What are your memories of Fort Crenshaw and how that… You mentioned being an orphan coming to Los Angeles.
Acting, all this stuff I’m doing now is so far from what I thought my life was gonna be. I can’t play any instrument, so I never thought that was ever gonna be. I wanted to be cool, and music was never ever. Now, when you’re in danger is when your closest circle turns on you and they open the door to the second level that can come get you, so it’s very important you make sure the people really close to you are happy and ain’t in that zone, but I figured all this stuff out and I was trying to figure out what to do in LA and I wanted to be popular. See, OK, say I got a close group of friends around me that love me, right, then they talk well about me to another circle of friends and they talk well about me to another circle of friends, so when Joe Blow over here says he’s gonna move on Ice, he’s gonna run into somebody that says, “Nah, I f-s with Ice,” and that protects me. If you’re a likable person, you can move around, so I figure early in LA that no one’s afraid of anybody, but if they love you, you good, so love is more important than fear.Īll of my friends that people feared are dead because that don’t last, but if people like you. You just gotta get the gang on your side. I was always reaching to be a little bit smarter, a little bit more intelligent. You trying to make it in this city, these motherf-s will eat you alive, you dig? I always was trying to figure it out. I don’t got no backup, so I don’t have family or brothers, so I gotta connect to the right cats that got my back. I don’t have any living relatives, so I was kind of thrown into south central Los Angeles to try to figure it out. I was always good at that, and sometimes, you don’t know what’s gonna be your gift and that turned out to be my gift, my communication ability.ĭo you think that being the foundation for you, do you think that was the thing that prepared you for everything that you were able to do subsequently? Musically, theatrically, whatever, writing, or do you think hip-hop was part of that, as well, as far as just giving you the skills, preparing you to be able to do all these different things? That just was a vehicle for me to get out of trouble, so I had to figure something out and that kind of was dropped in my lap. More of a writer, whether I’m writing books or writing raps, or just a lyricist and a writer first. Now, I just ran down a short list of the many things that you do, but do you still consider yourself a musician first? We’re gonna do an Uncle Jamm’s Army reunion.” Of course I wanted to do that, so when there’s a will, there’s a way, and you guys came up with this little speaking thing for the Red Bull Academy, so I’m in the building.Īll right, well, we’re very happy to have you here. I was minding my business and Egyptian Lover popped up on the phone talking about coming to LA, and I’m like, “I live in New York right now,” and he’s like, “Well, come. He is not just an MC, but a band leader, author, actor, broadcaster, public speaker, freedom of expression advocate… Please join me in welcoming the OG Ice T. Tonight, we welcome an LA hip-hop pioneer, but more importantly, not just an LA hip-hop pioneer, but a pioneer in expanding what the possibilities are for a hip-hop artist.