Questlove Supreme: 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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Congratulations people, Yes, indeed, Award Supreme.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
We got hardware.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yes, we did the damn thing.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
We gotta tell him what award do we win?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, he tells me what we won here.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Wet The award is I Heeart Music Podcast of the Year.

Speaker 5 (00:30):
Shout out to Norri, You're great, but not as great.

Speaker 6 (00:32):
Thought first, we ain't hardly the first beat between podcasts.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, that's love.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Love to everybody in the category. It's all love.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
It goes without saying that our Guest Today is an
absolute legend, with a Grammy to boot, multiple Golden Platinum
albums to his credit. He actually pinned one of hip
hop's first memoirs, The Ice Opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
He pinned classics like you.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Know, Six in the Morning, Colors, New Jack, Hustler Og,
Original Gangster. He's collaborated with everyone from Quincy Jones to
Tupac to Cube to Quell, Keith the Slayer, and you know,
I will basically say that our Guest Today is one
of the first stars of our culture to really parlay

(01:28):
and 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.
Definitely worth a following. I mean you should be following

(01:51):
if you're not. But basically, what can I say? We
have the legendary Ice Tea on Quest Love Supreme today, Sir, Wow, Wow.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's crazy. Thank you man, thank you think come on.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Dog, you know you legend done y'.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Also, it doesn't age you like drank for the family
youth did Ice team Man.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
I 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 they flowers till it's a rap,
you know what I'm saying. So I'm still here. But
it's funny though, Quest I'm right now. I'm working on
a project that's a compilation of all my story rhymes.

(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
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 I'm saying.

(02:55):
Now you become legendary. You got to 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 called
the record the Legend Device Team. But thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I was going to say, you know, I didn't know
whether or not to. I'm certain that this ain't the
first time that you've heard, especially based on your name,
that cats 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 on Ryan Page, but I
think on Power, I remember you close inside too with

(03:32):
kind of a storytell I think it's Soul on ice
the closing song on Power, 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

(03:56):
on that level?

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Now, the 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 Crimshaw,
So you had the gang bangers and then you had
the players. The players were the cast, the ward tailor maids,
and they would shake, always shooting dice. And you know,
I ended up migrating from the gangsters to them, and

(04:21):
that's when you see me. And I had the perm
and the Fela 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

(04:43):
to the girls, and they thought I was the fly
shit 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? Yes?

Speaker 5 (04:56):
Please? Yes please.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I needed three way winch that'll play Jasper and extension,
take them around the horn. No Gene or John. This
whole couldn't con because that trick was never born. She
would 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,

(05:20):
she'll still knots out of knees and fidos fleas. This
bitch is still out many a town. Now. I heard
hoes cry about the wind being high and the law
being on. They tail about snowing, sleep being ass whole deep,
and the tricks can go to hell and some greasy
spoon or juke saloon, you'll find them killing their time,
crying hard luck tears and sucking up beers. And the

(05:41):
pimps ain't getting the dime, turning half dollar tricks just
to get a fixed because their pussy is doing the pimping.
That is ruining the name of one hell of a
game because they pimps is doing the simping.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
I see you on the next question of supreme leaders. Joke.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
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?

Speaker 4 (06:10):
And you don't even know what the fuck you're saying
half of it.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
This sounds fly right. That thing you said is how
can I be down with this ass motherfucker? So so
ice Berg ice tea is short for Iceberg tea. Quest
you're right, and my boys call me Berg, my boys
call me Burg. So now the song you heard was

(06:36):
my homage to Hustlers Convention. Remember that album they had
out called yeah, like was it Lightning Rod? And yeah? Yeah?
So I was in that vein. But really, honestly, truthfully
quests all my music is Iceberg slim like, my music
is more like literature that it was not meant to

(06:58):
dance to. It's like, you know, straight up nigga or
some of y'all niggas's bitches too, or I'm the Pusher
high Rollers. It's definitions of certain things. So that was
my way of writing books, was writing music, And I
honestly used music that you couldn't dance to intentionally so
that you'd have to to make you listen.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
I see, I see, you're right on the plank.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
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.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yes, you know, where in Jersey did you live?

Speaker 3 (07:38):
I was born in Newark, New Jersey. I lost my
mom when I was in the third grade, and I
moved to Summit, New Jersey, which a 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, shipped to Los Angeles to live

(08:00):
with his sister. So even though I was 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 there.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Just for perspective, I'm just curious, where are your people's from, Like,
where was your mama's peoples from?

Speaker 5 (08:19):
Where was your daddy's people from.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
My mother was a Creole from New Orleans, and she
was so light skinned. Back in the fifties, they said
she could pass. You know, you know that term. I mean, yes,
the pass is white. And my father was quest color.
So they were considered an interracial marriage to a lot
of people. So that's where I was. I learned earlier

(08:42):
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 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,

(09:02):
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 Creole is black and French.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
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?

Speaker 3 (09:19):
How old are you in his seventh grade.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Twelve twelve.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
I didn't like it first because you know, when you
move up through a kid, he doesn't have any friends.
So I got shipped when my father died. Both of
them died in natural causes, you know, but my father
passed away. I was in school and they ship. They
took me home and then that summer they just sent
me to l A like for the summer. Then all

(09:47):
my clothes came and I was moved out there with
his sister. I didn't I didn't like it because I
you know, and that's how I'm living. I said I
didn't like la. I didn't have no friends to I've
got and then got bussed to a school blacks and whites.
I guess this shit was cool, you know, but it
was weird, man, because my aunt didn't really want me.

(10:10):
She had two kids that had already graduated out of
high school and they were ready to go on with
their life, and in comes this kid now in the
junior 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, aunts, uncles, cousins.

(10:31):
I've been ice. Tea's been on his own ever since. Dola.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Wow, seriously, yeah, shit man.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
Not even a mentor, like who was your first male
in your life then?

Speaker 5 (10:43):
In that way?

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Just friends, you know, friends. I have one friend that
I looked up to. He died early, and uh, 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 see, you're not
in a gang, you're from a gang, you know, So

(11:06):
you have to be in a neighborhood. That neighborhood is
a gang. So if you're from the sixties, you're in
the Rolling sixties, 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 crips, Hoover Cripts, all kinds of crypt gangs.
So I knew all the shot callers. But I you know, honestly,

(11:31):
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. 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, 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,

(11:53):
like I always say, if somebody shot me, my last
words wouldn't be peace to beget those motherfuckers, you know,
So that's embedded in me, you know. But no, I
don't have family, just friends. And I've found out that
having sometimes that type of family is better because you
can choose it.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
I know, oftentimes when people are thrust it into situations in.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Which they lose.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I had like one or two conversations with James Brown,
and you know, his whole thing was like, you know,
my 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

(12:46):
parents leave you then even through death or through you know, circumstances,
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 no.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
I kind of like became I guess what you would say, violent,
But it's not like I was beating on people, but
I put on a violent persona because now here you go,
you got a light skin kid in La Rap surrounded
with the gangs. I got hazel eyes. My fucking name
is Tracy. I don't have any relatives, right, so you're

(13:29):
gonna be predator or prey. Fortunately I'm six feet you know,
I always was always around two hundred pounds. 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
an as Ice. I'm a nice guy. But I think

(13:50):
fifty Cents said it best. It ain't how my mama
raised me. It's how the hood made me. So I
just had to learn. Like one of my 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 going to you know, if you
tell me da da da da da or else, I'm

(14:10):
not backing up because where am I going to back
up to? Where can I go? You know what I'm saying.
So I became you know, I had a lot of
fades and a lot of fights, and but I had
nowhere to go. Request It was just, you know, I
had no options and still don't was that when you
because at one point you joined the army or at

(14:31):
one point didn't you. I joined the army because it's
seventeen years old. I hadn't had a lot of sex
like I was. I wasn't getting no sex. Tenthly, I
don't believe it. No, tenth I didn't get sex till
twelfth grade.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
The game wasn't right. It was the presentation was good,
but you ain't handle game.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
Is that what it was?

Speaker 7 (14:52):
Nah?

Speaker 3 (14:52):
The girls was dating forty year old niggas like I was.
I'm in high school. I'm talking to girls all day.
Didn't when they go out and see them at the
end of the night. They getting picked up in low
riders niggas. Yeah, 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

(15:15):
enough to offer them to entertainment at school, but not
outside of school, not out of school. Guys know this drill.
You know the drill, the girl, the cheerleader flirt.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
In high school all yeah, all the bad joints were
dating way older dudes.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Was looking at the wrong girls.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
That's all in high school like that, Like that's what
it was. They wasn't looking at us now.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
So when I finally made it to senior, I got it.
I had a girl from the tenth grade. I had
a little leverage 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 bailed.
She said, you'll never make it. I took one hundred
dollars and got an apartment. I had another one hundred
dollars I spent on food. I had fifty dollars. That

(15:59):
was free money, right, And I found apartment and the
guy was like, 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 on my own pad. When I'm in the twelfth

(16:20):
grade and you talking about popular shit, I was killed.
But I didn't know. I didn't know they could get pregnant.
That easy. You know what I'm saying. I ain't busted
enough nuts to know the drill.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
And there you have it.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
That's our clip. And I'm and I'm and i'm uh,
you know, I'm old. I was graduating in nineteen seventy six.
It wasn't like condoms was around you. Damn Eve needed
to go to the pharmacy to get a condom, like
you thing like you had to get a prescription to
get a condom back then. You know. So I'm busting
nuts and she said she pops up pregnant, and uh,

(16:55):
being an orphan, I wanted the baby, right, I don't
got nobody. And so I went in the military based
on that, Like, I'm like, I gotta get some responsibility,
and I joined the army. I did four years at
the twenty fifth Infantry Division.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
What was that like?

Speaker 2 (17:16):
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.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Just back up off me, just back up off me
type shit.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Okay, you know how that work?

Speaker 5 (17:32):
That don't work well in the army.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yes it does, Yes, it does. See, the 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 see what I'm saying.
I made the decision to do it, so I was
ready to go. Like if you see Gi Jane, they're
like ring the bell, ring the bell. Quit quit the

(17:55):
armies like that, like if you can't hang go, But
now you're much the other alpha and you like, I
ain't no punk, I'm ana shuts. 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.

(18:15):
But now they take the gang the street shit out
of you. I remember the first time I went in
the gas chamber. They put you in a gas chamber
and say what yeah, well, they put you in this
thing called the gas chamber and let.

Speaker 5 (18:27):
You you've seen Private Benjamin, you know.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
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 you to go through things
so that when it happens, it's not the first time
it happened. 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

(18:50):
I did is I squinted it 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 like that. I was able to
pull the mask off and it didn't look like it
fuck with me. And the drill start was like, see
that's that same shit they throw itmorrow on the block.
He's used to that ship off the block. They were able.

(19:13):
They would tease the street cats like, you know, y'all,
motherfucker's not a break of M six. So you got.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
Respect off the jump. Then in a way, well.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
If you tough in there, they 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 whoop
my ass? Right? And I hated this little motherfucker, and
I knew I could knock him out, so I put
my hand up in his other brother uh named go
Van and another white dude named McGary stuck their hands up,

(19:46):
and I thought we was gonna get the fight. And
then he brought us up in front of the squad
a 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 I want to see
who thought they had heart? Yeah, And that was the
biggest mistake in my life. Ever since then, I never

(20:07):
wanted to be in charge of shit. I'm your guy
to ride shotgun. I understand the position shotgun is much better.
You know, fuck to being the boss, the boss fucked that.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
It's brave to say that shit because I ain't mad
at you.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
But it's brave to say it.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
But that you not that you don't want to be
the boss, and you ain't mad at not being the boss.

Speaker 5 (20:31):
Like everybody, some people will feel like, well, what you mean?
I see like you and g.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
You should be the boss at the top of everything
that you know producing.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
But I see what you're saying, and.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
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.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
There, so, so 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.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
Like, I don't want that. That's not my life. And
that's what that made me think of.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Listen, if Quest is the boss and I'm as lieutenant,
I might need more dangerous than him, you feel me,
and I might, and I might be I might have
much more power. When you went to school, you more
afraid of the principal or the vice.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Principal, right vice pressman. She was crazy.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
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.
When I'm on tour, I gotta run all them niggas.
I got all this ship I gotta handle. I got
a budgets. Quest knows I'm on budgets and tour buses
and all that stuff. I would much rather not do
that and just go on tour and get the bag.

(21:52):
I don't want to do it. So at some point
you realize. But they say the head that wears the
crown sleeps the heaviest, and it's not necessarily for everybody.
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.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Oh yeah, I talk about it.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
When I landed in New York, my tooth fell out
and I went straight to surgery. That's the that's the
level of stress that I was under.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Stress.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Tooth stress, man talk for real, like new teeth for real.
When I stress out, body parts just go awry.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
So now now let's let's since we're doing this now, Quest,
even though you got all the praise, was it.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Worth we ever talked about this fully? Yet we did too?
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
I'm still trying to decide. I'm still trying to decide
if that was a victory or not.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
I'll say I'll say this much.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
It was a victory for me. Thank you? I was it?

Speaker 4 (23:07):
No?

Speaker 5 (23:07):
For real?

Speaker 2 (23:07):
You like one of five acts that literally gave me
zero headaches? Nothing, No, no, no, It's gonna be worth it,
I guess I can. I can say that something even
bigger is gonna happen in August and it's not just
like a special one. Tell yes, we we already said

(23:29):
that something's going to happen, but something on top of
that is happening. And now that that's been greenlit, I
feel that is It's It was way worth losing the
tooth over and having to lay on an operating table
for two hours.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
Oh my god, I mean, is worth it?

Speaker 3 (23:48):
You did? You pulled that shit together like two weeks.
That's the crazy part.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Like now the thing was and you know, they kind
of hit me in like after Thanksgiving, like this is
what we have planned.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Are you interested? And I was like all right, cool.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
And then I let like three weeks go by Christmas
or whatever, and I guess after Christmas, I hit them
up like okay, so what's the plan. And they were
looking at me 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,

(24:24):
I gave my wishless and then they looked at me
back like okay, do you know these people?

Speaker 1 (24:29):
And I was like wait, I got to call them too,
So that's.

Speaker 5 (24:34):
Worse than question of supreme See that ain't right?

Speaker 2 (24:36):
No, I mean you know so pretty like with the
exception of maybe one of the acts that abandoned.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Us and Glorilla.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Maybe, yeah, Like I pretty much just called everyone from
my telephone and I see, yeah, I pretty much went.
I scrolled down my entire phone book and I I'll
say that ninety five percent of everyone that you saw
was me hitting them up, like, yo, you mind doing this?

Speaker 1 (25:07):
I mean the only two people.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
That couldn't do it was Cube and Cuba shooting something
and Stup was coaching, uh, one of the teams for
the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
So so I see, was the long was it? You
were a loane like representation.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Me and hello me and too short?

Speaker 5 (25:22):
You're too short? Excuse me? So north and South.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
I decided it was wiser because people off the nest,
like why'd you as big Daddy came, why do you
ask case 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 one representative of each right,

(25:48):
each territory.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
So wait, okay, so a mere so I see you
get the call. A mere calls tell us from please,
what's you on your mind?

Speaker 5 (25:55):
What happens?

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Why are you saying, hey, I can't do it?

Speaker 4 (25:59):
Why not?

Speaker 5 (26:00):
Why you can't do it?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Because I'm in law and order and they shoot Mondays
and 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 he just said,

(26:21):
he said, ice you don't want to miss this. This
is going to be legendary. This is gonna be epic.
And then in 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 I said I knew he
had ice Cube on speed doll. I'm like, you know what,

(26:44):
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 as people see in live performance. And I said,
I called Law and 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. It's off for you. So it just was

(27:06):
a natural it was. And then then you know, I
got the track. And when I got there for the 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 of me and
ll cool Ja. Who know, people haven't seen a picture
of me and him ever.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
I gotta admit that was my one slight worry. I
was like, wait a minute, because the thing was, by
the time 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

(27:48):
to be there? And the thing was, is like I
wanted to undersell it. One I'm very much known for.
Even my hyperbolic statements are over exaggerated.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
So I kind of wanted to.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Downplay this a little bit because for a lot of
the younger generation, like i'll call Tyler the Creator up
and his first reactions like, 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 figure

(28:26):
if I just undersell it, it'll be safe.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
And what's funny is.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
For the people that were just like nah, I'm good,
like that sounds whack. All them like the next week
were like, yo, man, I wish you would have told
me the magnitude that this thing.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Was going to be. And I was like, well, I
don't know, yeah, like how right right?

Speaker 2 (28:47):
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 Motown twenty five.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Oh I don't need that.

Speaker 3 (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 wu tang mefod, when he said too short,
I was like, yo, I remember when Prodigy was alive.
You know, Prodigy is my favorite rapper for mob dB.

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

(29:41):
harder than they 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
too short yelling bitch, 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 fucks in it. So right

(30:04):
before the show I got a little text from whoever
the piece is Ice, this 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 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, you know.

(30:27):
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, dud. If you miss your queue,

(30:49):
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 no, I can't and ic concert. I could suck up.
I could be we'll bring that bracket, you know, I
could right, this is gonna this is a fucking train

(31:10):
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.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
So I had to have a live slate just you know,
because the thing was that the graphics 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 going to do it like a normal thing,
like okay, we're banned, we'll just you know, do it

(31:40):
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 and whatnot.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
So how did you guys, did you know who was
going to pull out at the last minute?

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yo?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
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 worried that
one of our acts definitely had left the building and
went back to his crib in Calabasas. Then it took

(32:16):
us thirty seven minutes. Because the thing is the show's
happening live, so 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. You got to tell the person

(32:36):
that's doing explosions, the person that's doing the lights, the
person that's doing the choreography. You now got explained 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, when the second dropout happened, it

(33:02):
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 left at the twelve minute mark, when

(33:26):
our headliner had totally dropped out, I yo, man, I
just I thought it was a rap. 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 Uzzivert got my message to just bum
rust the stage when he heard his song. I literally

(33:50):
didn't knowase Like I said a text, 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.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
So I'm fucked.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
And it wasn't until I got off stage, because even
when all of y'all were on stage at the end,
it took the roots to explain to me in the
dressing room that little UZI vert came out.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Came out. I didn't know that until I was changing
my clothes backstage.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
So that's why I can't take credit like, oh, it
was a victory because even when off stage, I was like,
I explained this point. You remember how when Prince stormed
off stage on Purple Rain because he thought nobody was filled, right,
that was me. I was like, oh, man, I destroyed
shit fuck And everyone's like, what are you talking about.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
We're turning on Twitter right now.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
What I'm saying, 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,
bailing out at the last minute of a live show man,
and uh, you.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Know what I love though I don't think anybody missed him.

Speaker 5 (34:57):
No, we did not, We did not.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
It's still came off.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
It came off.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
And let me ask you 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 and we won't be
invited back.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah, there won't be a fifty first exactly.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
And you said, but we were there for hip hop,
like did you feel that too icy?

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Like something mean, I've been going to the Grammys. I
want to Grammy for rap back in the day with
Quincy Jones back on the block to block me, Mail
CuMo D and Kane, and we kind of felt Quincy
snuck us in the back door the Grammys. You know
what I'm saying. It's like they about a wrap award,
but it's really Quincy Jones. So we were like, Okay,

(35:38):
I got it. I broke it in a video when
I was on my iced T bullshit, and then I
said I missed it and I got another one replace it.
So I do have one, but one of my videos
like the.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Girl, they replaced them because they're telling me, nope, yeah,
this iss crazy glued.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
There's a charge. You can get one. It's like a
gold record. If they know that you're you got it,
you can get it in place. But I also went
to China and got some some maid 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

(36:17):
to 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
Grammar the pre so we performed in that. I got
nominated for Black Hoodie and we performed. After that, they

(36:39):
take us backstage 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 Masterdon and they won.
And the dude took the camera and wrapped that shit
up and dipped and left it. And then when we
got to our dressing room it was locked. It was
like they left for dead. I was like, damn. So

(37:02):
then the next year when we got we won for
Best Metal Performance. I was sitting right here because we
did it over the internet, right, so I might beat on.
I probably will be the only person ever to get
a rap and a medal Grammy. That's what's up categories.
But you know this is awards. Somebody explained your award.

(37:25):
This is awards, Like, this is how motherfuckers are about awards.
Fuck the awards, 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. What So that's how people are

(37:46):
nobody really Yeah, but once you get nominated, you want
to win that ship. You're like, fuck this every time.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Okay. So since you're in LA before the ding.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Of of what we know is hip hop, Like, how
did that culture reach you out there?

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Like what it.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Reached me in the army?

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Because I'm in the army and it's cats from where
are you? 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 like tape hip hop before they made records. So

(38:38):
they're playing 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. And then they were trying to break dance

(38:59):
and stuff at 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 No

(39:19):
and Uncle Bobby, Jimmy and the critters. I used to
call it 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 breakbeats. Evie and Henng from
New York City spend masters with my DJs, and we

(39:41):
used to take records before they had instrumental records and
actually catch the brakes, and I taught myself how to rap.
I came home from the military with the intention to
be a DJ because Uncle Jams and then were making
a lot of money throwing parties for between you know,
sixteen under twenty one Big Bi they doing an LA
Sports Arena. The whole Uncle Jim's concept was they were

(40:04):
in LA, well anywhere you can't get in the club
till you're 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 uh, they were
able to do the La Sports Arena multiple times with
no acts, no acts, So you're talking about five thousand

(40:27):
kids dancing and in the entire stadium on the floor
of the stadium.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Okay, on the floor. Okay.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
I'll never forget. Egypt had a drum machine at eight
oh eight, and I'll never ever forget it, you know,
because we hadn't seen drum machines. Right at a moment
where they're like they put the drum machine on and
they mixed it in and they go Uncle Jim's Army
was 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

(40:57):
playing any records, and the crowd kept dancing, and it
was a moment like yo, like yo, this is live
ship up here saying they were changing the beat. And
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

(41:18):
ended up in this club called the Radio. The Radio was, well,
see that's why you got me here. I'm gonna give
you the drill. Thank you. The club was called the Radio.
It became 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

(41:38):
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 they
had Malcolm McLaren there. People it was like trendy white kids.
Adam Ant would be up in the Motherfucker And it
was in MacArthur Park And I actually put Madonna on

(42:02):
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
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 as helicopter just land in
the parking lot. You better be good, nigga, and then

(42:22):
and here it goes and pown and you would just
be on stage getting it off. So they bring this
girl in, they go, her name's Madonna, and I took
her downstairs and she had this record called Physical Attraction.
I'm like, I never heard of you, you know, but
you got a record. And I let her perform and
she performing during the show, she was touching me like
use me as a prop. And I had a black girlfriend.

(42:43):
Oh that did not go well that night.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
And this before y'all were label mates.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yes, yes, Madonna had just came out. She was with
Jellybean Benitas back in the day. Yes, and uh, you know,
so that's the history. So that's where 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. You guys will be the dancers. And Glove

(43:11):
was the DJ. You know the history 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. They go, you got a DJ name,
he goes Nah, and the nigga had on gloves. You
could be clubs and they'll caught on gloves and now
he was the house DJ at the Radio, but when

(43:34):
it came out on the movie, it became the Radio Tron.
But the real name of the club was the Radio.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
All right, So can you talk about the coldest rap?
One of our best episodes ever was with Jimmy Jam
and he explained how for the two people that have
not heard the six hour Jimmy Jam episode, you know
Jam basically the anthology, Yeah, theology of tell me jim

(44:04):
you know. He explained that, you know, after they left
Prince that they were basically worked for hiring 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.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
So I used to get my hair done at this
spot called Good Fred right just when I had to
perm my shit was more wavy than the ships in
the Navy. You know what I'm saying. I had to
out match 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 got they got
to get together to get what you dig it so
my hair to get together. And I would say these
rhymes right my walking around rhymes like you know, I'm

(44:43):
the pimp to play at the Woman Layer, the Holy Doula,
the whole house ruler. I just pimp poors and slam
Cadillac doors. So I'm saying this. And this guy named
Willie Strong, who owned VIP Records, the very famous record
store that Snoop is standing on and in his first
U you know, a Boogog video, they came to me
and they said, you want to make a record, and

(45:06):
it was just like a run, you know. They threw
me inside the Cadillac and the chauffeur drove off and
he never came back. So they it took me from
the 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,

(45:29):
rap rappers that haven't made records have a million rhymes.
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. I had a bunch of rhymes, right,

(45:50):
So I went in there and they were like, say
a rhyme, So I had to write a hook. I
knew I needed a hook, so I wrote, you know,
I'm a player, That's all I know. In the summer day,
I play in the snow meaning cocaine from the wound
to the tomb. I run my game because I'm cold
as ice, and I show no shame. So that's all
I That's all I needed. And once I did that,
I just went in there. You know, the ladies say

(46:11):
that I'm heaven sent because I got more money than
the US meant. I ride ragtop rolls, rocks on my hand, Mysarati's, Mercedes,
Benz ocean Liners, private jets, bel Air Bookies placed my bets.
I own islands off the coast of France, and I
wear design of 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

(46:31):
to it and gave her a kisses. She said, Yo, Daddy,
don't rock me like this, all right, So this is
the code. So I say this shit 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.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
So how was that parlay into when we first met
you nationally with Breaking?

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Well, that was my first experience with records. 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 me saying
they they heard I had a record, and they booked
me to come and and and I was at the

(47:19):
radio tron when the movie Breaking came in. When the
movie Breaking came in, they said, we said, can we
make a song for the album? Me and Glove made Reckless,
which Eminem says the first rap record he ever heard.
And that was like, you know, reckless when platinum?

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Right.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
So I had got a bag, but I hadn't. I
didn't have a record deal or anything. And then I
was connected to this other DJ in La called Unknown
and he we made.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
It was he Unknown from Cotton was wanted down with them?

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Yeah? Yeah, he had a record a label called Techno
Hop and Compass. Most Wanted was on there and Uh.
He was like, come on, Ice to 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 and a Wax with
six in the Morning on the B side. And as
Chuck D said, when that, yeah, my identity was was connected.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
I mean, but at the time, were you conscious of like, Okay,
I've been party rocking, now how can I pivot to
reality rhymes?

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Like what was your mind? Stated with that?

Speaker 3 (48:30):
I was trying to be a rapper. I was rapping
like meling them. You know, I'm drinking, 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 in LA to look at.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
And yeah, but six in the Wrner was pretty serious
at the time. So but that came.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
From Schoolly D. Thank you. You know what, I'm always
telling you the truth because my boys told me, they said,
I he's never lie because motherfuckers ain't going don't believe
the truth, you understand, So this give them the truth. No,
I'm saying these rhymes to my boys. I'm saying that
gangster shit, you know, strolling through the city middle of

(49:13):
the night, niggas on my left, niggas on my right,
yelling cut cook cup 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
my friends. And then I'm then I'm saying party rhymes

(49:34):
for hip hop. You feel me. I know the Iceberg
slim type shit, but I don't know what translates. So
then I hear PSK and it blew my mind. I
was in Santa Monica and I heard first the track
came on. The track sounded I never done Angel does,
but the track sounded like Angel does a bunch of

(49:54):
ye I'm like, And then Schooley came on. PSK.

Speaker 7 (49:58):
We making that green people what we say now? At
that time, everyone was yelling on records, who is a
fly nigga? You know, one by one, I'm knocking out he's.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
For the way my DJs cut, you know, put my
pistol up against his heads and sucking ass. I was like,
then I researched it. PSK's Park Side Killers. He's repping
a set. It's okay, feel me. That was the green light, Like, oh,

(50:32):
they want to hear this kind of ship I got
all day, you feel me?

Speaker 5 (50:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (50:38):
So we go in and we do six in the
morning and six in the morning. I took the Remember
I remember the Beasi Boys had a record called holding
Out hit It, yeah, hold it down where the record
kind of stopped and then took off again. So I
wanted that for six in the morning. So that's where

(50:58):
like the record, then boom it starts again. 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 schooly d PSK. We're making that green

(51:20):
six in the morning, police Fuel Fresh indeed 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.
We like you to do a show up here. I'm like, sure,

(51:42):
you know, boom bam. Five days later they call 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 sold out. Well I'm not on LA radio.
But they start playing me on km EL there in
the Bay and was on and then later on you
want to track the movement? Cube did the record? Boys

(52:05):
in the hood are always hard, right, which he's said
with Six in the Morning Part two. But it's all schooly,
these cadence. It's all schooly, these cadences. So a lot
of times rappers are jack cadences and you won't even
know the credit. Well, thank you. You know, players love
to give credit. You know what I'm saying. It's like,

(52:27):
you know, you wouldn't know if I didn't tell you.
Like Colorsrestill get this Colors comes from Mythological by King's Son. Colors.
Listen to King Son when I get ill, it's a
reason because it's duck season, Hunter of the Front, right,
that was That's how myth the mythological mythological rappers. You

(52:49):
got a lot to learn that record.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
I've not heard that record, Mythological Mythological by King you
know King Son, Yes, of course I'm King son.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Yes, well, that's how it comes on. When I get ill,
it's a reason because it's duck season, Hunter of the Fronter.
I am a nightmare walk walking talking right, if I'm
a jungle just a gangst to stalking, so you know,
you can. I think all of us are influenced by
other people. And if it's done well, because hip hop

(53:21):
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 to give a shout out to the
people that inspired those particular songs.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
You know, I've been friends with Seymour about eleven twelve
years now because I'm also in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame committee.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Seymore signs of genius man.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
He literally says, you know, and he's had like health
is used 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 rock own 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,

(54:09):
but Seymour, like you're always We get two votes each
as a committee member on who gets nominated. When I
was first there in two thousand and seven to now, like,
trust me to tell you my Seymour Seigins story. Yeah,
tell me Seymour signs. Seymour Stein, the president of Siah Records.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Who signed it, Talking Heads, Madonna Ministry, Uh, you know
Ramones yep. So I have Six in the Morning out
and it was getting energy off from the in the
East coast. Scott lod Rock was playing it and Africa
Islam was somebody who I met at the radio who

(54:49):
was very intrigued with me because the New York rappers
would come out to LA. I already had to push
the jewelry, the money in the girls, and at that
time nobody had made any money on rap. Niggas hadn't
bought cars yet, you know, so they like, why do
you want to rap?

Speaker 1 (55:05):
You know?

Speaker 3 (55:06):
But what I was doing, the warranty was about to
be up, all right, So I want to rap. I
like rapping, and my friends were going to prison, penitentiary,
blah blah, getting shot, this, that and the other because
we was active active. So Islam liked me, like he
just liked me. And so he's like, they won't play
your record in New York unless you come to New

(55:27):
York because what you're talking, they need to see you're authentic.
So I came out to one hundred and fifty six
and ten in South Bronx, and I was out there,
so I met Scotland rock and but by it being
African Islam, I met New York from the top down.
It was like, what was.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
Your look at the time.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
I'm sorry, I'm trying to picture this because like you said,
I like you had to hair.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
You had to so you went to the Bronx.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Look, I have fela on and jewelry and a.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
Prim Okay, okay, make sure them.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Niggas just thought I looked like a pimp. But I
was rapping 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 chrism and the gift the gap that
all the New York niggas liked me. I was different,
but they liked me. They knew I wasn't no bitch,

(56:18):
so they liked me. So is is by being a boss,
I meet Red Alert, Chuck, Chill Out, Scottland Rock, 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 quest do not know? Raoper was the one
of the Apollo cats that like Rand Apollo from back

(56:41):
to his son. Okay, So Ralph Cooper Junior was 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 Melly Mel and
Caz like these idols of mine and uh he took
a compilation and to see Seymour Stein okay with Melly Mel, Grandmaster,

(57:05):
Kaz Donald d from the Bee Boys that had the
song stick Up Kids and Girls, myself and a kid
named Bronx Style Bob. Oh wow, this was the compilation.
Kaz was still connected to. Kaz had a thing with
Tough City a deal, Mel had something with sugar Hill,

(57:28):
Donald had something with entertainment. I was free and Bob
had never made a record, Okay, So Seymour just said
I'll take ice tea. And he wasn't hip hop enough
to know that you couldn't rap if few from the
West Coast. He was his ignorance was like, fuck it,
I'll take ice tea. I'll never forget me. And Islam

(57:49):
went up to Sire Records to meet with him, and
Seymour was dancing around in his socks and looking me
in the eyes and said, you have such beautiful eyes.
And I was like, oh shit, this is that part
where they want me using day shit. And Islam was like,

(58:15):
stay down, he's gonna sign the check. Stay down, just
hold you down. So then he said, you sound like
Bob Dylan, and I knew Bob Dylan was a subterranean
homesick blues He's rapping on that. I'm like okay. And
then Seymour said the most genius shit to me. He said,
do you understand the music from Trinidad? This stuff they're

(58:37):
singing about, the Calypso music. I'm like no, he said,
there sing 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. And
the same way I might underderstand hip hop, but it
doesn't make what you're saying any less valid. He says.

(58:58):
I don't understand it, but I know you're saying something.
So he gave me. He gave me forty thousand dollars
and we made the first album. We went out and
bought an SB twelve, a nine O nine and a
gold chain. What else do you need?

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Starting hit at one on.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
One, the whole album in secret sound studios, mixed the
whole album in one night, no automation back in them days.
And Ryan pays now is platinum, so uh, forty thousand
dollars budget, and Seymour was just he was smart enough

(59:37):
to say he didn't know. I'll never forget. Here's another story.
There's a lyric in this record I did called I
Love the Ladies where I go, guys grab a girl, girls,
grab a guy. If God wants a god, please take
it outside. So Seymour goes aes, what it? This is?

Speaker 5 (59:53):
Gay man?

Speaker 3 (59:54):
I said, Seymour, I'm not gay bashing, but if you
could say you're gay, can I say I'm straight?

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Right? And then I said has your daughter listened to it?
And she said yeah. I said, 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,
Touchet hung the phone. That that that tension is the money.

(01:00:25):
That's the money right there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
You know, used marketing to the hilt, and it was like,
just based on your album covers alone, we were going
to buy your record. You have never ever ever heard
a note or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Take it quest this is what the deal was, right.
I was never going to get on the radio, right.
I had already determined that because we would. We decided
we were outlaw music. So me Luke too short, ghetto boys.
We were cursing, and at that time I refused to
do a radio edit. That was like selling out to me.

(01:01:05):
Fuck that. This is how the shit is now. There
was a time where you could get people to buy
records because they had stickers on them, like people wanted
that forbidden shit, right. So what I did as far
as marketing does, I hired Glenn Freedman.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
You know Glenn, Yes, legendary Glen Freeman.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Yes, he did LL's cover, he did Runs cover, He
done bec Boy covers. So I'm like, I need my
cover to be at the same quality as them, so
it sits right alongside of them. You gotta have the
palm tree. You got the Porsche you got the girl,
you cannot look like New York. Then I had a

(01:01:47):
meeting with my team because I was the first rapper
signed to Warner Brothers, I was there before. I was
the first rapper signed to a major really, and that
was before Cole Chilling came over there and uptown over there.
But I took a map and I said, okay. I
circled the Tri state area and I said, okay, this

(01:02:09):
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 starts right here, right on
the outside of Philly. I just wiped the whole map, right,
I said, because anybody that's not from that try state
doesn't give a fuck because they're not from either. So Detroit,

(01:02:29):
we want Detroit, we want Chicago West what that? We
just called everything from Philly the West Coast because the
was holding it so tight. We're like, we just take
the rest of this shit. 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

(01:02:50):
because you're not either. So Luke had that same science.
They were down in Florida getting a bunch of money,
Sir mix a lot got a bunch of money from Washington.
So New York kind of shot themselves in the foot
early in the game by being so regional that hip
hop's gonna grow. Hip hop is a virus. It's gonna

(01:03:11):
grow whether you or not.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Yo, So okay, with There's 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

(01:03:39):
Watch what You Say Freedom of Speech is out and
based on your intro loan with the shut Up You're
Happy Joan, your show was so high powered it was
almost like a rock show, even before body Count the
body count thing starts. So at what point are you

(01:04:02):
pivoting to that level of energy in your live shows
where it's almost like a rock show, even though it
is you and evenly like on stage just rocking together.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
You know what it is? Quest? I 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 Curtis Blow. You know.
It's like, you know, so what is ic? And my
thing was, I'm gonna take you into the darkness of

(01:04:36):
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 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,

(01:04:56):
you know, let's get butt naked and fucking stuff like
that was always an intention to keep it still to today.
Like Chuck will say, Ice is one of the most
theatrical rappers because I 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

(01:05:20):
because Caine's dancing, right, I ain't got no motherfucking dances,
you know what I'm saying, Dougie Fresh, because our first
tour we went out on, we went out on a
dope Jam Tour. It was us KRS one A Boogie
Down Productions, Uh Kumode, Dougie Fresh, Eric being Rock Kim

(01:05:44):
with somebody Obizmarck and we're to open and act. So
how do you I'm from the area of Request where
you gotta be different, like you can't be like everybody else.
So we had a police car out there and we're
throwing money before making rain. We had cell phones, big
old big phones, and we were giving you that energy.

(01:06:05):
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 what that was all about. It still is
when you go see Ice t show.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
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 answered. Okay, I do not know
the history of the story, So break it down like
I'm in kindergarten.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
What was now?

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
As we talked about earlier with the Grammy thing, my
one concern was, are you in LLLL going to 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

(01:06:52):
you two, because you know, when I heard pushing man
and simple you push a man rejected ll I was like, whoa,
what was that about?

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
It's simple all right? I started it, and you know
ll LL was I'm the baddest, I'm the greatest, I'm this,
I'm that okay. Llll was actually out before me, so
he was like the eminem or he was the dude
you gotta get. I'm coming out of LA. I got

(01:07:20):
the whole West Coast on my back. I don't got
the crips and the bloods. I got the Crypts and
the Bloods and Bay Area everybody on my back. Ice Tea.
It's just what it is. You got. I gotta take
off on this nigga. I gotta let him know, like
you might, thank you the best fuck that you know.
And that's just part of the culture. That's just what
it is, you know, Because I can't come out from

(01:07:42):
LA and say about a ll cool J right now,
not when I'm trying to come out like she was
trying to be in a boss. I'm 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 called Open Contract and Bam bothering

(01:08:05):
them stepped in because l was trying to be down
with Zulus. There was a legendary meet up with me
and him at a Flavored Flave 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 Kumo d he was battling a bunch of
motherfucker yes, yes, but it was me. I started it,

(01:08:27):
and I did it. I did it as an act
of war, like I did it because it was time
for Ice Tea to step up and say fuck you,
you know now.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
So it was business, not personal.

Speaker 3 (01:08:43):
I don't know. L cool J. Yeah, it's business. But
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 is the boss at the time, and he was
the boss and I'm never at no point was it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Like, yo, let me be down with this dude.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
Like, no, 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.
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.

Speaker 5 (01:09:14):
Yet I'll handle it before it got physical too, though,
right that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Wasn't a days nobody was getting shot. This is pride
and all that. This is just rap shit. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
I'm just letting the record show because some people don't
even know that there was a word.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
I don't think we didn't threaten to tell it. Tell
ll nigga you can't come to La. We we was
on the bullshit, but it got squashed early. And so
what me and him agreed to do was not necessarily apologized,
but just not talk about it. It okay. So we
never talked about it, and that was it. And I

(01:09:48):
never held anything against ll But the crazy part of
the story 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 a convention, and
I walked up to L and extended my hand and said, man,
me and you have never talked dotty dotty do I'm

(01:10:10):
want to let you know, like you said, wasn't personal.
It 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 have podcasts
together and all that. You know, it's like his rock

(01:10:30):
sand Chante is still mad. You know. It's like right
part of the game back.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Damn near the whole West Coast is willing to ride
for you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
Now, I can't imagine that everyone is wishing you well,
wishing you good luck or whatever. Like again, you said
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 the money, who's.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Going to drop the bag on you?

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
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 you.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
Now, God, remember I got put on by Zulu nation, right,
so I would I admired the Zulu nation, how they
had tried called quests and busting all these cats together
and they were all going in the same direction. I
really admired that whole Zulu thing. So I went to
back to La. Now I studied gangstas, right, so I
will reading up on Lucky Luciano and mar Lansky and

(01:11:57):
all these cats, and Lucky Licio 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, DJ Aladdin and dub

(01:12:20):
C low Profile, 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 nw A or

(01:12:43):
Delicious Vinyl, which was just Tone Low and Young MC.
It was kind of like Syndicate too a little bit.
Now nw A had a beef, but that was a
family feud and everyone had to step back because it was.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
A family's blood you got.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
But the Syndicate is still alive. And King T was
part 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

(01:13:22):
say you created your own gang. I did, and inside
of it there was no gang bang. So if you
were Syndicate, you no longer as crippled 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
all going in the same direction, and ain't no reason
to be hating on somebody unless you're a bitch. So

(01:13:43):
all of us should help each other. And that's how
the producers start to getting waved and all the different
stuff like that, and Dre 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
got to keep that your whole life got to keep remembering.
I'm an orphan, so I'm hyper sensitive to everything that's

(01:14:04):
going on around me. I'm hyper sensitive.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
So but as an orphan, did you feel like the obligatory?

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
All right, I gotta take you all with me. I
got to take care of all of you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Or early I did, Early I did when I first
got got some bread, legit bread. I never felt that
way with illegal money, 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,

(01:14:39):
because I'm taking pen every tensory chances for this. But
when I start getting legit money. The first time I
got it, I couldn't hold food down. I would actually
throw my food back up because I and I went
to a gastrologist and he said they thought I had
ulcers and they're like nah, And they sent me to

(01:14:59):
a word psychiatrists. And this is a guy that helps
people hit one hundred miles an hour fastballs while are
going through one hundred million dollar divorce. And he said,
tell me your problems. I talked for about a half hour. Quiet,
quiet guy. Well dog, he said, tell me your problems.
And I talked and then he gave me a prescription

(01:15:19):
quest He pushed you 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 them 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 got to learn how to

(01:15:40):
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 know's a great word. It'll test the temperature of
any relationship, even your woman. See, you got to have
like we talking about the daily game, you got to
have limits because take takers have no limits, they'll ravage you,

(01:16:05):
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.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
Have you got to the point where you have to
protect your energy as well? Now too, like where you've
understood that as well?

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
Yeah? Yeah, well I had it gave me high blood pressure,
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, you got to go. So I learned
how to. You know, I can just connect from people
real quick. And it's a known fact. So the people

(01:16:45):
that are in my circle, no Ice is not 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
it be like this to be like, yo, what's up Ice?
No drama? No drama right right? You know, no drama,

(01:17:06):
No drama, you know, because what my life is. You know,
I'm in a different place right now. Man, Like you look,
I got fish, aquar ams and pump. 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.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
So I let me ask.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
So you know, there's a period between eighty eight, eighty
nine to 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 Donahue this week and you're on you know,

(01:17:52):
Ted Coppo this weekend, like you How exhausting was it
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 eighty six run
DMC and them did a show and either at Anaheim
or Long Beach or something, and you know, this is
the first time we're hearing about like violence and rap

(01:18:13):
music and all that stuff. And suddenly it's like you
were the chosen and spoke like mouthpiece for.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
All of these like talk shows. How exhausting was that?

Speaker 3 (01:18:25):
I kind of wanted to smoke you.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
Did so you wanted to play the outlaw and just no,
I wanted.

Speaker 3 (01:18:32):
To play the person that could could could intellectualize it
and break it down for these people. You know, like
my whole life has almost been explaining to the squares
what the streets it is thinking, and explaining to the
streets how the squares are thinking. Like I've been that
translator in between, because even though I am hood, I'm

(01:18:53):
also well read and relatively intelligent, So I could I
spoke in front of Congress and you know, I can
break it down, you know, for what's going on. So
when they were coming at me about free speech or this,
that and 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 kind of like would

(01:19:18):
have and even still today, man George Floyd comes up,
my timeline blows up like ice, and I'm like, it's
honestly a damn shame that there's no youngsters, you know.
I mean, Killer Mike is out there, but it's a
damn shame that there's no real young people that can

(01:19:39):
really speak for the culture.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
Damn.

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
You're right, 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

(01:20:04):
bad motherfuckers who would go head up with all the
bullshit and let them know what's up. And a rebirth
of a young Lauren Hill.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
Hm your mouth to you guys, heres.

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
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
not listening. But some little twenty year old cats coming
out popping that shit and letting motherfuckers know you bullshit
and you worried about this Gucci shit. You over here

(01:20:36):
fucking up da da da da blow what Public Enemy
did for us. We need another group to do that
for the youth.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
A sure, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
Yeah. I wanted to ask you about og original gangs
then recording that out. What happens is 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'm for a minute, I called my stuff reality rap,

(01:21:05):
but that wasn't true because it's not everybody's reality. It
was my reality. So CBE comes out 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

(01:21:26):
like yo. And the first lyrics straight out of Compton.
Crazy motherfucker named ice Cube from the gang called niggas
with attitudes, so they referred to 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 Cbe.

(01:21:46):
Now I've been doing it for two years, so I said, okay, Well,
if it's gangster rap, I'm the original gangst feel me. Now.
OG is a term that gangs have been using in
LA for decades. It just means first generation of the set.
So if Questlove is OG roots, he's there might have

(01:22:08):
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, it was supposed to have been a double album.
And I always like to do first. I was always

(01:22:28):
into doing first. I'm like, I was like, you 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 stay away. You know, just just fuck it.

(01:22:49):
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 megalong album with a lot of different
lenses and a lot of different energy.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
All right, y'all, that's it for Part one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Ice TV Gate Team and Supreme so much game on
this episode that we had to make it a two
part So make sure y'all check out Ice tea daily
game podcast with weekday words of wisdom. Give him a listen,
you know, stay tuned for QLs Part two with one
and only legendary Iced Tea next week, where we talk
about his TV and his film work.

Speaker 8 (01:23:21):
All right, Babs, we'st love. Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
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