On this present day in 1992, gangsta rapper turned actor/filmmaker Ice Dice launched his most profitable solo album The Predator. Launched months after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, this album follows the identical tone that existed in Ice Dice’s music from his solo starting; Black energy in opposition to any type of oppression. Though the album was very graphic, it nonetheless had an important reception among the many industrial viewers, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart (regardless of his blatant diss of the Billboard editor on the album’s title monitor) and promoting 193,000 copies in its first week.
The temper of this album was set by the period of violence that was occurring in Los Angeles, California. Each tune has a component of the kind of violence that was going on within the hood between and in opposition to Black folks integrated by interludes or references. Even his extra peaceable tracks have an air of felony paranoia about them. Regardless, The Predator continues to be barely toned down from his prior two releases AmeriKKKa’s Most Wished and Loss of life Certificates, which you’ll be able to by the titles extra outwardly push the militant mindset that Ice Dice has as a recording artist.
This album additionally toted two #1 rap singles, “It Was a Good Day” and “Examine Yo Self”. “It Was a Good Day” is to this point Ice Dice’s most profitable single. The monitor peaked #15 on the Billboard Scorching 100 chart in 1993 and bought 600,000 copies. Outdoors of economic success, this album is eternally part of popular culture historical past voted #8 on VH1‘s Prime Rap Songs listing. “Examine Yo Self” was additionally ridiculously profitable, promoting 500,000 copies and peaking at #20 on the Billboard Scorching 100.
The Predator LP is a masterpiece and has the gross sales to show it. This album has thus far gone double platinum and with the success of the movie Straight Outta Compton, there isn’t any motive why gross sales figures mustn’t improve over the following few months. As anybody up-to-date in Hip Hop tradition ought to know, with the success of this album, Ice Dice went on to be an leisure mogul directing, writing and producing profitable movies, showing on tv, and releasing six extra studio LPs which have all accomplished fairly properly of their gross sales all showing on the Billboard 200 within the high 20%.
