Although his first album was explicit in nature, it wasn’t until his second album, Power, released in 1988, that the emergence of what is now known as gangster rap was heard. Gangster rap is defined as being a musical style in which the stress of urban life is told through explicit lyrics over a bass-heavy, fluid beat. In his second album, Ice-T rapped about death and street life, bringing the stresses of inner-city life to the ears of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Going even further, in 1983, Ice-T released the album The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech… Just Watch What You Say. The album was a political commentary that spoke on hip hop censorship. Later, in 1992, Ice-T released Body Count, an album put together with his heavy metal band of the same name. On the album was a song called “Cop Killer,” which gathered attention from the President of the United States at the time. Former President George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle cited the song as promoting violence against law enforcement officials prompting Ice-T to remove it from the final album. It was through the maturation and diversity of Ice-T’s music over the several albums that helped solidify him as a pioneer of gangster rap as he found new and innovative ways to bring the harsh reality of the streets to the ears of listeners in the suburbs.