Record Rack

** Ice-T, “7th Deadly Sin,” Atomic Pop. The Los Angeles gangster-rap pioneer sounds past his prime on his seventh album. As one of the first hard-core rappers, Ice-T benefited from a lack of competition, which allowed his incendiary tales to overshadow his mediocre compositional skills. His stilted rhymes are easily outdone here by guests King T, Ras Kass, Tash and others. Also, Ice’s beats lack the rage and aggression of his better work.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.