Rapper Releases Masterpiece
Songs Focus on Bitches, Hos
   The critical and commercial flop "gangsta" rapper Ice E has released what will surely be considered one of the great albums of the past 40 years- White Cherry and Malt Liqa [sic] Hos.  The work is wildly experimental, but well-controlled.
   The music itself, without the lyrics, is brilliantly simple, yet paradoxically complex.  E uses advanced technology—a synthesizer, a device rarely (if ever) used in rap music—to create simple, repetetive, but inescapable driving bass lines.  Almost every song features dominant (and exclusive) bass—a diversion from the melodic qualities of common rap, but an important step towards the evolution of the developing art form.
   The lyrics are aggressive and uncompromising.  E often uses unconventional and just plain improper grammar, but it is understandable.  He is an artist, a poetic visionary, and a master of language; and like Hemmingway said, once one has mastered the language, one may alter it, when justified.  So, when E says "We be soakin' brew/Be jokin' like Jew," he is using the infinitive 'to be' to emphasize that I, you, he, she, and even it are included in the gathering.  Ice E is a proverbial
river to his people (the "gangstas"); therefore he must speak accordingly.
   There are no weak tracks on the album.  In fact, all the tracks are excellent, but it may take a few listens for some rap fans to swallow E's liberal use of offensive words like "fuck" and "shit" (especially in "Git [sic] Yo' [sic] Beotch [sic] On Da [sic] Phone 'Fo' [sic] I Break Ya [sic] Azz [sic]").  Once one gets past the initial shock of the words, the deep symbolism becomes evident.  E speaks of a world know to few, but relevant to  all.  He sings of murdering white cops and raping white women, but does so only to bring across underlying themes of anger and frustration. Contrastly, in songs like "Clams On My Grill," E communicates gleams of happiness of life on the streets through simple pleasures, in this case oral sex.  In fact, each song on the album mentions either "bitches" or "hos," known in the white community as "women" or "ladies."  Females, who "be jumpin' my jimmy (penis)," are the primary oasis in the desert that is the outer inner city.
   The forceful, virtually unaccompanied bass, coupled with prophetic visions of the drug-riddled, crime-addled world rap forgot of White Cherry and Malt Liqa Hos serve as stepping stones toward the freedom of artists everywhere.  Finally, someone has spoken.  All across the world, throughout all mediums of art, barriers have been shattered—the truth has been released—and it be important.