![]() “I don’t want kids to know who I am or how old I am,” he explained. Ice T revealed his real name and age only after it was agreed that this was off-the-record information. when it comes to rapping,” boasted Ice T, who’s still sensitive about the bum rap given to West Coast rap. “I’m showing everybody that we don’t pussyfoot around here in L.A. When Run-D.M.C.’s “Raising Hell” album sold millions last year and inspired record companies to sign rappers, Ice T got a deal with Sire Records. But working with the great rapper Melle Mel gave him credibility. Though having a single, “Reckless,” on the “Breakin’ ” sound track was great exposure, like most rappers he was still limited to making 12-inch singles. Since then he’s done other movies-”Breakin’ II,” “Rappin’ ” and “Breakin’ and Entering”-and some commercials. His first record was a 1982 12-inch single, the sizzling “Coldest Rap.” But working in the film “Breakin’ ” was the first big break of his rapping career. An amateur rapper while a student at L.A.’s Crenshaw High and an airborne Ranger in the Army, he pursued rap seriously in the early ‘80s. It took a while for Ice T to surface too. It took a while for it to get to the surface.” Rap had a hard time on the West Coast for a long time. ![]() They said rap couldn’t make it on the West Coast. “They said the rappers were soft and dainty out here. ![]() “They always said we couldn’t rap out here,” Ice T noted in a disgusted tone. Since rap’s roots are in the mean streets of New York, East Coast artists have always been considered the premier rappers. West Coast rappers were always regarded as second-rate. For years, though, it was a hollow title. ![]() Ice T is probably the West Coast’s ace rapper. The rhythms-the feel of street rhyme-just penetrated my soul. “I always liked to rhyme,” said Ice T, a Newark, N.J., native who’s been living in Los Angeles since early adolescence. His fascination with rapping-which he also calls power poetry and the real black music-began when he was a kid. He earned that nickname as a youngster by frequently reciting the racy, rhythmic prose of a writer named Iceberg Slim. “Mine shoots.”īy the way, don’t call him Mr. “I have a little gun like that,” she said. So this can be looked at as a peace symbol.Ī woman at the restaurant, fascinated by the gun, walked over to Ice T, gingerly touched the gun and asked him if it could really shoot. “The government takes our tax money and buys guns so they can keep peace. Even though I was talking that way on that record I still say I’m not a violent man.”īut something else about Ice T causes people to doubt this claim: It’s that little gun he wears dangling from a heavy chain around his neck. That record is a monument to me talking crazy. There’s some real hard-core murder stuff on it. Even he now admits it was excessively violent: “I wanted to make a rap record to end all rap records. One of Ice T’s early 12-inch singles, “Dog in the Wax,” got him into hot water. ![]() But that doesn’t make me a violent man and that doesn’t mean that I favor violence.” Violence is part of the streets and rap is the music of the streets, the poetry of the streets. “I’m not a violent man,” he insisted, though lyrics on songs like “Squeeze the Trigger” are riddled with violent images. Throughout his career, Ice T has been dogged by charges that he advocates violence. “It all depends on whether your mind is turned to sex or violence.” “It can be taken either way,” Ice T explained. This label, supposedly warning people of offensive material, is in a cylindrical shape that could either be a bullet or a condom. The sticker is a sly dig at the Parents Music Resource Center, the Virginia-based organization pressuring the record industry to clean up its act. To Ice T, that’s something to boast about: “That tells the kids that’s something in there they shouldn’t hear. The album bears a sticker warning of explicit lyrics. ![]()
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