"Black Ice"

Goodie Mob
(La Face/Arista, 1998)

Innovators by design, Southern by the grace of God, the Mob (aided by Outkast's Dre and Big Boi) "circulate like a Sunday paper" and tap a vein of lysergically damaged black spirituality that harks back to "Stones in My Passway" and Bootsy Collins's "Munchies for Your Love." The mix of fear and awe in the chorus -- "Touched what I never touched before, seen what I never seen before/Woke up and seen the sun, sky high" -- makes this hip-hop's most haunting bull session with the Almighty.

-- Alex Pappademas