OK, so why are we giving you more Ice-T? For those of you who are privileged enough to have a copy of Convulsion 1 which featured Ice-T and for those astute enough to have read the last paragraph (including deliberate typo) we said that that was only part one of the interview. When Issue 2 came around we couldn't really be bothered. Now, over a year later, we have read over the leftovers from the interview and discovered that indeed, it is well worth printing. This doesn't really reflect anything about the events that surrounded the whole Body Count affair, but that has been so heavily covered in other press, why bother. If people are really interested about Body Count they should get a copy of Issue 1 of Convulsion where he spoke about it at length, long before any controversy. Of course Ish 1 is totally sold out, you will all have to petition me to reprint it. Anyway . . .
The interview was conducted shortly after the first Lollapalooza tour, so obviously he had plenty to say on the subject, so we began with how he got involved in the first place.
When they called me about it I was like 'oh Janes Addiction', cool. I'll tour with anyone if they want me. Right now on the rap tip hardcore rap has run into a stonewall where it's hard to get the venues cause the media's hyped it into every time we have a concert someone gets killed, which is bullshit. People are afraid, a lot of fans won't come out for fear of some riot that'll never happen.
The only groups on Lollapalooza (1) that truly haven't broken yet are Buttholes but they've been around for ever and Henry Rollins but he's been around for ever.
But surely he doesn't want to get any bigger?
Oh he does, I mean everybody does. You talk to these artists and they'll say 'well I don't want to get any further' but in reality nobody at the end of the day wants to end up having to go out and get a 9 to 5. You want to make some money so when you're 45, 50 years old you don't see them in no restaurant waiting on no tables, or you end up having to go out and rob somebody. It's important to all artists to get paid, I don't give a fuck what they say. They might not want to go all the way out and become totally commercial where they sell their soul but Henry would like to sell more records. I mean I sit up with him and he's like "I'm on a bullshit label, I'm this, I'm that". I'm thinking about getting him at least onto Sire which is a good alternative major. We can move the half-million he's due, make him some money cause he's put too much time in to be out here still scrabbling.
I mean I'm good friends with DRI and these guys have been thrashing for years and they're like "Ice man, we gotta get some money man," it's like, "OK everythings great, everbody thinks we like being broke. Bullshit. I want a Porsche man,"
It was a great tour man, to me it was the best tour I've been on in my life as far as the music thing. I mean working with Quincy Jones was an incredible experience. When I got out there I knew all about Henry, I didn't know about no Siouxsie And The Banshees, I'd heard Nine Inch Nails but I didn't know what to expect from Trent, I knew about Janes. But I mean for some shows Violent Femmes came up. Like who the hell are Violent Femmes? Then they got out there and they didn't have no drum set. This is folk music? By the second show I'm watching the audience like 'wait a minute, somethings going on here' and I got into it like OK this is kinda cool, and I met the guys and they were like 'Ice T, wow'. It's like you learn to respect people maybe not even for music but you gotta say 'how can I call something stupid when I see how many people like them, wait a minute, maybe I'm stupid'.
Quincy Jones told me 'if you give somebody an accordion and they can't play it, it's a stupid instrument but as soon as they learn how to play it it becomes a great instrument'. It gave all the groups, not just the audiences but the groups a chance to respect.
When I talked to Trent he was like 'they told me I had to play after you, how the fuck am I gonna play after you, you sold 10 million, you're a big artist, I'm indie, I know what the fuck you're gonna do,' and I'm like 'dude, just relax, you can do it.' So the first show we went out there his amps blew up and shit and he had a fucking critical breakdown but then came the next show and the next show. By the middle of the tour he's like 'man it's the best thing they could have ever done putting us after you guys because it's increased my energy level so high, I know I just can't come out there bullshitting." It was a great experience, and I think for the fans also.
The thing about it was, making it a festival, it wasn't indoors, you didn't have to sit through every group, you could walk around. OK you didn't want to see Siouxsie or whatever you get up and go buy a T-shirt. That's why I say during my show 'if you're not enjoying this please get up, take a shit, buy a T-shirt but don't sit in the audience and bring down everybody else who wants to have fun.' It was cool. I was there 9 hours every day because I would come on at the end and sing with Perry, it never really seemed long, there was something to do every day.
SlIce, Ice Baby
Vanilla Ice is a rapper who's very arrogant and says a lot of negative things that could hurt the music. I think he could do more harm to white rappers as a group than anybody because you have in rap what I call the Elvis theory, the fear of a black art form, rap, being taken by a white person and having him claimed the king of it - they've already claimed Vanilla Ice the king of rap - then the black kids who's life depends on this, who're telling real stories about problems and how they feel, they're like 'what the fuck?' By him not being cool, like at the American Music Awards he said everybody could kiss his white ass, what he'll do is create a fear factor that'll hurt any other white rapper who's serious about it.
Gangland
I got problems a lot of times with a lot of rap groups who portray the gang system a fun thing. Like I say on O.G. "I'm a little different to the average though cause I jet you through fast lane and drop you on death row, cause anybody who's been there knows that life aint so lovely on the blood-soaked fast track, that invincible shit don't work, I'll throw you in the joint, you'll be coming out feet first." Sometimes I listen to rappers and they talk like they can't get hurt and I'm like 'Bullshit'. To me that just proves that they ain't never been there because anybody who's really been out there in a shoot-out, they don't play with it.
Drugs
I've never drank, I don't smoke weed. Nobody could ever give me a benefit to it. I'm like 'Why?', they say you feel good, I said I feel great, I would always just find a girl and go fuck her. That was the ultimate high for me. And I never wanted to blame drugs for my actions. I've seen too many people go out like they're desperate and tired so, fuck that, I never needed it.
The way I deal with it is anybody on that shit can't be trusted so therefore they got to stay the fuck away from me, cause I know what it'll do to you. I know how your best friend will look at you in the face and lie to you to get money for that shit. Cocaine will kill you. I've got a lot of friends who still sell it, but they know how I feel about it and they don't talk about it around me.
Battle Scars
I was standing on somebody's front porch and first a car pulled by and I knew they was looking crazy, then it pulled up between the house and the liquor store and they put a shotgun across the top of the roof and let off and then they let off twin 5's and one .38 out of the door, four guns, and I got hit under the arm. Bang. It's a small calibre bullet, they don't know if it's a direct hit or a ricochet because there's some lead in me but they said fuck it , there's important shit in there and if it's not on the inside of an organ it's not going to get inside an organ, you'll shit it out. There's people with metal in them walking around all day. But at least I'm not dead.
"By the way, did you ever kill anybody"
I'll tell you the truth. Not that I know of. But I've been in shoot-outs. Shoot-outs ain't like movies - shoot outs are like this. . . .
At this point, Ice retired behind the bar and stuck his hand out in gun formation.
I've been in two real hairy ones and I don't think I killed anybody. I don't wanna kill nobody, that ain't something I'd brag about, there nothing cool about that
Euro Gangster Role Model
They get off on it a bit, but at the same time they know not to get out there and fight and shit. Even tonight we make them curse each other and I say now "y'all go ahead and fight". And they won't fight so I'm "What's up, I thought you was s'posed to fight" and I make them put the peace sign cause they know what the fuck's going on up there and they know to think for themselves. All I want them to do is walk out of here saying 'I like Ice', maybe that'll break down some of the stereotypes that maybe their parents or some bullshit idiot told them. If that's all that happens it's a positive thing.
After being such a thief and a criminal all my life and finding out that you can work the system don't have to ever worry about going hungry partner. I'll always come up with something.
An Ice in Chains
OK, me myself, I wear chains 'cause I'm a player and a hustler. I used to steal them cos this is what I always wanted - jewellery. Now a lot of the brothers in New York don't wear them, they claim they're Afro-Centric but I think its cause they got robbed and they just don't have enough money to buy no new chains. A lot of brothers that come at you saying 'Oh well there was black people in the diamond and gold mines as slaves so we shouldn't wear gold but to me that's just the system, mind fucking us again. It's like the system telling me I don't want no money, 'well you don't like the system so you don't want no money, be a hippie so we can lay you up against this wall and hit you with a waterhose. Fuck that. All James Bonds best enemies were billionaires. I gotta have a cash flow. Now telling me that I shouldn't wanna wear gold and diamonds when they come from my motherland regardless of who the fuck got them, that's stupid. It's like gold and diamonds are my birthstone. I'm not gonna let no mutherfuckin people brainwash me into thinking that I don't want them. Plus its what you need to pull the ho's man.
So what it symbolises is that I'm rich.
The End . . . for now.