Ice T: Gangsta Superior Pt. 2

AllHipHop.com: What do you think about hip-hop nowadays coming from your background which expands from the golden era, the "gangsta era," the "political era" right up until now? Ice-T: I think its done well, its survived. I’m very happy to see alot of the young cats that are making the music making the money. It’s […]

AllHipHop.com:

What do you think about hip-hop nowadays coming from your background which expands

from the golden era, the "gangsta era," the "political era"

right up until now?

Ice-T: I think

its done well, its survived. I’m very happy to see alot of the young cats that

are making the music making the money. It’s expanding off into clothing and

different things. I’m tryna be part of all that. I think the side of it that’s

really missing though is the political side. I miss Public Enemy , Ice Cube

and that aggression. Every rap record, I don’t give a f*ck who you listen to,

has something positive but n*ggas don’t play them. I’m a big 50 Cent fan. When

you heard Rebel Without a Pause and you heard NWA you knew there was some aggression

and that was violence. I was in Brooklyn at this donut spot and I saw this kid

and we sat down and spoke about some things. He said "we got the money,

we got the car, I got the jewels, I got everything. What do I do with the money?

What do I do with the money? I bought every car I can buy. You got it too Ice,

what do we do with the money? Do we just keep spending it on ourselves or do

we put it together and do something? Now if we would do something what would

we do? I was like "yo this little n*gga had a book bag and was thinking."

I said "man sh*t , I think you just gave me a record." You can make

a dollar, but keeping one, that’s a complicated decision.

AllHipHop.com:

So what’s new in your life now?

Ice-T: Basically

what I do is Law and Order five days a week, so I left L.A. and I got in a new

relationship. Me and my girl stay out here. I got an apartment on the upper

Westside. We go out. I hit the clubs if I don’t gotta work the next day and

then on the weekends I go in the studio. It’s like the same thing, it’s just

not the 100 motherf*ckers I had in LA.

AllHipHop.com:

What’s your opinion on the hip-hop scene on the West coast?

Ice-T: It’s disappearing.

The thing of it is the West coast, not the Bay but L.A. hip-hop was only like

four major organisms. It was Rhyme Syndicate, the cats I put out, it was NWA

and who they became, it was a little something from the cats from Delicious

Vinyl and then little stuff from a label called Techno Hop, that’s where I started.

It had Compton’s Most Wanted and King Tee. That’s it . That’s why you don’t

really see L.A. beef, because all of us kind of came from the same crew. Cube

went off on his thing. Cube was only able to really spur Mack 10. That was the

only group he was able to get out that was successful. Dre is like the monster

producer from mars or some sh*t in anything he touches, but how much can Dre

do? The downfall to L.A. is due to L.A. radio. L.A. radio is worst than New

York radio. L.A. radio doesn’t play regional records. If you go down to New

Orleans you gonna hear Master P every other record. L.A. doesn’t play L.A. music.

They don’t cater to the LA artist so they don’t give anybody a chance to grow.

They haven’t broke a group from L.A. since Mack 10. Certain people break. Eminem

don’t count because he from Detroit. They aint doing it. The only time was when

Suge was mashin’ the sh*t and they was playing that Death Row sh*t every 15

minutes.

AllHipHop.com:

What’s your view on the current air of beef in hip-hop and how some of them

appear to be heading off wax?

Ice-T: I think

it’s bullsh*t honestly. I think if you gonna rap on a record about a n*gga then

that’s that. The problem is I think Biggie and Pac showed us where that goes.

I really aint gonna mention nobodys names over no record no more because I know

where they live. So if I got the time, why don’t I just go knock on n*ggas door?

Why am I rapping about it? It’s kind of corny.

AllHipHop.com:

I remember when you were in the Pee Wee Herman video. When you look back at

those times with all that stuff what do you see?

Ice-T: I look stupid.

That sh*t was stupid but at the time it was hip. You know like when people usually

say "I seen you in Breakin’." I’m like yea OK, but before you diss

me, show me a picture of what you wore to the movies to see it. I was still

looking cooler than you then, so at the time it was cool. Honestly I look at

myself as a person who took hip-hop for a hell of a ride. From picking up a

mic and rapping to being able to go around the world 4 or 5 times to speaking

lectures to doing television, movies and rock. I took it for a ride. It’s like

it’s been exciting to me and to still be in and to be respected, that’s the

best thing. Respect is the best thing. Your not gonna be the best rapper to

everybody but the respect goes beyond that. A lot of people may not like Master

P’s music but they respect the fact that he came out of New Orleans and blew

the f*ck up. That’s a good feeling, especially in an enviroment like hip-hop

where n*ggas don’t respect sh*t . They’ll diss you so quick in this business.Catch Ice-T

At AllHipHop and SOB’s Plain Rap concert series, along with Kool Keith and SMG

on December 14. For more info: http://www.sobs.com