December 13, 2024 • 55 mins
Ice T joined me on That Moment with Daymond John and gave me his raw and candid thoughts on some of the most transformative moments that he faced throughout his career, focusing most intently on the moment his album was blocked by Time Warner (spoiler: even though that’s the public narrative around how it went down…it’s not accurate, and Ice gave me the full inside scoop on how the situation with his album Home Invasion actually happened) and what finally prompted him to become a devoted and fully committed father and husband.
The stories Ice shared provide more than just a glimpse into how you can evolve as a person while also staying true to yourself, and listeners will walk away with so much inspiration that they can put to work in their own lives. As Ice explains in our talk, no one else wakes up with your dream, and it’s so important to lock that thought into the way you approach your passions. Tune in to That Moment with Daymond John to fulfill your true inner gangster and reframe the way you approach negativity!
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com and @thesharkdaymond on all platforms.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to that moment with Damon John and I am
Damon John, and today we are going to get into
it with the legendary Iced team.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
When you found out your album now is being blocked
by Warner how was the initial reaction.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Tell me about the initial reaction.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
What do you mean with the cop Killer record?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, well, you know, I know that they weren't gonna
put out anymore. You know, you worked hard on that,
on that album, and you know they just said we're
not going to back this anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
And I know that that's not how it happened day.
It didn't happen like that, all right. We made this
song called cop Killer. I was on Sire Warner Brothers,
and the record came out and it did phenomenal. The
album came out of when gold Warner Brothers was really
excited about it. You know, we actually had a party
(01:10):
for the success of the record, and then we got
hit by the Fraternal Order of Police out of Austin,
Texas that said cop Killer was the cause of this
problems or drama. Really, the police were under siege, just
like they're under siege now, and somebody smart said, why
don't we just push the narrative at Warner Brothers. Warner
(01:32):
Brothers put out this record. Now, they couldn't really get
mad at me because I'm a black man and I'm
making noise about the corruption We've been dealing with our
whole life. But they were like, Warner Brothers, big corporation,
how can you allow this man this platform. But Warner
Brothers stood stayed down with me. Jeral Levin, who was
(01:54):
ahead of time, Warner wrote a big letter to the
Washington I mean to the to Wall Street Journal, and
they backed me. They backed me as much as they could.
It hit them in the stock you know, stock prices
started to drive and what the problem was. What I
was saying. They understood. But they're a white corporation. They're
(02:19):
a corporation. They're part of the system. So now this
is challenging them and their stockholders. Now you got to remember,
at the time, Warner Brothers had myself, They had Prince,
they had Slayer, they had Sam Kiniston, they had Andrew
Dice Clay, they had the Ghetto Boys, they had a
lot of controversial edgy artists. Madonna and Warner knew that
(02:42):
as soon as they allowed them to censor me it
was going to be a problem. And I went into
a meeting with Lenny Warnaker and Moe Austin and they
broke it down to me. There was a big corporate
table in front of me, and they said, I see
this is it. You're an artist on Warner Brothers. And
(03:02):
the guy put a quarter on the table. He said,
to see the size of this quarter. This is how
big Warner Music is compared to Time Warner. We're so
you're a dot on that small quarter and what you're
doing is it's hurting the entire thing. So I was like, damn,
(03:22):
you know, and I just kind of felt some kind
of way like they're doing everything they could to support me.
So what happened was the next album I was putting
out was a rap album which was called Home Invasion.
And when I went in there to do that record,
when I turned it in, they had me come in
and they had every word on the record written out
(03:43):
in big letters on a board. They were going through
every little thing and there was some there was some
sketchy lyrics in there. I had a lyrics said I
don't give a fuck about a cop or a g man.
They all talk shit. They're breast smelling like semen. I
catch him in that alley all alone put them in
the prone pop pop pop to the dome. So I'm like,
(04:05):
you killing cops again, right, But I'm like this gangster
rap right. So it was so they were so uptight, dame,
that I eventually just said, you know what, let me go.
I asked for the release. I said, it's kind of
like me and you are in business, and I'm like,
my politics is messing with your money. But we friends.
(04:26):
Let me go. Man, I'm no hard feelings, and I
never had a hard feeling with Warner Brothers. And what
Warner Brothers did that was very cool. The Home Invasion
album was about a half a million dollar album to make.
They gave it to me. They never recouped it. They
just said here, good luck Ice, because you got to remember,
(04:47):
for so many years, like ten years, I was the
number one rapper on that label. They loved me. They
you know, I had done nothing but bring them golden
platinum records six six consecutive golden platinum records, so they
couldn't turn on me like that. But I got them
in a sticky situation, and that's what happened A lot
(05:10):
of people didn't understand the source magazine went after me.
He said, I folded. Chuck d said the best. He said,
those that are don't in the wars shouldn't comment on
the battles. You have no idea what was really going
on behind the scene. But that was it. But Warner
never really did Low. They didn't do Low. They was
(05:34):
just a bad situation.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
History is proven, or history is reflected only the times
that large corporations or any company turned their back on people.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I mean, we do see.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Nike will stand on the side of what they believe
is right, even when somebody's kneeling. They'll stand on that side,
and we can use them. But I don't think I've
ever heard of a music label, especially a label that
wasn't backed by like, let's say, a young person hip
like you, right like you. I've heard of Jimmy I
(06:10):
Bean backing you know, and and having somebody's back. I've
heard of a couple of people, and I never heard
of something like a Warner backing you and that that's
that's that's really rare.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So you know what it was name, I don't think
they were backing me as much as they was.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Back in the back in the principle overall.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, once they censor you. Yeah. And if you notice
at the end of it, there was no more Warner
Music at some point. The last thing was when death
Row was trying to get involved and Ted Turner came
in and shut that whole ship down. But nah, they
they pretty much all the edgy groups left Warner Brothers
(06:49):
at that time. Uh, and they knew that. They explained
that to me, they like, it's bigger than you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's where you go after that, though.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You know what, because I'm trying to find at that moment,
that moment you're saying you were you were you were,
you were doing well on there ten years in you
would already well, we'll get to the origin of when
you decided to put that gangster rap on an actual
album and go out there. But where did you Where
did you go right after that? What were your options
that moment when you were like, let me go. Did
(07:19):
you already think, I listen, I'm getting my guys in
the sticky situation, I have other opportunity. Did you feel
like were you, being, of course courted by other people
or was it like I'm gonna go do the shit myself,
like what was that moment in your life?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
It was it was nerve wrecking man, because you know
we I was red hot. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
The cop Killer record, even though it was it was
in trouble, it went, it sold a million records. Every
record up to that point Iced Tea was either gold
or platinum, so I wasn't on a downstroke. But I
was just like kind of like an out, like people
were afraid to touch me, you know, And I basically
(08:03):
went over to Priority Priority. Brian Turner over Priority was
familiar with the funk because he had put out NWA,
so he was not afraid of it. He was like,
let's do it. We'll do the Home and I did
two albums a Priority.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh year was this.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I can't even tell you the year. I know that
cop Killer shit hit in ninety two, so it was
probably ninety three ninety four, trying to drop another record.
But Brian Turner put out the Home Invasion album, then
he put out the Return of the Real album, and
then later on he put out the Gangs Rap album.
(08:44):
So I went over the Priority because they were like
not as big a corporation and they didn't give a fuck.
And then body Count went over to Virgin because Virgin
is a British own company, and they didn't really give
a fuck about American politics. They were just like fuck it.
You know. That's that's Richard Branson in them.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, he was already rebel himself. He was already down
there in trouble for himself. Yeah, that's why, right.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Right, yeah. I mean, you know what, if you're moving records,
it's not going to be a problem to find a home.
I remember we went over to UH when we went
to when I went to Virgin, I went over there
with my balls. I let my balls hang like they
were like. We were like, what do we want for
the record? I said, I need a million up front.
(09:32):
I need a million dollars up front. I said, don't
offer me three hundred thousand. I got to watch the
cost three hundred thousand. Let's let's talk some numbers. I said,
give me the equivalent of the album going platinum up front.
And if you don't think the record's going to go platinum,
why are we here? Why are we here? I need
to be someplace that knows you can move a million records,
because I've done it before. And they leaned back in
(09:54):
the chair and wrote to check, so, you know, and
that was my first really you know, me, me being
able to negotiate because my one idea was always in
a slow increment because I'd signed, you know, a long
term contract. Now I'm a free agent. So and in
them days, getting a million dollars for a record up
(10:15):
front was big, right, big. Now these kids are getting
twenty millions. But that was big.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Let's let's let's let's wind it back, because I want
to know when when you were frustrated and you know nothing,
you know ewing, you know, we're boys.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I know these served this country. I know that. Also
you you you was a bad guy.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You know, you were doing what you had to do
when you decided at that moment to create your first single,
your first song. Can I can I ask you what
was going through your head around that time? What were
the records that were motivating you at that time? Because
you know me, when I was coming up, it was
a it was a rising to the top by Kenny Burke,
or it was public enemy, fear of you know, you know,
(10:59):
fear of a black planet and stuff like.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That, and I, oh, no, rock him paid in full.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I'm driving my car going, I'm gonna get paid in full, right,
What were the songs of that time when you were
first coming up and you were like this is this
is in whatever you were doing, you was on the
car to go go and do something that we don't
agree upon now, or you was heading to the studio
and you were just you were frustrated or excited. What
was the songs that you remember at that time at
(11:25):
that moment for the most part.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Well, I first started hearing rap when I was in
the Army, and you know, I went out of high school.
I went in the Army and there were New York
kids there from and they had the tapes you know before.
So I was hearing Flash and I was hearing Trench
with three and all that on cassette tapes. And when
Sugar Hill Gang came out, I was like, I could
(11:49):
do that, you know, I could do that because I've
been saying raps for the gang bangers in the streets.
I knew how to rhyme, so to speak. And when
I came back from the Army, my tension was to
be a DJ like Uncle Jam's Army and.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
You know, do that.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
But I got more attention rapping. But it was like
Curtis Blow, Furious five, the groups were out there, and
then the first real superstar rap groups like Run DMC
and people like that that came out.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
LL.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Of course he came out before me, and those were
like the targets, you know, And like everybody talking about
the LL beef with Ice, well that was because he
was the best, and he was a solo artist, and
I was a solo artist. So you have to go
after the man. You have to go after him, you know.
The only way to be the man is to challenge
the man, you know. So I was rapping like that,
(12:45):
like a battle rapper like that kind of rap was
my first style.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
But you took it to another level though, you know,
because I grew up, thank God, with them, and I remember,
and I remember clearly, I will you know, I was
a roadie on on the tours, and I was on
that or pushing around speakers and trying to hang out
with people, and I was on that tour with LL
and and Fat Boys and Rock Kim and all that,
and I'd be very honest.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
At that time, some.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Of the rappers were a little disrespectful when they got
out of New York because New York they thought that
it was only New York.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
The world was New York. So they would see people
they look.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
A little different with Jerry curls and and other stuff,
and they'll be disrespectful. They're like, yo, Jerry curl, put
your hands in the air. And then I remember we
got to Detroit and there was a whole bunch of
Jerry Curle doers from LA and they would call n
w A and we ain't know much about them, but
these guys that the police are throwing bos of them,
(13:43):
they were throwing boss the police. They had they had,
they had machine guns, they had oozzies with them and
all kinds of stuff. And I was like, yeah, those
Jerry Curle people with the mechanic suits.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
On, I'm afraid of them.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You know, because the rappers in New York, I mean,
you know, they were talking a little bit of stuff
like yo, you know, like it wasn't violence, it wasn't
fight back. It was kind of like a public enemy
said fight back. But it was kind of like the
very much of Black Panthers. You know, it was like
we are you know, we are going to uh, we're
gonna police our own community. But your rap was, you know,
(14:23):
we're gonna we're gonna police the police the way they're
policing us.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And what gave you that drive.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
To be able to be that vocal Because out of
all the rappers you were talking about, maybe the earlier days,
sugar Hill Gang was very pop. Maybe the message was
the one that was frustrating, where he was talking about
people pissing on the rail stations.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Just don't care.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
You know what gave you that that anger or that
that ability to say, I'm gonna I'm gonna vocalize the
streets and in a way that very few people have
and I don't care.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
It really, it really comes from not coming from a
hip hop background, Like you know, like growing up in
La it's a gang culture. So you understand gangs and
you understand low riding, and you understand how we had
what the Cali look was.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
You did.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So when I first started to rap, of course, I
was trying to rap like New York rappers. But then
I heard Schooley d out of Out of Philly. He
did a song called PSK where he sung about the
park Side Killers and I'm like, he's rapping about a gang,
and I was like, that's okay. And at that point
(15:32):
That's when I turned. That was the pivotal moment in
my career where I'm like, oh, they like that shit, right.
And so six in the morning, what they call the
first gangster rap record really is not the first gangster
rap record is PSK. And then six in the Morning
I even snatched school. He's Cadence. When he said PSK,
(15:55):
we making that green. People always say, what the hell
does that mean? I said, six police at my door
freshing year. I'm even jack the Cadence. But I took
you on a ride through La you know, hitting Crenshaw,
first time anybody ever heard the street Crenshaw rolling a
blazer with a Louis Vuitton interior and getting jacked by
(16:16):
the police and going to jail and coming out, and
that record hit Dame, that shit hit and I was like, yo,
and it hitting the Bay first. It hitting the Bay
because I got a call to do a show at
the Fillmore West, a very famous venue, and I said, Okay,
(16:37):
I'll do it. They called me back three days later
said we want you to do a show at the
Fillmore West. I'm like, I booked that. They go, No,
that sold out. I'm like, word, And once I you know,
sometimes you got to find your identity. Another thing that
helped me find my identity was Russell Simmons. I was
(16:58):
trying to be New York. I'm trying the dress, I
got the spikes on early like Mellie and I'm trying
to rappers had to look. And I was at a
show with Russell in LA and they just called me
on the stage. And that day I had on my
street clothes, I had on Fela, I had k Swiss on,
you know, my perm and I went upstage rapped and
(17:21):
when I came up to stage, Russell's like, that's your look,
trying to look like New York. You gotta look like
La nigga. You an La Nigga. You gotta rep the coast.
And then I started to evolve into just being a
LA player. And early my first two albums, I didn't
even rep gangster. It's more like the player, the hustler.
(17:45):
But when Nwa came out and ice Cube said straight
out of Compton, crazy motherfucker named ice Cube from the
gang called niggas with attitudes, the press called it gangster yea.
So I said, well, if it's gangster rap, I got
two albums out already then I'm the original gangst So
(18:06):
that's where the og shit came from me reclaiming like, okay,
this is what we're doing. Then yeah, let's make it clear.
And you know it's it's just really reflecting what you
see versus rocking the party. Like you know, when I
tried to write the party, it didn't work. You know,
when I start talking about the street shit, I reached
(18:28):
a large audience and it was really my perspective at
the moment. So earlier Ice Team music is a lot
more negative as before I started to evolve as as
a man, I was kind of like right off the block.
Just imagine if you took a kid right out of
any Borough, Queens or whatever in the projects. He's hustling,
(18:52):
and if you put him in a studio and whatever
he said happened to Ron. That's real raw gangster rap.
You see what I'm saying. It's just magically at Ron
and he told his story. That's what we were doing
right out the gate.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Let me go to that gangs of mentality though, because
you know, we can't help what we came from, and
that gang's mentality it seemed to have.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Served you in various different ways.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So you used it in the form and I always said, everybody,
there's only two people to get the ultimate pass snoop
and iced tea.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
You can get a a.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Star on the Walker Hall of Fame and curse everybody
out at the same time, you know, by getting and
giving love to obviously the people in the audience.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
But if you reflect on it, there's a certain way
you can think.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
About gangs and stuff. You can think about it that
don't ever cross the line. Don't disrespect me because this
is all I have is a reputation, and I'm gonna
have to defend that reputation because if I allow you
to do that, well, then everybody's gonna do it. Oh,
it's a mentality of Listen, I know you got dirty
with me. Wanna I know you've got a bigger priority,
and you know I don't think that. I don't think
(19:59):
I want to take you down that path kind of
like you know you walking down the block. Listen, a
little homie, I did this dirt by myself. Don't worry
about it. I know you cool, you ready, but I
ain't gonna do that to you or when you and I,
you know, we're kind of hanging out and chilling on
our own.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And you're like, listen.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I always talked to Dick Wolf and I be like, listen, man,
just tell me what it is, and I'm good.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
We I've had a good fortune of going for me
to cop killer, the longest run a cop on television,
and the TV and everything is changing. I got you,
you got me, I got you. Don't stress it that
you have a form of dedication from a gangster way,
but also you brought the form of But I'm not
going to bring you down that path. I mean you
just let me know what it is and we good
(20:40):
when we walk in.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
So that is it's a code, man. It's a code
that you know. I was raised around a lot of
OG's older than me, and you know it's a code. Man.
It's like, yo, man, I got this. I did it.
It's my shit. Let me handle my shit. You know,
like people talking about snitching, Yo, if I did it,
(21:02):
I did it, I'll handle I could carry my weight.
When I was going through the cop killing shit, I
wasn't pointing at other rappers while looking them. They they're
saying stuff too. I'm like, I handled my business. But
you know, you got to have a little gangster to
survive in this business because the way that businesses, they'll
(21:23):
fuck you. They'll fuck you with the with the soft touch,
you know they and they will also challenge anything they
think won't fight back. They will definitely you have as
a as a businessman, you got to be like, I
know my shit, don't blame me, don't play me. A
lot of time when I'm doing contracts with people and
they're like, well, what do you want in the contract,
(21:45):
I'm like, why don't you just send me one? Let
me see what how you feel about me. Let me
see your offer. And I don't know whether you're a
fuck boy or you really down with it. Like I
I can read, I can read how you feel, you know,
give me the offer. I'm waiting to see how how
valuable you think I really am. So a lot of times, man,
(22:06):
you know this attitude now now my personality, this gangster shit,
it's not really who I am. I had, you know,
fifty Cents said it best. It's not how my mama
raised me. Is how the hood made all right. So
you come into this business world real soft and thinking
everything's good. They're gonna fuck you, They're gonna fuck you.
(22:28):
They're gonna find everything you don't know and take advantage
of it. It's like if you're doing a record deal
and they go, okay, you're international merchandise. You know what
do you go? Huh? They go fucking right there?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You know, right there, right there? Oh what we got?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Now? They go publishing? What about that? Hunh fucking mind.
They're not gonna explain to you what you're publishing. They're
gonna hit you every place. You don't think they don't
think you know. But my boy used to say, they're
been fucking us long enough, we should not a fuck
by never. I don't think it's I think it's just
(23:19):
the streets translate to business very well.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, can I can? I?
Speaker 1 (23:23):
You know, because a lot of a lot of people
are going to be trying to move their career every
every day somebody the fairy getting cancel or whatever. But
let me add, when is that not work for you?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
You know this mentality and if you ever said I
went too hard or I didn't know what I didn't know,
I mean, can you do you?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Can you recall any times or that moment when you say,
you know what, maybe I should have gave them another chance.
But I had I had developed such a hard shell
that they weren't trying to fuck me, but I thought
they were. I mean, or or or listen, somebody could
have been trying to fuck you and you regretted it
at the time, you reflect and seeing what they did
to other people after you and they will you were like, yeah, yeah,
you know, you know not really.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm I'm very smooth. I'm very smooth when I deal
with people. It's always a soft touch, and I make
sure that people around me have a soft touch. That's
the biggest problem. My crew, like the guys I got
working for me, they not as seasoned in this as
I am. So you know, even this the way you
know a lot of brothers, the way they talk people
(24:26):
like they're extorting me. No, no, ask them for the
money you owe them. That's all. But that there, I
have to like work with my guys like, look, man,
you can't you're scary, like you know, don't be like that.
But noah, I mean nah, I've learned a lot. I've
been in a lot of rooms with people I've dealt with,
(24:48):
you know, big heavyweight executives, and they're gangster, you know,
they're the way they handle business. Like I always say,
like in business, the trick is, like me and Dick
Wolf's relatelationship, is we make the deal. I stick to
the deal.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
There's a moment when we get to negotiate, we go
back and forth. Now I think I'm worth this ice.
I can get Brad Pitt for that. Come on, man,
well come on man, this, that and the third. Come on,
I'm the only black man on the show. I might
throw the race card in there. I'm trying to get
paid right. Oh wow. But then after we come to
that negotiation and it's done, I stick to the deal,
(25:28):
and so does he. That's gangster. I don't come back
halfway in the middle of the contract one that no no, no,
no no. So he knows. Once I told you, Dick
Wolf said, iced tea is the least pain in my ass,
the best compliment I ever got, because you know, when
you have employees, the person who's the least pain is
your favorite person. You know, the one that's always coming
(25:50):
with problems and ideas and book man, come on, man,
you really close to the ads. You think you're doing
a lot, but you're really about to get fired. Because
you're driving me fucking crazy. So you know, my boy,
one of my other boys, said, the only thing gangs
about ice, he really is he does.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Not back up. Well hmmm, I like that.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I don't back up well. So in other words, everything's
cool until you tell me what I better do. Then naw,
because like you said, once, I allow that, I might
as well let you do whatever you want to me.
I might as well let you move in my house.
You know what I'm saying, Like, there's got to be
a point where and you got one too, where you're like, nah,
(26:33):
now not nah, now you're going to cross the line.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Nah.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
And you know, other than that, I'm fair game. I'm
play game fair well.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
You know, your your history is coming up as a
as a really vocal music artists embarrass and you know,
I don't really know what the real deal is. I mean,
you know, I've been told you'll pimp. I told you
this that, and then you you you change your lifestyle.
It alters a little bit and you you know, our wives, friends,
(27:03):
and you changed to be just becoming a new dad again,
taking that path, beautiful white, very dedicated dad. What was
that moment when you you said, I don't know, I
feel like change. I mean, you know you didn't change immediately.
You were ready for change to be the guy that
we know now very beloved as a father or husband
(27:25):
of various other things, and no longer.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I mean you're a gangster at hard.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So it's very hard to explain Ice, but that moment
of being calm in your career, you know, going on
and being an actor, but the meantime being on stage
your shirt off, doing heavy metals and ship over here,
and then you know, being on the player's ball, which
I think that's my favorite role of Ice, being on
the player's ball. Yeah, yeah, When when did you get
that form of like being just really comfortable whatever you
(27:52):
did and being a dedicated dad because I know, I
know the story when you know, so when you decided
to to you know, to be that person with Coco,
I know you gave her the phone and and said
any any any young lady call you answer this and
you know what you you say it better than I do.
What was that that moment when you gave her the
phone and said boom.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Well like like like this has been a long transformation,
you know. So the first transformation was leaving the streets
when I started making music and I got a little famous.
I just said, man, I'm done. I can't break the
law no more because you know, now all eyes are
on me and I don't want to get any of
you guys in trouble.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
But how about you thinking not keeping it real?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I mean, we just we're just seeing what happened to
Gunner and all these dudes who they was making all
this money. But you know now they got rico chargers,
not they probably going to jail until you know, I
don't until aliens come down and start rapping it.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Well, there's a difference between fame and infamy. When you're infamous,
you don't nobody knows your name. You like low key,
and like I said, if everybody in the street knows
your name, so did the cops. So I had been
able to duck them. And when I decided and finally
start making a little record money, of course I went broke.
But that was a career change I made because now
(29:10):
I'm doing interviews, I'm meeting people. You can't do that
and go out and break the law. And my other book,
I had this chapter called Too Famous to Steal, where
I went to do something and steal something some kids
came out of the house and wanted autographs. I'm like,
what the.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Wait a minute, what hold on? You went to steal what?
You was already famous and you were trying to steal something.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you don't really get no
bread to your first, second, third album. So I had
a Porsche and I was trying to get a part
Porsche and my boys just stole a Porsche and I
didn't want to pay for it, and they was full
of shit about getting a part I needed. I'm like,
where's the motherfuck car at where's the car? I'll go
get it.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Fuck that.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
So I got a ratchet set, I got my boys.
I walked through this apartment building. I walked through this
apartment building. I pulled a car cover off the car.
I'm in the car still in the park. Part probably
costs like a thousand dollars. I could have paid for it.
I was just it I wanted. Plus I was showing
(30:17):
my niggas. I knew I was still good with my ship.
But when I get in the car, all these little
kids come walking out the motherfucking house and they're like,
I see oh shit, So now their mothers and stuff
come out and I'm taking pictures in front of a
G in front of a G t A. I'm standing
(30:40):
there taking pictures because they saw me in breaking and
some ship and yeah, it's funny now. So then after
they all left, they thought that was my car. I
had to call the home. He's like, Yo, this car
can't be here in the morning. Get to move this
fucking car. But yeah, that's a chapter one of my
books called Too Famous to Steal. But long story short,
(31:03):
now made this transition. I'm going through all this music
and stuff like that. I left my I was with
my ex Darlene for like fifteen years, never got married,
and when I came to New York, we broke up.
You know, usually when you break up with a woman,
you really broke up.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
A year or so earlier.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
So we were we were together, but we weren't really
living like that, you know, and finalized when I came
to New York to do law and order, it was like, okay,
you might as well stop playing this charade out for
my son. Let's just cut it off. So now I
w was single out here for a couple of years.
Didn't dig it. I didn't dig it because you know,
(31:45):
it's just a It's an illusion, you know. It's always
when you got your girl on your arm, all the
girls are fine. As soon as she gets off your arm,
these bitches change, they transform into all kinds of other
scary looking things. You know. It's just something about being single.
It's not it's fun. It's a weird warp. So when
you're young, it's cool because you're fuck anything. But when
(32:05):
you're older and you refine your taste, you know, you
ain't gonna see that shit you want walking around by yourself.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
It's just not I think, you know, I think that
is a greeting call. When you're young, you'd fuck anything,
you know. I think you should write cars. You're young,
you fuck anything. When you get a little older, you
ain't gonna see the ship you want to fuck.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
You know. I think that's pretty.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
You know, you should write greeting car.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I think that's that moment. But let's go, let's go
into let's go further. Your taste, Yeah, you refine your taste.
So I met Coco. Now, when I was going after Coco,
I was watching a lot of the Osbourne.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Ozzie and Sharon, and I was looking like, would Ozzie
have a mansion if it wasn't for sharing Osbourne, like,
this woman is running all the tours, running all his business.
Doesn't even seem like Ozzie would know how to pay
a phone bill. Ozzie is something different, right, But he's
wealthy because you got a woman to hold it together.
So me personally, I could get money for crossing t's
(33:04):
and dynay's. It's not my thing. It's not many artists things.
That's why artists have business managers, because you know you
you my business manager. You send me in a studio,
Da da da da da, Send me over here, send
me over there. I will get money. But somebody gotta
pay the taxes. Somebody gotta you know, that ain't what
we want to do. We just want to make the money.
So I told when I met Coco, she was fine.
(33:28):
I was like, told her, I said, yo, I mean,
I'm not really just trying to get another number in
my phone. I'm really trying to find somebody that wants
to ride. And she dug the flyness of me. She
was a chick. When I met her. I had on
a red snake skin suit, so she was like, ooh,
that's fly. See some girls, some girls want soft niggas,
(33:50):
and some girls want real niggas. You know, they don't
a soft nigga. They like, I'm not even into you.
You ain't got no base in your voice. Some women
want to man man. So she was like Coke, Yeah,
like put me in my place. You I like that shit.
You know what I'm saying. You know, some chicks I
don't know. They can masculate niggas, but that's different. They
(34:12):
won't even fuck with us. They did. They just already
know that nigga Ice is too managed. Funny story, Whoopy
Goldberg was talking about Coco one day and she said, yeah, Coco,
that she's a dope sister, and they go sister, They said, uh, Whoop,
you know Coco's wife. She said, Coco been dealing for
twenty years with Ice teased managed ass. She's a She's
(34:35):
an honorary s that nigga. So anyway, when we got together,
I was just like, Yo, are we gonna do this?
Are we are? We? Are we gonna do this as
a couple And she was like, I'm down. So I
had a phone at the time, and I'm like, here,
(34:56):
take it. Start answering the calls and anybody that calls up,
just say who you are and take the message. At
that time, yeah, I was out in the street, but
I didn't have no chicks that could lay claim to me.
They were just chicks, you know what I'm saying. So
when they got the call, she's like, hey, what's up
is this? I no, this is Coco. Oh okay, Well
(35:21):
maybe they might hang up, maybe they might tell her
to leave a message. Sometimes I got the message. It
was such and such. But you know, when you out
in the streets and you you're a player, that girl
is calling from Atlanta. She ain't talked to you in
a year. She's just checking in. You know, we're going
to Miami. You're gonna be into Miami. You know that bullshit.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Right. So, anyway, Coco cleared the house in a beautiful way.
But then she would also take messages from my niggas.
So I would get messages like this from her. She's like,
uh baby, uh trigger said he left some bullets and
come on. Or The funny thing is like they would
(36:06):
call and it would be like this, yo, yo, what's good?
What's that? What's her? She'd be like, oh, this is Coco.
Same Nigga, Hey, Coco, what's the same Nigga's voice would
change when he would talk to her. So, you know,
it's been good. Now we've been together twenty two going
on twenty three years.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
It's good man.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
And uh, it was a smart move. You know, it
was a smart move for me. You know, it's dating scene.
Anybody knows out there it's toxic and it's full of
land mines, and uh, you know, I got the fuck
off the field for I called a body.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Did you find balance?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
And that's interesting because she showed she's she's one of
the as you would say, I say too, she's one
of the nicest people you'll ever meet, right.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
And.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
She's not trying to be this trying She's just who
she is. And did you find.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That that kind offer friends? Change your perspective? One thing?
Speaker 3 (37:04):
You know, not really I never really dated a white
girl before, you know, so my thing was like, you know,
I've been around white girls, I work with them and stuff,
but as far as actually being like in love and
all that, that was different for me. But you know,
I always say I'm a player. I don't really care.
You know, if a Martian bitch dropped down and was
saying the right shit, I'd be fucking green pussy right now.
(37:26):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
You like Captain Kirk because Captain Kirk.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Would would do it with anybody, bang everything in the universe.
My partner, my pimp, Buddy Rich, said, man, you just
look for a bitch. You could understand what the fuck
you be talking about. You just need somebody could comprehend. Boom,
that's you need comprehension, my nigga. So I was like, no,
Coco was dope. But I think I always say this,
and I say this in a weird kind of way,
(37:51):
but Coke and I are like like like like the
exact same thing, but turn into a woman and a male.
So think of it like, right, okay, uh, if my
gangster was feminine, it would be sexy, right. A woman's
(38:15):
power is sexy, being sexy, not being like a man.
She would be sexy, right, So that would result probably
in a big titty blonde right that and her gangster
is male, it would be a nigga a gangster. So
it's it's like we're very alpha of each of each
side of the spectrum. You feel me like she's an
(38:38):
alpha alpha woman. I'm an alpha male. And also I
think that like you and your wife, the trick is,
you have to find someone who matches your energy. Now,
if I go out by myself, I spin the room
when I walk in. That's iced tea. That's iced tea. Well,
she spends it too, she spends it on her own
(38:59):
sore for a week. We have equal power and we
are a good couple. If I'm with a chick that
doesn't have that same energy, my energy intimidates her, like
why you got to take pictures with all the people?
Why you got why you gotta that? If my wife
is with a weaker nigga, he like, why you gotta
wear that? You gotta you look too? You know, you're
dracking too much attention, So you gotta have a Both
(39:21):
people have to be very confident in who they are,
just like you and your wife. You know who you
are and she knows who she is. And that's why, y'all.
You know, we both dealt with chicks that are insecure,
and we both dealt with you know, So it's it
was a lucky lick, you know. And I was in
my forties when I met her, so you know, I've
(39:42):
done everything a nigga could do. I remember I told
my boy, I said, Yo, I'm thinking about getting married
to Coco. It's like, nigga, you donna have more sex
than a football team. Nigga, you have time to bring
bring that shit home.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
That.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Shit down, Like, what are you trying? What are you
trying to do? And I'm very happy and now with
my daughter. Our daughter is about the same age. I
quote Muhammad Ali. He says, when a man has a
child in the second half of his life, after he
turns fifty, it's like it resets me. It's like it
(40:37):
resets his life. It made me want to live forever.
It made me create new goals. Because you got bread,
you can start slowing down. But now not that new baby.
That new baby, and it's the best gift that I
could ever get. I see how much you love your daughter.
(40:59):
I think the difference with Chanelle and my other kids
is I'm very conscious of this baby. Like I had
my daughter when I was in high school. I was
ripping and running, so it was presence over presents. I
wasn't there. Yeah, you know, same way my son, my son,
(41:20):
Ice happened right when I was becoming iced tea. You know,
I had never been famous before this was a whole
new thing. So I'm distracted by that just becoming Chanell.
I'm comfortable. I'm in a cruise pattern. I was there
when Coco was pregnant, I went to the hospital, and
she now still sleeps in the bed with us, you know.
(41:40):
So I'm so much more connected to her than my
other kids. But it's been a beautiful.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Thing, you know, I really I took away a lot
of stuff here, a lot of a lot of a
lot of a lot of gifts, really, and there's a
lot of things that a lot of hitting gems in there.
And obviously, I mean I never thought of a when
you think of gangs of being a big titty blonde,
you know. Okay, yeah, I get it though, I get it,
you know what I'm saying, because that that could be
(42:09):
gangs and big titty blonde, big titty brunette.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Big titty whatever, little titty whatever.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
You know, Barbara Corkran always saysf you all got big titties,
put uh put with with pigtails, you know so, But
I gotta say, you know, when you when you when
you talk about young ice and you're advising a lot
of the younger people coming up now who look at
you and you you pretty much have done in your terms.
(42:34):
It hasn't been easy. A lot of people were against you,
and it wasn't really done before. What you've accomplished in
regards of being very true to your your upbringing.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
What would you say?
Speaker 3 (42:48):
What is your go to.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
In that moment when you have to make critical decisions
and you say do you trust your gut? Do you say,
I go back to these hold you know? What is
your kind of your thing that leads you back to
the fundamentals of ice And no matter what, he's not
gonna break these And I don't give a shit if
I lose everything, I'm not gonna go against this.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
I never I would never betray my friends, you know.
I would never. You know. I'm not that guy you
know and the only person that can betray you with
somebody that you trust, you know, so I wouldn't. I'm
not that guy. I don't know, you know. I run
into lots of issues. I like to sleep on stuff,
(43:41):
you know. I like to like if something is difficult
to me to answer, I'm like, give me some time,
let me think on it. A lot of times I'll
wake up the next day, I was noticing a lot
of times things we stress off. Sometimes you just need
to make the phone call and just get that out
of the way, like just that postponing it. That anxiety
(44:02):
of it isn't usually as big as the actual issue
once you get to the people and you talk and
get that over with. But I just really, I just
don't fuck with bad energy no more. You know, I
know what bad energy is. I know when you're out
to do wrong and you're out to do bad things.
I just don't do that no more. I don't even
(44:24):
entertain it.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Do you entertain people around you who are not putting
the energy towards you, but you hear them they talking
about other people.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
They all are there. Yeah, So what happened?
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Because sometimes as family, sometimes as people who you know,
I tend to cut people off after years and I
look at the list, you know, at the end of
the year, and I go, this person's not a good
friend to themselves, They're never going to be a good
friend to me. Or maybe I don't mess with them
and there's something wrong with me. But whatever it is,
I can't change. I don't like them, and I just
I just kind of, you know, I let them know
(44:56):
where we're at, though, I let them know, Hey, I
can't mess with you on this level or that level.
I tell him I'm clear because I don't want to be.
I don't want I don't want no misunderstandings. What do
you do about the people around here to do that?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
But they're not. They never do it to you. Managers, lawyers, friends,
called colleagues.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
They say, if you can't change some of your friends,
you have to change some of your friends. So I
I don't know. Pretty much, I got my shit down
to a skeleton crew. I'll keep it one hundred. I
got it down to a skeleton crew. I got a
very very few people that I really fuck with to
where you know, I'm gonna return their phone calls if
(45:35):
they call me. I just don't fuck with people like that.
Like a lot of one of my homies was like,
Ice is your friend? Yeah, as Ice ever called you?
Has he ever called you? Did you ever pill a phone?
He's like, hey, man, how you doing? Okay? Think about
that for a minute, right, Like how does he call you?
I don't think. My dad used to tell me if
(45:57):
you can count your friends on your hand, it's a
big thing. It's very It's very rare that you have
people that you really let into your real world, like
you know, like I know, grim's your man, I know
certain people. Those are people that are inside. Yeah, but
those people that are inside are the ones that can
hurt you the most. That they go less because they
(46:18):
have the access. So you just have to be very cautious.
I don't know, Dan, you know, you're right. I think
it's your gut. I think by now your gut is
very seasoned and you can feel it, and you just
try to learn from your mistakes. You make mistakes, and
you like, I mean, you know, I didn't even doing business.
(46:38):
I just did a business deal with some people and
they came in and they act like they had a
lot of money, and then halfway through the deal they
ain't had no money. And I was like, I was like,
we can't even assume them. They broke And so I
told my partner, we cannot deal with broke mo fuckers,
Like before we start, we have to make sure they
(46:59):
can handle what they claim and they can hear. So
these are lessons. These are lessons. But you know, I
don't know, man, I don't know what makes me tick
at this moment. I just really just try to like
keep it positive, to keep you know. You know, my
thing is I've never counted on anybody other's health, hustle.
(47:22):
I think that's my success thing is I've never counted
on anyone else but me. And that's the scary part
of it is. Right now I'm trying to get into
other businesses. I'm trying to get it. You know, we're
starting a dispensary. I'm trying to find things that generate
money other than myself, because what if something does happen
to me and I physically can't get it, you know,
(47:48):
but I have to learn about those things because I've
always been the money person that generated the money. And yeah, man,
I just I don't know. Man, it's hard to say. Man,
I think you just have a code. You have a
it's really your character. It's like, what is your character?
It's your character a good person? Or is your character
(48:11):
a shady person or a slick person? And you know,
I don't got no ops, I don't got nobody after me.
I don't have no no negative energy like that. I
don't want that shit. It ain't worth it, He's not.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Really you know.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I think I can vocalize it as well. I mean,
you know, I agree with so much of what you've said,
but this is about you and me trying to go
down that rabbit hole with you and get that thought
process of you going. But I think it's the same thing,
you know, after you've been through so much, all these
deals and people that come to you when it's a rush, right,
it was always a rush.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Hey, Cannas is hot this year, let's get it home.
Slow down. So oh hey, cryptos hot is you come on?
Speaker 3 (48:47):
Come on, I need you to sign this.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
I need you to do this, like you know, and
it's so much of a rush, and you can't go
home and think about it.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Then all of a sudden, why was it so much
of a rush? Also?
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Yeah, you know, it's not necessarily the deals that you
you don't do that hold you up. The deals you
do because you get into the deals of these people
that don't necessarily have money. Because it's funny, right, a
lot of people will come to you, me and the
people listening right now, and they go, oh, we're doing
all this, we're doing all that, we're doing that, but
we ain't got no money for you because we want
to why everybody else got picked why everybody else got paid?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
What are you you doing all this?
Speaker 3 (49:20):
And that? You know?
Speaker 1 (49:21):
You know, I like to do they go. You know,
I was gonna take this over to ditty. I was
gonna take this leap. I'm gonna take it to you
for no, no no, take it to.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
Them, take it to them. You know.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
But I think I think that I think it. What
it really boiled down to is your gut, you know,
because you know.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah. One thing I like to say also with me
is that I hold friendships dear. You know, so I'm
friends with you. I'm friends with doctor Dre. But I'm like, say,
Dre Dray. But I never talked to Dre about music,
right m you know you're on Shark Tank. I've never
(49:59):
talked you about money. I never we don't talk about it,
you know. So I get around somebody like you know,
Jamon John, Oh shit, you should get him that. I'm like, look, see,
that's why you can't be his friend, because you know
that's not what he does. You know, if you're friends
with somebody like Dre, you want he wants you to
come over and play Xbox and leave like that. Just
(50:21):
be his friend, you know. If something generically happens, that's great.
But you know, I like people for who they are,
you know, and just have friendships. And that's hard in
this business because everybody's angling. You know, your boy will
come over and at the end of the night, after
you done had fun drank, here comes a pitch you like,
(50:44):
this is what this whole thing was about. This pitch
you got for me, Like, come on, man, take it easy.
I don't know. It's different. Different people see things different ways,
you know, and so I I see things my way,
and you know, I always say, I think, at the
end of the day, Dame, what really matters to me
is my legacy, not the money, not none of this shit.
(51:07):
Because when you're gone, you're just gonna give the money
to people who gonna fuck it off because they didn't
have the acremen to get it in the first place.
So it doesn't mean they're gonna have the acremen to
hold it. They're gonna fuck it off. So you know,
the only thing that really you leave is your reputation.
And if you are a great man, when people meet
(51:30):
your daughter or your wife, they go, oh that's DamID
John's people. Okay, let them through, Like my son is
in la this nigga telling me, oh, I got juice?
You got juice? How the fuck you got juice? You
telling them you little ice and they letting you through
the ropes. That's your daddy's juice you got, you know.
But my daughter's in Atlanta. When she says who she is,
(51:51):
people treat her like a little queen or princess. That's
what's important to me, my legacy. If I leave here
as a great man or a good man, then everyone
else gets to live off of that. Not the money.
It's my rep at the end of the day. Our
legacies is more important because that's what our families are
going to live off of. That's what you know, your
(52:12):
your wife, your kids, and on and on and on.
And we just had to be careful because they try
to scandalize you or do something ruin that, and that's
more important to need than anything else. So you know,
I've it's got to be careful and cautious because they
they hate to see, you know, especially black men, become
successful and pull it off and leave, you know, on
(52:35):
a good note, you know, And that's what my thing
is about, you know. So I'm very careful and trying
to stay you know straight, So my kids and my
wife and anybody who represents me.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Can be proud right well, Listen, man, I always learned
something new when we hang out. And I love the
fact of going down this kind of history path. Of
that moment, the moment that you know, you realize that
you were famous and you couldn't no longer live the
life that you will leave it even though you didn't
have necessarily money, of the moment that you have to
deal with with the decision of facing Warner and or
(53:11):
you were going through the moment of you know, meeting
your your wife and changing your life.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
And and moving to New York and you know, moving
away from your you know who you were with.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
So a lot of decisions have to be made in
your life, man, And I'm glad you took the moment
today to share it with us.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
And you always inspire me a lot.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Of times you're just telling me things that I didn't
know if I did the right thing or anybody else
felt like like I feel, you know, as I'm still
trying to learn and grow. So I appreciate you spending
time with me, man, and thank you for being on
that moment.
Speaker 3 (53:43):
Hey, Hey, you know what, Oh at the end of
the day, man, you know what I learned is that
it's always going to be you, just on you, by yourself.
There's not a group of people to help you when
shit goes wrong, It's going to be on you. And
and closing, I try to tell everybody, nobody wakes up
in the morning with your dream whatever you want to do.
(54:06):
You could think you've got partners, but nobody wakes up
thinking about what you want. And the only way it's
gonna happen is that you do it. Because I could
be on the sidelines. I'm helping you, but I don't
wake up with your dream. That's your dream, all right,
that's sure. Thank you brother. All Right, Pete Dame, I've
talked to you soon.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
All right, you gotta all right. And this has been
that Moment with Damon John.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to the show and rate the show. You
can all connect with me on any social media platform
(54:58):
at the Sharp daymon As in Raymond with a d
Welcome to that moment with Damon John and I am
Damon John, and today we are going to get into
it with the legendary Iced team.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
When you found out your album now is being blocked
by Warner how was the initial reaction.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Tell me about the initial reaction.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
What do you mean with the cop Killer record?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, well, you know, I know that they weren't gonna
put out anymore. You know, you worked hard on that,
on that album, and you know they just said we're
not going to back this anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
And I know that that's not how it happened day.
It didn't happen like that, all right. We made this
song called cop Killer. I was on Sire Warner Brothers,
and the record came out and it did phenomenal. The
album came out of when gold Warner Brothers was really
excited about it. You know, we actually had a party
(01:10):
for the success of the record, and then we got
hit by the Fraternal Order of Police out of Austin,
Texas that said cop Killer was the cause of this
problems or drama. Really, the police were under siege, just
like they're under siege now, and somebody smart said, why
don't we just push the narrative at Warner Brothers. Warner
(01:32):
Brothers put out this record. Now, they couldn't really get
mad at me because I'm a black man and I'm
making noise about the corruption We've been dealing with our
whole life. But they were like, Warner Brothers, big corporation,
how can you allow this man this platform. But Warner
Brothers stood stayed down with me. Jeral Levin, who was
(01:54):
ahead of time, Warner wrote a big letter to the
Washington I mean to the to Wall Street Journal, and
they backed me. They backed me as much as they could.
It hit them in the stock you know, stock prices
started to drive and what the problem was. What I
was saying. They understood. But they're a white corporation. They're
(02:19):
a corporation. They're part of the system. So now this
is challenging them and their stockholders. Now you got to remember,
at the time, Warner Brothers had myself, They had Prince,
they had Slayer, they had Sam Kiniston, they had Andrew
Dice Clay, they had the Ghetto Boys, they had a
lot of controversial edgy artists. Madonna and Warner knew that
(02:42):
as soon as they allowed them to censor me it
was going to be a problem. And I went into
a meeting with Lenny Warnaker and Moe Austin and they
broke it down to me. There was a big corporate
table in front of me, and they said, I see
this is it. You're an artist on Warner Brothers. And
(03:02):
the guy put a quarter on the table. He said,
to see the size of this quarter. This is how
big Warner Music is compared to Time Warner. We're so
you're a dot on that small quarter and what you're
doing is it's hurting the entire thing. So I was like, damn,
(03:22):
you know, and I just kind of felt some kind
of way like they're doing everything they could to support me.
So what happened was the next album I was putting
out was a rap album which was called Home Invasion.
And when I went in there to do that record,
when I turned it in, they had me come in
and they had every word on the record written out
(03:43):
in big letters on a board. They were going through
every little thing and there was some there was some
sketchy lyrics in there. I had a lyrics said I
don't give a fuck about a cop or a g man.
They all talk shit. They're breast smelling like semen. I
catch him in that alley all alone put them in
the prone pop pop pop to the dome. So I'm like,
(04:05):
you killing cops again, right, But I'm like this gangster
rap right. So it was so they were so uptight, dame,
that I eventually just said, you know what, let me go.
I asked for the release. I said, it's kind of
like me and you are in business, and I'm like,
my politics is messing with your money. But we friends.
(04:26):
Let me go. Man, I'm no hard feelings, and I
never had a hard feeling with Warner Brothers. And what
Warner Brothers did that was very cool. The Home Invasion
album was about a half a million dollar album to make.
They gave it to me. They never recouped it. They
just said here, good luck Ice, because you got to remember,
(04:47):
for so many years, like ten years, I was the
number one rapper on that label. They loved me. They
you know, I had done nothing but bring them golden
platinum records six six consecutive golden platinum records, so they
couldn't turn on me like that. But I got them
in a sticky situation, and that's what happened A lot
(05:10):
of people didn't understand the source magazine went after me.
He said, I folded. Chuck d said the best. He said,
those that are don't in the wars shouldn't comment on
the battles. You have no idea what was really going
on behind the scene. But that was it. But Warner
never really did Low. They didn't do Low. They was
(05:34):
just a bad situation.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
History is proven, or history is reflected only the times
that large corporations or any company turned their back on people.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I mean, we do see.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Nike will stand on the side of what they believe
is right, even when somebody's kneeling. They'll stand on that side,
and we can use them. But I don't think I've
ever heard of a music label, especially a label that
wasn't backed by like, let's say, a young person hip
like you, right like you. I've heard of Jimmy I
(06:10):
Bean backing you know, and and having somebody's back. I've
heard of a couple of people, and I never heard
of something like a Warner backing you and that that's
that's that's really rare.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So you know what it was name, I don't think
they were backing me as much as they was.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Back in the back in the principle overall.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, once they censor you. Yeah. And if you notice
at the end of it, there was no more Warner
Music at some point. The last thing was when death
Row was trying to get involved and Ted Turner came
in and shut that whole ship down. But nah, they
they pretty much all the edgy groups left Warner Brothers
(06:49):
at that time. Uh, and they knew that. They explained
that to me, they like, it's bigger than you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's where you go after that, though.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You know what, because I'm trying to find at that moment,
that moment you're saying you were you were you were,
you were doing well on there ten years in you
would already well, we'll get to the origin of when
you decided to put that gangster rap on an actual
album and go out there. But where did you Where
did you go right after that? What were your options
that moment when you were like, let me go. Did
(07:19):
you already think, I listen, I'm getting my guys in
the sticky situation, I have other opportunity. Did you feel
like were you, being, of course courted by other people
or was it like I'm gonna go do the shit myself,
like what was that moment in your life?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
It was it was nerve wrecking man, because you know
we I was red hot. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
The cop Killer record, even though it was it was
in trouble, it went, it sold a million records. Every
record up to that point Iced Tea was either gold
or platinum, so I wasn't on a downstroke. But I
was just like kind of like an out, like people
were afraid to touch me, you know, And I basically
(08:03):
went over to Priority Priority. Brian Turner over Priority was
familiar with the funk because he had put out NWA,
so he was not afraid of it. He was like,
let's do it. We'll do the Home and I did
two albums a Priority.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh year was this.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I can't even tell you the year. I know that
cop Killer shit hit in ninety two, so it was
probably ninety three ninety four, trying to drop another record.
But Brian Turner put out the Home Invasion album, then
he put out the Return of the Real album, and
then later on he put out the Gangs Rap album.
(08:44):
So I went over the Priority because they were like
not as big a corporation and they didn't give a fuck.
And then body Count went over to Virgin because Virgin
is a British own company, and they didn't really give
a fuck about American politics. They were just like fuck it.
You know. That's that's Richard Branson in them.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, he was already rebel himself. He was already down
there in trouble for himself. Yeah, that's why, right.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Right, yeah. I mean, you know what, if you're moving records,
it's not going to be a problem to find a home.
I remember we went over to UH when we went
to when I went to Virgin, I went over there
with my balls. I let my balls hang like they
were like. We were like, what do we want for
the record? I said, I need a million up front.
(09:32):
I need a million dollars up front. I said, don't
offer me three hundred thousand. I got to watch the
cost three hundred thousand. Let's let's talk some numbers. I said,
give me the equivalent of the album going platinum up front.
And if you don't think the record's going to go platinum,
why are we here? Why are we here? I need
to be someplace that knows you can move a million records,
because I've done it before. And they leaned back in
(09:54):
the chair and wrote to check, so, you know, and
that was my first really you know, me, me being
able to negotiate because my one idea was always in
a slow increment because I'd signed, you know, a long
term contract. Now I'm a free agent. So and in
them days, getting a million dollars for a record up
(10:15):
front was big, right, big. Now these kids are getting
twenty millions. But that was big.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Let's let's let's let's wind it back, because I want
to know when when you were frustrated and you know nothing,
you know ewing, you know, we're boys.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I know these served this country. I know that. Also
you you you was a bad guy.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You know, you were doing what you had to do
when you decided at that moment to create your first single,
your first song. Can I can I ask you what
was going through your head around that time? What were
the records that were motivating you at that time? Because
you know me, when I was coming up, it was
a it was a rising to the top by Kenny Burke,
or it was public enemy, fear of you know, you know,
(10:59):
fear of a black planet and stuff like.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That, and I, oh, no, rock him paid in full.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I'm driving my car going, I'm gonna get paid in full, right,
What were the songs of that time when you were
first coming up and you were like this is this
is in whatever you were doing, you was on the
car to go go and do something that we don't
agree upon now, or you was heading to the studio
and you were just you were frustrated or excited. What
was the songs that you remember at that time at
(11:25):
that moment for the most part.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Well, I first started hearing rap when I was in
the Army, and you know, I went out of high school.
I went in the Army and there were New York
kids there from and they had the tapes you know before.
So I was hearing Flash and I was hearing Trench
with three and all that on cassette tapes. And when
Sugar Hill Gang came out, I was like, I could
(11:49):
do that, you know, I could do that because I've
been saying raps for the gang bangers in the streets.
I knew how to rhyme, so to speak. And when
I came back from the Army, my tension was to
be a DJ like Uncle Jam's Army and.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
You know, do that.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
But I got more attention rapping. But it was like
Curtis Blow, Furious five, the groups were out there, and
then the first real superstar rap groups like Run DMC
and people like that that came out.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
LL.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Of course he came out before me, and those were
like the targets, you know, And like everybody talking about
the LL beef with Ice, well that was because he
was the best, and he was a solo artist, and
I was a solo artist. So you have to go
after the man. You have to go after him, you know.
The only way to be the man is to challenge
the man, you know. So I was rapping like that,
(12:45):
like a battle rapper like that kind of rap was
my first style.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
But you took it to another level though, you know,
because I grew up, thank God, with them, and I remember,
and I remember clearly, I will you know, I was
a roadie on on the tours, and I was on
that or pushing around speakers and trying to hang out
with people, and I was on that tour with LL
and and Fat Boys and Rock Kim and all that,
and I'd be very honest.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
At that time, some.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Of the rappers were a little disrespectful when they got
out of New York because New York they thought that
it was only New York.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
The world was New York. So they would see people
they look.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
A little different with Jerry curls and and other stuff,
and they'll be disrespectful. They're like, yo, Jerry curl, put
your hands in the air. And then I remember we
got to Detroit and there was a whole bunch of
Jerry Curle doers from LA and they would call n
w A and we ain't know much about them, but
these guys that the police are throwing bos of them,
(13:43):
they were throwing boss the police. They had they had,
they had machine guns, they had oozzies with them and
all kinds of stuff. And I was like, yeah, those
Jerry Curle people with the mechanic suits.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
On, I'm afraid of them.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You know, because the rappers in New York, I mean,
you know, they were talking a little bit of stuff
like yo, you know, like it wasn't violence, it wasn't
fight back. It was kind of like a public enemy
said fight back. But it was kind of like the
very much of Black Panthers. You know, it was like
we are you know, we are going to uh, we're
gonna police our own community. But your rap was, you know,
(14:23):
we're gonna we're gonna police the police the way they're
policing us.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And what gave you that drive.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
To be able to be that vocal Because out of
all the rappers you were talking about, maybe the earlier days,
sugar Hill Gang was very pop. Maybe the message was
the one that was frustrating, where he was talking about
people pissing on the rail stations.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Just don't care.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
You know what gave you that that anger or that
that ability to say, I'm gonna I'm gonna vocalize the
streets and in a way that very few people have
and I don't care.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
It really, it really comes from not coming from a
hip hop background, Like you know, like growing up in
La it's a gang culture. So you understand gangs and
you understand low riding, and you understand how we had
what the Cali look was.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
You did.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So when I first started to rap, of course, I
was trying to rap like New York rappers. But then
I heard Schooley d out of Out of Philly. He
did a song called PSK where he sung about the
park Side Killers and I'm like, he's rapping about a gang,
and I was like, that's okay. And at that point
(15:32):
That's when I turned. That was the pivotal moment in
my career where I'm like, oh, they like that shit, right.
And so six in the morning, what they call the
first gangster rap record really is not the first gangster
rap record is PSK. And then six in the Morning
I even snatched school. He's Cadence. When he said PSK,
(15:55):
we making that green. People always say, what the hell
does that mean? I said, six police at my door
freshing year. I'm even jack the Cadence. But I took
you on a ride through La you know, hitting Crenshaw,
first time anybody ever heard the street Crenshaw rolling a
blazer with a Louis Vuitton interior and getting jacked by
(16:16):
the police and going to jail and coming out, and
that record hit Dame, that shit hit and I was like, yo,
and it hitting the Bay first. It hitting the Bay
because I got a call to do a show at
the Fillmore West, a very famous venue, and I said, Okay,
(16:37):
I'll do it. They called me back three days later
said we want you to do a show at the
Fillmore West. I'm like, I booked that. They go, No,
that sold out. I'm like, word, And once I you know,
sometimes you got to find your identity. Another thing that
helped me find my identity was Russell Simmons. I was
(16:58):
trying to be New York. I'm trying the dress, I
got the spikes on early like Mellie and I'm trying
to rappers had to look. And I was at a
show with Russell in LA and they just called me
on the stage. And that day I had on my
street clothes, I had on Fela, I had k Swiss on,
you know, my perm and I went upstage rapped and
(17:21):
when I came up to stage, Russell's like, that's your look,
trying to look like New York. You gotta look like
La nigga. You an La Nigga. You gotta rep the coast.
And then I started to evolve into just being a
LA player. And early my first two albums, I didn't
even rep gangster. It's more like the player, the hustler.
(17:45):
But when Nwa came out and ice Cube said straight
out of Compton, crazy motherfucker named ice Cube from the
gang called niggas with attitudes, the press called it gangster yea.
So I said, well, if it's gangster rap, I got
two albums out already then I'm the original gangst So
(18:06):
that's where the og shit came from me reclaiming like, okay,
this is what we're doing. Then yeah, let's make it clear.
And you know it's it's just really reflecting what you
see versus rocking the party. Like you know, when I
tried to write the party, it didn't work. You know,
when I start talking about the street shit, I reached
(18:28):
a large audience and it was really my perspective at
the moment. So earlier Ice Team music is a lot
more negative as before I started to evolve as as
a man, I was kind of like right off the block.
Just imagine if you took a kid right out of
any Borough, Queens or whatever in the projects. He's hustling,
(18:52):
and if you put him in a studio and whatever
he said happened to Ron. That's real raw gangster rap.
You see what I'm saying. It's just magically at Ron
and he told his story. That's what we were doing
right out the gate.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Let me go to that gangs of mentality though, because
you know, we can't help what we came from, and
that gang's mentality it seemed to have.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Served you in various different ways.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So you used it in the form and I always said, everybody,
there's only two people to get the ultimate pass snoop
and iced tea.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
You can get a a.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Star on the Walker Hall of Fame and curse everybody
out at the same time, you know, by getting and
giving love to obviously the people in the audience.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
But if you reflect on it, there's a certain way
you can think.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
About gangs and stuff. You can think about it that
don't ever cross the line. Don't disrespect me because this
is all I have is a reputation, and I'm gonna
have to defend that reputation because if I allow you
to do that, well, then everybody's gonna do it. Oh,
it's a mentality of Listen, I know you got dirty
with me. Wanna I know you've got a bigger priority,
and you know I don't think that. I don't think
(19:59):
I want to take you down that path kind of
like you know you walking down the block. Listen, a
little homie, I did this dirt by myself. Don't worry
about it. I know you cool, you ready, but I
ain't gonna do that to you or when you and I,
you know, we're kind of hanging out and chilling on
our own.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And you're like, listen.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I always talked to Dick Wolf and I be like, listen, man,
just tell me what it is, and I'm good.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
We I've had a good fortune of going for me
to cop killer, the longest run a cop on television,
and the TV and everything is changing. I got you,
you got me, I got you. Don't stress it that
you have a form of dedication from a gangster way,
but also you brought the form of But I'm not
going to bring you down that path. I mean you
just let me know what it is and we good
(20:40):
when we walk in.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
So that is it's a code, man. It's a code
that you know. I was raised around a lot of
OG's older than me, and you know it's a code. Man.
It's like, yo, man, I got this. I did it.
It's my shit. Let me handle my shit. You know,
like people talking about snitching, Yo, if I did it,
(21:02):
I did it, I'll handle I could carry my weight.
When I was going through the cop killing shit, I
wasn't pointing at other rappers while looking them. They they're
saying stuff too. I'm like, I handled my business. But
you know, you got to have a little gangster to
survive in this business because the way that businesses, they'll
(21:23):
fuck you. They'll fuck you with the with the soft touch,
you know they and they will also challenge anything they
think won't fight back. They will definitely you have as
a as a businessman, you got to be like, I
know my shit, don't blame me, don't play me. A
lot of time when I'm doing contracts with people and
they're like, well, what do you want in the contract,
(21:45):
I'm like, why don't you just send me one? Let
me see what how you feel about me. Let me
see your offer. And I don't know whether you're a
fuck boy or you really down with it. Like I
I can read, I can read how you feel, you know,
give me the offer. I'm waiting to see how how
valuable you think I really am. So a lot of times, man,
(22:06):
you know this attitude now now my personality, this gangster shit,
it's not really who I am. I had, you know,
fifty Cents said it best. It's not how my mama
raised me. Is how the hood made all right. So
you come into this business world real soft and thinking
everything's good. They're gonna fuck you, They're gonna fuck you.
(22:28):
They're gonna find everything you don't know and take advantage
of it. It's like if you're doing a record deal
and they go, okay, you're international merchandise. You know what
do you go? Huh? They go fucking right there?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You know, right there, right there? Oh what we got?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Now? They go publishing? What about that? Hunh fucking mind.
They're not gonna explain to you what you're publishing. They're
gonna hit you every place. You don't think they don't
think you know. But my boy used to say, they're
been fucking us long enough, we should not a fuck
by never. I don't think it's I think it's just
(23:19):
the streets translate to business very well.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, can I can? I?
Speaker 1 (23:23):
You know, because a lot of a lot of people
are going to be trying to move their career every
every day somebody the fairy getting cancel or whatever. But
let me add, when is that not work for you?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
You know this mentality and if you ever said I
went too hard or I didn't know what I didn't know,
I mean, can you do you?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Can you recall any times or that moment when you say,
you know what, maybe I should have gave them another chance.
But I had I had developed such a hard shell
that they weren't trying to fuck me, but I thought
they were. I mean, or or or listen, somebody could
have been trying to fuck you and you regretted it
at the time, you reflect and seeing what they did
to other people after you and they will you were like, yeah, yeah,
you know, you know not really.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm I'm very smooth. I'm very smooth when I deal
with people. It's always a soft touch, and I make
sure that people around me have a soft touch. That's
the biggest problem. My crew, like the guys I got
working for me, they not as seasoned in this as
I am. So you know, even this the way you
know a lot of brothers, the way they talk people
(24:26):
like they're extorting me. No, no, ask them for the
money you owe them. That's all. But that there, I
have to like work with my guys like, look, man,
you can't you're scary, like you know, don't be like that.
But noah, I mean nah, I've learned a lot. I've
been in a lot of rooms with people I've dealt with,
(24:48):
you know, big heavyweight executives, and they're gangster, you know,
they're the way they handle business. Like I always say,
like in business, the trick is, like me and Dick
Wolf's relatelationship, is we make the deal. I stick to
the deal.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
There's a moment when we get to negotiate, we go
back and forth. Now I think I'm worth this ice.
I can get Brad Pitt for that. Come on, man,
well come on man, this, that and the third. Come on,
I'm the only black man on the show. I might
throw the race card in there. I'm trying to get
paid right. Oh wow. But then after we come to
that negotiation and it's done, I stick to the deal,
(25:28):
and so does he. That's gangster. I don't come back
halfway in the middle of the contract one that no no, no,
no no. So he knows. Once I told you, Dick
Wolf said, iced tea is the least pain in my ass,
the best compliment I ever got, because you know, when
you have employees, the person who's the least pain is
your favorite person. You know, the one that's always coming
(25:50):
with problems and ideas and book man, come on, man,
you really close to the ads. You think you're doing
a lot, but you're really about to get fired. Because
you're driving me fucking crazy. So you know, my boy,
one of my other boys, said, the only thing gangs
about ice, he really is he does.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Not back up. Well hmmm, I like that.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I don't back up well. So in other words, everything's
cool until you tell me what I better do. Then naw,
because like you said, once, I allow that, I might
as well let you do whatever you want to me.
I might as well let you move in my house.
You know what I'm saying, Like, there's got to be
a point where and you got one too, where you're like, nah,
(26:33):
now not nah, now you're going to cross the line.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Nah.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
And you know, other than that, I'm fair game. I'm
play game fair well.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
You know, your your history is coming up as a
as a really vocal music artists embarrass and you know,
I don't really know what the real deal is. I mean,
you know, I've been told you'll pimp. I told you
this that, and then you you you change your lifestyle.
It alters a little bit and you you know, our wives, friends,
(27:03):
and you changed to be just becoming a new dad again,
taking that path, beautiful white, very dedicated dad. What was
that moment when you you said, I don't know, I
feel like change. I mean, you know you didn't change immediately.
You were ready for change to be the guy that
we know now very beloved as a father or husband
(27:25):
of various other things, and no longer.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I mean you're a gangster at hard.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So it's very hard to explain Ice, but that moment
of being calm in your career, you know, going on
and being an actor, but the meantime being on stage
your shirt off, doing heavy metals and ship over here,
and then you know, being on the player's ball, which
I think that's my favorite role of Ice, being on
the player's ball. Yeah, yeah, When when did you get
that form of like being just really comfortable whatever you
(27:52):
did and being a dedicated dad because I know, I
know the story when you know, so when you decided
to to you know, to be that person with Coco,
I know you gave her the phone and and said
any any any young lady call you answer this and
you know what you you say it better than I do.
What was that that moment when you gave her the
phone and said boom.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Well like like like this has been a long transformation,
you know. So the first transformation was leaving the streets
when I started making music and I got a little famous.
I just said, man, I'm done. I can't break the
law no more because you know, now all eyes are
on me and I don't want to get any of
you guys in trouble.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
But how about you thinking not keeping it real?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I mean, we just we're just seeing what happened to
Gunner and all these dudes who they was making all
this money. But you know now they got rico chargers,
not they probably going to jail until you know, I
don't until aliens come down and start rapping it.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Well, there's a difference between fame and infamy. When you're infamous,
you don't nobody knows your name. You like low key,
and like I said, if everybody in the street knows
your name, so did the cops. So I had been
able to duck them. And when I decided and finally
start making a little record money, of course I went broke.
But that was a career change I made because now
(29:10):
I'm doing interviews, I'm meeting people. You can't do that
and go out and break the law. And my other book,
I had this chapter called Too Famous to Steal, where
I went to do something and steal something some kids
came out of the house and wanted autographs. I'm like,
what the.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Wait a minute, what hold on? You went to steal what?
You was already famous and you were trying to steal something.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you don't really get no
bread to your first, second, third album. So I had
a Porsche and I was trying to get a part
Porsche and my boys just stole a Porsche and I
didn't want to pay for it, and they was full
of shit about getting a part I needed. I'm like,
where's the motherfuck car at where's the car? I'll go
get it.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Fuck that.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
So I got a ratchet set, I got my boys.
I walked through this apartment building. I walked through this
apartment building. I pulled a car cover off the car.
I'm in the car still in the park. Part probably
costs like a thousand dollars. I could have paid for it.
I was just it I wanted. Plus I was showing
(30:17):
my niggas. I knew I was still good with my ship.
But when I get in the car, all these little
kids come walking out the motherfucking house and they're like,
I see oh shit, So now their mothers and stuff
come out and I'm taking pictures in front of a
G in front of a G t A. I'm standing
(30:40):
there taking pictures because they saw me in breaking and
some ship and yeah, it's funny now. So then after
they all left, they thought that was my car. I
had to call the home. He's like, Yo, this car
can't be here in the morning. Get to move this
fucking car. But yeah, that's a chapter one of my
books called Too Famous to Steal. But long story short,
(31:03):
now made this transition. I'm going through all this music
and stuff like that. I left my I was with
my ex Darlene for like fifteen years, never got married,
and when I came to New York, we broke up.
You know, usually when you break up with a woman,
you really broke up.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
A year or so earlier.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
So we were we were together, but we weren't really
living like that, you know, and finalized when I came
to New York to do law and order, it was like, okay,
you might as well stop playing this charade out for
my son. Let's just cut it off. So now I
w was single out here for a couple of years.
Didn't dig it. I didn't dig it because you know,
(31:45):
it's just a It's an illusion, you know. It's always
when you got your girl on your arm, all the
girls are fine. As soon as she gets off your arm,
these bitches change, they transform into all kinds of other
scary looking things. You know. It's just something about being single.
It's not it's fun. It's a weird warp. So when
you're young, it's cool because you're fuck anything. But when
(32:05):
you're older and you refine your taste, you know, you
ain't gonna see that shit you want walking around by yourself.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
It's just not I think, you know, I think that
is a greeting call. When you're young, you'd fuck anything,
you know. I think you should write cars. You're young,
you fuck anything. When you get a little older, you
ain't gonna see the ship you want to fuck.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
You know. I think that's pretty.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
You know, you should write greeting car.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I think that's that moment. But let's go, let's go
into let's go further. Your taste, Yeah, you refine your taste.
So I met Coco. Now, when I was going after Coco,
I was watching a lot of the Osbourne.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Ozzie and Sharon, and I was looking like, would Ozzie
have a mansion if it wasn't for sharing Osbourne, like,
this woman is running all the tours, running all his business.
Doesn't even seem like Ozzie would know how to pay
a phone bill. Ozzie is something different, right, But he's
wealthy because you got a woman to hold it together.
So me personally, I could get money for crossing t's
(33:04):
and dynay's. It's not my thing. It's not many artists things.
That's why artists have business managers, because you know you
you my business manager. You send me in a studio,
Da da da da da, Send me over here, send
me over there. I will get money. But somebody gotta
pay the taxes. Somebody gotta you know, that ain't what
we want to do. We just want to make the money.
So I told when I met Coco, she was fine.
(33:28):
I was like, told her, I said, yo, I mean,
I'm not really just trying to get another number in
my phone. I'm really trying to find somebody that wants
to ride. And she dug the flyness of me. She
was a chick. When I met her. I had on
a red snake skin suit, so she was like, ooh,
that's fly. See some girls, some girls want soft niggas,
(33:50):
and some girls want real niggas. You know, they don't
a soft nigga. They like, I'm not even into you.
You ain't got no base in your voice. Some women
want to man man. So she was like Coke, Yeah,
like put me in my place. You I like that shit.
You know what I'm saying. You know, some chicks I
don't know. They can masculate niggas, but that's different. They
(34:12):
won't even fuck with us. They did. They just already
know that nigga Ice is too managed. Funny story, Whoopy
Goldberg was talking about Coco one day and she said, yeah, Coco,
that she's a dope sister, and they go sister, They said, uh, Whoop,
you know Coco's wife. She said, Coco been dealing for
twenty years with Ice teased managed ass. She's a She's
(34:35):
an honorary s that nigga. So anyway, when we got together,
I was just like, Yo, are we gonna do this?
Are we are? We? Are we gonna do this as
a couple And she was like, I'm down. So I
had a phone at the time, and I'm like, here,
(34:56):
take it. Start answering the calls and anybody that calls up,
just say who you are and take the message. At
that time, yeah, I was out in the street, but
I didn't have no chicks that could lay claim to me.
They were just chicks, you know what I'm saying. So
when they got the call, she's like, hey, what's up
is this? I no, this is Coco. Oh okay, Well
(35:21):
maybe they might hang up, maybe they might tell her
to leave a message. Sometimes I got the message. It
was such and such. But you know, when you out
in the streets and you you're a player, that girl
is calling from Atlanta. She ain't talked to you in
a year. She's just checking in. You know, we're going
to Miami. You're gonna be into Miami. You know that bullshit.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Right. So, anyway, Coco cleared the house in a beautiful way.
But then she would also take messages from my niggas.
So I would get messages like this from her. She's like,
uh baby, uh trigger said he left some bullets and
come on. Or The funny thing is like they would
(36:06):
call and it would be like this, yo, yo, what's good?
What's that? What's her? She'd be like, oh, this is Coco.
Same Nigga, Hey, Coco, what's the same Nigga's voice would
change when he would talk to her. So, you know,
it's been good. Now we've been together twenty two going
on twenty three years.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
It's good man.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
And uh, it was a smart move. You know, it
was a smart move for me. You know, it's dating scene.
Anybody knows out there it's toxic and it's full of
land mines, and uh, you know, I got the fuck
off the field for I called a body.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Did you find balance?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
And that's interesting because she showed she's she's one of
the as you would say, I say too, she's one
of the nicest people you'll ever meet, right.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
And.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
She's not trying to be this trying She's just who
she is. And did you find.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That that kind offer friends? Change your perspective? One thing?
Speaker 3 (37:04):
You know, not really I never really dated a white
girl before, you know, so my thing was like, you know,
I've been around white girls, I work with them and stuff,
but as far as actually being like in love and
all that, that was different for me. But you know,
I always say I'm a player. I don't really care.
You know, if a Martian bitch dropped down and was
saying the right shit, I'd be fucking green pussy right now.
(37:26):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
You like Captain Kirk because Captain Kirk.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Would would do it with anybody, bang everything in the universe.
My partner, my pimp, Buddy Rich, said, man, you just
look for a bitch. You could understand what the fuck
you be talking about. You just need somebody could comprehend. Boom,
that's you need comprehension, my nigga. So I was like, no,
Coco was dope. But I think I always say this,
and I say this in a weird kind of way,
(37:51):
but Coke and I are like like like like the
exact same thing, but turn into a woman and a male.
So think of it like, right, okay, uh, if my
gangster was feminine, it would be sexy, right. A woman's
(38:15):
power is sexy, being sexy, not being like a man.
She would be sexy, right, So that would result probably
in a big titty blonde right that and her gangster
is male, it would be a nigga a gangster. So
it's it's like we're very alpha of each of each
side of the spectrum. You feel me like she's an
(38:38):
alpha alpha woman. I'm an alpha male. And also I
think that like you and your wife, the trick is,
you have to find someone who matches your energy. Now,
if I go out by myself, I spin the room
when I walk in. That's iced tea. That's iced tea. Well,
she spends it too, she spends it on her own
(38:59):
sore for a week. We have equal power and we
are a good couple. If I'm with a chick that
doesn't have that same energy, my energy intimidates her, like
why you got to take pictures with all the people?
Why you got why you gotta that? If my wife
is with a weaker nigga, he like, why you gotta
wear that? You gotta you look too? You know, you're
dracking too much attention, So you gotta have a Both
(39:21):
people have to be very confident in who they are,
just like you and your wife. You know who you
are and she knows who she is. And that's why, y'all.
You know, we both dealt with chicks that are insecure,
and we both dealt with you know, So it's it
was a lucky lick, you know. And I was in
my forties when I met her, so you know, I've
(39:42):
done everything a nigga could do. I remember I told
my boy, I said, Yo, I'm thinking about getting married
to Coco. It's like, nigga, you donna have more sex
than a football team. Nigga, you have time to bring
bring that shit home.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
That.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Shit down, Like, what are you trying? What are you
trying to do? And I'm very happy and now with
my daughter. Our daughter is about the same age. I
quote Muhammad Ali. He says, when a man has a
child in the second half of his life, after he
turns fifty, it's like it resets me. It's like it
(40:37):
resets his life. It made me want to live forever.
It made me create new goals. Because you got bread,
you can start slowing down. But now not that new baby.
That new baby, and it's the best gift that I
could ever get. I see how much you love your daughter.
(40:59):
I think the difference with Chanelle and my other kids
is I'm very conscious of this baby. Like I had
my daughter when I was in high school. I was
ripping and running, so it was presence over presents. I
wasn't there. Yeah, you know, same way my son, my son,
(41:20):
Ice happened right when I was becoming iced tea. You know,
I had never been famous before this was a whole
new thing. So I'm distracted by that just becoming Chanell.
I'm comfortable. I'm in a cruise pattern. I was there
when Coco was pregnant, I went to the hospital, and
she now still sleeps in the bed with us, you know.
(41:40):
So I'm so much more connected to her than my
other kids. But it's been a beautiful.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Thing, you know, I really I took away a lot
of stuff here, a lot of a lot of a
lot of a lot of gifts, really, and there's a
lot of things that a lot of hitting gems in there.
And obviously, I mean I never thought of a when
you think of gangs of being a big titty blonde,
you know. Okay, yeah, I get it though, I get it,
you know what I'm saying, because that that could be
(42:09):
gangs and big titty blonde, big titty brunette.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Big titty whatever, little titty whatever.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
You know, Barbara Corkran always saysf you all got big titties,
put uh put with with pigtails, you know so, But
I gotta say, you know, when you when you when
you talk about young ice and you're advising a lot
of the younger people coming up now who look at
you and you you pretty much have done in your terms.
(42:34):
It hasn't been easy. A lot of people were against you,
and it wasn't really done before. What you've accomplished in
regards of being very true to your your upbringing.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
What would you say?
Speaker 3 (42:48):
What is your go to.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
In that moment when you have to make critical decisions
and you say do you trust your gut? Do you say,
I go back to these hold you know? What is
your kind of your thing that leads you back to
the fundamentals of ice And no matter what, he's not
gonna break these And I don't give a shit if
I lose everything, I'm not gonna go against this.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
I never I would never betray my friends, you know.
I would never. You know. I'm not that guy you
know and the only person that can betray you with
somebody that you trust, you know, so I wouldn't. I'm
not that guy. I don't know, you know. I run
into lots of issues. I like to sleep on stuff,
(43:41):
you know. I like to like if something is difficult
to me to answer, I'm like, give me some time,
let me think on it. A lot of times I'll
wake up the next day, I was noticing a lot
of times things we stress off. Sometimes you just need
to make the phone call and just get that out
of the way, like just that postponing it. That anxiety
(44:02):
of it isn't usually as big as the actual issue
once you get to the people and you talk and
get that over with. But I just really, I just
don't fuck with bad energy no more. You know, I
know what bad energy is. I know when you're out
to do wrong and you're out to do bad things.
I just don't do that no more. I don't even
(44:24):
entertain it.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Do you entertain people around you who are not putting
the energy towards you, but you hear them they talking
about other people.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
They all are there. Yeah, So what happened?
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Because sometimes as family, sometimes as people who you know,
I tend to cut people off after years and I
look at the list, you know, at the end of
the year, and I go, this person's not a good
friend to themselves, They're never going to be a good
friend to me. Or maybe I don't mess with them
and there's something wrong with me. But whatever it is,
I can't change. I don't like them, and I just
I just kind of, you know, I let them know
(44:56):
where we're at, though, I let them know, Hey, I
can't mess with you on this level or that level.
I tell him I'm clear because I don't want to be.
I don't want I don't want no misunderstandings. What do
you do about the people around here to do that?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
But they're not. They never do it to you. Managers, lawyers, friends,
called colleagues.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
They say, if you can't change some of your friends,
you have to change some of your friends. So I
I don't know. Pretty much, I got my shit down
to a skeleton crew. I'll keep it one hundred. I
got it down to a skeleton crew. I got a
very very few people that I really fuck with to
where you know, I'm gonna return their phone calls if
(45:35):
they call me. I just don't fuck with people like that.
Like a lot of one of my homies was like,
Ice is your friend? Yeah, as Ice ever called you?
Has he ever called you? Did you ever pill a phone?
He's like, hey, man, how you doing? Okay? Think about
that for a minute, right, Like how does he call you?
I don't think. My dad used to tell me if
(45:57):
you can count your friends on your hand, it's a
big thing. It's very It's very rare that you have
people that you really let into your real world, like
you know, like I know, grim's your man, I know
certain people. Those are people that are inside. Yeah, but
those people that are inside are the ones that can
hurt you the most. That they go less because they
(46:18):
have the access. So you just have to be very cautious.
I don't know, Dan, you know, you're right. I think
it's your gut. I think by now your gut is
very seasoned and you can feel it, and you just
try to learn from your mistakes. You make mistakes, and
you like, I mean, you know, I didn't even doing business.
(46:38):
I just did a business deal with some people and
they came in and they act like they had a
lot of money, and then halfway through the deal they
ain't had no money. And I was like, I was like,
we can't even assume them. They broke And so I
told my partner, we cannot deal with broke mo fuckers,
Like before we start, we have to make sure they
(46:59):
can handle what they claim and they can hear. So
these are lessons. These are lessons. But you know, I
don't know, man, I don't know what makes me tick
at this moment. I just really just try to like
keep it positive, to keep you know. You know, my
thing is I've never counted on anybody other's health, hustle.
(47:22):
I think that's my success thing is I've never counted
on anyone else but me. And that's the scary part
of it is. Right now I'm trying to get into
other businesses. I'm trying to get it. You know, we're
starting a dispensary. I'm trying to find things that generate
money other than myself, because what if something does happen
to me and I physically can't get it, you know,
(47:48):
but I have to learn about those things because I've
always been the money person that generated the money. And yeah, man,
I just I don't know. Man, it's hard to say. Man,
I think you just have a code. You have a
it's really your character. It's like, what is your character?
It's your character a good person? Or is your character
(48:11):
a shady person or a slick person? And you know,
I don't got no ops, I don't got nobody after me.
I don't have no no negative energy like that. I
don't want that shit. It ain't worth it, He's not.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Really you know.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I think I can vocalize it as well. I mean,
you know, I agree with so much of what you've said,
but this is about you and me trying to go
down that rabbit hole with you and get that thought
process of you going. But I think it's the same thing,
you know, after you've been through so much, all these
deals and people that come to you when it's a rush, right,
it was always a rush.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Hey, Cannas is hot this year, let's get it home.
Slow down. So oh hey, cryptos hot is you come on?
Speaker 3 (48:47):
Come on, I need you to sign this.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
I need you to do this, like you know, and
it's so much of a rush, and you can't go
home and think about it.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Then all of a sudden, why was it so much
of a rush? Also?
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Yeah, you know, it's not necessarily the deals that you
you don't do that hold you up. The deals you
do because you get into the deals of these people
that don't necessarily have money. Because it's funny, right, a
lot of people will come to you, me and the
people listening right now, and they go, oh, we're doing
all this, we're doing all that, we're doing that, but
we ain't got no money for you because we want
to why everybody else got picked why everybody else got paid?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
What are you you doing all this?
Speaker 3 (49:20):
And that? You know?
Speaker 1 (49:21):
You know, I like to do they go. You know,
I was gonna take this over to ditty. I was
gonna take this leap. I'm gonna take it to you
for no, no no, take it to.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
Them, take it to them. You know.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
But I think I think that I think it. What
it really boiled down to is your gut, you know,
because you know.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah. One thing I like to say also with me
is that I hold friendships dear. You know, so I'm
friends with you. I'm friends with doctor Dre. But I'm like, say,
Dre Dray. But I never talked to Dre about music,
right m you know you're on Shark Tank. I've never
(49:59):
talked you about money. I never we don't talk about it,
you know. So I get around somebody like you know,
Jamon John, Oh shit, you should get him that. I'm like, look, see,
that's why you can't be his friend, because you know
that's not what he does. You know, if you're friends
with somebody like Dre, you want he wants you to
come over and play Xbox and leave like that. Just
(50:21):
be his friend, you know. If something generically happens, that's great.
But you know, I like people for who they are,
you know, and just have friendships. And that's hard in
this business because everybody's angling. You know, your boy will
come over and at the end of the night, after
you done had fun drank, here comes a pitch you like,
(50:44):
this is what this whole thing was about. This pitch
you got for me, Like, come on, man, take it easy.
I don't know. It's different. Different people see things different ways,
you know, and so I I see things my way,
and you know, I always say, I think, at the
end of the day, Dame, what really matters to me
is my legacy, not the money, not none of this shit.
(51:07):
Because when you're gone, you're just gonna give the money
to people who gonna fuck it off because they didn't
have the acremen to get it in the first place.
So it doesn't mean they're gonna have the acremen to
hold it. They're gonna fuck it off. So you know,
the only thing that really you leave is your reputation.
And if you are a great man, when people meet
(51:30):
your daughter or your wife, they go, oh that's DamID
John's people. Okay, let them through, Like my son is
in la this nigga telling me, oh, I got juice?
You got juice? How the fuck you got juice? You
telling them you little ice and they letting you through
the ropes. That's your daddy's juice you got, you know.
But my daughter's in Atlanta. When she says who she is,
(51:51):
people treat her like a little queen or princess. That's
what's important to me, my legacy. If I leave here
as a great man or a good man, then everyone
else gets to live off of that. Not the money.
It's my rep at the end of the day. Our
legacies is more important because that's what our families are
going to live off of. That's what you know, your
(52:12):
your wife, your kids, and on and on and on.
And we just had to be careful because they try
to scandalize you or do something ruin that, and that's
more important to need than anything else. So you know,
I've it's got to be careful and cautious because they
they hate to see, you know, especially black men, become
successful and pull it off and leave, you know, on
(52:35):
a good note, you know, And that's what my thing
is about, you know. So I'm very careful and trying
to stay you know straight, So my kids and my
wife and anybody who represents me.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Can be proud right well, Listen, man, I always learned
something new when we hang out. And I love the
fact of going down this kind of history path. Of
that moment, the moment that you know, you realize that
you were famous and you couldn't no longer live the
life that you will leave it even though you didn't
have necessarily money, of the moment that you have to
deal with with the decision of facing Warner and or
(53:11):
you were going through the moment of you know, meeting
your your wife and changing your life.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
And and moving to New York and you know, moving
away from your you know who you were with.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
So a lot of decisions have to be made in
your life, man, And I'm glad you took the moment
today to share it with us.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
And you always inspire me a lot.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
Of times you're just telling me things that I didn't
know if I did the right thing or anybody else
felt like like I feel, you know, as I'm still
trying to learn and grow. So I appreciate you spending
time with me, man, and thank you for being on
that moment.
Speaker 3 (53:43):
Hey, Hey, you know what, Oh at the end of
the day, man, you know what I learned is that
it's always going to be you, just on you, by yourself.
There's not a group of people to help you when
shit goes wrong, It's going to be on you. And
and closing, I try to tell everybody, nobody wakes up
in the morning with your dream whatever you want to do.
(54:06):
You could think you've got partners, but nobody wakes up
thinking about what you want. And the only way it's
gonna happen is that you do it. Because I could
be on the sidelines. I'm helping you, but I don't
wake up with your dream. That's your dream, all right,
that's sure. Thank you brother. All Right, Pete Dame, I've
talked to you soon.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
All right, you gotta all right. And this has been
that Moment with Damon John.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to the show and rate the show. You
can all connect with me on any social media platform
(54:58):
at the Sharp daymon As in Raymond with a d
Host
Daymond John
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