SOHH LEFT COAST

SOHH LEFT COAST -

The Ice-T Interview (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on October 24, 2006 10:40 PM

oldschoolicet.jpg

If you missed the first half of the interview, go back and check out yesterday's blog; there's some game from the man in there that's not to be missed...

But today, here is the conclusion of SOHH Left Coast's interview with a West Coast legend... Ice Mothafuckin' T.

Interview by SOHH Eighty

SOHH Eighty: It seems like the first lesson that you taught those kids -- to draw from their own life and not make shit up -- is something a lot of people in the game these days missed out on.

Ice T: Yeah, well, you can only lie for so long, you know? And if you get out here and portray being a thug or a gangsta or whatever and you ain’t one, the streets are gonna walk up and touch you. It ain’t the smartest thing in the world to do... you gonna have to live with it. Like when Jamie Kennedy did Malibu’s Most Wanted -- it’s not something you want to portray if you’re not ready to live it. On my new album, the Gangsta Rap album, it’s more of an overview from an O.G.’s standpoint, like this is where it’s been, this is how I see it. My boys say, ‘This is your grown man album.’ This is for people who have been through the cycle, are over 25, understand what’s going on, and don’t really wanna hear a 19-year-old kid rap, ‘cause he can’t really give ‘em any information. And the whole hip hop style of, you know, ‘get ya grown man on and ya grown woman on’ comes from, when we first started makin’ rap, we was all kids. Nobody had no jobs, nobody had no kids, so you could just be seriously partyin’ all the time, gettin’ high, drinkin’, trippin’, fuckin’ girls, ya know? But now, I might ask you what you did this weekend and you’d say, ‘Ah man, I took my kids and my girl out to the park’ or whatever, I’d say, ‘you done got ya grown man on.’ It’s okay though, ‘cause right now if you’s a O.G. hip hopper and you ain’t gettin’ ya grown man on, you bullshittin’. So hip hop has to mature or some of us have to mature. If I make the same album I made twenty years ago, that’s wack.

‘Cause there’s no progression involved.

There’s no progression. You ain’t tryin’ to hear Ice-T, forty-somethin’ up here talkin’ that same shit. It’s gotta be different. But at the same time, I’m still the same cat. People say, ‘oh well you should mellow out.’ Well I’m like, at the same time the mob boss, he’s sittin’ in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank still callin’ hits.

Definitely. I mean, there’s different forms of gangsta shit, and as far as living in a mansion with a shark tank in your office and an indoor pool that turns into an outdoor pool on some Transformers shit, it doesn’t really get more gangsta than that.

You know, for me man, gangsta’s just bein’ real about it and being honest and havin’ enough guts to say you play Playstation and you love your girl and all that too, ya dig? I’ve hung around some of the most dangerous cats and they’re the most nice people... until you take ‘em left. So all that posturin’ and posin’ and ‘all I do is get high and drink,’ and all that bullshit, that’s corny. You not gonna be able to do that forever. So, it has to be redefined and it has to be explained like that by the people who are really livin’ it. I’ve always been held accountable for my music. I got real friends doin’ real things and I got boys in the pen, and they not gonna let me make no record lyin’. They like, ‘Ice, c’mon nigga, you didn’t do that.’ You know, they gon’ check me. A lot of these cats, they just go in the studio and whatever comes into they mind, they just say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’

So what was your mindframe going in to record the new album?

I’m in New York now, I’m in New York doin’ Law & Order, so I been working with Smooth Da Hustla and Trigga Da Gambla, the whole SMG crew -- we did an underground album called Repossession: Sex, Money and Guns. We put it out in Europe and it did pretty well -- never released it in the United States. And everybody was just tellin’ me, ‘Ice, man, do another record, do an album.’ So then one of my boys had a producer out of Virginia and he brought over all this music and said, “I’ma sit in front of you ‘til you pick some tracks.’ So I started pickin music, and once I had the music, I just started writin’. And we just put the album together, you know? It is what it is. I mean, at this point in my career, my agenda’s not to sell no million records, I don’t really care about that. It’s just really to make another statement.

And the thing is, you’re already eatin’, so that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about. That probably opens it up a little.

Well fortunately for me, I never really counted on my records or rap music to really eat. I mean, I never really said, ‘If I don’t get played on the radio, I’m not gon’ live.’ I was very smart with my money. I knew how to take my advance budget and if they was givin’ me a half a million dollars, I was makin’ my record for fifty grand. And I would take the difference and double that and triple that and by the time the record came out, I could give a fuck what it sold. But you right though, layin’ back now, just makin’ a calm record ‘cause I want to, there is a kind of calmness in the album.

That’s what I’m sayin’. It wasn’t like you were lazy or anything, but there wasn’t a crazed urgency behind it like there was on Rhyme Pays or Power.

People say ‘Ice, what’s the difference in you between now and then?’ and the old Ice-T was, ‘I’ll kill everybody, motha, AAAGGHH!’ And the new Ice-T is, ‘By the way... you know I kill you, right?’

So other than Smooth and Trig, who by the way were really slept on, who else out there right now are you feelin’?

Hmmm... I like Young Jeezy. I like how he rhymes, it just sound like he in pain -- ‘Lord don’t let me go to jail tonight!’ I like T.I. T.I.’s young, but he sound like he’s about 60. I mean, he got like a old soul to him. Of course, Ghostface Killah and the Fishscale album. I mean, c’mon, lyrically, when you dealin’ with Ghostface and Raekwon and them cats, that’s top of the game. And you know, I’m a Mobb Deep fan. That’s like one of my favorite groups. I mean, I don’t know if I like the Blood Money album as much; I don’t really know if they fit into 50 Cent’s program, I like it when they’re just real grimey and stuff. But those are another couple of my favorite lyricists right there.


Go holler at Ice T's website at www.icet.com

Posted by SOHH Leftist

Comments

  • wizzlejizzle says...

  • That's that real 6 in the morning talk !!!

  • October 25, 2006 12:04 AM
  • Kyser Soze says...

  • Ice-T is the motherfuckin' O.G.

    A real O.G I mean, and that was real talk right there!

  • October 25, 2006 6:56 AM
  • Prophet says...

  • Ice T you a real fucking OG homie... Im only 21 so I missed your Body COunt days but I did my homework... Colors is my sh*t though... If you looking for any more Hot tracks for this album email the kid at Prophet860@gmail.com. I got 3 major placements coming out first quarter! I'll just MP3 you some shit

  • October 25, 2006 8:21 AM
  • Nimrod says...

  • Never was a fan of Ice T or his music and still find it hard to tolerate his acting BUT the longevity of his career is to be commended. He's obviously doing something right if he's still a factor in a biz that treats talent like paper plates.

    I don't know about all this OG talk either but this is hip hop and words like; murda, killa, gangsta, etc., seem to have another definition when applied in rap.

    Best wishes to Ice T and may his good fortune continue on.

  • October 25, 2006 9:18 AM
  • Animate says...

  • "So all that posturin’ and posin’ and ‘all I do is get high and drink,’ and all that bullshit, that’s corny. You not gonna be able to do that forever. So, it has to be redefined ..."

    That needed to be repeated. Ice said things perfectly. You can't be the same person you were a number of albums ago. That is why artists grow and become better (or worse depending on your viewpoint). To many "fans" want them to be the same artist they were during their classic album. Mobb Deep ain't gonna make another "Infamous". Jay ain't gonna make another "Reasonable Doubt". And until Dre 3000 isn't bored with rapping anymore he ain't gonna have his old flow. I still love his new stuff with his singing ass. Be a fan of the artist, not of the album. Appreciate good music.

  • October 25, 2006 9:47 AM
  • klo says...

  • If you don't have respect for ICE-T, you don't have respect for West Coast Rap...or better yet hip hop as a whole! Nuff respect to the O.G. ICE-T!

  • October 25, 2006 11:28 AM
  • illpoppa says...

  • Just wanted to say whats up to the o.g ice T. Keep up with the hip hop its your roots lookin forward to your cd.

  • October 25, 2006 12:35 PM
  • black says...

  • big up again...drop'n science for you young bitches......O.G!

  • October 25, 2006 12:57 PM
  • taraji says...

  • Hey soulman Billboard.com reports that
    Jermaine Dupri has stepped down as president of urban music at Virgin, following lackluster sales of his girlfriend Janet Jackson's latest disc, "20 Y.O," which Dupri co-executive produced.

    In a statement released to the Associated Press today (Oct. 25), Dupri said, "Since there are so many rumors running rampant about my position at Virgin Records, I feel that it is necessary to set the record straight. I was not forced out of the company -- I made a decision that it was in my best interest to leave."

    The producer/rapper was appointed to the post in January 2005. Since then, his signings have included Dem Franchize Boyz; he also pacted with OutKast member Big Boi's Purple Ribbon imprint.


    As for "20 Y.O.," it bowed at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 last month and has sold just 443,000 units to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

  • October 25, 2006 1:40 PM
  • FyrstBorn says...

  • Word...ICE-T is still that nigga. Old as hell, but mad wisdom and just being brutally honest. I respect that dude to the fullest.. good lookin on the interview.

  • October 25, 2006 2:53 PM
  • FROM CA says...

  • YO THAT SHOW ICE T GOT IS FUNNY ASS HELL!!!!!!!!!!!PIMPS OUT THE NYC YOUTH

  • October 25, 2006 5:34 PM
  • Tray_J says...

  • Props for the interview SohhEighty, Ice T is one of the few real OGs who still remains relevant and i'm glad he's gonna bless us with a new album, too bad he chose that cover though but i'm still coppin' it.

  • October 25, 2006 5:53 PM
  • Joe Cleezy says...

  • word, nuff respect to the O.G. Ice T.

  • October 25, 2006 6:24 PM
  • blowitoutchaass says...

  • i have to break-out the fingers for ice-t. every since, "6 in the morning" and "you play ur self" i was fan. hell even b4 nwa, you been keepin it real from coast2coast repping the west. thank you 4 the wisdom, and you killing law & order..(still teaching us like you did to darius! lol)

  • October 25, 2006 9:11 PM
  • RiotPelaaja says...

  • Ice-T's on that real, he dont need to drop albums but he still does and keeps it underground...I aint seen anyone diss him, because he still makin paper while half these so called O.G's and hustlas disappear after their first album. Keep it real Ice.

  • October 26, 2006 4:53 AM
  • Dondi says...

  • Peace 2 that old legend Ice-T. As a rapper he never sold out. Never made a corny pop track with Mariah Carey or Justin Timberlake. Started hardcore, ended hardcore. Peace Ice........

  • December 13, 2006 10:55 AM
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