Ice-T Part 1

In the first of a two-part Questlove Supreme interview, Ice-T looks back at his Hip Hop origins. He and Questlove discuss their recent 50th anniversary Grammy Hip Hop celebration performance. Ice also tells Team Supreme about his earliest records, his time in the Army, and how he became one of the first rappers with a lavish lifestyle.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. Congratulations
people guessing the Supreme. We got hardware, Yes, we did
the damn thing. We gotta tell them what award do
we win? Yeah? He tells what we won, like, yeah,

(00:24):
we got the award? Is I heeart Music Podcast of
the Year. Shout out to Nori, You're great. But thought
I'm gonna have the first. We ain't hardly the first
beat between a podcasts. That's all yeah, love to everybody

(00:48):
in the category. It's all love. You know. It goes
without saying that Our Guest Today is an absolute legend,
with a Grammy the Boot, multiple Golden Platform albums to
his credit. He actually pinned one of hip hop's first memoirs,
The Ice Opinion. He pinned classics like you Know, Six

(01:08):
in the Morning, Colors Knew, Jack, Hustler Og, Original Gangster.
He's collaborated with everyone from Quincy Jones to Tupac to
Cube to quol Keith to Slayer, and you know, I
will basically say that Our Guest Today is one of
the first stars of our culture to really parlay and

(01:28):
pivot from just hip hop to other venues of expression,
be it film, television. His metal band body Count one
of the first hip hop legends to be a dominant
voice on social media, and he's using that same wisdom
as that he kicks on Twitter to offer his daily
Game's definitely worth a follow him. I mean, you should

(01:50):
be following if you're not. But basically, what can I say?
We have the legendary Ice Tea on questl Supreme today, sir, Wow, Wow,
it's crazy. Thank you man, thank you, thank Come on
dog legend. You also doesn't age, like drank from the
found of youth? Did Ice Tea? Man? Don't age? I

(02:12):
like to always preface it with living legend, you know
what I'm saying, as you should. A lot of times
people don't get their flowers to It's a wrap, you
know what I'm saying. So I'm still here. But it's
funny though, um quest I'm right now. I'm working on
a project that's a compilation of all my story runs.

(02:33):
You know, I like to tell stories, and the title
of it is the Legend of Iced Tea Crime Stories,
because legend is part fiction, you know. Legend is like
a tale. You know. So it was a night I
would I was in the club and I got in
a fight and I knocked the guy out, but the
legend says I knocked five guys out. You see what

(02:53):
I'm saying. Now you become legendary. You gotta live up
to some of these legends that aren't really the truth.
But I kind of let people believe what they want
to believe, you know what I'm saying. So that's why
we call the record the legend device take. But thank
you very much. I was gonna say, you know, I
didn't know whether or not to. I'm certain that this

(03:15):
ain't the first time that you've heard, especially based on
your name, that Kats might call you the iceberg Slim
of hip hop. I'm sure a lot of that is
also just due to the fact that not not on
a Ryan Page, but I think on Power I remember
you closing side too with kind of a storytelle. I
think it's Soul on Nice, the closing song on Power,

(03:37):
of which back then I was wondering, like if that
was going to be your not that I was seeing
a pivot back in nineteen eighty seven or eighty eight,
like did you ever have any goals or aspirations to
actually start writing fictional books on that level? Now, the

(03:58):
true story is I'm named after Iceberg Slim, and I
named myself after Iceberg Slim. When I was in high school,
you know you I went to Crenshaw, so you had
the gang bangers and then you had the players. The
players were the cats that wore tailor maids and they
would shake, always shooting dice. And you know, I ended
up migrating from the gangsters to them, and that's when

(04:21):
you see me. And I had the perm and the
fila and all that, but these cats would hang out
and they would carry around Iceberg Slim books and Donald
Going books. You feel me. So I wanted to know
what that was. So I started reading Iceberg Slim and
I was fascinated with it. So I was in eleventh grade.
I was able to quote Iceberg Slim to the girls

(04:44):
and they thought I was the fly ship in the
world because I'm quoting a forty year old pimp to them.
I mean, I could quote you want to hear some
Iceberg Slim? You want to hear best? Please? I needed
three way instead of play Jasper and extension, take them
around the horn. No Gene or John. This whole couldn't

(05:04):
con because that trick was never born. She'll be a
good shot broad and the acid fraud and drags. She'll
play like a vet. She'll stuff like an ace, never
lose a case, and leave many a mark in debt.
She'll be rated the best in the East and the West.
When a boosting hands goes down, she'll still knocks out
of knees and fighters fleas this bit. You're still out
many a town now. I heard hos cry about the

(05:27):
wind being high and the law being on their tail,
about snow and sleep being asshole deep, and the tricks
can go to hell and some greasy spoon or juke's saloon.
You'll find them killing their time, crying hard luck tears
and sucking up bears. And the pimps ain't getting the dime,
turning half dollar tricks just to get a fixed because
their pussy is doing the pimping. That it's ruining the

(05:49):
name of one hell of a game because they pimps
is doing the simping. Iced tea on the next jo
I'm saying that at the eleventh grade to girls, and
I'm not telling them it's iceberg slim. They like this,
who is this flyer? And you don't even know what

(06:11):
the fuck you're saying half of it. This sounds fly right.
Next thing you said is how can I be down
with this? As motherfucker? So so ice Burg ice tea
is short for Iceberg tea. Quest, you're right, and my
boys call me burg. My boys call me Burg. So

(06:33):
now the song you heard was my homage to Hustle's convention.
Remember that album they had alt called Hustle. Yeah, light
was a lightning rod and lightning right. Yeah, yeah, so
I was in that vein. But really, honestly, truthfully, Quest,
all my music is Iceberg slim like. My music is
more uh like literature that it was not meant to

(06:58):
dance too. It's like, you know, straight up nigga and
some of y'll niggas's bitches too, or I'm gonna push
your high rollers. It's definitions of certain things. So that
was my way of writing books, was writing music. And
I honestly use music that you couldn't dance to intentionally
so that you'd have to do I see, I see,

(07:20):
you're right on the think. So for a lot of
our listeners that don't know of your history, I mean
maybe it's maybe ten or fifteen years ago that I
was shocked when I first found out that you were
actually born in Jersey. Yeah, you know, where in Jersey
did you live? I was born in Newark, New Jersey.

(07:41):
I lost my mom when I was in the third grade,
and I moved to Summit, New Jersey, which is predominantly
white suburb. There was like one black street called Williams
Street where mostly all the black people live. And then
I lost my father when I was in the seventh
grade and I was excuse me ship to Los Angeles
to live with his sister. So even though I was

(08:03):
from the East Coast, I hadn't really kicked up no dust.
I was a kid kid, you know. So by the
time I actually got active, I was in LA by
that point. But yeah, I'm from I'm from the East Coast,
born out. Just for perspective, I'm just curious where your
people's from, Like, where was your mama's people's from. Where
was your daddy's people's from. My mother was a Creole
from Corleans, and she was so light skinned. Back in

(08:26):
the fifties, they said you she could pass. You know,
you know that term man to pass is white. And
my father was quest color. So they were considered an
interracial marriage to a lot of people. So that's why
I was. I learned earlier about racism that that was
not something to tolerate, how stupid it was. My mother
was able to hear white people talk about black people

(08:49):
in front of her because they thought, oh yeah. And
one of my first moments in racism was I had
a white kid that thought I was white and was
talking about another black person in front of me. But yeah,
that's and my father, I think he was from Virginia,
so you know, that's why I'm a light skinned brother
with hazel eyes. And people know that the history of

(09:10):
Creo is black and French. I guess fish out of
water situation wasn't for you in LA at the time,
Like how old are you when you're in LA? How
old are you in seventh grade? I didn't like it
first because you know, when you move up through the kid,
he doesn't have any friends. So I got shipped when

(09:34):
my father died. Both of them died in natural causes,
you know, but my father passed away. I was in
school and they shipped. They they they they took me home,
and then that summer they just sent me to LA,
like for the summer. Then all my clothes came and
I was moved out there to with his sister. Um
I didn't. I didn't like it because you know, and

(09:56):
that's how I'm living. I said, I didn't like la.
I didn't have no friends to trust. I didn't I've
got and then got bust to a school blacks and whites.
I guess this ship was cool, you know, but um,
it was weird man, because my aunt didn't really want me.
She had two kids that had already graduated out of
high school and they were ready to go on with
their life. And incomes this kid now in the junior

(10:18):
high and it was it was rough on me. I
left her house when I was seventeen years old, and
I've been on my own ever since. I've never dealt.
I have no living relatives, no sisters, brothers, aunt's, uncle's cousins.
I've been iced. Tea has been on his own ever since. Dola. Wow, seriously, yeah,
shit man, Not even a mentor, like who was your

(10:41):
first male in your life then? In that way? Just friends,
you know, friends. I have one friend that I looked
up to. He died early and nobody. That's how kids
get involved in gangs. Gangs are like surrogate families, you know, masculinity. Like, honestly,
when I got around the gangs, I never was in
a gang, but I was affiliated with the gangs. Because

(11:02):
so you're not in a gang, you're from a gang,
you know, So you have to be in a neighborhood.
That neighborhood is a gang. So if you're from the sixties,
you're in the Rolling sixty. You're from the eighties, you're
in the eight trays in La So I was living
in a nicer area in View Park. So when I
went to Crenshaw, you had Harlem cripts, Hoover cripts, all

(11:24):
kinds of cript gangs. So I knew all the shot callers.
But I you know, honestly, being around my homeboys, that
was the first time I ever heard somebody tell me
they loved me, you know, since my parents passed, you know,
we love them. And the thing of it is is
the gangs to love is different because they mean it,
you know when they say if something happens to you,

(11:46):
because it's on and they meant it and they really
and it's kind of like what you wish your father was.
Like like, you know, like I always say, if somebody
shot me, my last words wouldn't be piece to be
get those motherfuckers, you know, So that's embedded in me,
you know. But no, I don't have family, just friends,
and and I found out that havn't. Sometimes that type

(12:09):
of family is better because you can choose it. I know,
oftentimes when people are thrusted into situations in which they lose.
I like one or two conversations with James Brown, and
you know, his whole thing was like, you know, my

(12:29):
mom and my dad gave me away, and he said
that that made him well, he was saying like, basically
that made him stubborn. But I think he was basically
trying to tell me it was really hard for him
to trust anybody, anybody, you know, like when your parents
leave you. Yeah, then even through death or through you know, circumstances,

(12:52):
then you know, it's kind of hard to open your
heart to like, Okay, that's my friend and that's my
friend over there. But were you social like that or
were you like a hermit in the beginning or him? No,
I kind of like became I guess what you would say, violent,
But it's not like I was beating on people, but

(13:14):
I put on a violent persona because now here you go.
You got a light skin kid in La rats around
with the gangs. I got hazel eyed. My fucking name
is Tracy. Okay, I don't have any relatives, right, so
you're gonna be predator or prey. Fortunately I'm six feet
you know. I always was always around two hundred pounds.

(13:36):
You know, even in high school, I was always healthy
enough to fight. So I ended up putting on this
energy that you guys know today is nice tea. I'm
a nice I'm as I see. I'm a nice guy.
But I think fifty Cents said it best. It ain't
how my mama raised me. It's oude of hood made me.
So I just had to learn. Like one of my

(13:58):
buddies said, Ice is a nice dude, he just doesn't
back up well. I don't back up well. So once
you once you issue me like it's gonna you know,
if you tell me gottata or else, I'm not backing
up because where am I gonna back up too? Where
can I go? You know what I'm saying. So I
became you know, I had a lot of fades and

(14:19):
a lot of fights, and but I had nowhere to
go to us. It was just you know, I had
no options, but still don't was that when you uma,
at one point you joined the army or at one
point didn't you. I joined an army because it's seventeen
years old. I hadn't had a lot of sex like
I was. I wasn't getting no no se no sex.

(14:41):
Tenth I don't believe it, tenthal. I didn't get sex
till twelfth grade. The game wasn't right. It was the
presentation was good, but you ain't handle game. Is that
what it was? Now? The girls was dating forty year
old niggas like I was. I'm in high school. I'm
talking to girls oh day didn't want to go out
and see him at the end of the night. They

(15:02):
getting picked up in low riders and kids and you
know that, you know the drill. So I until I
made it to senior, I had no leverage. I had
no leverage, you know, I couldn't. I had nothing to
offer them. I had enough to offer them to entertain
them at school, but not outside of school, not out
of school. Guys know this drill. You know the drill.

(15:22):
The girl, the cheerleader flirts in high school all yeah,
all the bad drains were dating way older dudes looking
at the wrong girls, that's all. That's what it was.
They wasn't looking at us. Nah. So so when I
finally made it to senior, I got it. I had
a girlfriend the tenth grade. I had a little leverage

(15:43):
on her. But now I get out of I left
my aunt's house. I got two hundred and fifty dollars
social Security. I told her I'll bailed. She said, you'll
never make it. I took one hundred dollars and got
an apartment. I had another hundred dollars I spent on food.
I had fifty dollars that it was free money, right,
And I found an apartment and the guy was like,

(16:03):
you're too young. I said, well, I'm gonna have to
check sent to you. You take my rent out and
then you give me the difference. So the landlord would
give me one hundred and fifty dollars cash. That's how
he knew he was gonna get paid. And uh, what happens.
I got my girl pregnant. Now I got my own pad.
When I'm in the twelfth grade, you talk about popular shit,
I was hill, but I didn't know. I didn't know

(16:26):
they could get pregnant that easy. You know what I'm saying,
I ain't busted enough nuts to know the drill, and
there you haven't. And I'm and I'm you know, I'm old.
I was graduating in nineteen seventy six. It wasn't like
condoms was around you. Damn. He needed to go to
the pharmacy to get a condom, like you thing like
you had to get a prescription to get a condom

(16:48):
back then. You know. So I'm busting nuts and she
said she pops up pregnant, and uh, being an orphan,
I wanted the baby, right. I don't got nobody, And
so I went into military based on that, Like, I'm like,
I gotta get some responsibility. And I joined the army.

(17:09):
I did four years at the twenty fifth Infantry Division.
What was that like? Like that level of discipline, especially
when I would assume that if you're saying that you
have to have this persona in la where just back
up half me, just back up off me type of shit.
You know. Okay, you know how that work? That don't

(17:32):
work well in the army, Yes it does, Yes, it does.
See the art being in an army is kind of
like joining a football team. If you don't want to
be there. It ain't gonna work. If you want to
be there, it's gonna work. You gotta want to be there.
You seem to stand. I made the decision to do it,
so I was ready to go. Like if you see
g I Jane, they're like ring the bell, ring the bell,

(17:54):
quit quit the armies like that, like if you can't
hang go, But now you're much other alpham males and
you like, I ain't no punk, I'm anna shure. It's
a it's a place for alpha males. That's what really is.
It's for motherfuckers that really want to get down. They
want to go to war, like these motherfuckers, so they
they hunt cats like you. But now they take the

(18:16):
gang the street shit out of you. I remember the
first time I went in the gas chamber. They put
you in the gas chamber and uh say what Yeah, well,
they put you in this thing called the gas chamber
and let you Benjamin. You know, they put gas in there,
and they make you take your mask off so you
can have see the trip with military is. They want

(18:37):
you to go through things so that when it happens,
it's not the first time it happened, right, So you know,
you're gonna march twenty five miles, so if you have
to do it, I've done this before, so they tell
you to take it off. So what I did is
I squinted and I just held my breath, and I
was able to hold my breath a long time, and
so when I came out, everybody was coughing and shit

(18:59):
like that, and I was able to pull the mask
off and it didn't look like a fuck with me.
And the drill sarge like, see, that's that same shit
they throw at Morrow on the block. He's used to
that ship off the block. They were able. They would
tease the street cats like you know, y'all, motherfucker's not
a breaking off the jump. Well, if you're tough in there,

(19:23):
they're gonna let you be tough. They're gonna let you.
I remember one time I was there and they and
I had a sergeant arranger he named and he was like,
who thinks they can whip my ass? Right? And I
hated this little motherfucker and I knew I could knock
him now, so I put my hand up and his
other brother, uh named go Van, and another white dude
named Gary stuck their hands up, and I thought we

(19:46):
was gonna get the fight. And then he brought us
up in front of the squad platoon and said, who
think they could beat me and my two three friends up?
You got you guys are the squad leaders. So he
see who thought they had heart? Yeah? And that was
the biggest mistake in my life ever since then, I

(20:07):
never wanted to be in charge of shit because I'm
your guy to ride shotgun. I understand the position, and
shotgun is much better. You know, fuck being the boss?
The boss. Fucked that. That's brave to say that shit,
because I ain't mad at you, but it's brave to
say it. But that you not that you don't want

(20:29):
to be the bosson you ain't mad at not being
the boss like everybody. Some people would feel like what
you mean? I sed tea like you and gee, you
should be the boss, the top of everything to you know, producing.
But I see what you're saying, and those people have
never been the boss. See a lot of things you
want because you have never gotten them. Once you get them,
you go got it pass. I'm good on that. So

(20:53):
Jennifer Lewis taught us that lesson. She said to us
one day, she said, you know, somebody offered me a
show once, and then I realized. I thought about how
I look at Tracy Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson walk in,
and I was like, I don't want that. That's not
my life. And that's what that makes me think of. Listen,
if Quest is the boss and I'm his lieutenant, I
might need more dangerous than him. You feel me, and

(21:17):
I might and I might be. I might have much
more pro When you went to school, you're more afraid
of the principle or the vice principles. She was crazy.
I was terrified, even like Law and Order. Like when
I'm on Law and Order, I have a job. I
show up, I do the job, I get paid. It's cool.

(21:39):
When I'm on tour, I gotta run all them niggas.
I got all this shit I gotta handle. I got
a budgets. Quest knows I'm on budgets and tour busses
and all that stuff. I would much rather not do
that and just go on tour and get the bag.
I don't want to do it, so at some point
you realize. But they say the head that where's the
crown sleeps the heaviest, and it's not necessarily for everybody,

(22:03):
I am the boss in certain aspects of my life.
Let's put that like that. When we did the Grammys,
they made Quest the boss. Oh yeah about it. When
I landed in New York, my tooth fell out and
I went straight to surgery. That's the that's the level

(22:23):
of stress that I was stress tooth stressed tooth man
talk for real, like new teeth for real. When I
stress out, body parts just go awry. So now now
let's say, let's since we're doing this now, Quest, even
though you got all the praise, was it worth we

(22:47):
ever talked about this fully? Yeah, we need too. Let's go.
I'm still trying to decide. I'm still trying to decide
if that was a victory or not. I'll say that much.
I'll say this much. It was a victory for me.
Thank you. I was no for real, you like one

(23:08):
of five acts that literally gave me zero headaches, nothing, No, no, no,
it's it's gonna be worth it, I guess I can.
I can say that something even bigger is going to
happen in August, and it's not just like a special
one telling. Yes, we we already said that something's gonna

(23:30):
happen but something on top of that is happening, and
now that that's been greenlit, I feel that as it's
it was way worth losing a tooth over and having
to lay on an operating table for two hours. Oh
my god, I mean the code thing is worth you
did you pull that shit together? Like two weeks? That's

(23:51):
the crazy part. Like, no, the thing was and you know,
they kind of hit me in like after thanks given,
like this is what we have planned. Are you interested?
And I was like all right, cool. And then I
let like three weeks go by Christmas or whatever, and
I guess after Christmas, I hit him up like okay,
so what's the plan and they were looking at me

(24:11):
like yeah, what's the plan. And I'm like, wait, I
have to put this together, Like I'm just thinking, like,
let me show up and drum and y'all tell me
who I'm backing. And they were like, we were kind
of hoping you put it together. So you know, I
gave my wish lists and then they looked at me
back like okay, do you know these people? And I
was like, wait, I gotta call them too, so that no,

(24:37):
I mean, you know, so pretty like with the exception
of maybe one of the acts that abandoned us and Glorilla.
Maybe yeah, like I pretty much just called everyone from
my telephone and yeah, I pretty much went I scrolled

(24:57):
down my entire phone book, and I say that ninety
five of everyone that you saw was me hitting them up,
like yo, you mind doing this? I mean the only
two people that couldn't do it was Cube and Cuba
shooting something and student was coaching, uh, one of the
teams for the Pro Bowl. So so I see was
the loan? Wasn't he? You were the loans like representation

(25:20):
not me? And hello and short you're too short? Excuse me?
So North and South. I decided it was wiser because
people off the nest, like why did you ask Big
Dad King? Why did you ask cares one? The thing was,
we thought it was first of all, we only had
twelve minutes, and twelve minutes goes by like that when
it's it's this level of ensemble. So we just wanted

(25:43):
one representative of each right each territory. So wait, okay,
so are so I I see you get the call
A mere calls tell us from let's please push on
your mind? What happens? Why do you say I can't
do it? Why not? Why you can't do it? Because
I'm in lawn Order and they shoot Mondays and in

(26:04):
super Bowl and Grammys are always on Sundays, so I
can never go. You know, I got a call time sometimes,
you know, seven am on Monday. So he calls and
I'm kind of like, I don't know, you know, it's
the Grammys. I was, I didn't really know the magnitude
of it, you know, And then't he death said, he said,
ice you don't want to miss this. This is gonna
be legendary. This is gonna be epic. And then in

(26:27):
my brain I thought about it, and I said, am
I going to be the guy that's sitting home watching this?
I had a call to do that, and people like
you lying, motherfucker. Ain't nobody called you? You know? So?
And then like I said, I knew he had ice
Cube on speed doll. I'm like, you know what, I'm
not turning this down. This is the Grammys and it's
it's it's it's second to the super Bowl as far

(26:49):
as people seeing live performance. And I said, I called
Lawn Order and I told them and I said, you know,
I need to be off on Monday. They said, you
got the whole week off because you're getting the star
next week, and we and we had this episode is
off for you. So it just was a natural it was.
And then then you know, I got the track, and

(27:12):
when I got there for rehearsal, that's when it dawned
on me because it's like, you're seeing everybody, you know,
I'm seeing method man, I'm seeing all my friends. It
was it was me and LLL whoj who know. People
haven't seen a picture of me and him ever. I
gotta admit that was my one slight worry. I was like,
wait a minute, because the thing was, by the time

(27:34):
I got to you again, I went in alphabetical order, right,
and you're in the middle of the alphabet already. You know.
With the least the first fifteen people I called, their
first question was who else going to be there? And
the thing was is like I wanted to undersell it. One.

(27:55):
I'm very much known for even my hyperbolic statements are overexaggerated,
so I kind of wanted to downplay this a little
bit because for a lot of the younger generation, like
I'll call Tyler the creator up and his first reaction

(28:16):
is like, oh, man, it sounds corny, you know what
I mean. Like so in my experience and depending on
what generation I'm talking to, right, I figured if I
just undersell it, it'll be safe. And what's funny is
for the people that were just like nah, I'm good,
like that sounds wet, all of them, like the next week,

(28:38):
we're like, yo, man, I wish you would have told
me the magnitude that this thing was going to be.
And I was like, well, I don't know, yeah, right,
I think just to some generational people, it's you know,
that's what like my whole thing is like, oh that
must be nice, Like you could just shrug your shoulders,
like yeah, Motown twenty five, I don't need that. Got

(29:00):
me was the gangster rappers, right, you know, because I
used to we don't get invited to shit, you know.
So when he said Scarface, when he said pe, when
he said ru Tank Deffort, when he said too short,
I was like, yo, I remember when Prodigy was alive.
You know, Prodigy is my favorite rappers from mob dB.

(29:21):
He's like, I iced, we don't do red carpets. They
don't let us in. But see, you gotta understand the
people like myself, Snooping Q. We take pride in being outcasts,
we take pride in not being allowed into their ship.
I remember when Snoop got to what was doing the
Super Bowl. I'm like, you know, they hate seeing you
up there. He goes ice. I'm about the crip harder

(29:41):
than they've ever seen, he said, because don't you love
it the fact? You know? So when you got the
Outlaws in there and you had he quest had two
short yelling bits, you know, I'm like, yeah, you know.
And it was funny though, because at the sound check
I was doing, I was just singing all the words
with the ships and the fox in it. So right

(30:04):
before the show, I got a little text from whoever
the piece as isis is gonna be live TV? Could
you dial it back? I was like, okay, I was
just testing the water. I didn't you know, but I
wanted all the curse. Well you know what I figured it.
You know what I said. I said, I'm not gonna
curse because they're gonna they're gonna bleep it and they're
gonna bleep it wrong and it just won't it won't flow,

(30:26):
you know. So I just changed sucking for nigga. You know,
I just but I was so concerned during that show
of the queue, see because it was a tape going
right now, Scarface is wrapping mind playing tricks on me,
and then under this thing comes in. Do d do

(30:46):
do up? If you miss your queue, it was gonna
be a rap because the crack was gonna keep going.
You were gonna be offbeat in front of millions of people.
I was wedding like this is not I can't and
a ic concert. I could fuck up. I could be
will bring that bracket, you know, I could Right, this

(31:07):
is gonna this is a fucking train that's going. They
put the things in my ear and I never think.
I don't think I've been that focused in a long time.
So I had to have a live a live slate
just you know, because the thing was that the graphics

(31:28):
that we were performing like that had to be on
automatic time. So initially I wasn't going to do a
live graphics. I was just gonna do it like a
normal thing, like okay, we're bad, We'll just you know,
do it like normal. But they were like, no, you
gotta do it to a slate. So that way, when
the lights and all that stuff change, it'll be automatically

(31:48):
and whatnot. So how did you guys, did you know
who was gonna pull out at the last minute? Yo, yo,
all right, So look when Bad Bunny was opening the show,
we were on in seventy five minutes, and what wound
up happening was when I got word that one of
our acts definitely had left the building and went back

(32:12):
to his crib in Calabasas. Then it took us thirty
seven minutes. Because the thing is, the show's happening live.
It's not like the light guy can look at me
and say, okay, so what are we gonna do? Like
he still has to do the show. So basically, we're
using musical performances and commercials to go to nine different people.

(32:35):
You gotta tell the person that's doing explosions, the person
that's doing the lights, the person that's doing the choreography.
You now got to explain to the twenty dancers who
were there for that one thirty eight second segment that
we don't need your services anymore. So it took about
thirty seven minutes for our first dropout to happen. Now,

(32:58):
when the second drop out happened, it was twelve minutes
left before showtime, and the second dropout was our top person,
our headliner, who wanted more explosions, more dancers, more smoke,
more like each each request was like it was almost
like a negotiating arms or whatever like. And when they

(33:22):
left at the twelve minute mark, when our headliner had
totally dropped out, I yoh, man, I just I thought
it was a rat. I thought, man, great, you always
wanted to trend on Twitter, and now you destroyed hip
hop and you broke it. So I had no clue
that Uzi Vert got my message to just bum rush

(33:45):
the stage when he heard his song. I literally didn't know.
Like I said, a tech yo, you're gonna hear your
instrumental bum rust the stage when you hear that shit,
And my phone went dead, So I thought he didn't
get that message. So I'm fucked. And it wasn't until
I got off stage, because even when all of y'all

(34:07):
were on stage at the end, it took the route
to explain to me in the dressing room that little
oozy vert came out, came out. I didn't know that
until I was changing my clothes backstage. So that's why
I can't take credit. Like, oh, it was a victory
because even off stage, I was like, I explained this way.
You remember how when Prince stormed off stage on Purple

(34:28):
Rain because he thought nobody was filling right, that was me.
I was like, oh man, I destroyed ship far and
everyone's like, what are you talking about? We're turning on
Twitter right now. No, I'm like, hey, look, it's even
more it's even more important that you were able to
pull it off with all that. That's like you had
people booby trapping you on bailing out at the last

(34:50):
minute of a live show man and uh, you know
what I love though I don't think anybody missed him. No,
we did not, We did not. It's still came off.
It came off. Yeah, And let me ask y'all this
because I talked to Jazzy Jeff after after this, and
he said, you know, it was a moment where we
all knew that we were there. We've never been invited

(35:11):
and we won't be invited back. Yeah, there won exactly.
And he said, but we were there for hip hop,
Like did you feel that too? Icy? Like at something?
And I've been going to the Grammys. I want a
Grammy for rap back in the day with Quincy Jones
on the block me mel kumod and came and we
kind of felt Quincy snuck us in the back door

(35:32):
to Grammys. You know what I'm saying. It's like they
about a rap award, but it's really Quincy Jones. So
we're like, Okay, I got it. I broke it in
a video on when I was on my iced tea bullshit,
and then I said I missed it and I got
another one replaced it. So I do have one, but
one of my videos they replaced them because they were
telling me, nope, yeah, this is Joe's crazy glued. There's

(35:57):
a charge. You can get one. Yeah, funny. It's like
a gold record. If they know that you're you got it,
you can get into place. But I also went to
China and got some some made to give out, like
with body Count one, they only give out for the
number of people in the group, but there's so many
people involved. I got some replicas made to give to

(36:18):
my boys and my crew. So I got that. Then
a couple of years ago, I was nominated body Count.
That was weird because we you know they have another
they have another Grammy ceremony that comes on before the Grammy.
So we performed in that I got nominated for Black
Hoodie and we performing. After that, they take us backstage

(36:40):
and they got the cameras on it. So I'm like,
we won this, motherfucker. We won this. Mother We're standing
there and they go Masterodon and they won, and the
dude took the camera and wrap that shit up and
dick and left it out. Then when we got to
our dressing room, it was locked. It was like they
left for dead. I was like, damn. So then the

(37:02):
next year when we got we won for Best Metal Performance.
I was sitting right here because we did it over
the internet, so I might be there. I probably will
be the only person ever to get a rap and
a Metal Grammy the categories. But you know, this is awards.

(37:24):
Let gonna explaining your awards. This is awards, Like, this
is how motherfuckers are about awards. Fuck the award, Fuck
the Grammy. Man. Fuck I'm nominated, right, That's how people are.
I mean, I don't give a fuck about that bullshit.
I'm what I'm not. That's how people are. Nobody really. Yeah,

(37:47):
but once you did dominate, you want to win that shit.
She like, fuck this every time? Okay, So since you're
in LA before the darning of of what we know
is hip hop, Like, how did that culture reach you
out there? Like what it reached me? In an army? Oh,

(38:12):
because I'm in the army and it's catch. Where are
you stationed? I'm in Hawaii. I'm in twenty fifth Infantry.
So the cats in my unit were from New York
and from all over Florida. You know, it's a mismatch
of people from the United States. And I was hip
to first generation hip hop, which is what I call unrecorded,

(38:34):
like tape hip hop before they made records. So they've
played me all this, you know, the beatbox records and
all that kind of stuff, and hip hop is intoxicating
you hear it. You're like, that shit is dope, and
you know, I'm saying Iceberg slim. I already think I
know how to rhyme, you know what I'm saying, But
I'm like, I never heard it done over beat, you know.

(38:55):
And then they were trying to break dance and stuff
at the end, and I was just like, this shit
is dope as hell. And then I saw the New
York City Breakers on a show called That's Incredible, and
I was like, Yo, this is dope, you know. So
by the time I came back to La, LA had
a techno sound. LA was Egyptian lover in them, you know,

(39:19):
and Uncle Bobby, Jimmy and the critters like I used
to call the aerobic music right, you know, and that's
what LA was banging off of. And I was just
the first person out there to try to rap like
New York rappers, like rapping over break beats. Evie and
Henji from New York City spend masters with my DJs,

(39:40):
and we used to take records before they had instrumental
records and actually catch the breaks, and I taught myself
how to wrap. I came home from the military with
intention to be a DJ because Uncle Jams and then
we're making a lot of money throwing parties for between
you know, sixteen under twenty one, big big they do

(40:00):
in an LA Sports arena. The whole Uncle Jams concept
was they were in LA well anywhere you can't get
in the club till you twenty one, but there's a
whole gang of kids that want to go out, you know.
So they started throwing parties and they basically created the
first like rage. They with these long extended parties and
they were able to do the La Sports Arena multiple

(40:23):
times with no acts, no ass So you're talking about
five thousand kids dancing and the entire stadium on the
floor of the stadium. I'll never forget Egypt had a
drum machine at eight h eight, and I'll never ever
forget it, you know, because we hadn't seen drum machines.

(40:44):
And at the moment where they're like, they put the
drum machine on and they mixed it in and they
go Uncle Jams Army is about to go live, and
they played the drum machine and he would take the
records and hold the records in the air so you
could see he wasn't playing any records, and the crowd
kept dance, and it was a moment like like yo,
like Yo, this is live shit up here, saying they

(41:06):
were changing the beat, and uh, I was the first
one they would let rap, you know, they would let
me wrap in front of that crowd and stuff, and yeah,
that was how I got I ended up in this
club called the Radio. The Radio was well, see that's
why he got me here. I'm gonna give you the drill,
thank you. The club was called the Radio it became

(41:30):
the Radio Tron when they decided to make the movie,
and they didn't want to pay the guys who started
the club, so they just flipped the name and stole
the name. But the real club was the Radio Club,
and it was owned by a couple of guys that
were like graffiti artists by way in New York, but
they were Europeans. One was Russian, and they had Malcolm

(41:51):
McLaren there. People were it was like trendy white kids.
Adam Aunt would be up in the Motherfucker and it
was in mccarthur Park. And I actually put Madonna on
stage in that club because I went there. They found
out I had a record out I went there. I
became kind of like the stage manager, and if you

(42:11):
wanted to wrap, you had to wrap to me downstairs.
And then I go up and do the introduction. Okay,
quest Love just got here is helicopter just landing in
the parking lot. You better be good, nigga. And then
they got that out and here it goes in clown
and you would just be on stage getting it on.
So they bring this girl in. They go he names Madonna,
and I took her downstairs and she had this record
called Physical Attraction. I'm like, I never heard of you,

(42:35):
you know, but you got a record. And I let
her perform and she performing during the show, she was
touching me like used me as a prop. And I
had a black girlfriend. Oh that did not go well
that night. And this before y'all label mates. Yes, yes,
Madonna had just came out. She was with jelly Bean
Benitez back in and you know, so that's the history.

(42:59):
So that's were you know, the radio was where we
were performing. And then the people came in. They saw
the scene, they go, you'll be the rapper. Uh, you
guys will be the dancers. And Glove was the DJ.
You know, the history of the glove. Glove was carrying
the equipment into the place. And the owner of the
clubs like we needed DJ and gloves like I could DJ.

(43:21):
They got you got a DJ name he goes Nah
and the nigga had on gloves. You could be cluball
gloves and now. And he was the house DJ at
the radio. But when when it came out on the movie,
it became the radio Tron. But the real name of
the club was the radio. All right, So can you
talk about um the coldest rap. One of our best

(43:45):
episodes ever was with Jimmy Jam and he explained how
for for the two people that have not heard the
six hour Jimmy Jam episode, um you know Jam, basically
the anthology yeology of Jam, Um you know. He explained that,

(44:05):
you know, after they left Prince that they were basically
worked for hire musicians. But I mean at the time,
it wasn't like you went and said, oh, let me
get those two dudes from the time to do a
track for me. You were just buying tracks from anyone
or nah nah. So I used to get my hair
done at this spot called Good Fred right this when
I had to perm my ship was more wavy than

(44:26):
the ships in the navy. You know what I'm saying.
I had out matched the girls. You know what I'm saying,
That's what a player has to do. You gotta look
better than these chicks, so they understand they gotta get
together to get with you, dig it. So I get
my hair to get get together. And I would say
these rhymes right by walking around, rhymes like you know,
I'm the pimp to play it. The woman lay at
the hooly dooler, the whole house ruler, I just pimp

(44:47):
poor as a slam Cadillac doors. So I'm saying this,
and this guy named Willie Strong who owned VIP Records,
the very famous records store that Snoop is standing on
and in his first you know video, they came to
me and they said, you want to make a record.
And it was just like, uh run. You know. They

(45:09):
threw me inside the cadillac and the chauffeur drove off
and he never came back. So they it took me
from the beauty parlor the salon to a studio and
there was they had this track with Jimmy jam and
Terry Lewis. They owned the track and it was some
chicks singing on it and they cleared it and they say,
rap rappers that haven't made records have a million rhymes.

(45:33):
They're ready to go. You know what I'm saying. You
never rule one. If you're a well known rapper, never
battle an unsigned rapper. Still apply. I had a bunch
of rhymes, right, So I went in there and they
were like, say a rhyme, So I had to write

(45:54):
a hook. I knew I needed a hook, so I wrote,
you know, I'm a player, That's all I know. In
a summer day, I play in the snow, meaning cocaine
from the wound to the tomb. I run my game
because I'm cold in sights and I shown O shame.
So that's all that's all I needed. And once I
did that, I just went in there. You know. The
ladies say that I'm having sent because I got more
money than the US meant. I ride ragtop rolls, rocks

(46:16):
on my hand, Maserati's, Mercedes, Benz ocean Liners, private jets,
bel Air, Bookies placed my bets. I owned islands off
the coast of France, and I wear designer shirts and pants. Honey.
When I was brought into this world, my mama never
asked if I was a boy or a girl because
I rolled over to and gave her a kiss and
she said, Yo, Daddy, don't rock me like this. All right,
So this is the code. So I say this shit

(46:39):
right off the head off the dome. And that's my
first record on Saturn Records, produced by Jimmy jam and
Terry Lewis, and I made two hundred dollars. Wow, So
how was at parlay into when we first met you
nationally were breaking Well, that was my first experience with records,

(47:01):
and when you want to make a record, you want
to make a record more than get paid. You just
want to make a record. So I made that record
that records what led me to the radio tron See
was saying they they heard I had a record, and
they booked me to come and uh and and I
was at the radio tron when the movie Breaking came in.

(47:22):
When the movie Breaking came in, they said, we said,
can we make a song for the album? Me and
Glove made Reckless right, which Eminem says the first rap
record he ever heard. And that was like, you know,
Reckless went platinum, right. So I had got a bag,

(47:42):
but I hadn't. I didn't have a record deal or anything.
And then I was connected to this other DJ and
LA called Unknown and uh he we made a was
he Unknown from cottonis was wanted? Yeah? Yeah, he had
a record a label called Techno Hop and Confidence most
Warner was on there and he was like, come on,

(48:03):
isis make a record for me? Fuck that, you know?
And I said, okay, So I made a record call
you Don't Quit. And then the second one was Dog
in a Watch with six in the Morning on the
b side and as Chuck D said when that he
had my identity, was was connected. I mean, but at
the time where you conscious of like, okay, I've been

(48:23):
party rocking, now, how can I pivot to reality rhymes?
Like what was your mind stated with that? I was
trying to be a rapper. I was rapping, like meling them.
You know, I'm ding, I'm wearing spikes and shit. You know,
I thought, you know, this is what you gotta do,
and I'm trying to get in. You know, there's nobody

(48:44):
in La to look at. And yeah, but six in
the Morner was pretty serious at the time. So but
that came from school, e D. Thank you. You know what,
I'm always tell you the truth because my boys told me,
they say ice never lie because motherfucker's ain't going to
believe the truth, you understand, So this give him the truth. No,

(49:06):
I'm saying these rhymes to my boys. I'm saying that
gangster shit, you know, strolling through the city middle of
the night, niggas on my left, niggas on my right,
yelling cut cut cut rip to everybody I see, if
you're bad enough, come fuck with me. So I'm saying
these kind of rhymes for the gangs, but I didn't.
I was like, that's negative shit, Like people don't want
to hear that. So I'm saying certain reps to entertain

(49:28):
my friends. And then I'm then I'm saying party rhymes
for hip hop. You feel me, right? I know the
iceberg slim type shit, but I don't know what translates.
So then I hear PSK, and uh it blew my mind.
I was in Santa Monica and I heard first the
track came on, the track sounded I've never done angel dust,

(49:51):
but the track sounded like angel d a bunch of reverbs,
I'm like, And then school he came on pskly making
that green people away say. Now, at that time, everyone
was yelling on records, who is fly nigga? You know,
one by one, I'm knocking out he's for the way

(50:11):
my DJ's because you know, put my pistol up against
his heads and sucking as. I was like, then I
researched it. PSK's Park Side Killers. He's rapping a set.
It's okay feel me. That was the green light, Like,

(50:31):
oh they want to hear this kind of shit? God
all day? You feel me? Yeah? So we go in
and when we do six in the morning and six
in the morning. I took the Remember I remember the
BC Boys had a record called hold It Now, hit It, Yeah,
Holding Now where the record kind of stopped and then

(50:53):
he took off again. So I wanted that for six
in the morning. So that's where the don thing thing
like the record and then to do people, boom it
starts again throughout so holy now I hit it was
the genesis of that track. The beat just a basic
beat kind of something with eight away and then I
come in on the same exact cadence as school e

(51:16):
ed psk. We're making that green six in the morning,
Polly sat my fuel fresh jaded to squeak across the
bathroom floor back and that is it was more graphic
and deeper. Now wasn't gonna hit? I don't know. So
I get a call from the Fillmore West in Frisco,

(51:39):
we'd like you to do a show up here. I'm like, sure,
you know, boom bam. Five days later they called me back,
we want you to do a show up here. I said,
I already booked the show in that same place. They said,
that's sold out were I'm not on LA radio. But
they started playing me on KMEL there in the Bay
and was on and then later on you want to

(52:02):
track the movement Cube did the record? Boys in the
Hood are always hard right, which he's with six in
the Morning part two. But it's all SCHOOLI these Cadence.
It's all SCHOOLI these Cadence. So a lot of times
rappers or jack cadences and you won't even know. Well,

(52:22):
thank you. You know, players love to give credit, you
know what I'm saying. It's like you know, you wouldn't
know if I didn't tell you. Like Colors, rest will
get this. Colors comes from Mythological by King's Son. Colors
listen to King Sun. When I get ill, it's a
reason because it's duck season, Hunter of the front right,

(52:46):
that was that's how myth the mythological mythological rappers. You
got a lot to learn that I've not heard that
record mythological mythological by King you know, King's Son, right
of course on the King Sun. Yes, well that's how
it comes on. When I get ill, it's a reason
because it's duck season, Hunter of the Frontier. I am

(53:07):
a nightmare walk walking, right, if a jungle just a
gangster stalking, So you know, you can, you can. I
think all of us are influenced by other people. And
if it's done well, because hip hop is all samples
and stuff, if it's done well, you'll never know. You'll
never know because it's done well. But I always try

(53:28):
to give a shout out to the people that inspire
those particular songs. You know, I've been friends with with
Seymour about eleven and twelve years now because I'm also
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committee. Seymore signs
a genius man. He literally says, you know, and he's

(53:50):
had like health issues and all that stuff in the
past ten years. He's like, he is not going six
feet underground until he gets you in the right the
Roll Hall of Fame. And literally every year it's in case.
You don't think like you're even thought of or in
line or whatever, but Seymour like you're always. We get

(54:13):
two votes each as a committee member on who gets nominated.
When I was first there in two thousand and seven,
two now like, trust me to tell you my Seymour
sign story. Just tell me and Seymour signs. Seymour Stein,
the president of Sire Records who signed the Talking Heads
Madonna Ministry, you know Ramons. Ye, So I have six

(54:36):
in the Morning out and it was getting energy off
from in the East coast. Scott the Rock was playing
it and Africa Islam was somebody who I met at
the radio who was very intrigued with me. Because the
New York rappers would come out to LA. I already
had to push the jury, the money and the girls,

(54:57):
and at that time nobody had made any money rap
rap niggas hadn't bought cars yet, you know, so they're like,
why do you want to wrap? You know? But what
I was doing, the warranty was about to be up,
all right, so I want to wrap. I liked rapping
and and and my friends were going to prison, penitentiary,
blah blah, getting shot this any other because we was

(55:17):
active active. So Islam liked me, like he just liked me.
And so he's like, Ice, they won't play your record
in New York unless you come to New York because
what you're talking they need to see you're authentic. So
I came out to one hundred fifty six and ten
in South Bronx, and I was out there so I

(55:37):
met Scotland Rock and but by it being Africa Islam.
I met New York from the top down. What was
your look at the time. I'm sorry, I'm trying to
picture this because, like you said, I like you had
to hear. You had to so you went to the Bronx.
Look at I have feel it on and jewelry and
a perm Okay, okay, make sure I'm sorry. Them niggas
just thought I look like a pimp, but I was

(56:00):
rather my West Coast shit. You know, a player plays
the whole bubble, from the pineapple to the big Apple,
from the snowflakes to the earthquakes. You understand me. Wherever
I touched down, I'm gonna make it my town. So
I had the Chrisman, the gift, the gab that all
the New York niggas liked me. I was different, but
they liked me. They knew I wasn't no bitch, so
they liked me. So is by being a boss, I

(56:22):
meet Red Alert, Chuck chill Out, Scott Laro. I meet
all the bosses I didn't, so I'm hanging out. There
was a guy named Ralph Cooper Junior. You know that
is que do not know? Ralph Senior was the one
of the Apollo Cats that like Randy Apolo from back,
So he's his son, okay. So Ralph Cooper Junior was

(56:45):
like trying to be an agent, and he connected me
and Mellie Mel and we did a record on Spring Records,
and I was in the studio with Mellie mellon Kazz
like these idols of mine and uh. He took a
compilation and to see Seymour Stein. It was Mellie Mel,
Grandmaster Cass Donald d from the B Boys. It had

(57:08):
to saw and stick up kids and girls, myself and
a kid named Bronze Style Bob Oh, which was the compilation.
Kaz was still connected to um Kas had a thing
with Tough City, a deal. Mel had something with sugar Hill.
Donald had something with entertainment. I was free and Bob

(57:32):
had never made a record, okay. So Seymour that said
I'll take ice tea. And he wasn't hip hop enough
to know that you couldn't wrap if you were from
the West coast. He was. His ignorance was like fuck it,
I'll take ice tea. I never forget me. And Islam
went up to Sire Records to meet with him, and
Seymour was dancing around in his socks and me in

(57:57):
the eyes and said you have such beautiful eyes. And
I was like, oh shit, this is that part where
they want me to some shit. And Islam was like,
stay down, he's gonna sign a check. Stay down, just

(58:18):
hold your down. So then he said you sound like
Bob Dylan, and I knew Bob Dylan was a subterranean
homesick blues He's wrapping on that. I'm like okay. And
then Seymour said the most genius ship to me. He said,
do you understand the music from Trinidad? This stuff they're
singing about, the Calypso music. I'm like no, he said,

(58:41):
they're singing about the problems here in the islands. He says,
but just because you don't understand it does not make
it invalid. It just means you don't understand it. In
the same way I might not understand hip hop, but
it doesn't make what you're saying any less valid. It's
just I don't understand it, but I know you're saying something.
So he gave me. He gave me forty thousand dollars

(59:04):
and we made the first album. We went out and
bought a SB twelve, a nine o nine and a
gold chain. What else do you need? Starting kid one
on one, the whole album in secret sound studios mixed
the whole album and one night no automation back in

(59:24):
them days, and Ryan pays uh now is platinum so
uh forty thousand dollars budget, And Seymour was just he
was smart enough to say he didn't know. I never forget.
Here's another story. There's a lyric in this record I
did called um, I Love the Ladies where I go, guys,

(59:44):
grab a girl, girls, grab a guy. If God wants
a god, please take it outside. So Seymour goes Ice
was it's gay. I said, Seymour, I'm not gay bashing,
but if you could say you're gay, can't I say
I'm straight? Oh? Right? And then I said has your
daughter listened to it? And she said yeah. I said,

(01:00:06):
what does she say? She loves it? And then I go,
I said, Seymour, that tension you feel that might be
money and he said, too shat hungry phono, that tension,
that that tension is the money. That's the money right there.
You know us marketing to the hilt yea. And it

(01:00:32):
was like just based on your album, covers alone. We
were going to buy your record. You never ever ever
heard a note or anything like that. Dig it quest
This is what the deal was, right. I was never
gonna get on the radio, right. I had already determined

(01:00:52):
that because we would, we decided we were outlawed music.
So me, Luke uh too short get boys. We were
cursing and at that time I refused to do a
radio edit. That was like selling out to me. Fuck that.
This is how the shit is now. There was a
time where you could get people to buy records because

(01:01:13):
they had stickers on them, like people wanted that. That
forbidden shit, right. So what I did, as far as
marketing does, I hired Glenn Freeman. You know Glenn, Yes,
legendary Glenn Freeman. Yes, he did LLL's cover, He did
Runs cover, He done Baci Boy covers. So I'm like,
I need my cover to be at the same quality

(01:01:34):
as them, so it stands sits right alongside of them.
You gotta have the palm Tree, you got the porst,
you got the girl. You cannot look like New York.
Then I had a meeting with my team because I
was the first rappers signed to Warner Brothers. I was there,
but I was the first rappers signed to a major really,

(01:01:55):
and that was before Cold Chilling came over there and
Uptown came over there. But I took a map and
I said, okay. I circled the Tri state area and
I said, okay, this is New York, this is Philly.
You know, this is Jersey, this is hip hop. Right,
that's the East coast. But dig this, the West Coast

(01:02:18):
starts right here, right on the outside of Philly. I
just wiped the whole map, I said, because anybody that's
not from that Tri State doesn't give a fuck because
they're not from either. So Detroit, we want Detroit, we
want Chicago. That we just called everything from Philly the
West Coast because I was holding it so tight. We're like,

(01:02:39):
we'll just take the rest of this ship. So and
it still stands today. If you're not from New York
and you're from Oklahoma, you don't give a fuck. If
you're you don't care because you're not either. So Luke
Luke had that same science. They were down in Florida
getting a bunch of money, Sir mix a Lot got

(01:02:59):
a bunch of money from Washington. So New York kind
of shot themselves in the foot early in the game
by being so regional. Hip hop is gonna grow. Hip
Hop is a virus. It's gonna grow whether you want
one or not. Ye know. So okay, with There's one,

(01:03:20):
one of your legendary shows is still in its complete
form on YouTube. There's There's a show of yours live
in Vancouver nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine. Yeah, and I
was shocked at how heavy, like you know by this
time your third album Just watch what you say, Freedom

(01:03:41):
of Speeches out and based on your intro loan with
the shut Up You Happy Joint, your show was so
high powered it was almost like a rock show, even
before body Count the body count thing starts. So what
point are you pivoting to that level of energy in

(01:04:05):
your live shows where it's almost like a rock show,
even though it is you and evinly like on stage
it's rocking together, you know what it is? Quest My
always thing was like, if you're coming to see a show,
what are you coming to see? So if I'm coming
to see the Fat Boys, I'm coming to see three
Fat Boys. If I'm coming to see Curtis Blow, it's

(01:04:26):
Curtis Blow, you know, it's a, you know, so what
is iced tea? And my thing was, I'm gonna take
you into the darkness of South central Los Angeles. I'm
gonna give you. I'm gonna set up this energy, this
dark and sinister and stuff. So we had to catch
with the best song early in the game and all

(01:04:47):
that kind of stuff. The metal influence was just darkness
to me. You know. We tried not to do happy records,
even though we did shit, you know, let's get butt
naked and fucking stuff like that. But was always an
intention to keep it still to today. Like Chuck will say,
Ice is one of the most theatrical rappers because I

(01:05:08):
like to bring everything down and just put a spotlight
on me and just let let me take you there
on my these these adventures like a midnight you know.
But that was just a choice because Kane's dancing, right,
I ain't got no motherfucking dances, you know what I'm saying. Uh,
Dougie Fresh, because our first tour we went out on,

(01:05:30):
we went out on a dope jam tour. It was
us Kars One Boogie Down Productions, um um Um Kumo,
d Dougie Fresh, Eric B and rock Him with Somebody O.
Bismarck and we're to open and act. So how do
you I'm from the era quest where you gotta be different,

(01:05:53):
like you can't be like everybody else. So we had
a police car out there and we're throwing money for
making rain. We had cell phones, big old big phones,
and we were giving you that energy. So I just
didn't want to be the guy that comes out on
the stage and it's, you know, looking cool and trying
to wrap. I want to set a tone, and that's

(01:06:14):
what that was all about. It still is when you
go see Ice T show. All Right, this is the
question I always wanted to know and have answered, and
I can't believe it's taking me this long to answer. Okay,
I do not know the history of the story, so
break it down like I'm in kindergarten. What was now?
As we talked about earlier with the Grammy thing, my

(01:06:34):
one concern was, are you in ll gonna be cool
with each other? Because I don't know if you guys
amended it or made up or whatever. Can you please
tell me what the genesis of the beef between you two?
Because you know, when I heard push a man and

(01:06:55):
simple your pusherman rejected LLL. I was like, whoa, what
was that about. It's simple, all right. I started it,
and you know LLL was. LLL was, I'm the baddest,
I'm the greatest, I'm this, I'm that okay. LLL was
actually out before me, so he was like the eminem
or he was the dude you gotta get I'm coming

(01:07:19):
out of LA. I got the whole West Coast on
my back. I don't got the crips and the bloods.
I got the crips and the bloods and Bay Area
everybody on my back. Iced Tea, Hey, it's just what
it is. We gotta gotta take off on this nigga.
I gotta let him know like you might think you
the best fuck that you know, and that's just part
of the culture. That's just what it is, you know.

(01:07:40):
Because I can't come out from LA and say about
at LLL cool J right now, not when I'm trying
to come out like she was trying about being a boss.
I Yo, you gotta set it with this nigga like.
So I set it off right and he came back.
He got at me on the break of dawn, and
I was gonna reply. I had a record call open

(01:08:01):
contract and bamboding them. Stepped in because Elle was trying
to be down with Zulus. There was a legendary meet
up with me and him at a Flavor Flay party
and we squashed it before it got hectic, you know,
but we were just the date. It was one of
those things. He was battling Kumod, he was battling a

(01:08:22):
bunch of motherfucker Yes, yes, but it was me. I
started it and and I did it. I did it
as an act of war like I did it because
it was time for Iced Tea to step up and
say fuck you. You know now. So it was business,
not personal. I don't know, KOJ. Yeah, it's business. But

(01:08:46):
it's like it's kind of like that's what hip hop was,
you know, like you know, you you challenged the nigga
whoever's the boss at the time, and he was the boss.
And I never, at no point was it like, yo,
let me be down with this dude, Like I mean,
I'm from LA I'm from the I'm from Gangland. You
know what I'm saying. We don't get down like that.

(01:09:06):
We we go we take you know, you gotta set
it like that's that's that's what my coast expected me
to do. I'll handled it before it got physical too, though,
right that wasn't a days nobody was getting shot. This
is private and all that. This is just rap shit,
you know. I'm just letting the record show because some
people don't even know that there was a word. I
don't think we didn't threaten to tell L nigga, you

(01:09:29):
can't come to LA. We was on the bullshit, but
it got squashed early. And so what me and him
agreed to do was not necessarily apologize, but just not
talk about it. That it okay. So we never talked
about it, and that was it. And I never held
anything against LLL. But the crazy part of the story

(01:09:51):
quest me and LLL bumped into each other twenty five
years later in Monte Carlo. Of course we were at
we were at a television convention, and I walked up
to l L and extended my hand and said, man,
me and you have never talked. Daddy, daddy die. I
won't let you know. Like you said, wasn't person. It

(01:10:13):
was only business, you know. I had to come at you. Man,
you was the guy to come at and he was
like ice. It was a culture and that was it.
And then he called me up. He said, Ice, I
need you to help me out on Rock the Bells radio.
And since then me and him a podcasts together and
all that. You know, it's like it's Rocks and Shanta
still mad. You know, it's like part of the game

(01:10:34):
back then, in your prominence and in your rise as
you're making these records for people that are watching you,
like is art imitating life? Because I know that once
you rise up in stature, then damn near the whole

(01:10:56):
West Coast is willing to ride for you. Now, I
can't imagine that everyone is wishing you well, wishing you
good luck or whatever. Like again, you say that you're
a reluctant leader, So how do you know who to
weed out? Like who's good for the organization and who
to weed out? Who to avoid, who's going to kill

(01:11:17):
the money, who's going to drop the bag on you? Like,
how are you navigating in terms of knowing which right
team to have on your side in terms of stopping
your bag so to speak, by having the wrong people
associated with your Well, I'm now, God, remember I got
put on by Zulu Nation, right, so I would I

(01:11:38):
admired the Zulu Nation how they had tried call quests
and busting all these cats together, and they were all
going in the same direction. I really admired that whole
Zulu thing. I went to back to LA. Now I
study gangsters, right, so I will reading up on Lucky
Luciano and and Myer Lansky and all these cats. And

(01:11:59):
Lucky Luciao created this thing called the Commission, which kept
the five families from killing each other because they created
sit downs. So I created something in LA called the syndicate,
the rhyme syndicate, which was a group of groups with
a common goal with no boss. So Cypress Hill that's
a crew, h DJ Laddin and dubb C low Profile

(01:12:21):
that's a crew. So all these different groups, everlast, that's
a group. Each one of these cats had a group
of people, and we made an agreement before we would beef,
we would sit down and talk. And that's why you've
never heard of a West Coast beef ever, because anybody
that wasn't syndicate was either NWA or Delicious Vinyl, which

(01:12:44):
was just Tone Low and Young MC is kind of
like syndicate to a little bit. Now, Nwa had a beef,
but that was a family feud, and everyone had to
step back because it was a family left. Family got
but the Syndicate is still alive and KINGT was part

(01:13:04):
of it to the alcoholics because I created something that
said I'm not in charge each one of you gang,
each one of you cells are separate, but together we're powerful.
And that's what I did. I created an organization. People say,
you created your own gang. I did, and inside of

(01:13:25):
it there was no gang banging. So if you were Syndicate,
you no longer as cripple blood. When we're in the studio,
we're all part of the same shit. And I just
taught them all like, look man, we're all going in
the same direction, and ain't no reason to be hating
on somebody unless you're a bitch. So all of us
should help each other. And that's how the producers start

(01:13:46):
to get in waived and all the different stuff like that,
and Dray and them understood, and it was just love.
I got a good sense of you know who's around
me and shit like that. But you gotta keep that
your whole life. Gotta keep remembering. I'm an orphan, so
I'm hypersensitive to everything that's going on around me. I'm hypersensitive,

(01:14:07):
so but as an orphan, did you feel like the obligatory?
All right, I gotta take you all with me. I
gotta take care of all of you. Or early I did,
Early I did when I first got got some bread,
legit bread. I never felt that way with illegal money,

(01:14:31):
you know, with illegal money, nigga I got this is
mine like nigga, like you know. I never felt charitable
or any of that shit, you know, because I'm taking
pen and retentiary chances for this. But when I started
getting legit money, the first time I got it, I
couldn't hold food down. I would actually throw my food
back up because and I went to a gas strologist

(01:14:55):
and he said they thought I had ulcers and they're
like nah. And they sent me to a sp psychiatrists
And this is a guy that helps people hit a
hundred mile an hour fastballs while they're going through one
hundred million dollar divorce. And he said, tell me your problems.
I talked for about a half hour, quiet guy, but
dog said tell me your problems. And I talked to need.

(01:15:18):
He gave me a prescription quest he pushed it to
me and it said no, he said, you just talked
for an hour half hour. You didn't tell me about
any of your problems. You told me about all your
friends problems. He said. There's a guilt that goes along
with success, and now the fact that you're successful, you
feel guilty that your friends aren't doing well. But you've

(01:15:39):
got to learn how to say no, because when you
say yes, you take someone else's problem and turn it
into yours. Damn, I had to learn how to say
no to a lot of people. But no, it's a
great word. It'll test the temperature of any relationship, even
your woman. See, you gotta have like we talked about
the daily game, you gotta have limits because take takers

(01:16:01):
have no limits. Yo, they'll ravage you, you know, So
you got to set a limit. You know. I use
my gut, but I've been fortunate. I've been betrayed, I
got set up by my boys, almost got killed. I've
been through it. Have you got to the point where
you have to protect your energy as well? Now too?
Like where you understood that as well? Yeah, yeah, well

(01:16:25):
it gave me high blood pressure. Well so now if
you try to if me and you were friends and
you try to aggravate me, my brain says, I'm not
gonna let you kill me. You ain't gonna kill me, right,
So I learned how to you know, I can just
connect from people real quick. And it's a known fact.
So the people that are in my circle. Note, Ice

(01:16:47):
is not my na. The nigga's name is Ice. I
don't want no stress. Everybody better keep it calm and
I will excommunicate you, like, don't bring it. My boys
will call me up and be like this to be like, yo,
what's up Ice? No drama? No drama? Right, no drama,
no drama, you know, because but my life is you know,

(01:17:12):
I'm in a different place right now. Man, Like you look,
I got Fisher Quams and I'm not. I spent my
time on the front line. I'm cool. Like niggas is
like I'm outside. I'm like, I'm inside. Man, let me ask.
So you know, there's a period between eighty eight, eighty

(01:17:33):
nine ninety and which, like I will say that you
became the go to pundit or voice to politically speak
on behalf of you know, rap music or like you're
on Donna Hue this week and you're on you know,
Tech Copple this weekend, like you how exhausting was it

(01:17:56):
like having that weight placed on your shoulders because you know,
there was a point where and I don't know if
you remember this, I think back in the eighty six
run dmcum did a show and either an Anaheim or
Long Beach or something, and you know, this is the
first time we're hearing about like violence and rap music
and all that stuff. And suddenly it's like you were

(01:18:17):
the chosen spoke like mouthpiece for all all of these
like talk shows. How exhausting was that. I kind of
wanted to smoke you did, so you wanted to play
the outlaw and just no, I wanted to play the
person that could could could intellectualize it and break it

(01:18:37):
down for these people. You know, like my whole life
has almost been explaining to the squares what the streets
is thinking, and explained to the streets how the squares
are thinking. Like I've been that translator in between, because
even though I am hood, I'm also well read and
relatively intelligent. So I could I spoke in front of

(01:18:58):
Congress and uh, you know, I can break it down,
you know, for for what's going on. So when they
were coming at me about free speech or this than
the other, I was like, yeah, I'm ready to go.
I mean, at the end of the day was me,
Chuck and Chris who who kind of like would have

(01:19:19):
and even still today, man George Floyd comes up, my
timeline blows up like I and I'm like, it's it's
honestly a damn shame that there's no youngsters, you know.
I mean, Killer Mike is out there, but it's it's
a damn shame that there's no real young people that
can really speak for the culture. Damn, you're right, I

(01:19:43):
you know, I mean, Kendrick doesn't speak that much, but
there's nobody out there on the front line speaking about shit,
you know. So they keep going to me, and like
I always tell people, I say, I'm gonna put it
out there. If what we need right now, we need
a twenty year old public enemy, some little bad motherfuckers

(01:20:05):
who would go head up with all the bullshit and
let them know what's up. And a rebirth of a
young Lauren Hill your mouth to you guys, heres man,
you know, because those things are lacking right now in
hip hop, you know, and that those voices are needed.
And you know, the kids ain't gonna listen to me.
I'm their grandfather. You know what I'm saying. So they're

(01:20:28):
not listening. But some little twenty year old cats coming
out popping that ship and letting motherfuckers know you bullshit
and you're worried about this Gucci shit you over here
fucking up da da da da blow. What Public Enemy
did for us, We need another group to do that
for the youth. Exactly. Yeah, I wanted to ask you
about og original gangster recording that out. What happens is

(01:20:50):
hip hop doesn't have a name for what we're doing.
They don't have a name for the music yet, so
they're trying to call it reality rap. They don't really
know what it is. And I permitted I called my
stuff reality rap, but that wasn't true because it's not
everybody's reality. It was my reality. So QB comes out

(01:21:15):
straight out of Compton, Straight out of Compton dropped. I
was already on my third album when they dropped. They
it felt like Godzilla had landed, Like they came out
like WHOA. I was like yo, And the first lyrics
straight out of Compton, crazy motherfucker name ice Que from
the gang called niggas with attitudes. So they referred to

(01:21:36):
their rap group as a gang. The press said gangster rap.
That's where the term gangster rap came from. The press
coined it from Q. Now I've been doing it for
two years, so I said, okay, well, if it's gangster rap,
I'm the original gangster feel me. Now, OG is a
term that gangs have been using in LA decades. It

(01:22:01):
just means first generation of the set. So if Questlove
is OG roots, he's there might have been people to
change members, but he's OG. He's one of the first members.
So here comes this word original gangster. And I do
an album that had twenty four cuts on it and
they had just stopped making vinyl and it, you know,

(01:22:23):
it was supposed to have been a double album. And
I always like to do first. I was always into
doing first. I'm like, I always like, you can always
argue who is better, but you can't argue who is first,
you know, So I want to be first, And Chuck says.
Chuck says, iced Tea is the only person he knows
that does things that totally jeopardize his entire existence. To

(01:22:46):
stay away, you know, just just fuck it. Everything's going good.
Fuck it, Let's just try it a different way. So
that's it. The og album and it was a big,
mega long album with a lot of different lenses and
a lot of different energies. All Right, y'all, that's it
for Part one. Ice Teve gave Team and Supreme so
much game on this episode that we had to make

(01:23:07):
it a two parts. So make sure y'all check out
Iced Teeth Daily Game podcast with weekday Words of Wisdom
and give them a listen. You know, stay tuned for
QLs Part two with one and only legendary Iced Tea
next week, where we talked about his TV and his
film work. All Right, Bate, What's Love? Supreme is a

(01:23:36):
production I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.