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I've said it before and will do so again. I am East Coast hip hop all the way. I have always been and most surely will always be. That doesn't mean hip hop from other parts of the globe didn't reach me. As a teen, I was proud of my home-grown Cancon talent. Philly had DJs. Back then, the South wasn't saying much to me. That leaves us with the West Coast to talk about.
Ice-T is the first figure of West Coast hip hop for me and many of my generation. We knew about him before "Rhyme Pays" but unless your memory of "Breakin`" was vivid, you may have forgotten about that fact. He was also in Joeski Love's "Pee Wee's Dance" video.
My formal education and hip hop education were happening at the same time. I entered high school with Run-DMC and left with Brand Nubian.
The "Rhyme Pays" album cover is possibly the most iconic in West Coast hip hop history. I'm working  on memory now but all the elements of Los Angeles culture and hip hop meet. The blue sky, palm trees, car, dollar-dollar-dollar-dollar-dollar bills, DJ, MC and of course beautiful woman are all present in one photograph.
The Los Angeles hip hop I was hearing was not the same as New York. I found the focus of West Coast hip hop seemed to lean towards gangster rap. Ice-T was, for me, the gateway to gangster rap. Seeing he was one of the pioneers and the standard, I gave him carte blanche and took whatever he served…until Home Invasion.
The 1992-1994 hardcore hip hop phase forced many artists to adapt. Some did it well and some didn't. In my view, Ice-T was experimenting with heavy metal and moving in a direction I, and many others, were not ready for. I lost interest with anything he did around that time.
Today, Ice-T can be seen as a tough cop on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit each week. He is now married to a living Barbie doll with probably as much plastic as the Mattel doll, was not too long ago recognized at the VH1 Hip Hop Honours and went to war with Soulja Boy.
I was reluctant to see Ice-T at Foufounes Electriques a few years ago but changed my mind. I decided it was worth seeing the hip hop legend in concert at least once in my life. The classics were just that but when he performed unfamiliar and recently recorded music, it was enough to send me to the bar. The finale was bringing Coco on stage to prance around for a few minutes until he and entourage left the stage. Seeing Coco was worth the price of admission.
Like LL Cool J and Will Smith, Ice-T is in an elite class of old school hip hop artist that managed to rise above the recording career to mainstream success and visibility. I'm proud of his accomplishments but can't help but feel his status as West Coast's Godfather of Hip Hop may have suffered a little over the years. My generation knows Ice-T's legendary status and aware of the classics he produced. After nearly 30 years in the game, he proved that rhyme does indeed pay.
His-Story Lessons by:
DJ Solespin
Other Lessons: Kool G Rap
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