Ice-T talks like he raps, you give him a question and he spits out opinions, rhymes and the occasional joke. After his sound check on Friday at Ministry of Sound and before he went shopping with his ponderous DJ Afrika Islam and the alluring Coco, he spoke to the Taipei Times and other journalists. He was asked about whether he had another book in him after writing The Ice Opinion.
"I'm an opinionated person who has said what he felt when the mic was in his hand. I dunno if there's a new book, a new Ice opinion. They have asked me to do an Ice 2. I mean they say all people've got a book in them but they also say sometimes you should keep it in 'em. I dunno."
Ice-T talked about hip hop's negative associations and was asked if it had positive effects too.
"I think hip hop had a hell of a lot to do with the rights movement. In the '90s, when rap came out a lot of white kids learned about me and came to understand about the ghetto, so to speak. Now they're are sitting on the Supreme Court and running businesses and shit. I mean the black kids don't have the opportunity to do that. The chain effect has kinda worked. There's a long way to go globally but I think the world is a better place to be since hip hop began."
Ice-T was asked about his film work and he said, "Law and Order. I've been on the show for five years. It's helped with the popularity. It's a good gig, it's fun, it's cleaned up my image a bit so they don't hate me as much, and I don't mind that. I didn't aim to be hated so much."
He talked about playing a cop in the show and recalled that a kid had come up to him recently and said, "But you're a gangster man, how can you be playin' a cop?'
"Well, I told him this a job, it ain't real, I'm acting and they pay me. He said, `Oh, wow man, I gotta get a job like that.' I sold out long ago. I'm just a capitalist trying to get paid. The only way to make war is if you have money. The broke activist ain't me. If I really want to do something I need capital. James Bond's enemies have islands. I need capital if I wanna do something."
Ice-T was asked about young rappers and whether they had earned their ghetto credentials.
"I like the new rappers. Like I say, if you're against the new wave you're against yourself. ... I got shot twice, once in the leg and once under the arm, here. I got shot twice. Once I shot myself, but that's another story. It shouldn't be about getting shot. Rappers go on about how many times they got caught and went to jail. That's losing and I don't want to be a loser.
"When you're young everyone's looking for a shortcut. As for the gangster stuff, some people are in it and they can't get out of it, but that's not me, I mean you got the triads out here, but that ain't me.
"Gangsta rap. It's a career. Prior to that it was different. When I started rapping you couldn't say `bitch' in New York, and we took it to LA, which was on a different channel. No one had ever bought a car rapping. It wasn't a career then. No one was rich DJing and rapping then. What it was, was a rapper was like a cheerleader for your friends, crew and place where you're from. You know, we go into a place and you got money n'stuff and I'm gonna big you up and we'll have a good night. It's only when the rapper became more successful did he start shouting, `Look at me!'"
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