Hot List Hits and Misses: Ice-T the Actor and Enuff Z'Nuff

The Hot List has been a Rolling Stone tradition since 1986. All this week, Rock Daily takes a look back at the people and trends that stayed smoking and the ones that cooled off. Today, we visit 1990.

Hot Hit: Ice-T the actor. Having already dropped the gangsta classic Power and introduced the world to his metal band Body Count, Ice-T took on Hollywood in '91 when he appeared as Scotty Appleton in Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City. The 1991 Hot List praised T's performance as an actor; 17 years later, it's strange to think of Ice-T as anybody but a guy who is constantly on television as Detective Fin Tutuola on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. While he has continued to make records, the man born Tracy Marrow has acquitted himself excellently as a thespian.

Hot Miss: Enuff Z'Nuff. In a year where everybody thinks about the imapact of Nevermind, Enuff Z'Nuff represented hair metal's last gasp. While the Enuff boys were certainly more melodic and song-oriented than their glammy peers and their 1991 album Strength is a fine collection of tunes, the band was washed away from the collective consciousness a few months later with the release of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion albums and the onset of grunge. The recently reformed Z'Nuff performed at this year's Rocklahoma Festival.

Related Stories:
• Album Review: Enuff Z'Nuff, Strength
• Album Review: Ice-T, OG: Original Gangster
• The 2008 Rolling Stone Hot List

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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