Two Views: <i> Because of the controversial lyrics on Ice Cube’s album, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” two views of Times’ pop music critics are presented.</i> : <i> “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” </i> **:<i> Albums are rated from one (poor) to five (a classic).</i>

Like his new cohorts Public Enemy, Ice Cube is fueled by persecution. The rapper’s first solo album since leaving N.W.A opens with the sounds of his execution, and he goes on to cast himself as “The (racial epithet) Ya Love to Hate.”

Charged by the chase, Cube raps with tireless urgency in a thick, one-note, scowling tone. He covers the same grim ghetto territory he did with N.W.A, putting you in the front seat for a drive-by, taking you on a visit to a crazy crack house. If this harsh world isn’t enough to explain his rage, he exposes a string of anti-black slurs as a storm-warning against conciliation.

Cube’s a no-nonsense guy, with no time for Arsenio or fancy-dancing rappers or smooth R&B; deejays. Nor for women--and that’s where he loses a lot of credibility. At least he doesn’t sugarcoat his contempt for those whom he reduces to “bitches” and “hos,” and he does let rapper Yo Yo voice the woman’s view. But when a woman tells Ice that she’s pregnant with his child, his response--to contemplate a kick in the tummy--is cold and vile, even if she is the neighborhood hussy out to hook him.

It would be nice if his misogyny were an intended illustration of how oppression begets oppression, but that might be giving Ice Cube the benefit of the doubt. Does he really believe that he doesn’t encourage the attitudes he depicts? The argument that he’s simply reflecting the reality of a particular culture is disingenuous--Andrew Dice Clay could say the same thing. Ice Cube’s cruelty might be more explainable, but that won’t make the victims feel any better.