In the summer of 1990, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), after years of pressure from the Parents Music Resource Center, started to put “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on albums with content that may not be suitable for young audiences.
Three years before the RIAA started putting the Parental Advisory sticker on albums, Ice-T warned fans and listeners of explicit content on the cover of his debut, Rhyme Pays. On July 28, 1987, Ice-T’s debut studio album “Rhyme Pays” was released, becoming the first rap album/cd ever to have a red “Explicit Lyrics, Parental Advisory” warning sticker on the top left corner.
The album consisted of one of rap’s first ever gangsta rap songs, 6 ‘N the Mornin’, the first single to put Ice-T on the map. The album peaked at No. 93 on the U.S. Billboard 200, making Ice-T one of the pioneers of gangsta rap.
Ice-T’s Rhyme Pays tracklist
- “Intro/Rhyme Pays”
- “6 ‘N The Mornin'”
- “Make It Funky”
- “Somebody Gotta Do It (Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy)”
- 409″
- “I Love Ladies”
- “Sex”
- “Pain”
- “Squeeze the Trigger”
- “Make It Funky” (CD Bonus)
- “Sex” (CD Bonus)
- “Somebody Gotta Do It (Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy)” (CD Bonus)
- “Our Most Requested Record” (CD Bonus)
However, most people know the 2 Live Crew as the first to have an album with the parental advisory sticker. The 2 Live Crew were arrested for obscenity in June 1990, they were acquitted in trial, later resulting in them being the first to have the now-mainstream black and white parental advisory/explicit content sticker on their album Banned in the U.S.A.. But let the record be known, Ice-T had the first ever explicit lyrics sticker on a rap album, and it was red.
2 Live Crew’s 1990 album “Banned in the USA” was the first album to carry the Parental Advisory label in its black and white form but Ice-T’s album “Rhyme Pays” was the first rap album to carry a Parental Advisory label.
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