{"id":29728,"date":"1999-12-01T17:26:48","date_gmt":"1999-12-01T22:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=29728"},"modified":"2014-11-08T18:12:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T02:12:36","slug":"ice-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/ice-t\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE T"},"content":{"rendered":"

ICE T<\/strong>
\nNEW JACK 2000 – THE ICE OPINION. <\/strong>
\nINTERVIEW BY BRYAN STAHEL AND DAN LEVY<\/strong>
\nPHOTOS BY BRYAN STAHEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d heard of Ice T before, but it wasn\u2019t until I saw him on Oprah Winfrey that I first really appreciated the Ice phenomenon. That was circa the early days of the PMRC and Jello Biafra and Tipper Gore were also on the show. When grilled by Oprah about his lyrics, Ice said something like \u201dYou don\u2019t understand, I wasn\u2019t raised like Bryant Gumbel. If I was, my rhymes might be different. My family was more like Good Times. except we didn\u2019t have that much furniture.\u201d Ice pretty much blew my mind on the spot. Once again that incident proved to be the spark that set off some serious transfer of knowledge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you get along with Jello Biafra?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My main opinion has always been that people like us have similar enemies. Divide and conquer is a major piece of the making of the machine. Can\u2019t let you know me. You might realize that you like me, then it\u2019s a lot harder to go to war against me. If you don\u2019t know about somebody, some idiot can come tell you about them, y\u2019know, but I think one of the major things in the last 15 years that drew people together was hip hop. Hip Hop is a real ill art form. To me, it\u2019s another morph of rock. When hip hop came out, the way white kids embraced it was just natural, because kids wanna experiment and do new shit. It was like a double rebellion back in the day because y\u2019know when white people listened to stuff like Slayer that was like rebelling, they were like \u201cI\u2019m gonna double rebel, I\u2019m not only gonna go with Slayer, I\u2019m going to go with Run DMC.\u201d A lot of white kids dug the fact that their other white buddies may not have been ready for it so they were like \u201cY\u2019know I don\u2019t care what you want.\u201d It took a lot of nuts for white kids to be into hip hop in the early days and those kids really got a lot of stripes for it. Now, it’s very cool. It’s almost understood. <\/strong>Me, back in the day, connecting with Jello Biafra was just natural. I already was listening to the Dead Kennedys, I had Holiday In Cambodia, Frankenchrist. I knew all about his shit. I said this guy is on the same channel, just coming from a different zone. We became really good friends. I clicked with all those powerful cats. Rollins, (snaps), like that. In this game, you got soldiers and you got pussies. Bottom line. You got people that will stand up and say \u2018fuck you\u2019 and you got people who won\u2019t. Takes as much nuts for me to say I\u2019m down with Black Flag as it does for Henry Rollins to come onstage to a Public Enemy record to all his hardcore fans. If you\u2019re truly punk, then you’re doing what you wanna do, not what the punk culture says is right. That\u2019s not punk, man you\u2019re following. Punk is not about following, it\u2019s about individualism.<\/p>\n

Blazing your own trail<\/strong>.
\nExactly, to have the nuts to stand alone is the way people get stripes out here in the world. So, I had respect for Jello, he has mutual respect for me. Tipper Gore on the other hand was some bitch caught up in not knowing and wanting to put blame on music that she\u2019s never listened to. That\u2019s the problem of the world.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a real parallel between the punk rock and hip hop scenes.<\/strong>
\nYeah, there’s a parallel between aggression and non-aggression. A parallel between people who want rights and people who don\u2019t. It\u2019s a parallel of anger. Thing of it is, if you sit down, you\u2019re probably angry at the same shit, know what I\u2019m saying? There\u2019s a lot of confusion. A lot of black people think everybody white got money. That\u2019s not true, you\u2019ve got to travel, got to see poor white people. They\u2019re niggers too, in the eyes of the man, they don\u2019t care. They don\u2019t want you in their hotel if you ain\u2019t got no money. Get \u2018em out of here, y\u2019know. The more you travel and the more you experience the less you hate. We have a saying \u201cjudge the Devil by his deeds\u201d I\u2019m not gon\u2019 look at you and say \u2018well I got a problem with you\u2019 y\u2019know you ain\u2019t done shit to me. I gotta watch my boy, y\u2019know probably went to school with me, he might have more larceny for me, know what I\u2019m saying? That\u2019s something you learn, but if you grow up in Newport Beach, if you grow up in South Carolina and you never leave, you don\u2019t have any concept of the world or understand people. You just understand whatever the guy down the street told you and you\u2019re a pretty dangerous character at that point, whether you\u2019re coming out of South Central LA or coming out of the Ozarks. You just do not know shit, you\u2019re just stupid. Y\u2019know kids in South Central are stupid, they can\u2019t see that there’s more to this. I was one of them kids.<\/p>\n

How did you get involved with hip hop?<\/strong>
\nHip hop is just a musical form that popped up, I was out in the streets hustling. I was pimpin\u2019, doin\u2019 all kinds of different shit to make money. I had girls boostin\u2019, all kinds of shit going and the music just came out. Sugar Hill Gang put out Rappers Delight and I flipped it over and I tried to say some rhymes, but I was saying rhymes about street life, it was something to do. Something I would do on the weekends after I had done crime all week. I would go to the club and get on the mic, say rhymes and get girls. I was trying to get pussy, so y\u2019know most of the stuff guys do is to impress chicks anyway so that was my way and before I knew it somebody said \u2018let\u2019s record this\u2019 and started recording and it sold. I really never thought I\u2019d make money off it but I think that\u2019s the truest way to get into music is to kinda fall into it.<\/p>\n

You got to do it for the right reasons.<\/strong>
\nYeah, you got to do it because you love it. Or you know, or you’re trying to get some pussy. (everybody laughs) That\u2019s more realistic; got to be famous so you can get laid.<\/p>\n

If hip hop was your kid how would you guide it?<\/strong>
\nIt went through infancy, that was when the first rappers got in the game and everybody got screwed, nobody got any money and everybody got ripped off \u2018cause they didn\u2019t know any better. They never had heard of a contract that didn\u2019t pay, shysty lawyers and agents and shit. Then it went through adolescence, that\u2019s when it tried to kill itself. That\u2019s what adolescents do, that\u2019s when we had to stop the violence, everybody would go to the concerts and fight. We were radical. Then it hit it\u2019s maturity when Biggie and Pac got killed. That\u2019s when everyone in hip hop woke up. Yo, shit is dead serious. The thing about hip hop that people don\u2019t understand is that it\u2019s not so much a movement of music as it is a dream out of the ghetto, y\u2019know? When kids spun, every DJ in the Bronx thought that one day they would make a record. Every breakdancer thought that one day they would be in a movie, every rapper thought y\u2019know, one day. It was a dream, gonna make it out of here.\u00a0 Yo, but you got black kids coming out of the ghetto, man. Guys got to get paper. Nobody twenty-six got no time to be rappin\u2019. You got kids, know what I\u2019m saying? So, now I\u2019m happy about hip hop \u2018cause it\u2019s full grown. It can co-exist and we don\u2019t have to dis each other. That\u2019s a mature way of looking at it, and I think that\u2019s where hip hop had to make it so that it could live forever and grow and stay out there. It\u2019s at a point where it\u2019s branching off on a whole lot of different levels so that form of funk will probably be around forever. One day, hip hop will be retro. Those beats still move the crowd. As long as those beats make people move, there will be hip hop. I\u2019m happy for it, I\u2019ve been doing it twenty years, I\u2019ve been in the game and seen it grow, new artists come out with new skills and are inventive. It almost seems to be alive, and you see it kind of mellow out. You’re very rarely gonna interview cats that are going to talk bad about people, \u2018cause we saw where that got us. We got two of our pioneers killed over a bunch of bullshit. Too much ego.<\/p>\n

What made you want to do Body Count? I saw you guys on the first Lollapalooza and the show was pretty intense.<\/strong>
\nYeah, yeah. I had three, four cats I grew up with that played instruments: Ernie C., D Roc, Moose and Beatmaster V. They all played and I rapped. Ernie had been carrying his guitar around since high school. D Roc was like his buddy and protege. Ernie had taught him to play, now he was as good as him. Mooseman was our friend. When I would go to a recording session, they would come over just in case I needed guitars. They were my live instruments. One day they were just crying, like \u2018let me play here\u2019. I was like \u2018no, this is hip hop, I don\u2019t want that much shit on it. I want to keep it sparse, I want them to hear the words. Why don\u2019t you make a band, I mean look, you\u2019ve got one right here. Why don\u2019t you do some live shit. Y\u2019know we were listening to Slayer in the studio, and lot of people don\u2019t know that Public Enemy used Slayer for Channel Zero, they used the breakdown of \u201cAngel Of Death\u201d. (hums the riff) I had been in Europe doing hip hop, we played \u201cColors\u201d and people would start a pit. So I wanted something more fast and aggressive, let\u2019s cross a little Black Sabbath, a little Slayer, keep it punk. Keep a sense of humor to it, but keep it dark. Body Count was supposed to only play around LA, but then when I got the chance to do Lollapalooza, I said let\u2019s split the set, see what you can do on stage. And we nailed shit. Right now we\u2019ve taken off a little while. We did lose our drummer, Beatmaster V passed from leukemia. It was a big blow to us. So we decided to wait, regroup, get hungry and come out. I think sometimes stopping a band is good because music is kind of like jumping rope. You know before you jump the rope you kind of watch it, you got to know when to come in. Even with this rap record, I waited. I kinda waited out Mase and Puffy, and all that kinda shit, everybody was in that super pop stage. Now I think people are ready for something hardcore, y\u2019know? OK, you\u2019ve heard enough of that, you\u2019ve heard every R&B record remixed. I want to hear some beats and some raps, guns and shit, y\u2019know to play in my car. It\u2019s timing. My thing is that I don\u2019t want to do something and have someone go \u2018uh, this sounds like Korn\u2019. Come on, man. I love \u2018em and all that but Body Count, motherfuckers are gonna die in the pit. I want it dark, evil sounding and we\u2019re gonna keep it like that. Let\u2019s bang these motherfuckers hard.<\/p>\n

When you wrote \u201cCop Killer\u201d were you surprised that it became the poster song for the whole censorship battle?<\/strong>
\nOh, hell yeah, man. I mean I knew about Millions of Dead Cops, I knew about all these different groups. Black Flag was always dissing cops. I was like, it\u2019s a rock record. And to be able to play it for a whole year on Lollapalooza, no problem. Then a year later they come and say I\u2019m causing riots, I\u2019m like \u2018oh God\u2019. Then they called it a rap record which was really a racist maneuver because if you say rap, a lot of people immediately don\u2019t like it. If you say rock, people think \u2018well I like Jefferson Airplane\u2019, you don\u2019t get that immediate response if you call it rap. It was just a bunch of nonsense to me, they\u2019re gonna pull a record I made a year ago, now I gotta fight it. I was so far beyond it, I was on to the next album. It staggered me for awhile, y\u2019know I had to make the right moves, do what I thought was right. Retreat and return with superior firepower and let \u2018em have it. I wasn\u2019t really set and ready to go to war, y\u2019know.<\/p>\n

The lines between us and them, people and the man seem to be drawn a lot clearer now. Like NYC in the wake of the police brutality, people seem ready for shit to go down. Do you think that\u2019s inevitable?<\/strong>
\nMost definitely. I think world chaos is unavoidable. I don\u2019t think people are going to remain in a world that\u2019s happy and OK. Bullshit, it\u2019s like a natural transition, like evolution. You can\u2019t fly a thousand miles in any direction without hitting a war. So, in the streets y\u2019know, it\u2019s gonna go down. All it takes is one big global mistake, one maneuver, one third world country to launch, one strain of hepatitis, one little Y2K bug, one little thing then everybody starts making ill moves and you\u2019ve got a real problem.<\/p>\n

Anarchy.<\/strong>
\nYeah, global anarchy. You\u2019ve got major shit. It\u2019s like everybody wants to run down to that jewelry store and get them jewels, they just think they\u2019re gonna get caught. Give \u2018em a chance to get that shit, they\u2019re gonna loot like crazy. It\u2019s kind of like in a holding pattern, the lull before the true storm. It may not come for fifty or a hundred years, but it\u2019s coming. Even if they go into a peacetime mode, they\u2019re gonna pay for the evil in the past. Even if they never launch another bomb, there\u2019s too much evil that they\u2019ve already done, they can\u2019t clean it up. Like you\u2019ve been fucking around and putting condoms in a sock somewhere, stop fucking around and there\u2019s still that fucking sock full of condoms, and she\u2019ll find that shit in five years. And it doesn\u2019t matter that they\u2019re five years old, you\u2019re gonna pay for that. (mass laughter) It\u2019s gonna go down, there\u2019s just too much dirt that\u2019s been done already.<\/p>\n

Are you stoked on 7th Deadly Sin?<\/strong>
\nYeah, yeah, yeah. This is the best one definitely since OG. Y\u2019know to be an artist, it ain\u2019t that easy, you do your thing. It\u2019s like riding your skateboard, every time you try to do your best trick. You may do it ten or fifteen times and eat shit. Every time you tried, but sometimes you just stick it and whoa! So this album right here is a good one. To me one thing good about it is that it\u2019s a hardcore rap album, not a fake hardcore rap album. It\u2019s an Ice T album. My thing is, I\u2019ve been doing this for a while, so I\u2019m not really in competition with new rappers. I\u2019m someone you\u2019ve been listening to all your life. I want to give you something that you can walk away with, a little knowledge, a little game. Not so much I\u2019m the toughest guy on the Earth. Kinda like someone that\u2019s seen what goes on in the streets.<\/p>\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER JUICE MAGAZINE ISSUE #47. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ICE T NEW JACK 2000 – THE ICE OPINION. INTERVIEW BY BRYAN STAHEL AND DAN LEVY PHOTOS BY BRYAN STAHEL I\u2019d heard of Ice T before, but it wasn\u2019t until I saw him on Oprah Winfrey that I first really appreciated the Ice phenomenon. That was circa the early days of the PMRC and Jello […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4028,4034],"tags":[10464,6031,3806,6132,11097,3776,14255,11099,11098],"class_list":["post-29728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-music-2","tag-body-count","tag-bryan-stahel","tag-dan-levy","tag-hardcore","tag-ice-t","tag-jello-biafra","tag-juice-magazine","tag-oprah","tag-tipper-gore"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/ICET.png","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29728"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48607,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29728\/revisions\/48607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}