When you think 90’s West Coast Rap I’m sure the same names come to mind. For the casual rap fan, you’d probably first think of Dre, Snoop, Cube, Pac, Eazy, Too $hort, Quik, Warren G, and E-40. That’s pretty much a Mt. Rushmore of greats but I feel the true 90’s West Coast Gangsta Rap heads are into DPG (Daz and Kurupt), MC Eiht, Cypress Hill, Mac Dre, Suga Free, Brotha Lynch Hung, C-Bo, Above the Law, and…. I could go on forever… 90s West Coast Hip Hop’s roster goes… But there’s one rapper I feel should be mentioned with the first tier of Cali Rap legends. He’s a West Coast Hip Hop great who had one of the best stretches of solid albums in the 90’s I can remember. To me, he’s also one of the 90’s Bay Area rappers who gained respect all across the country when a lot of Cali acts remained hot only in Cali. His flow was original and his storytelling was really good too. He’s a rapper who often MURDERED his features when he got his chance. He’s one of my favorite rappers of all time and his name is Spice 1.

Robert Lee Green, Jr was born in Corsicana, Texas but his family eventually moved to Hayward, CA and as a teen, a young Spice 1 was freestyling at school and battling other rappers at house parties whenever he had the chance. In the Bay Area in the late 80’s and early 90’s he was able to see young entrepreneurs like Too $hort, E-40, Mac Dre, and Master P build their business and legacies from the ground up. Too $hort was the first notable rapper to take notice of Spice 1’s skills and help introduce him to Jive Records who eventually signed Spice 1 in 1991 off the strength of his first official project, the EP, Let It Be Known which was led by the track, “187 Proof”.

It wasn’t hard for Jive Records to see the talent and in the early 90’s, their roster included Too $hort, UGK, and Spice 1 which was impressive. In 1992, Spice 1 dropped his self-titled Spice 1 album which while it carried over some of the songs from his debut EP, Let It Be Known, it also had newer songs which showed Spice’s evolution with the mic and his overall sound. While the track “Money Gone” was the first track that really hit me, there’s no denying that “Welcome to the Ghetto” was how the rap world really started to pay attention to the East Bay Great. I remember catching that video on either Yo! MTV Raps or BET’s Rap City back then. My older brother was also really into Spice 1 so I was able to borrow his tape and listen to that album. “Welcome to the Ghetto” reminded me so much of Too $hort’s track “The Ghetto”. Both tracks had amazing beats but really took me into the world that both Short Dog and Spice 1 came from.

The Spice 1 album got its flowers when The Source included it on its 100 Greatest Hip Hop Albums list. There’s no denying how good that project was and is. But Spice 1 didn’t wait long to hit us all with his next album one year later in ‘93, 187 He Wrote. After his debut LP, any real rap fans out here in Cali needed to hear Spice 1’s follow up album. I bought it on cassette at The Wherehouse the same year it dropped and was blown away with the first track I heard off the album called “I’m the Fuckin’ M*rderer”… yup… that is the title… now listen to this and imagine this being the first track on the new album back in ‘93. THIS TRACK IS SO HYPE!!! The stutter flow on the 2nd verse is perfection.

The 187 He Wrote album was 90s gangster rap at its finest to me. The whole album was dope and the track with MC Eiht??? “The Murda Show” was crazy. Sure the edited version takes away from the OG version but props to Spice 1 and MC Eiht on this one. The Bay and LA rap coming together to put on for Cali Rap as a whole.

Spice 1 again didn’t wait much longer to drop his next album which dropped 1 year later in 1994 with AmerKKKa’s Nightmare. Spice 1 always had the best album covers too. Let’s not sleep on that fact because young fans like myself didn’t have a lot of cash to buy cassettes…. good artwork caught our attention just as much as the music and album covers like AmeriKKKa’s Nightmare made sure we all knew Spice 1 had a new project out. The first single off of this album was “Strap On The Side” which was pure g-funk with Spice 1 dancing all over the beat. “Face of a Desperate Man” might be Spice 1’s best track of all time?

Spice 1 even had Method Man on the album which was a duo I never thought I’d see. A west coast and an east coast emcee on the same track?? But let’s not wait any longer here… Spice 1 and 2Pac on “Jealous Got Me Strapped” is an absolute classic. I feel like there are a lot of Pac fans who still probably sleep on this one… Even if you know it, go give it a spin right now. Both emcees out of the Bay were so hungry on this.

For anybody keeping score, Spice 1 had dropped Let It Be Known, the self-titled Spice 1, 187 He Wrote, and AmeriKKKa’s Nightmare in consecutive years. So why stop with a formula that was working… In 1995, 1990-Sick dropped led by the first single, “1990-Sick (Kill ‘Em All)” where Spice was paired up once again with MC Eiht. The 2nd single was another great track to add to Spice 1’s amazing catalog. Here’s “Ain’t No Love” which was radio friendly. Spice always had his gangster shit but he had such good versatility with his styles.

During the time that Spice 1 was dropping album after album, he also had some of the most notable features a West Coast rapper was ever on… The “I Got 5 On It (Bay Ballas Remix)” anybody??? Some ‘95 ish right here.

1995 also gave us the Spice 1 feature on “Dusted N Disgusted” masterpiece from E-40… This song is perfection fam…

Spice’s Black Bossalini (aka Dr. Bomb from Da Bay) album dropped in late ‘97 which broke his every year release cadence but kept him at top of mind for all of his fans. The stutter flow never slowed down and the track “Playa Man” was the track that got the video love off of the project. A nice summer feel on this one. “The Thug In Me” was the first track on the album and that one is probably the one that most fans will note on this project.

Spice 1 dropped one final album in the 90’s which was ‘99’s Immortalized. Now if we just look back at EVERYTHING Spice 1 dropped in the 90’s it was one of the craziest runs from a rapper you’ll see. On top of the albums, he also was on so many features where it got to the point where if you saw the name Spice 1, you had to peep game. And that is why I feel Spice 1 is one of the GOATS out of the West Coast Rap scene. He had everything you look for in an emcee… A great ear for beats… the crazy flow… the lyrics… the storytelling… great hooks… radio tracks… he was such a well rounded emcee yet I feel he still doesn’t get his flowers. But the real heads know… Spice 1 is a legend. So go grab your Walkmans, Discmans, detachable face players, and record players and give Spice 1 a spin today. Turn that shit up too…. Shout out to the East Bay Gangster!