Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Congratulations people, Yes, indeed, Award Supreme.
We got hardware.
Yes, we did the damn thing.
We gotta tell him what award do we win?
Yeah, he tells me what we won here.
Wet The award is I Heeart Music Podcast of the Year.
Shout out to Norri, You're great, but not as great.
Thought first, we ain't hardly the first beat between podcasts.
Yeah, that's love.
Love to everybody in the category. It's all love.
You know.
It goes without saying that our Guest Today is an absolute legend, with a Grammy to boot, multiple Golden Platinum albums to his credit. He actually pinned one of hip hop's first memoirs, The Ice Opinion.
He pinned classics like you.
Know, Six in the Morning, Colors, New Jack, Hustler Og, Original Gangster. He's collaborated with everyone from Quincy Jones to Tupac to Cube to Quell, Keith the Slayer, and you know, I will basically say that our Guest Today is one of the first stars of our culture to really parlay and pivot from just hip hop to other venues of expression,
be it film, television. His metal band body count one of the first hip hop legends to be a dominant voice on social media, and he's using that same wisdom as that he kicks on Twitter to offer his daily game. Definitely worth a following. I mean you should be following if you're not. But basically, what can I say? We have the legendary Ice Tea on Quest Love Supreme today, Sir, Wow, Wow.
It's crazy. Thank you man, thank you think come on.
Dog, you know you legend done y'.
Also, it doesn't age you like drank for the family youth did Ice team Man.
I like to always preface it with living legend, you know what I'm saying, as you should. A lot of times people don't get they flowers till it's a rap, you know what I'm saying. So I'm still here. But it's funny though, Quest I'm right now. I'm working on a project that's a compilation of all my story rhymes. You know, I like to tell stories, and the title of it is the Legend of Iced Tea Crime Stories, because legend is part fiction, you know. Legend is like
a tale, you know. So it was a night I was in the club and I got in a fight and I knocked the guy out, but the legend says I knocked five guys out. You see what I'm saying. Now you become legendary. You got to live up to some of these legends that aren't really the truth. But I kind of let people believe what they want to believe, you know what I'm saying. So that's why we called the record the Legend Device Team. But thank you very much.
I was going to say, you know, I didn't know whether or not to. I'm certain that this ain't the first time that you've heard, especially based on your name, that cats might call you the Iceberg Slim of hip hop.
I'm sure a lot of that is also just due to the fact that not on Ryan Page, but I think on Power, I remember you close inside too with kind of a storytell I think it's Soul on ice the closing song on Power, of which back then I was wondering, like if that was going to be your not that I was seeing a pivot back in nineteen eighty seven or eighty eight, like did you ever have any goals or aspirations to actually start writing fictional books on that level?
Now, the true story is I'm named after Iceberg, Slim, and I named myself after Iceberg Slim. When I was in high school, you know, you I went to Crimshaw, So you had the gang bangers and then you had the players. The players were the cast, the ward tailor maids, and they would shake, always shooting dice. And you know, I ended up migrating from the gangsters to them, and that's when you see me. And I had the perm
and the Fela and all that. But these cats would hang out and they would carry around Iceberg Slim books and Donald Going books. You feel me. So I wanted to know what that was. So I started reading Iceberg Slim and I was fascinated with it. So I was in eleventh grade. I was able to quote Iceberg Slim to the girls, and they thought I was the fly shit in the world because I'm quoting a forty year old pimp to them. I mean, I could quote you want to hear some Iceberg Slim? You want to hear? Yes?
Please? Yes please.
I needed three way winch that'll play Jasper and extension, take them around the horn. No Gene or John. This whole couldn't con because that trick was never born. She would be a good shot broad and the acid, fraud and drags. She'll play like a vet, She'll stuff like an ace, never lose a case, and leave many a mark in debt. She'll be rated the best in the East and the West. When a boosting hands goes down, she'll still knots out of knees and fidos fleas. This
bitch is still out many a town. Now. I heard hoes cry about the wind being high and the law being on. They tail about snowing, sleep being ass whole deep, and the tricks can go to hell and some greasy spoon or juke saloon, you'll find them killing their time, crying hard luck tears and sucking up beers. And the pimps ain't getting the dime, turning half dollar tricks just to get a fixed because their pussy is doing the pimping.
That is ruining the name of one hell of a game because they pimps is doing the simping.
I see you on the next question of supreme leaders. Joke.
I'm saying that at the eleventh grade to girls, and I'm not telling them it's iceberg slim. They like this, who is this flyer?
And you don't even know what the fuck you're saying half of it.
This sounds fly right. That thing you said is how can I be down with this ass motherfucker? So so ice Berg ice tea is short for Iceberg tea. Quest you're right, and my boys call me Berg, my boys call me Burg. So now the song you heard was my homage to Hustlers Convention. Remember that album they had out called yeah, like was it Lightning Rod? And yeah? Yeah?
So I was in that vein. But really, honestly, truthfully quests all my music is Iceberg slim like, my music is more like literature that it was not meant to dance to. It's like, you know, straight up nigga or some of y'all niggas's bitches too, or I'm the Pusher high Rollers. It's definitions of certain things. So that was my way of writing books, was writing music, And I honestly used music that you couldn't dance to intentionally so that you'd have to to make you listen.
I see, I see, you're right on the plank.
So for a lot of our listeners that don't know of your history, I mean maybe it's maybe ten or fifteen years ago that I was shocked when I first found out that you were actually born in Jersey.
Yes, you know, where in Jersey did you live?
I was born in Newark, New Jersey. I lost my mom when I was in the third grade, and I moved to Summit, New Jersey, which a predominantly white suburb. There was like one black street called Williams Street, where mostly all the black people live. And then I lost my father when I was in the seventh grade and I was excuse me, shipped to Los Angeles to live with his sister. So even though I was from the East Coast, I hadn't really kicked up no dust. I
was a kid kid, you know. So by the time I actually got active, I was in LA by that point. But yeah, I'm from I'm from the East Coast, born out there.
Just for perspective, I'm just curious, where are your people's from, Like, where was your mama's peoples from?
Where was your daddy's people from.
My mother was a Creole from New Orleans, and she was so light skinned. Back in the fifties, they said she could pass. You know, you know that term. I mean, yes, the pass is white. And my father was quest color. So they were considered an interracial marriage to a lot of people. So that's where I was. I learned earlier about racism that that was not something to tolerate, how stupid it was. My mother was able to hear white people talk about black people in front of her because
they thought, oh yeah. And one of my first moments in racism was I had a white kid that thought I was white and was talking about another black person in front of me. But yeah, that's and my father, I think he was from Virginia, so you know, that's why I'm a light skinned brother with hazel eyes. And people know that the history of Creole is black and French.
I guess fish out of water situation wasn't for you in LA at the time, Like how old are you when you're in LA?
How old are you in his seventh grade.
Twelve twelve.
I didn't like it first because you know, when you move up through a kid, he doesn't have any friends. So I got shipped when my father died. Both of them died in natural causes, you know, but my father passed away. I was in school and they ship. They took me home and then that summer they just sent me to l A like for the summer. Then all my clothes came and I was moved out there with his sister. I didn't I didn't like it because I you know, and that's how I'm living. I said I
didn't like la. I didn't have no friends to I've got and then got bussed to a school blacks and whites. I guess this shit was cool, you know, but it was weird, man, because my aunt didn't really want me. She had two kids that had already graduated out of high school and they were ready to go on with their life, and in comes this kid now in the junior high and it was it was rough on me. I left her house when I was seventeen years old,
and I've been on my own ever since. I've never dealt I have no living relatives, no sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins. I've been ice. Tea's been on his own ever since. Dola.
Wow, seriously, yeah, shit man.
Not even a mentor, like who was your first male in your life then?
In that way?
Just friends, you know, friends. I have one friend that I looked up to. He died early, and uh, nobody. That's how kids get involved in gangs. Gangs are like surrogate families, you know, masculinity. Like, honestly, when I got around the gangs, I never was in a gang, but I was affiliated with the gangs. Because see, you're not in a gang, you're from a gang, you know, So you have to be in a neighborhood. That neighborhood is
a gang. So if you're from the sixties, you're in the Rolling sixties, you're from the eighties, you're in the eight trays in La So I was living in a nicer area in View Park. So when I went to Crenshaw, you had Harlem crips, Hoover Cripts, all kinds of crypt gangs. So I knew all the shot callers. But I you know, honestly, being around my homeboys, that was the first time I ever heard somebody tell me they loved me, you know,
since my parents passed. You know, we love. And the thing of it is is the gangs to love is different because they mean it, you know when they say if something happens to you, because it's on and they meant it and they really and it's kind of like what you wish your father was. Like, like, you know, like I always say, if somebody shot me, my last words wouldn't be peace to beget those motherfuckers, you know, So that's embedded in me, you know. But no, I
don't have family, just friends. And I've found out that having sometimes that type of family is better because you can choose it.
I know, oftentimes when people are thrust it into situations in.
Which they lose.
I had like one or two conversations with James Brown, and you know, his whole thing was like, you know, my mom and my dad gave me away, and he said that that made him well, he was saying like,
basically that made him stubborn. But I think he was basically trying to tell me it was really hard for him to trust anybody, anybody, you know, like when your parents leave you then even through death or through you know, circumstances, then you know, it's kind of hard to open your heart to like, Okay, that's my friend and that's my friend over there. But were you social like that or were you like a hermit in the beginning or no.
I kind of like became I guess what you would say, violent, But it's not like I was beating on people, but I put on a violent persona because now here you go, you got a light skin kid in La Rap surrounded with the gangs. I got hazel eyes. My fucking name is Tracy. I don't have any relatives, right, so you're gonna be predator or prey. Fortunately I'm six feet you know, I always was always around two hundred pounds. You know, even in high school, I was always healthy enough to fight.
So I ended up putting on this energy that you guys know today is nice tea. I'm a nice I'm an as Ice. I'm a nice guy. But I think fifty Cents said it best. It ain't how my mama raised me. It's how the hood made me. So I just had to learn. Like one of my buddies said, Ice is a nice dude, he just doesn't back up well. I don't back up well. So once you once you issue me like it's going to you know, if you tell me da da da da da or else, I'm not backing up because where am I going to back
up to? Where can I go? You know what I'm saying. So I became you know, I had a lot of fades and a lot of fights, and but I had nowhere to go. Request It was just, you know, I had no options and still don't was that when you because at one point you joined the army or at one point didn't you. I joined the army because it's seventeen years old. I hadn't had a lot of sex like I was. I wasn't getting no sex. Tenthly, I don't believe it. No, tenth I didn't get sex till twelfth grade.
The game wasn't right. It was the presentation was good, but you ain't handle game.
Is that what it was?
Nah?
The girls was dating forty year old niggas like I was. I'm in high school. I'm talking to girls all day. Didn't when they go out and see them at the end of the night. They getting picked up in low riders niggas. Yeah, kids, and you know that. You know the drill. So I until I made it to senior, I had no leverage. I had no leverage, you know, I couldn't. I had nothing to offer them. I had enough to offer them to entertainment at school, but not
outside of school, not out of school. Guys know this drill. You know the drill, the girl, the cheerleader flirt.
In high school all yeah, all the bad joints were dating way older dudes.
Was looking at the wrong girls.
That's all in high school like that, Like that's what it was. They wasn't looking at us now.
So when I finally made it to senior, I got it. I had a girl from the tenth grade. I had a little leverage on her. But now I get out of I left my aunt's house. I got two hundred and fifty dollars social Security. I told her I bailed. She said, you'll never make it. I took one hundred dollars and got an apartment. I had another one hundred dollars I spent on food. I had fifty dollars. That was free money, right, And I found apartment and the guy was like, you're too young. I said, well, I'm
gonna have to check sent to you. You take my rent out and then you give me the difference. So the landlord would give me one hundred and fifty dollars cash. That's how he knew he was gonna get paid. And uh what happens. I got my girl pregnant. Now I got on my own pad. When I'm in the twelfth grade and you talking about popular shit, I was killed. But I didn't know. I didn't know they could get pregnant. That easy. You know what I'm saying. I ain't busted enough nuts to know the drill.
And there you have it.
That's our clip. And I'm and I'm and i'm uh, you know, I'm old. I was graduating in nineteen seventy six. It wasn't like condoms was around you. Damn Eve needed to go to the pharmacy to get a condom, like you thing like you had to get a prescription to get a condom back then. You know. So I'm busting nuts and she said she pops up pregnant, and uh, being an orphan, I wanted the baby, right, I don't
got nobody. And so I went in the military based on that, Like, I'm like, I gotta get some responsibility, and I joined the army. I did four years at the twenty fifth Infantry Division.
What was that like?
Like that level of discipline, especially when I would assume that if you're saying that you have to have this persona in la where.
Just back up off me, just back up off me type shit.
You know.
Okay, you know how that work?
That don't work well in the army.
Yes it does, Yes, it does. See, the being in an army is kind of like joining a football team. If you don't want to be there, it ain't gonna work. If you want to be there, it's gonna work. You gotta want to be there, you see what I'm saying. I made the decision to do it, so I was ready to go. Like if you see Gi Jane, they're like ring the bell, ring the bell. Quit quit the armies like that, like if you can't hang go, But now you're much the other alpha and you like, I
ain't no punk, I'm ana shuts. It's a place for alpha males, That's what really is. It's for motherfuckers that really want to get down. They want to go to war, like these motherfuckers, so they they hunt cats like you. But now they take the gang the street shit out of you. I remember the first time I went in the gas chamber. They put you in a gas chamber and say what yeah, well, they put you in this thing called the gas chamber and let.
You you've seen Private Benjamin, you know.
They put gas in there and they make you take your mask off so you can have see. The trip with military is. They want you to go through things so that when it happens, it's not the first time it happened. So you know you're gonna march twenty five miles, so if you have to do it, I've done this before, So they tell you to take it off. So what I did is I squinted it and I just held my breath. And I was able to hold my breath a long time, and so when I came out, everybody
was coughing and shit like that. I was able to pull the mask off and it didn't look like it fuck with me. And the drill start was like, see that's that same shit they throw itmorrow on the block. He's used to that ship off the block. They were able. They would tease the street cats like, you know, y'all, motherfucker's not a break of M six. So you got.
Respect off the jump. Then in a way, well.
If you tough in there, they gonna let you be tough. They're gonna let you. I remember one time I was there and they and I had a sergeant arranger he named and he was like, who thinks they can whoop my ass? Right? And I hated this little motherfucker, and I knew I could knock him out, so I put my hand up in his other brother uh named go Van and another white dude named McGary stuck their hands up,
and I thought we was gonna get the fight. And then he brought us up in front of the squad a platoon and said, who think they could beat me and my two three friends up? You got you guys are the squad leaders. So he I want to see who thought they had heart? Yeah, And that was the biggest mistake in my life. Ever since then, I never wanted to be in charge of shit. I'm your guy to ride shotgun. I understand the position shotgun is much better. You know, fuck to being the boss, the boss fucked that.
It's brave to say that shit because I ain't mad at you.
But it's brave to say it.
But that you not that you don't want to be the boss, and you ain't mad at not being the boss.
Like everybody, some people will feel like, well, what you mean? I see like you and g.
You should be the boss at the top of everything that you know producing.
But I see what you're saying, and.
Those people have never been the boss. See a lot of things you want because you have never gotten them. Once you get them, you go got it pass. I'm good on that.
There, so, so Jennifer Lewis taught us that lesson. She said to us one day, she said, you know, somebody offered me a show once, and then I realized. I thought about how I look at Tracy Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson walk in, and I was.
Like, I don't want that. That's not my life. And that's what that made me think of.
Listen, if Quest is the boss and I'm as lieutenant, I might need more dangerous than him, you feel me, and I might, and I might be I might have much more power. When you went to school, you more afraid of the principal or the vice.
Principal, right vice pressman. She was crazy.
I was terrified, even like Law and Order. Like when I'm on Law and Order, I have a job. I show up, I do the job, I get paid. It's cool. When I'm on tour, I gotta run all them niggas. I got all this ship I gotta handle. I got a budgets. Quest knows I'm on budgets and tour buses and all that stuff. I would much rather not do that and just go on tour and get the bag. I don't want to do it. So at some point
you realize. But they say the head that wears the crown sleeps the heaviest, and it's not necessarily for everybody. I am the boss in certain aspects of my life. Let's put that like that. When we did the Grammys, they made Quest the boss.
Oh yeah, I talk about it.
When I landed in New York, my tooth fell out and I went straight to surgery. That's the that's the level of stress that I was under.
Stress.
Tooth stress, man talk for real, like new teeth for real. When I stress out, body parts just go awry.
So now now let's let's since we're doing this now, Quest, even though you got all the praise, was it.
Worth we ever talked about this fully? Yet we did too? Let's go.
I'm still trying to decide. I'm still trying to decide if that was a victory or not.
I'll say I'll say this much.
It was a victory for me. Thank you? I was it?
No?
For real?
You like one of five acts that literally gave me zero headaches? Nothing, No, no, no, It's gonna be worth it, I guess I can. I can say that something even bigger is gonna happen in August and it's not just like a special one. Tell yes, we we already said that something's going to happen, but something on top of that is happening. And now that that's been greenlit, I feel that is It's It was way worth losing the tooth over and having to lay on an operating table for two hours.
Oh my god, I mean, is worth it?
You did? You pulled that shit together like two weeks. That's the crazy part.
Like now the thing was and you know, they kind of hit me in like after Thanksgiving, like this is what we have planned.
Are you interested? And I was like all right, cool.
And then I let like three weeks go by Christmas or whatever, and I guess after Christmas, I hit them up like okay, so what's the plan. And they were looking at me like yeah, what's the plan. And I'm like, wait, I have to put this together. Like I'm just thinking, like let me show up and drum and y'all tell me who I'm backing. And they were like we were kind of hoping you put it together, so you know, I gave my wishless and then they looked at me back like okay, do you know these people?
And I was like wait, I got to call them too, So that's.
Worse than question of supreme See that ain't right?
No, I mean you know so pretty like with the exception of maybe one of the acts that abandoned.
Us and Glorilla.
Maybe, yeah, Like I pretty much just called everyone from my telephone and I see, yeah, I pretty much went. I scrolled down my entire phone book and I I'll say that ninety five percent of everyone that you saw was me hitting them up, like, yo, you mind doing this?
I mean the only two people.
That couldn't do it was Cube and Cuba shooting something and Stup was coaching, uh, one of the teams for the Pro Bowl.
So so I see, was the long was it? You were a loane like representation.
Me and hello me and too short?
You're too short? Excuse me? So north and South.
I decided it was wiser because people off the nest, like why'd you as big Daddy came, why do you ask case one? The thing was we thought it was first of all, we only had twelve minutes, and twelve minutes goes by like that when it's it's this level of ensemble. So we just wanted one representative of each right, each territory.
So wait, okay, so a mere so I see you get the call. A mere calls tell us from please, what's you on your mind?
What happens?
Why are you saying, hey, I can't do it?
Why not?
Why you can't do it?
Because I'm in law and order and they shoot Mondays and super Bowl and Grammys are always on Sundays, so I can never go. You know, I got a call time sometimes, you know, seven am on Monday. So he calls and I'm kind of like, I don't know, you know, it's the Grammys. I was, I didn't really know the magnitude of it, you know. And then he just said, he said, ice you don't want to miss this. This is going to be legendary. This is gonna be epic.
And then in my brain I thought about it and I said, am I going to be the guy that's sitting home watching this? I had a call to do that, and people like you lying, motherfucker. Ain't nobody called you? You know? So and then I said I knew he had ice Cube on speed doll. I'm like, you know what, I'm not turning this down. This is the Grammys, and it's it's it's it's second to the Super Bowl as
far as people see in live performance. And I said, I called Law and Order and I told them and I said, you know, I need to be off on Monday. They said, you got the whole week off because you're getting the Star next week, and we and we had this episode. It's off for you. So it just was a natural it was. And then then you know, I got the track. And when I got there for the rehearsal, that's when it dawned on me, because it's like, you're
seeing everybody. You know, I'm seeing method man, I'm seeing all my friends. It was it was of me and ll cool Ja. Who know, people haven't seen a picture of me and him ever.
I gotta admit that was my one slight worry. I was like, wait a minute, because the thing was, by the time I got to you again, I went in alphabetical order, right, and you're in the middle of the alphabet already, you know, with the least the first fifteen people I called, their first question was who else going to be there? And the thing was, is like I wanted to undersell it. One I'm very much known for. Even my hyperbolic statements are over exaggerated.
So I kind of wanted to.
Downplay this a little bit because for a lot of the younger generation, like i'll call Tyler the Creator up and his first reactions like, man, it sounds corny, you know what I mean. Like, so in my experience and depending on what generation I'm talking to, right, I figure if I just undersell it, it'll be safe.
And what's funny is.
For the people that were just like nah, I'm good, like that sounds whack. All them like the next week were like, yo, man, I wish you would have told me the magnitude that this thing.
Was going to be. And I was like, well, I don't know, yeah, like how right right?
I think just to some generational people, it's you know, that's what like my whole thing is like, oh that must be nice, Like you could just shrug your shoulders like Motown twenty five.
Oh I don't need that.
Me was the gangster rappers, right, you know, because I used to we don't get invited to shit, you know. So when he said scarface, when he said pe, when he said wu tang mefod, when he said too short, I was like, yo, I remember when Prodigy was alive. You know, Prodigy is my favorite rapper for mob dB. He's like, I used, we don't do red carpets. They don't let us in. But see, you got to understand the people like myself, Snoop and Q, we take pride
in being outcasts. We take pride in not being allowed into their shit. I remember when Snoop got the was doing the Super Bowl. I'm like, you know, they hate seeing you up there. He goes, I'm about to crip harder than they ever seen, he said, because don't you love it the fact? You know, So when you got the Outlaws in there and you had he quest had too short yelling bitch, you know, I'm like, yeah, you know.
And it was funny though, because at the sound check I was doing, I was just singing all the words with the ships and the fucks in it. So right before the show I got a little text from whoever the piece is Ice, this is gonna be live TV. Could you dial it back? I was like, Okay, I was just testing the water. I didn't you know, but I well, you know what I figured it. You know
what I said. I said, I'm not gonna curse because they're gonna They're gonna bleep it and they're gonna bleep it wrong, and it just won't it won't flow, you know. So I just changed sucking for nigga, you know, I just but I was so concerned during that show of the queue, see, because it was a tape going right now, Scarface is wrapping mind playing tricks on me, and then under this thing comes in, dud. If you miss your queue, it was gonna be a rap because the crack was
gonna keep going. You were gonna be offbeat in front of millions of people. I was wedding like this is not no, I can't and ic concert. I could suck up. I could be we'll bring that bracket, you know, I could right, this is gonna this is a fucking train that's going. They put the things in my ear and I never think. I don't think I've been that focused in a long time.
So I had to have a live slate just you know, because the thing was that the graphics that we were performing like that had to be on automatic time. So initially I wasn't going to do a live graphics. I was just going to do it like a normal thing, like okay, we're banned, we'll just you know, do it like normal, But they were like, no, you gotta do it to a slate so that way, when the lights and all that stuff change, it'll be automatically and whatnot.
So how did you guys, did you know who was going to pull out at the last minute?
Yo?
Yo, all right, So look when Bad Bunny was opening the show, we were on in seventy five minutes, and what wound up happening was when I got worried that one of our acts definitely had left the building and went back to his crib in Calabasas. Then it took us thirty seven minutes. Because the thing is the show's happening live, so it's not like the light guy can look at me and say, okay, so what are we gonna do? Like he still has to do the show.
So basically, we're using musical performances and commercials to go to nine different people. You got to tell the person that's doing explosions, the person that's doing the lights, the person that's doing the choreography. You now got explained to the twenty dancers who were there for that one thirty eight second segment that we don't need your services anymore. So it took about thirty seven minutes for our first
dropout to happen. Now, when the second dropout happened, it was twelve minutes left before showtime, and the second dropout was our top person, our headliner, who wanted more explosions, more dancers, more smoke, more like. Each each request was like it was almost like a negotiating arms or whatever like. And when they left at the twelve minute mark, when our headliner had totally dropped out, I yo, man, I
just I thought it was a rap. I thought, man, great, you always wanted to trend on Twitter and now you destroyed hip hop and you broke it. So I had no clue that Uzzivert got my message to just bum rust the stage when he heard his song. I literally didn't knowase Like I said a text, Yo, you're gonna hear your instrumental bum rust the stage when you hear that shit, and my phone went dead, So I thought he didn't get that message.
So I'm fucked.
And it wasn't until I got off stage, because even when all of y'all were on stage at the end, it took the roots to explain to me in the dressing room that little UZI vert came out.
Came out. I didn't know that until I was changing my clothes backstage.
So that's why I can't take credit like, oh, it was a victory because even when off stage, I was like, I explained this point. You remember how when Prince stormed off stage on Purple Rain because he thought nobody was filled, right, that was me. I was like, oh, man, I destroyed shit fuck And everyone's like, what are you talking about.
We're turning on Twitter right now.
What I'm saying, Hey, look, it's even more it's even more important that you were able to pull it off with all that. That's like you had people booby trapping you, bailing out at the last minute of a live show man, and uh, you.
Know what I love though I don't think anybody missed him.
No, we did not, We did not.
It's still came off.
It came off.
And let me ask you all this because I talked to Jazzy Jeff after after this, and he said, you know, it was a moment where we all knew that we were there. We've never been invited and we won't be invited back.
Yeah, there won't be a fifty first exactly.
And you said, but we were there for hip hop, like did you feel that too icy?
Like something mean, I've been going to the Grammys. I want to Grammy for rap back in the day with Quincy Jones back on the block to block me, Mail CuMo D and Kane, and we kind of felt Quincy snuck us in the back door the Grammys. You know what I'm saying. It's like they about a wrap award, but it's really Quincy Jones. So we were like, Okay, I got it. I broke it in a video when I was on my iced T bullshit, and then I said I missed it and I got another one replace it.
So I do have one, but one of my videos like the.
Girl, they replaced them because they're telling me, nope, yeah, this iss crazy glued.
There's a charge. You can get one. It's like a gold record. If they know that you're you got it, you can get it in place. But I also went to China and got some some maid to give out, like with body Count one they only give out for the number of people in the group, but there's so many people involved. I got some replicas made to give to my boys and my crew. So I got that. Then a couple of years ago, I was nominated body Count.
That was weird because we you know, they have another they have another Grammy ceremony that comes on before the Grammar the pre so we performed in that. I got nominated for Black Hoodie and we performed. After that, they take us backstage and they got the cameras on it. So I'm like, we won this, motherfucker, we won this. Mother We're standing there and they go Masterdon and they won. And the dude took the camera and wrapped that shit up and dipped and left it. And then when we
got to our dressing room it was locked. It was like they left for dead. I was like, damn. So then the next year when we got we won for Best Metal Performance. I was sitting right here because we did it over the internet, right, so I might beat on. I probably will be the only person ever to get a rap and a medal Grammy. That's what's up categories. But you know this is awards. Somebody explained your award. This is awards, Like, this is how motherfuckers are about awards.
Fuck the awards, Fuck the Grammy. Man. Fuck I'm nominated, right, That's how people are. I mean, I don't give a fuck about that bullshit. What So that's how people are nobody really Yeah, but once you get nominated, you want to win that ship. You're like, fuck this every time.
Okay. So since you're in LA before the ding.
Of of what we know is hip hop, Like, how did that culture reach you out there?
Like what it.
Reached me in the army?
Oh?
Because I'm in the army and it's cats from where are you? I'm in Hawaii. I'm in twenty fifth Infantry. So the cats in my unit were from New York and from all over Florida. You know, it's a mismatch of people from the United States. And I was hip to first generation hip hop, which is what I call unrecorded like tape hip hop before they made records. So they're playing me all this, you know, the beatbox records and all that kind of stuff, and hip hop is
intoxicating you hear it. You're like, that shit is dope, and you know, I'm saying iceberg slim. I already think I know how to rhyme, you know what I'm saying, But I'm like, I never heard it done over beat, you know. And then they were trying to break dance and stuff at and I was just like, this shit is dope as hell. And then I saw the New York City Breakers on a show called That's Incredible, and I was like, Yo, this is dope, you know. So by the time I came back to LA, LA had
a techno sound. LA was Egyptian lover in them No and Uncle Bobby, Jimmy and the critters. I used to call it aerobic music, right, you know, and that's what LA was banging off of. And I was just the first person out there to try to rap like New York rappers, like rapping over breakbeats. Evie and Henng from New York City spend masters with my DJs, and we used to take records before they had instrumental records and actually catch the brakes, and I taught myself how to rap.
I came home from the military with the intention to be a DJ because Uncle Jams and then were making a lot of money throwing parties for between you know, sixteen under twenty one Big Bi they doing an LA Sports Arena. The whole Uncle Jim's concept was they were in LA, well anywhere you can't get in the club till you're twenty one. But there's a whole gang of kids that want to go out, you know. So they started throwing parties and they basically created the first like rage.
They with these long extended parties and uh, they were able to do the La Sports Arena multiple times with no acts, no acts, So you're talking about five thousand kids dancing and in the entire stadium on the floor of the stadium.
Okay, on the floor. Okay.
I'll never forget. Egypt had a drum machine at eight oh eight, and I'll never ever forget it, you know,
because we hadn't seen drum machines. Right at a moment where they're like they put the drum machine on and they mixed it in and they go Uncle Jim's Army was about to go live, and they played the drum machine and he would take the records and hold the records in the air so you could see he wasn't playing any records, and the crowd kept dancing, and it was a moment like yo, like yo, this is live
ship up here saying they were changing the beat. And I was the first one they would let rap, you know, they would let me wrap in front of that crowd. And stuff, and yeah, that was how I got I ended up in this club called the Radio. The Radio was, well, see that's why you got me here. I'm gonna give you the drill. Thank you. The club was called the Radio.
It became the Radio Tron when they decided to make the movie and they didn't want to pay the guys who started the club, so they just flipped the name and stole the name. But the real club was the Radio Club, and it was owned by a couple of guys that were like graffiti artists by way in New York, but they were Europeans. One was Russian, and they they had Malcolm McLaren there. People it was like trendy white kids.
Adam Ant would be up in the Motherfucker And it was in MacArthur Park And I actually put Madonna on stage in that club because I went there. They found out I had a record out I went there. I became kind of like the stage manager, and if you wanted to wrap, you had to wrap to me downstairs, and then I go up and do the introduction. Okay, quest Love just got here as helicopter just land in the parking lot. You better be good, nigga, and then and here it goes and pown and you would just
be on stage getting it off. So they bring this girl in, they go, her name's Madonna, and I took her downstairs and she had this record called Physical Attraction. I'm like, I never heard of you, you know, but you got a record. And I let her perform and she performing during the show, she was touching me like use me as a prop. And I had a black girlfriend. Oh that did not go well that night.
And this before y'all were label mates.
Yes, yes, Madonna had just came out. She was with Jellybean Benitas back in the day. Yes, and uh, you know, so that's the history. So that's where you know, the radio was where we were performing. And then the people came in. They saw the scene. They go, you'll be the rapper. You guys will be the dancers. And Glove was the DJ. You know the history the glove. Glove was carrying the equipment into the place. And the owner of the clubs like we needed DJ and gloves, like
I could DJ. They go, you got a DJ name, he goes Nah, and the nigga had on gloves. You could be clubs and they'll caught on gloves and now he was the house DJ at the Radio, but when it came out on the movie, it became the Radio Tron. But the real name of the club was the Radio.
All right, So can you talk about the coldest rap? One of our best episodes ever was with Jimmy Jam and he explained how for the two people that have not heard the six hour Jimmy Jam episode, you know Jam basically the anthology, Yeah, theology of tell me jim you know. He explained that, you know, after they left Prince that they were basically worked for hiring musicians. But I mean at the time, it wasn't like you went and said, oh, let me get those two dudes from
the time to do a track for me. You were just buying tracks from anyone or nah nah.
So I used to get my hair done at this spot called Good Fred right just when I had to perm my shit was more wavy than the ships in the Navy. You know what I'm saying. I had to out match the girls. You know what I'm saying, That's what a player has to do. You gotta look better than these chicks. So they understand, they got they got to get together to get what you dig it so
my hair to get together. And I would say these rhymes right my walking around rhymes like you know, I'm the pimp to play at the Woman Layer, the Holy Doula, the whole house ruler. I just pimp poors and slam Cadillac doors. So I'm saying this. And this guy named Willie Strong, who owned VIP Records, the very famous record store that Snoop is standing on and in his first U you know, a Boogog video, they came to me and they said, you want to make a record, and
it was just like a run, you know. They threw me inside the Cadillac and the chauffeur drove off and he never came back. So they it took me from the the beauty parlor, the salon to a studio and there was they had this track with Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis. They owned the track and it was some chicks singing on it and they cleared it. And they say, rap rappers that haven't made records have a million rhymes. They're ready to go. You know what I'm saying. You
never rule one. If you're a well known rapper, never battle an unsigned rapper. I had a bunch of rhymes, right, So I went in there and they were like, say a rhyme, So I had to write a hook. I knew I needed a hook, so I wrote, you know, I'm a player, That's all I know. In the summer day, I play in the snow meaning cocaine from the wound to the tomb. I run my game because I'm cold as ice, and I show no shame. So that's all I That's all I needed. And once I did that,
I just went in there. You know, the ladies say that I'm heaven sent because I got more money than the US meant. I ride ragtop rolls, rocks on my hand, Mysarati's, Mercedes, Benz ocean Liners, private jets, bel Air Bookies placed my bets. I own islands off the coast of France, and I wear design of shirts and pants. Honey. When I was brought into this world, my mama never asked if I was a boy or a girl. Because I rolled over
to it and gave her a kisses. She said, Yo, Daddy, don't rock me like this, all right, So this is the code. So I say this shit right off the head off the dome, and that's my first record on Saturn Records, produced by Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis, and I made two hundred dollars. Wow.
So how was that parlay into when we first met you nationally with Breaking?
Well, that was my first experience with records. And when you want to make a record, you want to make a record more than get paid. You just want to make a record. So I made that record. That records what led me to the radio tron see me saying they they heard I had a record, and they booked me to come and and and I was at the radio tron when the movie Breaking came in. When the movie Breaking came in, they said, we said, can we
make a song for the album? Me and Glove made Reckless, which Eminem says the first rap record he ever heard. And that was like, you know, reckless when platinum?
Right.
So I had got a bag, but I hadn't. I didn't have a record deal or anything. And then I was connected to this other DJ in La called Unknown and he we made.
It was he Unknown from Cotton was wanted down with them?
Yeah? Yeah, he had a record a label called Techno Hop and Compass. Most Wanted was on there and Uh. He was like, come on, Ice to make a record for me. Fuck that, you know, And I said, okay, So I made a record call you Don't Quit. And then the second one was Dog and a Wax with six in the Morning on the B side. And as Chuck D said, when that, yeah, my identity was was connected.
I mean, but at the time, were you conscious of like, Okay, I've been party rocking, now how can I pivot to reality rhymes?
Like what was your mind? Stated with that?
I was trying to be a rapper. I was rapping like meling them. You know, I'm drinking, I'm wearing spikes and shit. You know, I thought, you know, this is what you gotta do, and I'm trying to get in. You know, there's nobody in LA to look at.
And yeah, but six in the Wrner was pretty serious at the time. So but that came.
From Schoolly D. Thank you. You know what, I'm always telling you the truth because my boys told me, they said, I he's never lie because motherfuckers ain't going don't believe the truth, you understand, So this give them the truth. No, I'm saying these rhymes to my boys. I'm saying that gangster shit, you know, strolling through the city middle of the night, niggas on my left, niggas on my right, yelling cut cook cup rip to everybody. I see, if
you're bad enough, come fuck with me. So I'm saying these kind of rhymes for the gangs, but I didn't. I was like, that's negative shit, like people don't want to hear that. So I'm saying certain reps to entertain my friends. And then I'm then I'm saying party rhymes for hip hop. You feel me. I know the Iceberg slim type shit, but I don't know what translates. So then I hear PSK and it blew my mind. I was in Santa Monica and I heard first the track
came on. The track sounded I never done Angel does, but the track sounded like Angel does a bunch of ye I'm like, And then Schooley came on. PSK.
We making that green people what we say now? At that time, everyone was yelling on records, who is a fly nigga? You know, one by one, I'm knocking out he's.
For the way my DJs cut, you know, put my pistol up against his heads and sucking ass. I was like, then I researched it. PSK's Park Side Killers. He's repping a set. It's okay, feel me. That was the green light, Like, oh, they want to hear this kind of ship I got all day, you feel me?
Yeah?
So we go in and we do six in the morning and six in the morning. I took the Remember I remember the Beasi Boys had a record called holding Out hit It, yeah, hold it down where the record kind of stopped and then took off again. So I wanted that for six in the morning. So that's where like the record, then boom it starts again. So holy now I hit it was the genesis of that track. The beat just a basic beat kind of something with eight away and then I come in on the same
exact cadence as schooly d PSK. We're making that green six in the morning, police Fuel Fresh indeed to squeak across the bathroom floor back and that is it was more graphic and deeper. Now wasn't gonna hit I don't know. So I get a call from the Fillmore West in Frisco. We like you to do a show up here. I'm like, sure, you know, boom bam. Five days later they call me back, we want you to do a show up here. I said, I already booked the show in that same place. They
said that sold out. Well I'm not on LA radio. But they start playing me on km EL there in the Bay and was on and then later on you want to track the movement? Cube did the record? Boys in the hood are always hard, right, which he's said with Six in the Morning Part two. But it's all schooly, these cadence. It's all schooly, these cadences. So a lot of times rappers are jack cadences and you won't even know the credit. Well, thank you. You know, players love
to give credit. You know what I'm saying. It's like, you know, you wouldn't know if I didn't tell you. Like Colorsrestill get this Colors comes from Mythological by King's Son. Colors. Listen to King Son when I get ill, it's a reason because it's duck season, Hunter of the Front, right, that was That's how myth the mythological mythological rappers. You got a lot to learn that record.
I've not heard that record, Mythological Mythological by King you know King Son, Yes, of course I'm King son.
Yes, well, that's how it comes on. When I get ill, it's a reason because it's duck season, Hunter of the Fronter. I am a nightmare walk walking talking right, if I'm a jungle just a gangst to stalking, so you know, you can. I think all of us are influenced by other people. And if it's done well, because hip hop is all samples and stuff, if it's done well, you'll
never know. You'll never know because it's done well. But I always try to give a shout out to the people that inspired those particular songs.
You know, I've been friends with Seymour about eleven twelve years now because I'm also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committee.
Seymore signs of genius man.
He literally says, you know, and he's had like health is used and all that stuff in the past ten years. He's like he is not going six feet underground until he gets you in the rock own Hall of Fame. And literally every year it's in case you don't think like you're even thought of or in line or whatever, but Seymour, like you're always We get two votes each as a committee member on who gets nominated. When I was first there in two thousand and seven to now, like,
trust me to tell you my Seymour Seigins story. Yeah, tell me Seymour signs. Seymour Stein, the president of Siah Records.
Who signed it, Talking Heads, Madonna Ministry, Uh, you know Ramones yep. So I have Six in the Morning out and it was getting energy off from the in the East coast. Scott lod Rock was playing it and Africa Islam was somebody who I met at the radio who was very intrigued with me because the New York rappers would come out to LA. I already had to push the jewelry, the money in the girls, and at that
time nobody had made any money on rap. Niggas hadn't bought cars yet, you know, so they like, why do you want to rap?
You know?
But what I was doing, the warranty was about to be up, all right, So I want to rap. I like rapping, and my friends were going to prison, penitentiary, blah blah, getting shot, this, that and the other because we was active active. So Islam liked me, like he just liked me. And so he's like, they won't play your record in New York unless you come to New York because what you're talking, they need to see you're authentic.
So I came out to one hundred and fifty six and ten in South Bronx, and I was out there, so I met Scotland rock and but by it being African Islam, I met New York from the top down. It was like, what was.
Your look at the time.
I'm sorry, I'm trying to picture this because like you said, I like you had to hair.
You had to so you went to the Bronx.
Look, I have fela on and jewelry and a.
Prim Okay, okay, make sure them.
Niggas just thought I looked like a pimp. But I was rapping my West Coast shit. You know, a player plays the whole bubble, from the pineapple to the big Apple, from the snowflakes to the earthquakes. You understand me. Wherever I touched down, I'm gonna make it my town. So I had the chrism and the gift the gap that all the New York niggas liked me. I was different, but they liked me. They knew I wasn't no bitch,
so they liked me. So is is by being a boss, I meet Red Alert, Chuck, Chill Out, Scottland Rock, I meet all the bosses I didn't, so I'm hanging out. There was a guy named Ralph Cooper Junior. You know that is quest do not know? Raoper was the one of the Apollo cats that like Rand Apollo from back to his son. Okay, So Ralph Cooper Junior was like trying to be an agent and he connected me and Mellie Mel and we did a record on Spring Records.
And I was in the studio with Melly Mel and Caz like these idols of mine and uh he took a compilation and to see Seymour Stein okay with Melly Mel, Grandmaster, Kaz Donald d from the Bee Boys that had the song stick Up Kids and Girls, myself and a kid named Bronx Style Bob. Oh wow, this was the compilation. Kaz was still connected to. Kaz had a thing with Tough City a deal, Mel had something with sugar Hill,
Donald had something with entertainment. I was free and Bob had never made a record, Okay, So Seymour just said I'll take ice tea. And he wasn't hip hop enough to know that you couldn't rap if few from the West Coast. He was his ignorance was like, fuck it, I'll take ice tea. I'll never forget me. And Islam went up to Sire Records to meet with him, and Seymour was dancing around in his socks and looking me in the eyes and said, you have such beautiful eyes.
And I was like, oh shit, this is that part where they want me using day shit. And Islam was like, stay down, he's gonna sign the check. Stay down, just hold you down. So then he said, you sound like Bob Dylan, and I knew Bob Dylan was a subterranean homesick blues He's rapping on that. I'm like okay. And then Seymour said the most genius shit to me. He said, do you understand the music from Trinidad? This stuff they're singing about, the Calypso music. I'm like no, he said,
there sing about the problems here in the islands. He says, but just because you don't understand it does not make it invalid. It just means you don't understand it. And the same way I might underderstand hip hop, but it doesn't make what you're saying any less valid. He says. I don't understand it, but I know you're saying something. So he gave me. He gave me forty thousand dollars and we made the first album. We went out and bought an SB twelve, a nine O nine and a
gold chain. What else do you need?
Starting hit at one on.
One, the whole album in secret sound studios, mixed the whole album in one night, no automation back in them days. And Ryan pays now is platinum, so uh, forty thousand dollars budget, and Seymour was just he was smart enough to say he didn't know. I'll never forget. Here's another story. There's a lyric in this record I did called I Love the Ladies where I go, guys grab a girl, girls, grab a guy. If God wants a god, please take it outside. So Seymour goes aes, what it? This is?
Gay man?
I said, Seymour, I'm not gay bashing, but if you could say you're gay, can I say I'm straight?
Oh?
Right? And then I said has your daughter listened to it? And she said yeah. I said, what does she say? She loves it? And then I go I said, Seymour, that tension you feel that might be money, and he said, Touchet hung the phone. That that that tension is the money. That's the money right there.
You know, used marketing to the hilt, and it was like, just based on your album covers alone, we were going to buy your record. You have never ever ever heard a note or anything like that.
Take it quest this is what the deal was, right. I was never going to get on the radio, right. I had already determined that because we would. We decided we were outlaw music. So me Luke too short, ghetto boys. We were cursing, and at that time I refused to do a radio edit. That was like selling out to me. Fuck that. This is how the shit is now. There was a time where you could get people to buy records because they had stickers on them, like people wanted
that forbidden shit, right. So what I did as far as marketing does, I hired Glenn Freedman.
You know Glenn, Yes, legendary Glen Freeman.
Yes, he did LL's cover, he did Runs cover, He done bec Boy covers. So I'm like, I need my cover to be at the same quality as them, so it sits right alongside of them. You gotta have the palm tree. You got the Porsche you got the girl, you cannot look like New York. Then I had a meeting with my team because I was the first rapper signed to Warner Brothers, I was there before. I was the first rapper signed to a major really, and that was before Cole Chilling came over there and uptown over there.
But I took a map and I said, okay. I circled the Tri state area and I said, okay, this is New York. This is Philly. You know, this is Jersey, this is hip hop. Right, that's the East coast. But dig this, the West Coast starts right here, right on the outside of Philly. I just wiped the whole map, right, I said, because anybody that's not from that try state doesn't give a fuck because they're not from either. So Detroit,
we want Detroit, we want Chicago West what that? We just called everything from Philly the West Coast because the was holding it so tight. We're like, we just take the rest of this shit. So and it still stands today. If you're not from New York and you're from Oklahoma, you don't give a fuck. If you're you don't care because you're not either. So Luke had that same science. They were down in Florida getting a bunch of money, Sir mix a lot got a bunch of money from Washington.
So New York kind of shot themselves in the foot early in the game by being so regional that hip hop's gonna grow. Hip hop is a virus. It's gonna grow whether you or not.
Yo, So okay, with There's one of your legendary shows is still in its complete form on YouTube. There's There's a show of yours live in Vancouver nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine. Yeah, and I was shocked at how heavy, like you know by this time your third album, Just Watch what You Say Freedom of Speech is out and based on your intro loan with the shut Up You're Happy Joan, your show was so high powered it was almost like a rock show, even before body Count the
body count thing starts. So at what point are you pivoting to that level of energy in your live shows where it's almost like a rock show, even though it is you and evenly like on stage just rocking together.
You know what it is? Quest? I always thing was like, if you're coming to see a show, what are you coming to see? So if I'm coming to see the fat Boys. I'm coming to see three fat boys. If I'm coming to see Curtis Blow, it's Curtis Blow. You know. It's like, you know, so what is ic? And my thing was, I'm gonna take you into the darkness of South central Los Angeles. I'm gonna give you I'm gonna set up this energy, this dark and sinister and stuff. So we had to catch with the best song early
in the game and all that kind of stuff. The metal influence was just darkness to me. You know. We tried not to do happy records, even though we did shit, you know, let's get butt naked and fucking stuff like that was always an intention to keep it still to today. Like Chuck will say, Ice is one of the most theatrical rappers because I like to bring everything down and just put a spotlight on me and just let let me take you there on my these these adventures like
a midnight you know. But that was just a choice because Caine's dancing, right, I ain't got no motherfucking dances, you know what I'm saying, Dougie Fresh, because our first tour we went out on, we went out on a dope Jam Tour. It was us KRS one A Boogie Down Productions, Uh Kumode, Dougie Fresh, Eric being Rock Kim with somebody Obizmarck and we're to open and act. So how do you I'm from the area of Request where you gotta be different, like you can't be like everybody else.
So we had a police car out there and we're throwing money before making rain. We had cell phones, big old big phones, and we were giving you that energy. So I just didn't want to be the guy that comes out on the stage and it's, you know, looking cool and trying to wrap. I want to set a tone, and that's what that was all about. It still is when you go see Ice t show.
All Right, this is the question I always wanted to know and have answered, and I can't believe it's taking me this long to answered. Okay, I do not know the history of the story, So break it down like I'm in kindergarten.
What was now?
As we talked about earlier with the Grammy thing, my one concern was, are you in LLLL going to be cool with each other? Because I don't know if you guys amended it or made up or whatever. Can you please tell me what the genesis of the beef between you two, because you know, when I heard pushing man and simple you push a man rejected ll I was like, whoa, what was that about?
It's simple all right? I started it, and you know ll LL was I'm the baddest, I'm the greatest, I'm this, I'm that okay. Llll was actually out before me, so he was like the eminem or he was the dude you gotta get. I'm coming out of LA. I got the whole West Coast on my back. I don't got the crips and the bloods. I got the Crypts and the Bloods and Bay Area everybody on my back. Ice Tea. It's just what it is. You got. I gotta take
off on this nigga. I gotta let him know, like you might, thank you the best fuck that you know. And that's just part of the culture. That's just what it is, you know, Because I can't come out from LA and say about a ll cool J right now, not when I'm trying to come out like she was trying to be in a boss. I'm yo, you gotta set it with this nigga like so I set it off right, and he came back. He got at me on the break of dawn and I was gonna reply.
I had a record called Open Contract and Bam bothering them stepped in because l was trying to be down with Zulus. There was a legendary meet up with me and him at a Flavored Flave party and we squashed it before it got hectic, you know, but we were just the date. It was one of those things. He was battling Kumo d he was battling a bunch of motherfucker yes, yes, but it was me. I started it,
and I did it. I did it as an act of war, like I did it because it was time for Ice Tea to step up and say fuck you, you know now.
So it was business, not personal.
I don't know. L cool J. Yeah, it's business. But it's like it's kind of like that's what hip hop was, you know, like you know, you you challenged the nigga whoever is the boss at the time, and he was the boss and I'm never at no point was it.
Like, yo, let me be down with this dude.
Like, no, I'm from la I'm from the I'm from Gangland, you know what. I'm saying we don't get down like that. We we go we take You know, you gotta set it like that's that's that's what my coast expected me to do.
Yet I'll handle it before it got physical too, though, right that.
Wasn't a days nobody was getting shot. This is pride and all that. This is just rap shit. You know.
I'm just letting the record show because some people don't even know that there was a word.
I don't think we didn't threaten to tell it. Tell ll nigga you can't come to La. We we was on the bullshit, but it got squashed early. And so what me and him agreed to do was not necessarily apologized, but just not talk about it. It okay. So we never talked about it, and that was it. And I never held anything against ll But the crazy part of the story quest me and LLL bumped into each other
twenty five years later in Monte Carlo. Of course, we were at we were at a television a convention, and I walked up to L and extended my hand and said, man, me and you have never talked dotty dotty do I'm want to let you know, like you said, wasn't personal. It was only business. You know, I had to come at you, man, you was the guy to come at and he was like Ice, it was a culture and that was it. And then he called me up. He said, Ice, I need you to help me out on Rock the
Bells radio. And since then me and him have podcasts together and all that. You know, it's like his rock sand Chante is still mad. You know. It's like right part of the game back.
Then, in your prominence and in your rise as you're making these records for people that are watching you, like is art imitating life? Because I know that once you rise up in stature, then.
Damn near the whole West Coast is willing to ride for you.
Now, I can't imagine that everyone is wishing you well, wishing you good luck or whatever. Like again, you said that you're a reluctant leader, So how do you know who to weed out, like who's good for the organization and who to weed out, who to avoid, who's going to kill the money, who's.
Going to drop the bag on you?
Like, how are you navigating in terms of knowing which right team to have on your side in terms of stopping your bag so to speak? By having the wrong people associated with you.
Now, God, remember I got put on by Zulu nation, right, so I would I admired the Zulu nation, how they had tried called quests and busting all these cats together and they were all going in the same direction. I really admired that whole Zulu thing. So I went to back to La. Now I studied gangstas, right, so I will reading up on Lucky Luciano and mar Lansky and all these cats, and Lucky Licio created this thing called the Commission, which kept the five families from killing each
other because they created sit downs. So I created something in La called the syndicate, the rhyme syndicate, which was a group of groups with a common goal with no boss. So Cypress Hill that's a crew, DJ Aladdin and dub C low Profile, that's a crew. So all these different groups, everlast, that's a group. Each one of these cats had a group of people, and we made an agreement before we
would beef, we would sit down and talk. And that's why you've never heard of a West Coast beef ever, because anybody that wasn't syndicate was either nw A or Delicious Vinyl, which was just Tone Low and Young MC. It was kind of like Syndicate too a little bit. Now nw A had a beef, but that was a family feud and everyone had to step back because it was.
A family's blood you got.
But the Syndicate is still alive. And King T was part of it to the alcoholics, because I created something that said I'm not in charge each one of you gang. Each one of you cells are separate, but together we're powerful. And that's what I did. I created an organization. People say you created your own gang. I did, and inside of it there was no gang bang. So if you were Syndicate, you no longer as crippled blood. When we're in the studio, we're all part of the same shit.
And I just taught them all like, look, man, we all going in the same direction, and ain't no reason to be hating on somebody unless you're a bitch. So all of us should help each other. And that's how the producers start to getting waved and all the different stuff like that, and Dre and them understood, and it was just love. I got a good sense of you know who's around me and shit like that. But you got to keep that your whole life got to keep remembering.
I'm an orphan, so I'm hyper sensitive to everything that's going on around me. I'm hyper sensitive.
So but as an orphan, did you feel like the obligatory?
All right, I gotta take you all with me. I got to take care of all of you.
Or early I did, Early I did when I first got got some bread, legit bread. I never felt that way with illegal money, you know, with illegal money, nigga, I got this is mine like nigga, like you know. I never felt charitable or any of that shit, you know, because I'm taking pen every tensory chances for this. But when I start getting legit money. The first time I
got it, I couldn't hold food down. I would actually throw my food back up because I and I went to a gastrologist and he said they thought I had ulcers and they're like nah, And they sent me to a word psychiatrists. And this is a guy that helps people hit one hundred miles an hour fastballs while are going through one hundred million dollar divorce. And he said, tell me your problems. I talked for about a half hour. Quiet, quiet guy. Well dog, he said, tell me your problems.
And I talked and then he gave me a prescription quest He pushed you to me, and it said no. He said, you just talked for an hour half hour. You didn't tell me about any of your problems. You told them about all your friends problems. He said, there's a guilt that goes along with success, and now the fact that you're successful, you feel guilty that your friends aren't doing well. But you got to learn how to say no, because when you say yes, you take someone
else's problem and turn it into yours. Damn, I had to learn how to say no to a lot of people. But know's a great word. It'll test the temperature of any relationship, even your woman. See, you got to have like we talking about the daily game, you got to have limits because take takers have no limits, they'll ravage you, you know, So you got to set a limit. You know, I use my gut, but I've been fortunate. I've been betrayed. I got set up by my boys, almost got killed. I've been through it.
Have you got to the point where you have to protect your energy as well? Now too, like where you've understood that as well?
Yeah? Yeah, well I had it gave me high blood pressure, so now if you try to if me and you were friends and you try to aggravate me, my brain says, I'm not gonna let you kill me. You ain't gonna kill me, right, you got to go. So I learned how to. You know, I can just connect from people real quick. And it's a known fact. So the people that are in my circle, no Ice is not the nigga's name is Ice. I don't want no stress. Everybody better keep it calm and I will excommunicate you, like,
don't bring it. My boys will call me up and it be like this to be like, yo, what's up Ice? No drama? No drama right right? You know, no drama, No drama, you know, because what my life is. You know, I'm in a different place right now. Man, Like you look, I got fish, aquar ams and pump. I'm not. I spent my time on the front line. I'm cool. Like niggas is like I'm outside, I'm like I'm inside.
So I let me ask.
So you know, there's a period between eighty eight, eighty nine to ninety and which, like I will say that you became the go to pundit or voice to politically speak on behalf of you know, rap music, or like you're on Donahue this week and you're on you know, Ted Coppo this weekend, like you How exhausting was it
like having that weight placed on your shoulders? Because you know, there was a point where and I don't know if you remember this, I think back in eighty six run DMC and them did a show and either at Anaheim or Long Beach or something, and you know, this is the first time we're hearing about like violence and rap music and all that stuff. And suddenly it's like you were the chosen and spoke like mouthpiece for.
All of these like talk shows. How exhausting was that?
I kind of wanted to smoke you.
Did so you wanted to play the outlaw and just no, I wanted.
To play the person that could could could intellectualize it and break it down for these people. You know, like my whole life has almost been explaining to the squares what the streets it is thinking, and explaining to the streets how the squares are thinking. Like I've been that translator in between, because even though I am hood, I'm also well read and relatively intelligent, So I could I spoke in front of Congress and you know, I can
break it down, you know, for what's going on. So when they were coming at me about free speech or this, that and the other, I was like, yeah, I'm ready to go. I mean, at the end of the day was me, Chuck and Chris who kind of like would have and even still today, man George Floyd comes up, my timeline blows up like ice, and I'm like, it's honestly a damn shame that there's no youngsters, you know.
I mean, Killer Mike is out there, but it's a damn shame that there's no real young people that can really speak for the culture.
Damn.
You're right, you know. I mean, Kendrick doesn't speak that much, but there's nobody out there on the front line speaking about shit, you know. So they keep going to me, and like I always tell people, I say, I'm gonna put it out there. If what we need right now, we need a twenty year old public enemy, some little bad motherfuckers who would go head up with all the bullshit and let them know what's up. And a rebirth of a young Lauren Hill.
Hm your mouth to you guys, heres.
Man, you know, because those things are lacking right now. In hip hop, you know, and that those voices are needed. And you know, the kids ain't gonna listen to me. I'm their grandfather, you know what I'm saying. So they not listening. But some little twenty year old cats coming out popping that shit and letting motherfuckers know you bullshit and you worried about this Gucci shit. You over here fucking up da da da da blow what Public Enemy
did for us. We need another group to do that for the youth.
A sure, exactly.
Yeah. I wanted to ask you about og original gangs then recording that out. What happens is hip hop doesn't have a name for what we're doing. They don't have a name for the music yet, so they're trying to call it reality rap. They don't really know what it is. And I'm for a minute, I called my stuff reality rap, but that wasn't true because it's not everybody's reality. It was my reality. So CBE comes out straight out of Compton, Straight out of Compton dropped. I was already on my
third album when they dropped. They it felt like Godzilla had landed, Like they came out like WHOA. I was like yo. And the first lyrics straight out of Compton. Crazy motherfucker named ice Cube from the gang called niggas with attitudes, so they referred to their rap group as a gang. The press said gangster rap. That's where the term gangster rap came from. The press coined it from Cbe. Now I've been doing it for two years, so I said, okay, Well,
if it's gangster rap, I'm the original gangst feel me. Now. OG is a term that gangs have been using in LA for decades. It just means first generation of the set. So if Questlove is OG roots, he's there might have been people to change members, but he's OG. He's one of the first members. So here comes this word original gangster. And I do an album that had twenty four cuts on it and they had just stopped making vinyl and it, you know, it was supposed to have been a double album.
And I always like to do first. I was always into doing first. I'm like, I was like, you you can always argue who is better, but you can't argue who is first, you know, so I want to be first, and Chuck says. Chuck says, iced Tea is the only person he knows that does things that totally jeopardize his entire existence to stay away. You know, just just fuck it. Everything's going good, fuck it, let's just try it a
different way. So that's it the OG album, and it was a big megalong album with a lot of different lenses and a lot of different energy.
All right, y'all, that's it for Part one.
Ice TV Gate Team and Supreme so much game on this episode that we had to make it a two part So make sure y'all check out Ice tea daily game podcast with weekday words of wisdom. Give him a listen, you know, stay tuned for QLs Part two with one and only legendary Iced Tea next week, where we talk about his TV and his film work.
All right, Babs, we'st love. Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
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