SONGWRITERS SERIES

Ice Cube continues to do valuable work, but the heart of his vision is in his first five CDs.

Ice Cube continues to do valuable work, but the heart of his vision is in his first five CDs. N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton" is on Ruthless/Priority Records, the solo albums are on Priority.

1."Straight Outta Compton" 1988. The radical sound and renegade attitude shook up hip-hop sensibilities the way the Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks ... " rattled punk a decade earlier.

2."AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" 1990. Stepping out on his own, Cube not only lived up to the promise of his work in N.W.A, but extended it. He took listeners on a tour of the projects that was so filled with anger and rage that many outsiders recoiled.

3."Kill at Will" 1990. Cube was so on fire creatively that he released this EP while "Most Wanted" was still on the charts. The highlight: "Dead Homiez," a reflection on gang violence that is one of rap's most tender works.

4."Death Certificate" 1991. This contains some of Cube's most stinging and controversial tracks (tales of gang warfare, sexual degradation and blind macho posturing), but also some of his most thoughtful and funny.

5."The Predator" 1992. Released just months after the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittals in the Rodney King case, "The Predator" continued, in its best moments, to probe social and racial conditions in the city and the country in a bold and revealing manner.