reminder he's released new music, with the new double-album 'Criminal Migraine', his first hip-hop release in 20 years. While I've never been an active listener or follower of his music, I actually decided to check this out because I saw Smoothe da Hustler was featured on a few tracks, a name I recognized instantly as he has a feature on Nine's 'Cloud 9' album ("Make or Take"), which depending on what day you ask me I think is my favorite hip-hop album ever.
My main takeaway from this album is I should've checked out Ice-T sooner, because even at 68 years old this (double) album at 24 tracks puts a lot of modern mainstream or otherwise rap to shame, and with 1 maybe 2 tracks I didn't overly dig that's still an amazing achievement. Much like the Slick Rick album last year, 'Criminal Migraine' really caught me off guard for how good it is. It'd be understandable if you hadn't heard it either, as he released it exclusively on his website and supposedly it isn't available on any streaming services (I don't use Spotify so not sure if it's there)...just a diamond waiting to be dug from the void. The double-album is also digital-release only currently, with vinyl (and I assume CDs?) coming out on Fat Beats in December...which I might have to snag because I also dig the cover art.
