Just-Ice (born
Joseph Williams Jr.; November 15, 1965), is a
rapper from
New York City. A former bouncer at punk clubs, Williams was the first of the New York rappers to embrace gangsta rap, and when he burst out of the
Castle Hill neighborhood in the
New York City borough of
the Bronx as Just-Ice, he gained instant notoriety. Muscle-bound, tattooed, aggressive -- he resembled Mike Tyson in more than just looks -- and with a mouthful of gold teeth, he certainly stood out. His debut album
Back to the Old School came out on the independent New York label Sleeping Bag, and certainly sounded like no other hip-hop album, thanks to his fast, forceful rhymes,
DMX's human beatbox as well as the distinctive production of Mantronix's
Kurtis Mantronik.