When I found out that I was getting the chance to interview one of the biggest legends in the rap game, I was hyped, but a little weary... After all, rappers are world-renowned for ego-tripping and shutting down during interviews. But I ended up being surprised; he was humble, charismatic, and enthusiastic. And not surprisingly, after we talked for a little while about his current projects, I found out one of the game’s most outspoken rappers still has a lot to say.
Young bucks, pay attention.... we have a legend in the building.
Interview By SOHH Eighty
SOHH Eighty: So shit’s a little hectic these days, huh?
Ice-T: Yeah, well it comes like that, you know what I’m sayin’? I mean, I try to stay busy, but it seems like everything just kinda happened at the same time. And it’s really good for me right now, ya know, so I’m rollin’ with it.
So far as doing the Hip Hop Honors thing, doing "Rap School," and then recording the album, which came first second and third?
Well we finished the record up at the end of last year. We had the record -- we were just trying to figure out exactly how to come with it. ‘Til I hooked up with Brian Turner at Melee, we didn’t really find the right people to do the deal that I was tryin’ to do, ya know? So we been sittin’ on the record for a minute. And then the Hip Hop Honors stuff, that just came around because they honored me last year and they asked me would I be willing to do it, and I said yeah, cause, you know, the show turned out to be pretty decent. And then the "Rap School" stuff happened because I was at Vh1 dealing with the Hip Hop Honors, so when this particular project came around, they said, ‘let’s have Ice do it.’ So it’s all happening now; it just happened to be at the same time.
So as far as "Rap School," how did that all come about?
"Rap School" is a spinoff of a show they did called "School Of Rock," where they took Gene Simmons and had him teach some British kids about rock. When they brought it to the United States, kids wanted to learn about hip hop. And they decided they wanted to go to the oddest place and pick the farthest-removed kids, so they went to an upscale New York school called York Prep and pick the last kids that you think would know about rap. And then somebody -- I don’t know who -- said, ‘let’s call Ice and see if he’ll do it. He’s like the worst gangster rapper so let’s see if we get him in there how it’ll come out.’ And when I heard the project, I thought it was kinda clever, so I said, ‘yeah, that’s cool.’ And plus, I got kids so I know how to act with kids, and then maybe it’ll give me a chance not only to educate these kids, but educate the whole world about rap.
Did any of these kids end up surprising you by knowing a little bit about hip hop, or were all of them completely in the dark?
Nah, not really. You get in there with a bunch of 12-year-olds, I’m not expecting to pull Jay-Z outta there. I just kinda rolled with ‘em and taught ‘em the fundamentals, and taught ‘em the culture, and taught ‘em what hip hop was all about. It wasn’t really about making anybody a tremendous rapper. At the end of the day, these kids had to open for Public Enemy. For lack of a better word, it’s kinda cute -- they tryna go for it, these are youngsters, ya know? And we wasn’t puttin’ too much pressure on ‘em. A lot of people thought I was gonna abuse ‘em and I’m like, ‘C’mon, gimme some 18, 19-year-old kids and I’ll send ‘em through boot camp. But that’s not what this show’s about -- it’s more like, you just gotta laugh at it, it’s funny.
Did you have fun doing it, or was it a little frustrating sometimes?
I had fun doin’ it. It was different for me. You know, I’m always doing something so dark and so sinister. I had some laughs with the kids, it was cool. It shows another side of me. But I had to put my foot in some of they asses, ‘cause a lot of these kids don’t deal with discipline; these are rich kids that kinda have their own way. So I was like, ‘Well look, you ain’t gonna have that with me.'”
Are any of your kids within the age range that these kids were?
Yeah, my kid came on the show. Lil’ Ice showed up, He’s 14 now. He got a whole ‘nother demeanor and a whole ‘nother swagger than these kids, but he kicked back, you know? He’s a different kind of cat, so they let him make his comments on the kids, but I don’t know if they cut that out of the show or not; I haven’t seen those episodes.
So as far as the VH1 Hip Hop Honors show, do you think that’s gonna shed some new light for a lot of kids?
Well, you’re dealing with a generation right now, a lot of these kids that are so deep into hip hop, have never seen Ice Cube perform. There are rappers that have never actually seen Rakim.
Do you think that a lot of hip hop fans today are kind of disconnected from the history of Hip Hop?
I think hip hop right now is pop. The underground is still the underground and the internet feeds that, but right now, the average hip hop fan doesn't know the first thing about it; they think Justin Timberlake’s hip hop. If you don’t know your history -- I mean, it’s like being a jazz fan and not knowing who Dizzy Gillespie is. If you really are hip hop, you should research the history and find out where it came from. You know, there’s a lot of kids who think Eminem is the first white rapper.
Nah man, you could take it back to Beastie Boys or 3rd Bass...
Right. But see, that’s what you do. But there’s people that don’t know that. Even when I did "Rap School," I asked the kids, ‘Who’s the first rapper you ever heard of?’ and they said Nelly.
Yikes.
Yeah. Exactly. So that’s what this show is about -- it’s kinda like a good feeling for people who come from back in the day, and it’s kind of an eye-opener for some of the kids that are lovin’ the music today.
A couple years back if you looked at VH1’s programing, they wouldn’t really fuck with hip hop.
They would play Chris Isaak.
Yeah, Exactly. I was gonna say they were on some really safe, adult contemporary kinda shit. And now it seems like they’re doing some pretty decent shit as far as hip hop on television is concerned.
Well you know what happens, man? The executives had to change places, and a lot of the kids that were interns end up being producers. Things change. Fab Five Freddy was the first host of "Yo! MTV Raps" and was in "Wild Style", so you can’t get much more O.G. than that. But those cats, they, know. And right now, they’re up, saying, "Who we gonna get next year?" and they’re movin’ names around and they’re tryin to do the right thing.
So you don’t think it’s completely commercially-driven?
Well, it’s all commercial. And once it’s on television, it’s commercial. Once you make a record and it’s on the radio, it’s commercial. The only reason they play your record on the radio is because they can get listeners and they can sell ‘em some soap or soda. But I don’t really look at it like that, I look at it from the other side. Right now, there are no television shows on network television or cable where you can see live rap.
So it’s kind of like the lesser of evils?
Well I don’t even see it as an evil because everyone who makes a record wants to get on MTV or VH1. I mean, when you get in the business, you’re like, "Damn, man, maybe one time I’ll be on MTV,’" ya know? That’s the goal of an artist: to be seen and to be heard. I think they respected it and they did it well. You gotta really watch it and see it. It’s complicated. I mean, I understand your point, but I think it’s kinda like, everybody’s tryin to make a buck, and this is a good show with a good vibe to it, you know what I’m sayin’? But thank God somebody came up with it, ‘cause you can watch enough awards shows and see the guy that did it last year; we already know Kanye West sold a billion records. But, you know, where did Kanye get his influence from?
I wasn’t trying to hate on it. I mean, VH1 is actually putting on some programming that’s actually entertaining and isn’t the same recycled garbage... or at least some of it isn’t.
Trust me, when a lot of people heard about "Rap School," they was like,"‘It’s exploitive, it’s corny, yadadadada" but now that people are getting a chance to see it they’re like, "Yo, this is so good, it’s a good look, ‘cause Ice is teachin people all about rap and teachin’ it the right way and lettin’ people see what it’s really about." And the first thing I taught these kids, I said, "Look, hip hop is from your own experience, so therefore I rap from my own experience. I was gangbangin’ and all that stuff, but none of y’all came from that. Not one of y’all came from that. So the only way you gonna rap in front of me is you have to draw from your own life. And then we gonna take it from there." So you ain’t got no thug rappers ‘cause none of ‘em lived it. So it’s kinda like I’m explainin’ to the world why certain people rap a certain way, ya know? I think the key is who’s behind it. When you have VH1 and you have a bunch of square people that have no understanding of hip hop tryin’ to do something, then you lookin’ at some bullshit. But on my show I got DJ Premier, Kid Capri, I got Common, I got Chuck D... we got official people.
So they put in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it.
Got to, got to. Because, you know, I’ve been doin’ this rap shit for twenty-somethin’ years and me and Luke and Cube, we fought the wars. There were wars so that hip hop could live on today. They used to snatch Luke off the stage, you know what I mean? They used to run us out of town. Ain’t no rappers gettin’ in trouble for rappin’ no more.
That was an era in hip hop where hip hop was actually dangerous. And as far as people who personified that, I mean, you need look no further than your Rolling Stone cover from when Body Count was doin’ their thing and you guys had just dropped “Cop Killer.” And this might be something you’re sick of talking about, but you guys did blaze a trail and now the shit is just clear and open for hip hop artists to run through.
Aww, nah, nah, now you go out, you get your G-Unit CD, you pack it in your little daughter’s knapsack and send her on spring break. The danger, the scariness... I mean, it’s just because it was brand new. I think once Eminem did it, everybody just said, ‘Ok. We’re scared for the last time.’ And I don’t necessarily think we needed anybody to be scared, I just think it was a shock period where people just weren’t used to the hood. America had never really seen the ghetto, they had never seen us. And of course, initially, they were scared. And then, after awhile, you know, they were like, ‘You know, I kinda like Ice. I kinda like Snoop.’ You know what I’m saying?And we like, ‘We cool, dog. We just tellin’ you what’s goin’ on in our neighborhood,’ you know? So after a while it kinda mellowed out, but it’s pop now. It’s popular culture. You don’t say ‘nigga’ on you record, you say ‘killa,’ and they play it. I could tell you stories- wild stories -of me and Too Short and The Geto Boys gettin’ arrested; I mean, it was outlaw music. You would come into town and the cops would meet you at your hotel and warn you... it was bananas.
But that’s what made that so intriguing back then and nowadays, so much of it just seems... bland.
But I don’t really think it’s bland, I just think your brain has accepted it. So you’ve kinda like, stepped up to it and understand it on another level. But honestly, to us it was bland then. The gangstas, it was just what we talked. I mean, it scared America, but to us it was just like,’This is how it is, cuzz.’ I think now, the world kinda understands it- it’s just the truth, it’s hat’s really going on. But then also, you got the influence of a bunch of fake people making the music that never been through it and they dilute it too, because now you don’t know what’s real and what’s not. And that fucks it up.
To Be Continued...
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