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?'
PHOTOS: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
"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!'"
"You've got to think about music like this. As a rapper you've got to hit people from every channel. I mean, it's like Luther Vandross sings, `Baby I love you, baby I need you, baby I love you forever.' It's coming from every point, so think about not just your own emotions but everybody's else. That's how you make a record.
"We used to be brutal, say some terrible things, we used to say the most wrong possible thing. It's like an art, it's like what Eminem does the best. He says some of the most wrong things, and gets away with it."
Ice-T was asked if rappers went too far sometimes.
"I did an album called Freedom of Speech. You have the right to say what you want but you have to be prepared for the ramifications of it. If you say something anti-gay then you can expect gay people to get mad, and if you say something against the police you can expect them to attack. So you can't just say you have freedom of speech and no one can move against you. The only taboo is anything with children, or something seriously ill. Children don't have the ability to make their own decisions so to take advantage of the situation is wrong."
Ice-T was asked if it was true he used to write tags that said, "Crips don't die they multiply," and he later used this in his music.
"If you read my book I say I was affiliated to the Crips. My daughters' mom's home was involved with them, my people and friends were Crips. But I was also friends with the Bloods, so I had like diplomatic immunity. I didn't talk about it a lot, because there was a time when I didn't want to promote. It's kind of like a paradox. You wanna talk about crime without making it sound cool. Like people wanna know, what's it like to rob a bank. People ask about it and wanna hear about it, but it ain't no good.
"LA is just trying to get itself together. The US is a mess. When the gangs stop in one place they start in another. Young kids just wanna make a name for themselves. If they ain't got a cool car an' shit then there's gonna be trouble. It's the same all round the world. Young men trying to make their bones and then they get a bit older and get a wife and kid and they kinda reevaluate and take another swing at it. But you ain't gonna find anywhere an 18-year-old kid who's got sense. Something's got to happen to you before you understand life."
War in the Taiwan Strait is currently a sexy topic, but it is not the only potential Chinese target. Taking the Russian Far East would alleviate or even solve a lot of China’s problems, including critical dependencies on fuel, key minerals, food, and most crucially, water. In a previous column (“Targeting Russian Asia,” Dec. 28, 2024, page 12) I noted that having following this topic for years, I consistently came to this conclusion: “It would simply be easier to buy what they need from the Russians, who also are nuclear-armed and useful partners in helping destabilize the American-led world order.
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