''Spice 1'' is the debut studio album by American rapper

Spice 1 Robert Lee Greene Jr. (born July 2, 1970), better known by his stage name Spice 1 (an acronym for "Sex, Pistols, Indo, Cash and Entertainment"), is an American rapper from Hayward, California. He began releasing albums in 1991, where he gained p ...

. It was released on April 14, 1992, on

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

. It was certified gold by the RIAA. The album was produced by

Ant Banks Ant Banks (born Anthony Banks, May 16, 1969), is an American record producer and rapper from Oakland, California. Biography Anthony Banks was born in Oakland, California on May 16, 1969. In band lessons at school, he learned to play classical ...

, Blackjack, E-A-Ski & CMT, and Spice 1. It peaked at number 14 on the ''Billboard'' Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number 82 on the ''Billboard'' Top Heatseekers. Spice 1 Billboard Albums All Media Guide, LLC. Retrieved on January 10, 2010. One single, " Welcome to the Ghetto", peaked at number 39 on the ''Billboard'' Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and at number 5 on the ''Billboard'' Rap Songs. Spice 1 Billboard Singles All Media Guide, LLC. Retrieved on January 10, 2010. Along with singles,

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s were produced for four songs: "In My Neighborhood", "Welcome to the Ghetto", "187 Proof" and "East Bay Gangsta".Spice 1 - "East Bay Gangsta" (official video)

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Retrieved on February 4, 2010. Richie Rich makes a

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

in "Welcome to the Ghetto". "East Bay Gangsta" and " Welcome to the Ghetto" were

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

s on the other singles.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

- "...His style, an appropriate mix of irony, disdain, acceptance and confusion, never succumbs to the situation or seeks to justify or downplay the sense of impending doom." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' (7/24/92, p. 60) - "...Spice 1's lyrics are clever enough to make you forget you've heard it all before...his tales unfold with the drama of short stories..." The album was included in ''

The Source The Source may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

''s 100 greatest hip hop albums.

Track listing

Samples

Welcome to the Ghetto *" Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" by

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

*"No One's Gonna Love You" by

the S.O.S. Band The S.O.S. Band (sometimes written as S.O.S. Band; abbreviation for Sounds of Success) is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B and Boogie (genre), electro-funk musical ensemble, group who gained fame in the 1980s. They are best known for the songs ...

187 Pure *"Take Me to the Mardi Gras" by Bob James City Streets *" Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" by

the Dramatics The Dramatics are an American soul music vocal group, formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1964. They are best known for their 1970s hit songs " In the Rain" and " Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get", both of which were Top 10 Pop hits, as well as their lat ...

F***ed in the Game *"Make Me Believe in You" by

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the " Gentle Genius", he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious Afric ...

In My Neighborhood *"Reach for It" by

George Duke George Martin Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as ...

Money Gone *"Time for a Change" by Mel Brown Money or Murder *"Joy by

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records in the 1960s, serving as an in-house songwr ...

Peace to My Nine *" One Nation Under a Groove" by

Funkadelic Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. As one of the two flagship groups of George Clinton's P-Funk collective, they helped pioneer the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, ...

Young N**** *" Mothership Connection (Star Child)" by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

*" Us" by

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

Note: The sample credits contain a disclaimer from George Clinton disparaging the lyrical content of the song, yet stating the sample was allowed due to the message of music as a free agent of change inherent in "Mothership Connection." This type of note was uncommon for most artists who were sampling.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

*
Spice 1
' at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

*
Spice 1
' at

MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB, Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for ...

*
Spice 1
' at

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchising, franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when ...

{{Authority control Spice 1 albums 1992 debut albums Albums produced by Ant Banks Albums produced by E-A-Ski Jive Records albums