Ice on fire

Interview, June, 1996 by Eric Berman

ERIC BERMAN: Did you invent gangsta rap?

ICE T: I invented rock 'n' roll! [laughs] Just kidding. Yeah. [pauses] Yeah, I invented the shit. There was a simultaneous vibe across the country, but if you check the records, I put out "The Coldest Rap" in 1982. That's the first gangsta record. [It's still hard to] really determine the difference between "gangsta" rap and regular rap, but I could tell you what the difference is.

EB: What is it?

IT: You change the opponent. In other words, whereas in rap you take on an MC or a DJ, in gangsta rap you take on the audience. It's no more rappin' about rappin'. Instead of saying, "I'll take your DJ and woowoowoo," in gangsta rap it's, "I'll take you and blow your motherfuckin' head off." Rap always had an opponent, we just changed it. It's a braggadocious game.

EB: I understand you have a new TV show called Players starting soon. Are you playing a cop in it?

IT: Hell no. It's about four criminals serving life sentences who are released by the Justice Department to fight crime with crime. It's like The Sting or Sneakers.

EB: Did you get tired of playing cops?

IT: I only played one cop [in New Jack City, 1991]. My thing is, I don't got nothin' against cops. I just don't feel that the only people out there who can right wrong are the police.

EB: On your new album, what did you try to do differently?

IT: Well, it's called Return of the Real [on Rhyme Syndicate/Priority Records], which means it's a return to me, you know, early Ice T. Not a lot of messages, just me kickin' it, talkin', bein' myself. I've gotten to the point where I think I've made my point with different people and I can have a little fun with myself.

EB: You say on the record, "I moved out the ghetto 'cause I hate it." What prompted you to say that?

IT: I hate the ghetto, man. Fuckin' rats and fuckin' no heat, the street, the dump, the refrigerator that don't work, the fucked-up hospitals and schools. Nobody likes the ghetto, man. But the ghetto, they got this mind-fuck going on that says, "Stay here, represent, keep it real." I say, if we got to stay together, let's at least live in Trump Tower. 'Cause I don't really believe there's a black community. I believe there's a poor community. Where do white people live? Where they can afford to. Fuck the ghetto - not the people in the ghetto.

EB: In your book, The Ice Opinion [1994], you said you regretted having been "hard on gay people." Why did you say that?

IT: Because when I was comin' up, I really didn't understand gay people. When you're young, you think somebody's gay because they can't make it as a man. But you learn, you grow up. Personally, I'm as straight as six o'clock, but if being gay's your thing, cool. So I learned to get to that point. The funny thing about gayness is that there are a lot of men that are gay and don't think they are. Like when you go to jail, you be runnin' with these hard niggas who be havin' sex with men, and they don't think that's gay. Real niggas be talkin', "Yeah, I'm gonna fuck him." And the same nigga'll get back on the streets and be a man. It's a gray area.

EB: So what do you think looking back on your departure from your old label, Time-Warner, over the "Cop Killer" controversy?

IT: You can't expect a company like Time-Warner - which ain't black - to let black topics cloud their agenda, which is to make money. I ain't mad at 'em 'cause that's business. If I was Time-Warner, and some motherfucker was talkin' crazy on my label, I'd drop his ass, too.

EB: What do you make of the current political situation in this country?

IT: I gotta vote for Clinton again. He ain't trip. I wish he hadn't let that three-strikes law pass, but that was state shit. I think, though, when you look at the political race this year - Pat Buchanan and all these motherfuckers - you see how fucked-up the country is. These are the only people powerful enough to be candidates? God damn! There's gotta be a nicer person out there! But you know what they say, "If God had wanted us to vote, he'd have given us candidates."