Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. Congratulations
Speaker 1: people guessing the Supreme. We got hardware, Yes, we did
Speaker 1: the damn thing. We gotta tell them what award do
Speaker 1: we win? Yeah? He tells what we won, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got the award? Is I heeart Music Podcast of
Speaker 1: the Year. Shout out to Nori, You're great. But thought
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have the first. We ain't hardly the first
Speaker 1: beat between a podcasts. That's all yeah, love to everybody
Speaker 1: in the category. It's all love. You know. It goes
Speaker 1: without saying that Our Guest Today is an absolute legend,
Speaker 1: with a Grammy the Boot, multiple Golden Platform albums to
Speaker 1: his credit. He actually pinned one of hip hop's first memoirs,
Speaker 1: The Ice Opinion. He pinned classics like you Know, Six
Speaker 1: in the Morning, Colors Knew, Jack, Hustler Og, Original Gangster.
Speaker 1: He's collaborated with everyone from Quincy Jones to Tupac to
Speaker 1: Cube to quol Keith to Slayer, and you know, I
Speaker 1: will basically say that Our Guest Today is one of
Speaker 1: the first stars of our culture to really parlay and
Speaker 1: pivot from just hip hop to other venues of expression,
Speaker 1: be it film, television. His metal band body Count one
Speaker 1: of the first hip hop legends to be a dominant
Speaker 1: voice on social media, and he's using that same wisdom
Speaker 1: as that he kicks on Twitter to offer his daily
Speaker 1: Game's definitely worth a follow him. I mean, you should
Speaker 1: be following if you're not. But basically, what can I say?
Speaker 1: We have the legendary Ice Tea on questl Supreme today, sir, Wow, Wow,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Thank you man, thank you, thank Come on
Speaker 1: dog legend. You also doesn't age, like drank from the
Speaker 1: found of youth? Did Ice Tea? Man? Don't age? I
Speaker 1: like to always preface it with living legend, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, as you should. A lot of times
Speaker 1: people don't get their flowers to It's a wrap, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I'm still here. But it's
Speaker 1: funny though, um quest I'm right now. I'm working on
Speaker 1: a project that's a compilation of all my story runs.
Speaker 1: You know, I like to tell stories, and the title
Speaker 1: of it is the Legend of Iced Tea Crime Stories,
Speaker 1: because legend is part fiction, you know. Legend is like
Speaker 1: a tale. You know. So it was a night I
Speaker 1: would I was in the club and I got in
Speaker 1: a fight and I knocked the guy out, but the
Speaker 1: legend says I knocked five guys out. You see what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Now you become legendary. You gotta live up
Speaker 1: to some of these legends that aren't really the truth.
Speaker 1: But I kind of let people believe what they want
Speaker 1: to believe, you know what I'm saying. So that's why
Speaker 1: we call the record the legend device take. But thank
Speaker 1: you very much. I was gonna say, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't know whether or not to. I'm certain that this
Speaker 1: ain't the first time that you've heard, especially based on
Speaker 1: your name, that Kats might call you the iceberg Slim
Speaker 1: of hip hop. I'm sure a lot of that is
Speaker 1: also just due to the fact that not not on
Speaker 1: a Ryan Page, but I think on Power I remember
Speaker 1: you closing side too with kind of a storytelle. I
Speaker 1: think it's Soul on Nice, the closing song on Power,
Speaker 1: of which back then I was wondering, like if that
Speaker 1: was going to be your not that I was seeing
Speaker 1: a pivot back in nineteen eighty seven or eighty eight,
Speaker 1: like did you ever have any goals or aspirations to
Speaker 1: actually start writing fictional books on that level? Now, the
Speaker 1: true story is I'm named after Iceberg Slim, and I
Speaker 1: named myself after Iceberg Slim. When I was in high school,
Speaker 1: you know you I went to Crenshaw, so you had
Speaker 1: the gang bangers and then you had the players. The
Speaker 1: players were the cats that wore tailor maids and they
Speaker 1: would shake, always shooting dice. And you know, I ended
Speaker 1: up migrating from the gangsters to them, and that's when
Speaker 1: you see me. And I had the perm and the
Speaker 1: fila and all that, but these cats would hang out
Speaker 1: and they would carry around Iceberg Slim books and Donald
Speaker 1: Going books. You feel me. So I wanted to know
Speaker 1: what that was. So I started reading Iceberg Slim and
Speaker 1: I was fascinated with it. So I was in eleventh grade.
Speaker 1: I was able to quote Iceberg Slim to the girls
Speaker 1: and they thought I was the fly ship in the
Speaker 1: world because I'm quoting a forty year old pimp to them.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could quote you want to hear some
Speaker 1: Iceberg Slim? You want to hear best? Please? I needed
Speaker 1: three way instead of play Jasper and extension, take them
Speaker 1: around the horn. No Gene or John. This whole couldn't
Speaker 1: con because that trick was never born. She'll be a
Speaker 1: good shot broad and the acid fraud and drags. She'll
Speaker 1: play like a vet. She'll stuff like an ace, never
Speaker 1: lose a case, and leave many a mark in debt.
Speaker 1: She'll be rated the best in the East and the West.
Speaker 1: When a boosting hands goes down, she'll still knocks out
Speaker 1: of knees and fighters fleas this bit. You're still out
Speaker 1: many a town now. I heard hos cry about the
Speaker 1: wind being high and the law being on their tail,
Speaker 1: about snow and sleep being asshole deep, and the tricks
Speaker 1: can go to hell and some greasy spoon or juke's saloon.
Speaker 1: You'll find them killing their time, crying hard luck tears
Speaker 1: and sucking up bears. And the pimps ain't getting the dime,
Speaker 1: turning half dollar tricks just to get a fixed because
Speaker 1: their pussy is doing the pimping. That it's ruining the
Speaker 1: name of one hell of a game because they pimps
Speaker 1: is doing the simping. Iced tea on the next jo
Speaker 1: I'm saying that at the eleventh grade to girls, and
Speaker 1: I'm not telling them it's iceberg slim. They like this,
Speaker 1: who is this flyer? And you don't even know what
Speaker 1: the fuck you're saying half of it. This sounds fly right.
Speaker 1: Next thing you said is how can I be down
Speaker 1: with this? As motherfucker? So so ice Burg ice tea
Speaker 1: is short for Iceberg tea. Quest, you're right, and my
Speaker 1: boys call me burg. My boys call me Burg. So
Speaker 1: now the song you heard was my homage to Hustle's convention.
Speaker 1: Remember that album they had alt called Hustle. Yeah, light
Speaker 1: was a lightning rod and lightning right. Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: I was in that vein. But really, honestly, truthfully, Quest,
Speaker 1: all my music is Iceberg slim like. My music is
Speaker 1: more uh like literature that it was not meant to
Speaker 1: dance too. It's like, you know, straight up nigga and
Speaker 1: some of y'll niggas's bitches too, or I'm gonna push
Speaker 1: your high rollers. It's definitions of certain things. So that
Speaker 1: was my way of writing books, was writing music. And
Speaker 1: I honestly use music that you couldn't dance to intentionally
Speaker 1: so that you'd have to do I see, I see,
Speaker 1: you're right on the think. So for a lot of
Speaker 1: our listeners that don't know of your history, I mean
Speaker 1: maybe it's maybe ten or fifteen years ago that I
Speaker 1: was shocked when I first found out that you were
Speaker 1: actually born in Jersey. Yeah, you know, where in Jersey
Speaker 1: did you live? I was born in Newark, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: I lost my mom when I was in the third grade,
Speaker 1: and I moved to Summit, New Jersey, which is predominantly
Speaker 1: white suburb. There was like one black street called Williams
Speaker 1: Street where mostly all the black people live. And then
Speaker 1: I lost my father when I was in the seventh
Speaker 1: grade and I was excuse me ship to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: to live with his sister. So even though I was
Speaker 1: from the East Coast, I hadn't really kicked up no dust.
Speaker 1: I was a kid kid, you know. So by the
Speaker 1: time I actually got active, I was in LA by
Speaker 1: that point. But yeah, I'm from I'm from the East Coast,
Speaker 1: born out. Just for perspective, I'm just curious where your
Speaker 1: people's from, Like, where was your mama's people's from. Where
Speaker 1: was your daddy's people's from. My mother was a Creole
Speaker 1: from Corleans, and she was so light skinned. Back in
Speaker 1: the fifties, they said you she could pass. You know,
Speaker 1: you know that term man to pass is white. And
Speaker 1: my father was quest color. So they were considered an
Speaker 1: interracial marriage to a lot of people. So that's why
Speaker 1: I was. I learned earlier about racism that that was
Speaker 1: not something to tolerate, how stupid it was. My mother
Speaker 1: was able to hear white people talk about black people
Speaker 1: in front of her because they thought, oh yeah. And
Speaker 1: one of my first moments in racism was I had
Speaker 1: a white kid that thought I was white and was
Speaker 1: talking about another black person in front of me. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's and my father, I think he was from Virginia,
Speaker 1: so you know, that's why I'm a light skinned brother
Speaker 1: with hazel eyes. And people know that the history of
Speaker 1: Creo is black and French. I guess fish out of
Speaker 1: water situation wasn't for you in LA at the time,
Speaker 1: Like how old are you when you're in LA? How
Speaker 1: old are you in seventh grade? I didn't like it
Speaker 1: first because you know, when you move up through the kid,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have any friends. So I got shipped when
Speaker 1: my father died. Both of them died in natural causes,
Speaker 1: you know, but my father passed away. I was in
Speaker 1: school and they shipped. They they they they took me home,
Speaker 1: and then that summer they just sent me to LA,
Speaker 1: like for the summer. Then all my clothes came and
Speaker 1: I was moved out there to with his sister. Um
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't like it because you know, and
Speaker 1: that's how I'm living. I said, I didn't like la.
Speaker 1: I didn't have no friends to trust. I didn't I've
Speaker 1: got and then got bust to a school blacks and whites.
Speaker 1: I guess this ship was cool, you know, but um,
Speaker 1: it was weird man, because my aunt didn't really want me.
Speaker 1: She had two kids that had already graduated out of
Speaker 1: high school and they were ready to go on with
Speaker 1: their life. And incomes this kid now in the junior
Speaker 1: high and it was it was rough on me. I
Speaker 1: left her house when I was seventeen years old, and
Speaker 1: I've been on my own ever since. I've never dealt.
Speaker 1: I have no living relatives, no sisters, brothers, aunt's, uncle's cousins.
Speaker 1: I've been iced. Tea has been on his own ever since. Dola. Wow, seriously, yeah,
Speaker 1: shit man, Not even a mentor, like who was your
Speaker 1: first male in your life then? In that way? Just friends,
Speaker 1: you know, friends. I have one friend that I looked
Speaker 1: up to. He died early and nobody. That's how kids
Speaker 1: get involved in gangs. Gangs are like surrogate families, you know, masculinity. Like, honestly,
Speaker 1: when I got around the gangs, I never was in
Speaker 1: a gang, but I was affiliated with the gangs. Because
Speaker 1: so you're not in a gang, you're from a gang,
Speaker 1: you know, So you have to be in a neighborhood.
Speaker 1: That neighborhood is a gang. So if you're from the sixties,
Speaker 1: you're in the Rolling sixty. You're from the eighties, you're
Speaker 1: in the eight trays in La So I was living
Speaker 1: in a nicer area in View Park. So when I
Speaker 1: went to Crenshaw, you had Harlem cripts, Hoover cripts, all
Speaker 1: kinds of cript gangs. So I knew all the shot callers.
Speaker 1: But I you know, honestly, being around my homeboys, that
Speaker 1: was the first time I ever heard somebody tell me
Speaker 1: they loved me, you know, since my parents passed, you know,
Speaker 1: we love them. And the thing of it is is
Speaker 1: the gangs to love is different because they mean it,
Speaker 1: you know when they say if something happens to you,
Speaker 1: because it's on and they meant it and they really
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like what you wish your father was.
Speaker 1: Like like, you know, like I always say, if somebody
Speaker 1: shot me, my last words wouldn't be piece to be
Speaker 1: get those motherfuckers, you know, So that's embedded in me,
Speaker 1: you know. But no, I don't have family, just friends,
Speaker 1: and and I found out that havn't. Sometimes that type
Speaker 1: of family is better because you can choose it. I know,
Speaker 1: oftentimes when people are thrusted into situations in which they lose.
Speaker 1: I like one or two conversations with James Brown, and
Speaker 1: you know, his whole thing was like, you know, my
Speaker 1: mom and my dad gave me away, and he said
Speaker 1: that that made him well, he was saying like, basically
Speaker 1: that made him stubborn. But I think he was basically
Speaker 1: trying to tell me it was really hard for him
Speaker 1: to trust anybody, anybody, you know, like when your parents
Speaker 1: leave you. Yeah, then even through death or through you know, circumstances,
Speaker 1: then you know, it's kind of hard to open your
Speaker 1: heart to like, Okay, that's my friend and that's my
Speaker 1: friend over there. But were you social like that or
Speaker 1: were you like a hermit in the beginning or him? No,
Speaker 1: I kind of like became I guess what you would say, violent,
Speaker 1: But it's not like I was beating on people, but
Speaker 1: I put on a violent persona because now here you go.
Speaker 1: You got a light skin kid in La rats around
Speaker 1: with the gangs. I got hazel eyed. My fucking name
Speaker 1: is Tracy. Okay, I don't have any relatives, right, so
Speaker 1: you're gonna be predator or prey. Fortunately I'm six feet
Speaker 1: you know. I always was always around two hundred pounds.
Speaker 1: You know, even in high school, I was always healthy
Speaker 1: enough to fight. So I ended up putting on this
Speaker 1: energy that you guys know today is nice tea. I'm
Speaker 1: a nice I'm as I see. I'm a nice guy.
Speaker 1: But I think fifty Cents said it best. It ain't
Speaker 1: how my mama raised me. It's oude of hood made me.
Speaker 1: So I just had to learn. Like one of my
Speaker 1: buddies said, Ice is a nice dude, he just doesn't
Speaker 1: back up well. I don't back up well. So once
Speaker 1: you once you issue me like it's gonna you know,
Speaker 1: if you tell me gottata or else, I'm not backing
Speaker 1: up because where am I gonna back up too? Where
Speaker 1: can I go? You know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 1: became you know, I had a lot of fades and
Speaker 1: a lot of fights, and but I had nowhere to
Speaker 1: go to us. It was just you know, I had
Speaker 1: no options, but still don't was that when you uma,
Speaker 1: at one point you joined the army or at one
Speaker 1: point didn't you. I joined an army because it's seventeen
Speaker 1: years old. I hadn't had a lot of sex like
Speaker 1: I was. I wasn't getting no no se no sex.
Speaker 1: Tenth I don't believe it, tenthal. I didn't get sex
Speaker 1: till twelfth grade. The game wasn't right. It was the
Speaker 1: presentation was good, but you ain't handle game. Is that
Speaker 1: what it was? Now? The girls was dating forty year
Speaker 1: old niggas like I was. I'm in high school. I'm
Speaker 1: talking to girls oh day didn't want to go out
Speaker 1: and see him at the end of the night. They
Speaker 1: getting picked up in low riders and kids and you
Speaker 1: know that, you know the drill. So I until I
Speaker 1: made it to senior, I had no leverage. I had
Speaker 1: no leverage, you know, I couldn't. I had nothing to
Speaker 1: offer them. I had enough to offer them to entertain
Speaker 1: them at school, but not outside of school, not out
Speaker 1: of school. Guys know this drill. You know the drill.
Speaker 1: The girl, the cheerleader flirts in high school all yeah,
Speaker 1: all the bad drains were dating way older dudes looking
Speaker 1: at the wrong girls, that's all. That's what it was.
Speaker 1: They wasn't looking at us. Nah. So so when I
Speaker 1: finally made it to senior, I got it. I had
Speaker 1: a girlfriend the tenth grade. I had a little leverage
Speaker 1: on her. But now I get out of I left
Speaker 1: my aunt's house. I got two hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: social Security. I told her I'll bailed. She said, you'll
Speaker 1: never make it. I took one hundred dollars and got
Speaker 1: an apartment. I had another hundred dollars I spent on food.
Speaker 1: I had fifty dollars that it was free money, right,
Speaker 1: And I found an apartment and the guy was like,
Speaker 1: you're too young. I said, well, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: check sent to you. You take my rent out and
Speaker 1: then you give me the difference. So the landlord would
Speaker 1: give me one hundred and fifty dollars cash. That's how
Speaker 1: he knew he was gonna get paid. And uh, what happens.
Speaker 1: I got my girl pregnant. Now I got my own pad.
Speaker 1: When I'm in the twelfth grade, you talk about popular shit,
Speaker 1: I was hill, but I didn't know. I didn't know
Speaker 1: they could get pregnant that easy. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I ain't busted enough nuts to know the drill, and
Speaker 1: there you haven't. And I'm and I'm you know, I'm old.
Speaker 1: I was graduating in nineteen seventy six. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: condoms was around you. Damn. He needed to go to
Speaker 1: the pharmacy to get a condom, like you thing like
Speaker 1: you had to get a prescription to get a condom
Speaker 1: back then. You know. So I'm busting nuts and she
Speaker 1: said she pops up pregnant, and uh, being an orphan,
Speaker 1: I wanted the baby, right. I don't got nobody, And
Speaker 1: so I went into military based on that, Like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I gotta get some responsibility. And I joined the army.
Speaker 1: I did four years at the twenty fifth Infantry Division.
Speaker 1: What was that like? Like that level of discipline, especially
Speaker 1: when I would assume that if you're saying that you
Speaker 1: have to have this persona in la where just back
Speaker 1: up half me, just back up off me type of shit.
Speaker 1: You know. Okay, you know how that work? That don't
Speaker 1: work well in the army, Yes it does, Yes, it does.
Speaker 1: See the art being in an army is kind of
Speaker 1: like joining a football team. If you don't want to
Speaker 1: be there. It ain't gonna work. If you want to
Speaker 1: be there, it's gonna work. You gotta want to be there.
Speaker 1: You seem to stand. I made the decision to do it,
Speaker 1: so I was ready to go. Like if you see
Speaker 1: g I Jane, they're like ring the bell, ring the bell,
Speaker 1: quit quit the armies like that, like if you can't
Speaker 1: hang go, But now you're much other alpham males and
Speaker 1: you like, I ain't no punk, I'm anna shure. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a place for alpha males. That's what really is.
Speaker 1: It's for motherfuckers that really want to get down. They
Speaker 1: want to go to war, like these motherfuckers, so they
Speaker 1: they hunt cats like you. But now they take the
Speaker 1: gang the street shit out of you. I remember the
Speaker 1: first time I went in the gas chamber. They put
Speaker 1: you in the gas chamber and uh say what Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: they put you in this thing called the gas chamber
Speaker 1: and let you Benjamin. You know, they put gas in there,
Speaker 1: and they make you take your mask off so you
Speaker 1: can have see the trip with military is. They want
Speaker 1: you to go through things so that when it happens,
Speaker 1: it's not the first time it happened, right, So you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna march twenty five miles, so if you have
Speaker 1: to do it, I've done this before, so they tell
Speaker 1: you to take it off. So what I did is
Speaker 1: I squinted and I just held my breath, and I
Speaker 1: was able to hold my breath a long time, and
Speaker 1: so when I came out, everybody was coughing and shit
Speaker 1: like that, and I was able to pull the mask
Speaker 1: off and it didn't look like a fuck with me.
Speaker 1: And the drill sarge like, see, that's that same shit
Speaker 1: they throw at Morrow on the block. He's used to
Speaker 1: that ship off the block. They were able. They would
Speaker 1: tease the street cats like you know, y'all, motherfucker's not
Speaker 1: a breaking off the jump. Well, if you're tough in there,
Speaker 1: they're gonna let you be tough. They're gonna let you.
Speaker 1: I remember one time I was there and they and
Speaker 1: I had a sergeant arranger he named and he was like,
Speaker 1: who thinks they can whip my ass? Right? And I
Speaker 1: hated this little motherfucker and I knew I could knock
Speaker 1: him now, so I put my hand up and his
Speaker 1: other brother, uh named go Van, and another white dude
Speaker 1: named Gary stuck their hands up, and I thought we
Speaker 1: was gonna get the fight. And then he brought us
Speaker 1: up in front of the squad platoon and said, who
Speaker 1: think they could beat me and my two three friends up?
Speaker 1: You got you guys are the squad leaders. So he
Speaker 1: see who thought they had heart? Yeah? And that was
Speaker 1: the biggest mistake in my life ever since then, I
Speaker 1: never wanted to be in charge of shit because I'm
Speaker 1: your guy to ride shotgun. I understand the position, and
Speaker 1: shotgun is much better. You know, fuck being the boss?
Speaker 1: The boss. Fucked that. That's brave to say that shit,
Speaker 1: because I ain't mad at you, but it's brave to
Speaker 1: say it. But that you not that you don't want
Speaker 1: to be the bosson you ain't mad at not being
Speaker 1: the boss like everybody. Some people would feel like what
Speaker 1: you mean? I sed tea like you and gee, you
Speaker 1: should be the boss, the top of everything to you know, producing.
Speaker 1: But I see what you're saying, and those people have
Speaker 1: never been the boss. See a lot of things you
Speaker 1: want because you have never gotten them. Once you get them,
Speaker 1: you go got it pass. I'm good on that. So
Speaker 1: Jennifer Lewis taught us that lesson. She said to us
Speaker 1: one day, she said, you know, somebody offered me a
Speaker 1: show once, and then I realized. I thought about how
Speaker 1: I look at Tracy Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson walk in,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't want that. That's not
Speaker 1: my life. And that's what that makes me think of. Listen,
Speaker 1: if Quest is the boss and I'm his lieutenant, I
Speaker 1: might need more dangerous than him. You feel me, and
Speaker 1: I might and I might be. I might have much
Speaker 1: more pro When you went to school, you're more afraid
Speaker 1: of the principle or the vice principles. She was crazy.
Speaker 1: I was terrified, even like Law and Order. Like when
Speaker 1: I'm on Law and Order, I have a job. I
Speaker 1: show up, I do the job, I get paid. It's cool.
Speaker 1: When I'm on tour, I gotta run all them niggas.
Speaker 1: I got all this shit I gotta handle. I got
Speaker 1: a budgets. Quest knows I'm on budgets and tour busses
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. I would much rather not do
Speaker 1: that and just go on tour and get the bag.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it, so at some point
Speaker 1: you realize. But they say the head that where's the
Speaker 1: crown sleeps the heaviest, and it's not necessarily for everybody,
Speaker 1: I am the boss in certain aspects of my life.
Speaker 1: Let's put that like that. When we did the Grammys,
Speaker 1: they made Quest the boss. Oh yeah about it. When
Speaker 1: I landed in New York, my tooth fell out and
Speaker 1: I went straight to surgery. That's the that's the level
Speaker 1: of stress that I was stress tooth stressed tooth man
Speaker 1: talk for real, like new teeth for real. When I
Speaker 1: stress out, body parts just go awry. So now now
Speaker 1: let's say, let's since we're doing this now, Quest, even
Speaker 1: though you got all the praise, was it worth we
Speaker 1: ever talked about this fully? Yeah, we need too. Let's go.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to decide. I'm still trying to decide
Speaker 1: if that was a victory or not. I'll say that much.
Speaker 1: I'll say this much. It was a victory for me.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I was no for real, you like one
Speaker 1: of five acts that literally gave me zero headaches, nothing, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be worth it, I guess I can.
Speaker 1: I can say that something even bigger is going to
Speaker 1: happen in August, and it's not just like a special
Speaker 1: one telling. Yes, we we already said that something's gonna
Speaker 1: happen but something on top of that is happening, and
Speaker 1: now that that's been greenlit, I feel that as it's
Speaker 1: it was way worth losing a tooth over and having
Speaker 1: to lay on an operating table for two hours. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I mean the code thing is worth you
Speaker 1: did you pull that shit together? Like two weeks? That's
Speaker 1: the crazy part. Like, no, the thing was and you know,
Speaker 1: they kind of hit me in like after thanks given,
Speaker 1: like this is what we have planned. Are you interested?
Speaker 1: And I was like all right, cool. And then I
Speaker 1: let like three weeks go by Christmas or whatever, and
Speaker 1: I guess after Christmas, I hit him up like okay,
Speaker 1: so what's the plan and they were looking at me
Speaker 1: like yeah, what's the plan. And I'm like, wait, I
Speaker 1: have to put this together, Like I'm just thinking, like,
Speaker 1: let me show up and drum and y'all tell me
Speaker 1: who I'm backing. And they were like, we were kind
Speaker 1: of hoping you put it together. So you know, I
Speaker 1: gave my wish lists and then they looked at me
Speaker 1: back like okay, do you know these people? And I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, I gotta call them too, so that no,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, so pretty like with the exception
Speaker 1: of maybe one of the acts that abandoned us and Glorilla.
Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, like I pretty much just called everyone from
Speaker 1: my telephone and yeah, I pretty much went I scrolled
Speaker 1: down my entire phone book, and I say that ninety
Speaker 1: five of everyone that you saw was me hitting them up,
Speaker 1: like yo, you mind doing this? I mean the only
Speaker 1: two people that couldn't do it was Cube and Cuba
Speaker 1: shooting something and student was coaching, uh, one of the
Speaker 1: teams for the Pro Bowl. So so I see was
Speaker 1: the loan? Wasn't he? You were the loans like representation
Speaker 1: not me? And hello and short you're too short? Excuse me?
Speaker 1: So North and South. I decided it was wiser because
Speaker 1: people off the nest, like why did you ask Big
Speaker 1: Dad King? Why did you ask cares one? The thing was,
Speaker 1: we thought it was first of all, we only had
Speaker 1: twelve minutes, and twelve minutes goes by like that when
Speaker 1: it's it's this level of ensemble. So we just wanted
Speaker 1: one representative of each right each territory. So wait, okay,
Speaker 1: so are so I I see you get the call
Speaker 1: A mere calls tell us from let's please push on
Speaker 1: your mind? What happens? Why do you say I can't
Speaker 1: do it? Why not? Why you can't do it? Because
Speaker 1: I'm in lawn Order and they shoot Mondays and in
Speaker 1: super Bowl and Grammys are always on Sundays, so I
Speaker 1: can never go. You know, I got a call time sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, seven am on Monday. So he calls and
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like, I don't know, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the Grammys. I was, I didn't really know the magnitude
Speaker 1: of it, you know, And then't he death said, he said,
Speaker 1: ice you don't want to miss this. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be legendary. This is gonna be epic. And then in
Speaker 1: my brain I thought about it, and I said, am
Speaker 1: I going to be the guy that's sitting home watching this?
Speaker 1: I had a call to do that, and people like
Speaker 1: you lying, motherfucker. Ain't nobody called you? You know? So?
Speaker 1: And then like I said, I knew he had ice
Speaker 1: Cube on speed doll. I'm like, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: not turning this down. This is the Grammys and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's second to the super Bowl as far
Speaker 1: as people seeing live performance. And I said, I called
Speaker 1: Lawn Order and I told them and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I need to be off on Monday. They said, you
Speaker 1: got the whole week off because you're getting the star
Speaker 1: next week, and we and we had this episode is
Speaker 1: off for you. So it just was a natural it was.
Speaker 1: And then then you know, I got the track, and
Speaker 1: when I got there for rehearsal, that's when it dawned
Speaker 1: on me because it's like, you're seeing everybody, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing method man, I'm seeing all my friends. It
Speaker 1: was it was me and LLL whoj who know. People
Speaker 1: haven't seen a picture of me and him ever. I
Speaker 1: gotta admit that was my one slight worry. I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, because the thing was, by the time
Speaker 1: I got to you again, I went in alphabetical order, right,
Speaker 1: and you're in the middle of the alphabet already. You know.
Speaker 1: With the least the first fifteen people I called, their
Speaker 1: first question was who else going to be there? And
Speaker 1: the thing was is like I wanted to undersell it. One.
Speaker 1: I'm very much known for even my hyperbolic statements are overexaggerated,
Speaker 1: so I kind of wanted to downplay this a little
Speaker 1: bit because for a lot of the younger generation, like
Speaker 1: I'll call Tyler the creator up and his first reaction
Speaker 1: is like, oh, man, it sounds corny, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like so in my experience and depending on
Speaker 1: what generation I'm talking to, right, I figured if I
Speaker 1: just undersell it, it'll be safe. And what's funny is
Speaker 1: for the people that were just like nah, I'm good,
Speaker 1: like that sounds wet, all of them, like the next week,
Speaker 1: we're like, yo, man, I wish you would have told
Speaker 1: me the magnitude that this thing was going to be.
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, I don't know, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: I think just to some generational people, it's you know,
Speaker 1: that's what like my whole thing is like, oh that
Speaker 1: must be nice, Like you could just shrug your shoulders,
Speaker 1: like yeah, Motown twenty five, I don't need that. Got
Speaker 1: me was the gangster rappers, right, you know, because I
Speaker 1: used to we don't get invited to shit, you know.
Speaker 1: So when he said Scarface, when he said pe, when
Speaker 1: he said ru Tank Deffort, when he said too short,
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, I remember when Prodigy was alive.
Speaker 1: You know, Prodigy is my favorite rappers from mob dB.
Speaker 1: He's like, I iced, we don't do red carpets. They
Speaker 1: don't let us in. But see, you gotta understand the
Speaker 1: people like myself, Snooping Q. We take pride in being outcasts,
Speaker 1: we take pride in not being allowed into their ship.
Speaker 1: I remember when Snoop got to what was doing the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. I'm like, you know, they hate seeing you
Speaker 1: up there. He goes ice. I'm about the crip harder
Speaker 1: than they've ever seen, he said, because don't you love
Speaker 1: it the fact? You know? So when you got the
Speaker 1: Outlaws in there and you had he quest had two
Speaker 1: short yelling bits, you know, I'm like, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: And it was funny though, because at the sound check
Speaker 1: I was doing, I was just singing all the words
Speaker 1: with the ships and the fox in it. So right
Speaker 1: before the show, I got a little text from whoever
Speaker 1: the piece as isis is gonna be live TV? Could
Speaker 1: you dial it back? I was like, okay, I was
Speaker 1: just testing the water. I didn't you know, but I
Speaker 1: wanted all the curse. Well you know what I figured it.
Speaker 1: You know what I said. I said, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: curse because they're gonna they're gonna bleep it and they're
Speaker 1: gonna bleep it wrong and it just won't it won't flow,
Speaker 1: you know. So I just changed sucking for nigga. You know,
Speaker 1: I just but I was so concerned during that show
Speaker 1: of the queue, see because it was a tape going
Speaker 1: right now, Scarface is wrapping mind playing tricks on me,
Speaker 1: and then under this thing comes in. Do d do
Speaker 1: do up? If you miss your queue, it was gonna
Speaker 1: be a rap because the crack was gonna keep going.
Speaker 1: You were gonna be offbeat in front of millions of people.
Speaker 1: I was wedding like this is not I can't and
Speaker 1: a ic concert. I could fuck up. I could be
Speaker 1: will bring that bracket, you know, I could Right, this
Speaker 1: is gonna this is a fucking train that's going. They
Speaker 1: put the things in my ear and I never think.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've been that focused in a long time.
Speaker 1: So I had to have a live a live slate
Speaker 1: just you know, because the thing was that the graphics
Speaker 1: that we were performing like that had to be on
Speaker 1: automatic time. So initially I wasn't going to do a
Speaker 1: live graphics. I was just gonna do it like a
Speaker 1: normal thing, like okay, we're bad, We'll just you know,
Speaker 1: do it like normal. But they were like, no, you
Speaker 1: gotta do it to a slate. So that way, when
Speaker 1: the lights and all that stuff change, it'll be automatically
Speaker 1: and whatnot. So how did you guys, did you know
Speaker 1: who was gonna pull out at the last minute? Yo, yo,
Speaker 1: all right, So look when Bad Bunny was opening the show,
Speaker 1: we were on in seventy five minutes, and what wound
Speaker 1: up happening was when I got word that one of
Speaker 1: our acts definitely had left the building and went back
Speaker 1: to his crib in Calabasas. Then it took us thirty
Speaker 1: seven minutes. Because the thing is, the show's happening live.
Speaker 1: It's not like the light guy can look at me
Speaker 1: and say, okay, so what are we gonna do? Like
Speaker 1: he still has to do the show. So basically, we're
Speaker 1: using musical performances and commercials to go to nine different people.
Speaker 1: You gotta tell the person that's doing explosions, the person
Speaker 1: that's doing the lights, the person that's doing the choreography.
Speaker 1: You now got to explain to the twenty dancers who
Speaker 1: were there for that one thirty eight second segment that
Speaker 1: we don't need your services anymore. So it took about
Speaker 1: thirty seven minutes for our first dropout to happen. Now,
Speaker 1: when the second drop out happened, it was twelve minutes
Speaker 1: left before showtime, and the second dropout was our top person,
Speaker 1: our headliner, who wanted more explosions, more dancers, more smoke,
Speaker 1: more like each each request was like it was almost
Speaker 1: like a negotiating arms or whatever like. And when they
Speaker 1: left at the twelve minute mark, when our headliner had
Speaker 1: totally dropped out, I yoh, man, I just I thought
Speaker 1: it was a rat. I thought, man, great, you always
Speaker 1: wanted to trend on Twitter, and now you destroyed hip
Speaker 1: hop and you broke it. So I had no clue
Speaker 1: that Uzi Vert got my message to just bum rush
Speaker 1: the stage when he heard his song. I literally didn't know.
Speaker 1: Like I said, a tech yo, you're gonna hear your
Speaker 1: instrumental bum rust the stage when you hear that shit,
Speaker 1: And my phone went dead, So I thought he didn't
Speaker 1: get that message. So I'm fucked. And it wasn't until
Speaker 1: I got off stage, because even when all of y'all
Speaker 1: were on stage at the end, it took the route
Speaker 1: to explain to me in the dressing room that little
Speaker 1: oozy vert came out, came out. I didn't know that
Speaker 1: until I was changing my clothes backstage. So that's why
Speaker 1: I can't take credit. Like, oh, it was a victory
Speaker 1: because even off stage, I was like, I explained this way.
Speaker 1: You remember how when Prince stormed off stage on Purple
Speaker 1: Rain because he thought nobody was filling right, that was me.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, I destroyed ship far and
Speaker 1: everyone's like, what are you talking about? We're turning on
Speaker 1: Twitter right now. No, I'm like, hey, look, it's even
Speaker 1: more it's even more important that you were able to
Speaker 1: pull it off with all that. That's like you had
Speaker 1: people booby trapping you on bailing out at the last
Speaker 1: minute of a live show man and uh, you know
Speaker 1: what I love though I don't think anybody missed him. No,
Speaker 1: we did not, We did not. It's still came off.
Speaker 1: It came off. Yeah, And let me ask y'all this
Speaker 1: because I talked to Jazzy Jeff after after this, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, it was a moment where we
Speaker 1: all knew that we were there. We've never been invited
Speaker 1: and we won't be invited back. Yeah, there won exactly.
Speaker 1: And he said, but we were there for hip hop,
Speaker 1: Like did you feel that too? Icy? Like at something?
Speaker 1: And I've been going to the Grammys. I want a
Speaker 1: Grammy for rap back in the day with Quincy Jones
Speaker 1: on the block me mel kumod and came and we
Speaker 1: kind of felt Quincy snuck us in the back door
Speaker 1: to Grammys. You know what I'm saying. It's like they
Speaker 1: about a rap award, but it's really Quincy Jones. So
Speaker 1: we're like, Okay, I got it. I broke it in
Speaker 1: a video on when I was on my iced tea bullshit,
Speaker 1: and then I said I missed it and I got
Speaker 1: another one replaced it. So I do have one, but
Speaker 1: one of my videos they replaced them because they were
Speaker 1: telling me, nope, yeah, this is Joe's crazy glued. There's
Speaker 1: a charge. You can get one. Yeah, funny. It's like
Speaker 1: a gold record. If they know that you're you got it,
Speaker 1: you can get into place. But I also went to
Speaker 1: China and got some some made to give out, like
Speaker 1: with body Count one, they only give out for the
Speaker 1: number of people in the group, but there's so many
Speaker 1: people involved. I got some replicas made to give to
Speaker 1: my boys and my crew. So I got that. Then
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, I was nominated body Count.
Speaker 1: That was weird because we you know they have another
Speaker 1: they have another Grammy ceremony that comes on before the Grammy.
Speaker 1: So we performed in that I got nominated for Black
Speaker 1: Hoodie and we performing. After that, they take us backstage
Speaker 1: and they got the cameras on it. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: we won this, motherfucker. We won this. Mother We're standing
Speaker 1: there and they go Masterodon and they won, and the
Speaker 1: dude took the camera and wrap that shit up and
Speaker 1: dick and left it out. Then when we got to
Speaker 1: our dressing room, it was locked. It was like they
Speaker 1: left for dead. I was like, damn. So then the
Speaker 1: next year when we got we won for Best Metal Performance.
Speaker 1: I was sitting right here because we did it over
Speaker 1: the internet, so I might be there. I probably will
Speaker 1: be the only person ever to get a rap and
Speaker 1: a Metal Grammy the categories. But you know, this is awards.
Speaker 1: Let gonna explaining your awards. This is awards, Like, this
Speaker 1: is how motherfuckers are about awards. Fuck the award, Fuck
Speaker 1: the Grammy. Man. Fuck I'm nominated, right, That's how people are.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't give a fuck about that bullshit.
Speaker 1: I'm what I'm not. That's how people are. Nobody really. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but once you did dominate, you want to win that shit.
Speaker 1: She like, fuck this every time? Okay, So since you're
Speaker 1: in LA before the darning of of what we know
Speaker 1: is hip hop, Like, how did that culture reach you
Speaker 1: out there? Like what it reached me? In an army? Oh,
Speaker 1: because I'm in the army and it's catch. Where are
Speaker 1: you stationed? I'm in Hawaii. I'm in twenty fifth Infantry.
Speaker 1: So the cats in my unit were from New York
Speaker 1: and from all over Florida. You know, it's a mismatch
Speaker 1: of people from the United States. And I was hip
Speaker 1: to first generation hip hop, which is what I call unrecorded,
Speaker 1: like tape hip hop before they made records. So they've
Speaker 1: played me all this, you know, the beatbox records and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, and hip hop is intoxicating
Speaker 1: you hear it. You're like, that shit is dope, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm saying Iceberg slim. I already think I
Speaker 1: know how to rhyme, you know what I'm saying, But
Speaker 1: I'm like, I never heard it done over beat, you know.
Speaker 1: And then they were trying to break dance and stuff
Speaker 1: at the end, and I was just like, this shit
Speaker 1: is dope as hell. And then I saw the New
Speaker 1: York City Breakers on a show called That's Incredible, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, this is dope, you know. So
Speaker 1: by the time I came back to La, LA had
Speaker 1: a techno sound. LA was Egyptian lover in them, you know,
Speaker 1: and Uncle Bobby, Jimmy and the critters like I used
Speaker 1: to call the aerobic music right, you know, and that's
Speaker 1: what LA was banging off of. And I was just
Speaker 1: the first person out there to try to rap like
Speaker 1: New York rappers, like rapping over break beats. Evie and
Speaker 1: Henji from New York City spend masters with my DJs,
Speaker 1: and we used to take records before they had instrumental
Speaker 1: records and actually catch the breaks, and I taught myself
Speaker 1: how to wrap. I came home from the military with
Speaker 1: intention to be a DJ because Uncle Jams and then
Speaker 1: we're making a lot of money throwing parties for between
Speaker 1: you know, sixteen under twenty one, big big they do
Speaker 1: in an LA Sports arena. The whole Uncle Jams concept
Speaker 1: was they were in LA well anywhere you can't get
Speaker 1: in the club till you twenty one, but there's a
Speaker 1: whole gang of kids that want to go out, you know.
Speaker 1: So they started throwing parties and they basically created the
Speaker 1: first like rage. They with these long extended parties and
Speaker 1: they were able to do the La Sports Arena multiple
Speaker 1: times with no acts, no ass So you're talking about
Speaker 1: five thousand kids dancing and the entire stadium on the
Speaker 1: floor of the stadium. I'll never forget Egypt had a
Speaker 1: drum machine at eight h eight, and I'll never ever
Speaker 1: forget it, you know, because we hadn't seen drum machines.
Speaker 1: And at the moment where they're like, they put the
Speaker 1: drum machine on and they mixed it in and they
Speaker 1: go Uncle Jams Army is about to go live, and
Speaker 1: they played the drum machine and he would take the
Speaker 1: records and hold the records in the air so you
Speaker 1: could see he wasn't playing any records, and the crowd
Speaker 1: kept dance, and it was a moment like like yo,
Speaker 1: like Yo, this is live shit up here, saying they
Speaker 1: were changing the beat, and uh, I was the first
Speaker 1: one they would let rap, you know, they would let
Speaker 1: me wrap in front of that crowd and stuff, and yeah,
Speaker 1: that was how I got I ended up in this
Speaker 1: club called the Radio. The Radio was well, see that's
Speaker 1: why he got me here. I'm gonna give you the drill,
Speaker 1: thank you. The club was called the Radio it became
Speaker 1: the Radio Tron when they decided to make the movie,
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to pay the guys who started
Speaker 1: the club, so they just flipped the name and stole
Speaker 1: the name. But the real club was the Radio Club,
Speaker 1: and it was owned by a couple of guys that
Speaker 1: were like graffiti artists by way in New York, but
Speaker 1: they were Europeans. One was Russian, and they had Malcolm
Speaker 1: McLaren there. People were it was like trendy white kids.
Speaker 1: Adam Aunt would be up in the Motherfucker and it
Speaker 1: was in mccarthur Park. And I actually put Madonna on
Speaker 1: stage in that club because I went there. They found
Speaker 1: out I had a record out I went there. I
Speaker 1: became kind of like the stage manager, and if you
Speaker 1: wanted to wrap, you had to wrap to me downstairs.
Speaker 1: And then I go up and do the introduction. Okay,
Speaker 1: quest Love just got here is helicopter just landing in
Speaker 1: the parking lot. You better be good, nigga. And then
Speaker 1: they got that out and here it goes in clown
Speaker 1: and you would just be on stage getting it on.
Speaker 1: So they bring this girl in. They go he names Madonna,
Speaker 1: and I took her downstairs and she had this record
Speaker 1: called Physical Attraction. I'm like, I never heard of you,
Speaker 1: you know, but you got a record. And I let
Speaker 1: her perform and she performing during the show, she was
Speaker 1: touching me like used me as a prop. And I
Speaker 1: had a black girlfriend. Oh that did not go well
Speaker 1: that night. And this before y'all label mates. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Madonna had just came out. She was with jelly Bean
Speaker 1: Benitez back in and you know, so that's the history.
Speaker 1: So that's were you know, the radio was where we
Speaker 1: were performing. And then the people came in. They saw
Speaker 1: the scene, they go, you'll be the rapper. Uh, you
Speaker 1: guys will be the dancers. And Glove was the DJ.
Speaker 1: You know, the history of the glove. Glove was carrying
Speaker 1: the equipment into the place. And the owner of the
Speaker 1: clubs like we needed DJ and gloves like I could DJ.
Speaker 1: They got you got a DJ name he goes Nah
Speaker 1: and the nigga had on gloves. You could be cluball
Speaker 1: gloves and now. And he was the house DJ at
Speaker 1: the radio. But when when it came out on the movie,
Speaker 1: it became the radio Tron. But the real name of
Speaker 1: the club was the radio. All right, So can you
Speaker 1: talk about um the coldest rap. One of our best
Speaker 1: episodes ever was with Jimmy Jam and he explained how
Speaker 1: for for the two people that have not heard the
Speaker 1: six hour Jimmy Jam episode, um you know Jam, basically
Speaker 1: the anthology yeology of Jam, Um you know. He explained that,
Speaker 1: you know, after they left Prince that they were basically
Speaker 1: worked for hire musicians. But I mean at the time,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like you went and said, oh, let me
Speaker 1: get those two dudes from the time to do a
Speaker 1: track for me. You were just buying tracks from anyone
Speaker 1: or nah nah. So I used to get my hair
Speaker 1: done at this spot called Good Fred right this when
Speaker 1: I had to perm my ship was more wavy than
Speaker 1: the ships in the navy. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I had out matched the girls. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: That's what a player has to do. You gotta look
Speaker 1: better than these chicks, so they understand they gotta get
Speaker 1: together to get with you, dig it. So I get
Speaker 1: my hair to get get together. And I would say
Speaker 1: these rhymes right by walking around, rhymes like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm the pimp to play it. The woman lay at
Speaker 1: the hooly dooler, the whole house ruler, I just pimp
Speaker 1: poor as a slam Cadillac doors. So I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: and this guy named Willie Strong who owned VIP Records,
Speaker 1: the very famous records store that Snoop is standing on
Speaker 1: and in his first you know video, they came to
Speaker 1: me and they said, you want to make a record.
Speaker 1: And it was just like, uh run. You know. They
Speaker 1: threw me inside the cadillac and the chauffeur drove off
Speaker 1: and he never came back. So they it took me
Speaker 1: from the beauty parlor the salon to a studio and
Speaker 1: there was they had this track with Jimmy jam and
Speaker 1: Terry Lewis. They owned the track and it was some
Speaker 1: chicks singing on it and they cleared it and they say,
Speaker 1: rap rappers that haven't made records have a million rhymes.
Speaker 1: They're ready to go. You know what I'm saying. You
Speaker 1: never rule one. If you're a well known rapper, never
Speaker 1: battle an unsigned rapper. Still apply. I had a bunch
Speaker 1: of rhymes, right, So I went in there and they
Speaker 1: were like, say a rhyme, So I had to write
Speaker 1: a hook. I knew I needed a hook, so I wrote,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a player, That's all I know. In
Speaker 1: a summer day, I play in the snow, meaning cocaine
Speaker 1: from the wound to the tomb. I run my game
Speaker 1: because I'm cold in sights and I shown O shame.
Speaker 1: So that's all that's all I needed. And once I
Speaker 1: did that, I just went in there. You know. The
Speaker 1: ladies say that I'm having sent because I got more
Speaker 1: money than the US meant. I ride ragtop rolls, rocks
Speaker 1: on my hand, Maserati's, Mercedes, Benz ocean Liners, private jets,
Speaker 1: bel Air, Bookies placed my bets. I owned islands off
Speaker 1: the coast of France, and I wear designer shirts and pants. Honey.
Speaker 1: When I was brought into this world, my mama never
Speaker 1: asked if I was a boy or a girl because
Speaker 1: I rolled over to and gave her a kiss and
Speaker 1: she said, Yo, Daddy, don't rock me like this. All right,
Speaker 1: So this is the code. So I say this shit
Speaker 1: right off the head off the dome. And that's my
Speaker 1: first record on Saturn Records, produced by Jimmy jam and
Speaker 1: Terry Lewis, and I made two hundred dollars. Wow, So
Speaker 1: how was at parlay into when we first met you
Speaker 1: nationally were breaking Well, that was my first experience with records,
Speaker 1: and when you want to make a record, you want
Speaker 1: to make a record more than get paid. You just
Speaker 1: want to make a record. So I made that record
Speaker 1: that records what led me to the radio tron See
Speaker 1: was saying they they heard I had a record, and
Speaker 1: they booked me to come and uh and and I
Speaker 1: was at the radio tron when the movie Breaking came in.
Speaker 1: When the movie Breaking came in, they said, we said,
Speaker 1: can we make a song for the album? Me and
Speaker 1: Glove made Reckless right, which Eminem says the first rap
Speaker 1: record he ever heard. And that was like, you know,
Speaker 1: Reckless went platinum, right. So I had got a bag,
Speaker 1: but I hadn't. I didn't have a record deal or anything.
Speaker 1: And then I was connected to this other DJ and
Speaker 1: LA called Unknown and uh he we made a was
Speaker 1: he Unknown from cottonis was wanted? Yeah? Yeah, he had
Speaker 1: a record a label called Techno Hop and Confidence most
Speaker 1: Warner was on there and he was like, come on,
Speaker 1: isis make a record for me? Fuck that, you know?
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, So I made a record call
Speaker 1: you Don't Quit. And then the second one was Dog
Speaker 1: in a Watch with six in the Morning on the
Speaker 1: b side and as Chuck D said when that he
Speaker 1: had my identity, was was connected. I mean, but at
Speaker 1: the time where you conscious of like, okay, I've been
Speaker 1: party rocking, now, how can I pivot to reality rhymes?
Speaker 1: Like what was your mind stated with that? I was
Speaker 1: trying to be a rapper. I was rapping, like meling them.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm ding, I'm wearing spikes and shit. You know,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, this is what you gotta do,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to get in. You know, there's nobody
Speaker 1: in La to look at. And yeah, but six in
Speaker 1: the Morner was pretty serious at the time. So but
Speaker 1: that came from school, e D. Thank you. You know what,
Speaker 1: I'm always tell you the truth because my boys told me,
Speaker 1: they say ice never lie because motherfucker's ain't going to
Speaker 1: believe the truth, you understand, So this give him the truth. No,
Speaker 1: I'm saying these rhymes to my boys. I'm saying that
Speaker 1: gangster shit, you know, strolling through the city middle of
Speaker 1: the night, niggas on my left, niggas on my right,
Speaker 1: yelling cut cut cut rip to everybody I see, if
Speaker 1: you're bad enough, come fuck with me. So I'm saying
Speaker 1: these kind of rhymes for the gangs, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's negative shit, Like people don't want
Speaker 1: to hear that. So I'm saying certain reps to entertain
Speaker 1: my friends. And then I'm then I'm saying party rhymes
Speaker 1: for hip hop. You feel me, right? I know the
Speaker 1: iceberg slim type shit, but I don't know what translates.
Speaker 1: So then I hear PSK, and uh it blew my mind.
Speaker 1: I was in Santa Monica and I heard first the
Speaker 1: track came on, the track sounded I've never done angel dust,
Speaker 1: but the track sounded like angel d a bunch of reverbs,
Speaker 1: I'm like, And then school he came on pskly making
Speaker 1: that green people away say. Now, at that time, everyone
Speaker 1: was yelling on records, who is fly nigga? You know,
Speaker 1: one by one, I'm knocking out he's for the way
Speaker 1: my DJ's because you know, put my pistol up against
Speaker 1: his heads and sucking as. I was like, then I
Speaker 1: researched it. PSK's Park Side Killers. He's rapping a set.
Speaker 1: It's okay feel me. That was the green light, Like,
Speaker 1: oh they want to hear this kind of shit? God
Speaker 1: all day? You feel me? Yeah? So we go in
Speaker 1: and when we do six in the morning and six
Speaker 1: in the morning. I took the Remember I remember the
Speaker 1: BC Boys had a record called hold It Now, hit It, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Holding Now where the record kind of stopped and then
Speaker 1: he took off again. So I wanted that for six
Speaker 1: in the morning. So that's where the don thing thing
Speaker 1: like the record and then to do people, boom it
Speaker 1: starts again throughout so holy now I hit it was
Speaker 1: the genesis of that track. The beat just a basic
Speaker 1: beat kind of something with eight away and then I
Speaker 1: come in on the same exact cadence as school e
Speaker 1: ed psk. We're making that green six in the morning,
Speaker 1: Polly sat my fuel fresh jaded to squeak across the
Speaker 1: bathroom floor back and that is it was more graphic
Speaker 1: and deeper. Now wasn't gonna hit? I don't know. So
Speaker 1: I get a call from the Fillmore West in Frisco,
Speaker 1: we'd like you to do a show up here. I'm like, sure,
Speaker 1: you know, boom bam. Five days later they called me back,
Speaker 1: we want you to do a show up here. I said,
Speaker 1: I already booked the show in that same place. They said,
Speaker 1: that's sold out were I'm not on LA radio. But
Speaker 1: they started playing me on KMEL there in the Bay
Speaker 1: and was on and then later on you want to
Speaker 1: track the movement Cube did the record? Boys in the
Speaker 1: Hood are always hard right, which he's with six in
Speaker 1: the Morning part two. But it's all SCHOOLI these Cadence.
Speaker 1: It's all SCHOOLI these Cadence. So a lot of times
Speaker 1: rappers or jack cadences and you won't even know. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you. You know, players love to give credit, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's like you know, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: know if I didn't tell you. Like Colors, rest will
Speaker 1: get this. Colors comes from Mythological by King's Son. Colors
Speaker 1: listen to King Sun. When I get ill, it's a
Speaker 1: reason because it's duck season, Hunter of the front right,
Speaker 1: that was that's how myth the mythological mythological rappers. You
Speaker 1: got a lot to learn that I've not heard that
Speaker 1: record mythological mythological by King you know, King's Son, right
Speaker 1: of course on the King Sun. Yes, well that's how
Speaker 1: it comes on. When I get ill, it's a reason
Speaker 1: because it's duck season, Hunter of the Frontier. I am
Speaker 1: a nightmare walk walking, right, if a jungle just a
Speaker 1: gangster stalking, So you know, you can, you can. I
Speaker 1: think all of us are influenced by other people. And
Speaker 1: if it's done well, because hip hop is all samples
Speaker 1: and stuff, if it's done well, you'll never know. You'll
Speaker 1: never know because it's done well. But I always try
Speaker 1: to give a shout out to the people that inspire
Speaker 1: those particular songs. You know, I've been friends with with
Speaker 1: Seymour about eleven and twelve years now because I'm also
Speaker 1: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committee. Seymore signs
Speaker 1: a genius man. He literally says, you know, and he's
Speaker 1: had like health issues and all that stuff in the
Speaker 1: past ten years. He's like, he is not going six
Speaker 1: feet underground until he gets you in the right the
Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame. And literally every year it's in case.
Speaker 1: You don't think like you're even thought of or in
Speaker 1: line or whatever, but Seymour like you're always. We get
Speaker 1: two votes each as a committee member on who gets nominated.
Speaker 1: When I was first there in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: two now like, trust me to tell you my Seymour
Speaker 1: sign story. Just tell me and Seymour signs. Seymour Stein,
Speaker 1: the president of Sire Records who signed the Talking Heads
Speaker 1: Madonna Ministry, you know Ramons. Ye, So I have six
Speaker 1: in the Morning out and it was getting energy off
Speaker 1: from in the East coast. Scott the Rock was playing
Speaker 1: it and Africa Islam was somebody who I met at
Speaker 1: the radio who was very intrigued with me. Because the
Speaker 1: New York rappers would come out to LA. I already
Speaker 1: had to push the jury, the money and the girls,
Speaker 1: and at that time nobody had made any money rap
Speaker 1: rap niggas hadn't bought cars yet, you know, so they're like,
Speaker 1: why do you want to wrap? You know? But what
Speaker 1: I was doing, the warranty was about to be up,
Speaker 1: all right, so I want to wrap. I liked rapping
Speaker 1: and and and my friends were going to prison, penitentiary,
Speaker 1: blah blah, getting shot this any other because we was
Speaker 1: active active. So Islam liked me, like he just liked me.
Speaker 1: And so he's like, Ice, they won't play your record
Speaker 1: in New York unless you come to New York because
Speaker 1: what you're talking they need to see you're authentic. So
Speaker 1: I came out to one hundred fifty six and ten
Speaker 1: in South Bronx, and I was out there so I
Speaker 1: met Scotland Rock and but by it being Africa Islam.
Speaker 1: I met New York from the top down. What was
Speaker 1: your look at the time. I'm sorry, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: picture this because, like you said, I like you had
Speaker 1: to hear. You had to so you went to the Bronx.
Speaker 1: Look at I have feel it on and jewelry and
Speaker 1: a perm Okay, okay, make sure I'm sorry. Them niggas
Speaker 1: just thought I look like a pimp, but I was
Speaker 1: rather my West Coast shit. You know, a player plays
Speaker 1: the whole bubble, from the pineapple to the big Apple,
Speaker 1: from the snowflakes to the earthquakes. You understand me. Wherever
Speaker 1: I touched down, I'm gonna make it my town. So
Speaker 1: I had the Chrisman, the gift, the gab that all
Speaker 1: the New York niggas liked me. I was different, but
Speaker 1: they liked me. They knew I wasn't no bitch, so
Speaker 1: they liked me. So is by being a boss, I
Speaker 1: meet Red Alert, Chuck chill Out, Scott Laro. I meet
Speaker 1: all the bosses I didn't, so I'm hanging out. There
Speaker 1: was a guy named Ralph Cooper Junior. You know that
Speaker 1: is que do not know? Ralph Senior was the one
Speaker 1: of the Apollo Cats that like Randy Apolo from back,
Speaker 1: So he's his son, okay. So Ralph Cooper Junior was
Speaker 1: like trying to be an agent, and he connected me
Speaker 1: and Mellie Mel and we did a record on Spring Records,
Speaker 1: and I was in the studio with Mellie mellon Kazz
Speaker 1: like these idols of mine and uh. He took a
Speaker 1: compilation and to see Seymour Stein. It was Mellie Mel,
Speaker 1: Grandmaster Cass Donald d from the B Boys. It had
Speaker 1: to saw and stick up kids and girls, myself and
Speaker 1: a kid named Bronze Style Bob Oh, which was the compilation.
Speaker 1: Kaz was still connected to um Kas had a thing
Speaker 1: with Tough City, a deal. Mel had something with sugar Hill.
Speaker 1: Donald had something with entertainment. I was free and Bob
Speaker 1: had never made a record, okay. So Seymour that said
Speaker 1: I'll take ice tea. And he wasn't hip hop enough
Speaker 1: to know that you couldn't wrap if you were from
Speaker 1: the West coast. He was. His ignorance was like fuck it,
Speaker 1: I'll take ice tea. I never forget me. And Islam
Speaker 1: went up to Sire Records to meet with him, and
Speaker 1: Seymour was dancing around in his socks and me in
Speaker 1: the eyes and said you have such beautiful eyes. And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh shit, this is that part where
Speaker 1: they want me to some shit. And Islam was like,
Speaker 1: stay down, he's gonna sign a check. Stay down, just
Speaker 1: hold your down. So then he said you sound like
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan, and I knew Bob Dylan was a subterranean
Speaker 1: homesick blues He's wrapping on that. I'm like okay. And
Speaker 1: then Seymour said the most genius ship to me. He said,
Speaker 1: do you understand the music from Trinidad? This stuff they're
Speaker 1: singing about, the Calypso music. I'm like no, he said,
Speaker 1: they're singing about the problems here in the islands. He says,
Speaker 1: but just because you don't understand it does not make
Speaker 1: it invalid. It just means you don't understand it. In
Speaker 1: the same way I might not understand hip hop, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't make what you're saying any less valid. It's
Speaker 1: just I don't understand it, but I know you're saying something.
Speaker 1: So he gave me. He gave me forty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and we made the first album. We went out and
Speaker 1: bought a SB twelve, a nine o nine and a
Speaker 1: gold chain. What else do you need? Starting kid one
Speaker 1: on one, the whole album in secret sound studios mixed
Speaker 1: the whole album and one night no automation back in
Speaker 1: them days, and Ryan pays uh now is platinum so
Speaker 1: uh forty thousand dollars budget, And Seymour was just he
Speaker 1: was smart enough to say he didn't know. I never forget.
Speaker 1: Here's another story. There's a lyric in this record I
Speaker 1: did called um, I Love the Ladies where I go, guys,
Speaker 1: grab a girl, girls, grab a guy. If God wants
Speaker 1: a god, please take it outside. So Seymour goes Ice
Speaker 1: was it's gay. I said, Seymour, I'm not gay bashing,
Speaker 1: but if you could say you're gay, can't I say
Speaker 1: I'm straight? Oh? Right? And then I said has your
Speaker 1: daughter listened to it? And she said yeah. I said,
Speaker 1: what does she say? She loves it? And then I go,
Speaker 1: I said, Seymour, that tension you feel that might be
Speaker 1: money and he said, too shat hungry phono, that tension,
Speaker 1: that that tension is the money. That's the money right there.
Speaker 1: You know us marketing to the hilt yea. And it
Speaker 1: was like just based on your album, covers alone. We
Speaker 1: were going to buy your record. You never ever ever
Speaker 1: heard a note or anything like that. Dig it quest
Speaker 1: This is what the deal was, right. I was never
Speaker 1: gonna get on the radio, right. I had already determined
Speaker 1: that because we would, we decided we were outlawed music.
Speaker 1: So me, Luke uh too short get boys. We were
Speaker 1: cursing and at that time I refused to do a
Speaker 1: radio edit. That was like selling out to me. Fuck that.
Speaker 1: This is how the shit is now. There was a
Speaker 1: time where you could get people to buy records because
Speaker 1: they had stickers on them, like people wanted that. That
Speaker 1: forbidden shit, right. So what I did, as far as
Speaker 1: marketing does, I hired Glenn Freeman. You know Glenn, Yes,
Speaker 1: legendary Glenn Freeman. Yes, he did LLL's cover, He did
Speaker 1: Runs cover, He done Baci Boy covers. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I need my cover to be at the same quality
Speaker 1: as them, so it stands sits right alongside of them.
Speaker 1: You gotta have the palm Tree, you got the porst,
Speaker 1: you got the girl. You cannot look like New York.
Speaker 1: Then I had a meeting with my team because I
Speaker 1: was the first rappers signed to Warner Brothers. I was there,
Speaker 1: but I was the first rappers signed to a major really,
Speaker 1: and that was before Cold Chilling came over there and
Speaker 1: Uptown came over there. But I took a map and
Speaker 1: I said, okay. I circled the Tri state area and
Speaker 1: I said, okay, this is New York, this is Philly.
Speaker 1: You know, this is Jersey, this is hip hop. Right,
Speaker 1: that's the East coast. But dig this, the West Coast
Speaker 1: starts right here, right on the outside of Philly. I
Speaker 1: just wiped the whole map, I said, because anybody that's
Speaker 1: not from that Tri State doesn't give a fuck because
Speaker 1: they're not from either. So Detroit, we want Detroit, we
Speaker 1: want Chicago. That we just called everything from Philly the
Speaker 1: West Coast because I was holding it so tight. We're like,
Speaker 1: we'll just take the rest of this ship. So and
Speaker 1: it still stands today. If you're not from New York
Speaker 1: and you're from Oklahoma, you don't give a fuck. If
Speaker 1: you're you don't care because you're not either. So Luke
Speaker 1: Luke had that same science. They were down in Florida
Speaker 1: getting a bunch of money, Sir mix a Lot got
Speaker 1: a bunch of money from Washington. So New York kind
Speaker 1: of shot themselves in the foot early in the game
Speaker 1: by being so regional. Hip hop is gonna grow. Hip
Speaker 1: Hop is a virus. It's gonna grow whether you want
Speaker 1: one or not. Ye know. So okay, with There's one,
Speaker 1: one of your legendary shows is still in its complete
Speaker 1: form on YouTube. There's There's a show of yours live
Speaker 1: in Vancouver nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: was shocked at how heavy, like you know by this
Speaker 1: time your third album Just watch what you say, Freedom
Speaker 1: of Speeches out and based on your intro loan with
Speaker 1: the shut Up You Happy Joint, your show was so
Speaker 1: high powered it was almost like a rock show, even
Speaker 1: before body Count the body count thing starts. So what
Speaker 1: point are you pivoting to that level of energy in
Speaker 1: your live shows where it's almost like a rock show,
Speaker 1: even though it is you and evinly like on stage
Speaker 1: it's rocking together, you know what it is? Quest My
Speaker 1: always thing was like, if you're coming to see a show,
Speaker 1: what are you coming to see? So if I'm coming
Speaker 1: to see the Fat Boys, I'm coming to see three
Speaker 1: Fat Boys. If I'm coming to see Curtis Blow, it's
Speaker 1: Curtis Blow, you know, it's a, you know, so what
Speaker 1: is iced tea? And my thing was, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: you into the darkness of South central Los Angeles. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you. I'm gonna set up this energy, this
Speaker 1: dark and sinister and stuff. So we had to catch
Speaker 1: with the best song early in the game and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. The metal influence was just darkness
Speaker 1: to me. You know. We tried not to do happy records,
Speaker 1: even though we did shit, you know, let's get butt
Speaker 1: naked and fucking stuff like that. But was always an
Speaker 1: intention to keep it still to today. Like Chuck will say,
Speaker 1: Ice is one of the most theatrical rappers because I
Speaker 1: like to bring everything down and just put a spotlight
Speaker 1: on me and just let let me take you there
Speaker 1: on my these these adventures like a midnight you know.
Speaker 1: But that was just a choice because Kane's dancing, right,
Speaker 1: I ain't got no motherfucking dances, you know what I'm saying. Uh,
Speaker 1: Dougie Fresh, because our first tour we went out on,
Speaker 1: we went out on a dope jam tour. It was
Speaker 1: us Kars One Boogie Down Productions, um um Um Kumo,
Speaker 1: d Dougie Fresh, Eric B and rock Him with Somebody O.
Speaker 1: Bismarck and we're to open and act. So how do
Speaker 1: you I'm from the era quest where you gotta be different,
Speaker 1: like you can't be like everybody else. So we had
Speaker 1: a police car out there and we're throwing money for
Speaker 1: making rain. We had cell phones, big old big phones,
Speaker 1: and we were giving you that energy. So I just
Speaker 1: didn't want to be the guy that comes out on
Speaker 1: the stage and it's, you know, looking cool and trying
Speaker 1: to wrap. I want to set a tone, and that's
Speaker 1: what that was all about. It still is when you
Speaker 1: go see Ice T show. All Right, this is the
Speaker 1: question I always wanted to know and have answered, and
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's taking me this long to answer. Okay,
Speaker 1: I do not know the history of the story, so
Speaker 1: break it down like I'm in kindergarten. What was now?
Speaker 1: As we talked about earlier with the Grammy thing, my
Speaker 1: one concern was, are you in ll gonna be cool
Speaker 1: with each other? Because I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: amended it or made up or whatever. Can you please
Speaker 1: tell me what the genesis of the beef between you two?
Speaker 1: Because you know, when I heard push a man and
Speaker 1: simple your pusherman rejected LLL. I was like, whoa, what
Speaker 1: was that about. It's simple, all right. I started it,
Speaker 1: and you know LLL was. LLL was, I'm the baddest,
Speaker 1: I'm the greatest, I'm this, I'm that okay. LLL was
Speaker 1: actually out before me, so he was like the eminem
Speaker 1: or he was the dude you gotta get I'm coming
Speaker 1: out of LA. I got the whole West Coast on
Speaker 1: my back. I don't got the crips and the bloods.
Speaker 1: I got the crips and the bloods and Bay Area
Speaker 1: everybody on my back. Iced Tea, Hey, it's just what
Speaker 1: it is. We gotta gotta take off on this nigga.
Speaker 1: I gotta let him know like you might think you
Speaker 1: the best fuck that you know, and that's just part
Speaker 1: of the culture. That's just what it is, you know.
Speaker 1: Because I can't come out from LA and say about
Speaker 1: at LLL cool J right now, not when I'm trying
Speaker 1: to come out like she was trying about being a boss.
Speaker 1: I Yo, you gotta set it with this nigga like.
Speaker 1: So I set it off right and he came back.
Speaker 1: He got at me on the break of dawn, and
Speaker 1: I was gonna reply. I had a record call open
Speaker 1: contract and bamboding them. Stepped in because Elle was trying
Speaker 1: to be down with Zulus. There was a legendary meet
Speaker 1: up with me and him at a Flavor Flay party
Speaker 1: and we squashed it before it got hectic, you know,
Speaker 1: but we were just the date. It was one of
Speaker 1: those things. He was battling Kumod, he was battling a
Speaker 1: bunch of motherfucker Yes, yes, but it was me. I
Speaker 1: started it and and I did it. I did it
Speaker 1: as an act of war like I did it because
Speaker 1: it was time for Iced Tea to step up and
Speaker 1: say fuck you. You know now. So it was business,
Speaker 1: not personal. I don't know, KOJ. Yeah, it's business. But
Speaker 1: it's like it's kind of like that's what hip hop was,
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, you you challenged the nigga
Speaker 1: whoever's the boss at the time, and he was the boss.
Speaker 1: And I never, at no point was it like, yo,
Speaker 1: let me be down with this dude, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm from LA I'm from the I'm from Gangland. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. We don't get down like that.
Speaker 1: We we go we take you know, you gotta set
Speaker 1: it like that's that's that's what my coast expected me
Speaker 1: to do. I'll handled it before it got physical too, though,
Speaker 1: right that wasn't a days nobody was getting shot. This
Speaker 1: is private and all that. This is just rap shit,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm just letting the record show because some
Speaker 1: people don't even know that there was a word. I
Speaker 1: don't think we didn't threaten to tell L nigga, you
Speaker 1: can't come to LA. We was on the bullshit, but
Speaker 1: it got squashed early. And so what me and him
Speaker 1: agreed to do was not necessarily apologize, but just not
Speaker 1: talk about it. That it okay. So we never talked
Speaker 1: about it, and that was it. And I never held
Speaker 1: anything against LLL. But the crazy part of the story
Speaker 1: quest me and LLL bumped into each other twenty five
Speaker 1: years later in Monte Carlo. Of course we were at
Speaker 1: we were at a television convention, and I walked up
Speaker 1: to l L and extended my hand and said, man,
Speaker 1: me and you have never talked. Daddy, daddy die. I
Speaker 1: won't let you know. Like you said, wasn't person. It
Speaker 1: was only business, you know. I had to come at you. Man,
Speaker 1: you was the guy to come at and he was
Speaker 1: like ice. It was a culture and that was it.
Speaker 1: And then he called me up. He said, Ice, I
Speaker 1: need you to help me out on Rock the Bells radio.
Speaker 1: And since then me and him a podcasts together and
Speaker 1: all that. You know, it's like it's Rocks and Shanta
Speaker 1: still mad. You know, it's like part of the game
Speaker 1: back then, in your prominence and in your rise as
Speaker 1: you're making these records for people that are watching you,
Speaker 1: like is art imitating life? Because I know that once
Speaker 1: you rise up in stature, then damn near the whole
Speaker 1: West Coast is willing to ride for you. Now, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine that everyone is wishing you well, wishing you
Speaker 1: good luck or whatever. Like again, you say that you're
Speaker 1: a reluctant leader, So how do you know who to
Speaker 1: weed out? Like who's good for the organization and who
Speaker 1: to weed out? Who to avoid, who's going to kill
Speaker 1: the money, who's going to drop the bag on you? Like,
Speaker 1: how are you navigating in terms of knowing which right
Speaker 1: team to have on your side in terms of stopping
Speaker 1: your bag so to speak, by having the wrong people
Speaker 1: associated with your Well, I'm now, God, remember I got
Speaker 1: put on by Zulu Nation, right, so I would I
Speaker 1: admired the Zulu Nation how they had tried call quests
Speaker 1: and busting all these cats together, and they were all
Speaker 1: going in the same direction. I really admired that whole
Speaker 1: Zulu thing. I went to back to LA. Now I
Speaker 1: study gangsters, right, so I will reading up on Lucky
Speaker 1: Luciano and and Myer Lansky and all these cats. And
Speaker 1: Lucky Luciao created this thing called the Commission, which kept
Speaker 1: the five families from killing each other because they created
Speaker 1: sit downs. So I created something in LA called the syndicate,
Speaker 1: the rhyme syndicate, which was a group of groups with
Speaker 1: a common goal with no boss. So Cypress Hill that's
Speaker 1: a crew, h DJ Laddin and dubb C low Profile
Speaker 1: that's a crew. So all these different groups, everlast, that's
Speaker 1: a group. Each one of these cats had a group
Speaker 1: of people, and we made an agreement before we would beef,
Speaker 1: we would sit down and talk. And that's why you've
Speaker 1: never heard of a West Coast beef ever, because anybody
Speaker 1: that wasn't syndicate was either NWA or Delicious Vinyl, which
Speaker 1: was just Tone Low and Young MC is kind of
Speaker 1: like syndicate to a little bit. Now, Nwa had a beef,
Speaker 1: but that was a family feud, and everyone had to
Speaker 1: step back because it was a family left. Family got
Speaker 1: but the Syndicate is still alive and KINGT was part
Speaker 1: of it to the alcoholics because I created something that
Speaker 1: said I'm not in charge each one of you gang,
Speaker 1: each one of you cells are separate, but together we're powerful.
Speaker 1: And that's what I did. I created an organization. People say,
Speaker 1: you created your own gang. I did, and inside of
Speaker 1: it there was no gang banging. So if you were Syndicate,
Speaker 1: you no longer as cripple blood. When we're in the studio,
Speaker 1: we're all part of the same shit. And I just
Speaker 1: taught them all like, look man, we're all going in
Speaker 1: the same direction, and ain't no reason to be hating
Speaker 1: on somebody unless you're a bitch. So all of us
Speaker 1: should help each other. And that's how the producers start
Speaker 1: to get in waived and all the different stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and Dray and them understood, and it was just love.
Speaker 1: I got a good sense of you know who's around
Speaker 1: me and shit like that. But you gotta keep that
Speaker 1: your whole life. Gotta keep remembering. I'm an orphan, so
Speaker 1: I'm hypersensitive to everything that's going on around me. I'm hypersensitive,
Speaker 1: so but as an orphan, did you feel like the obligatory?
Speaker 1: All right, I gotta take you all with me. I
Speaker 1: gotta take care of all of you. Or early I did,
Speaker 1: Early I did when I first got got some bread,
Speaker 1: legit bread. I never felt that way with illegal money,
Speaker 1: you know, with illegal money, nigga I got this is
Speaker 1: mine like nigga, like you know. I never felt charitable
Speaker 1: or any of that shit, you know, because I'm taking
Speaker 1: pen and retentiary chances for this. But when I started
Speaker 1: getting legit money, the first time I got it, I
Speaker 1: couldn't hold food down. I would actually throw my food
Speaker 1: back up because and I went to a gas strologist
Speaker 1: and he said they thought I had ulcers and they're
Speaker 1: like nah. And they sent me to a sp psychiatrists
Speaker 1: And this is a guy that helps people hit a
Speaker 1: hundred mile an hour fastballs while they're going through one
Speaker 1: hundred million dollar divorce. And he said, tell me your problems.
Speaker 1: I talked for about a half hour, quiet guy, but
Speaker 1: dog said tell me your problems. And I talked to need.
Speaker 1: He gave me a prescription quest he pushed it to
Speaker 1: me and it said no, he said, you just talked
Speaker 1: for an hour half hour. You didn't tell me about
Speaker 1: any of your problems. You told me about all your
Speaker 1: friends problems. He said. There's a guilt that goes along
Speaker 1: with success, and now the fact that you're successful, you
Speaker 1: feel guilty that your friends aren't doing well. But you've
Speaker 1: got to learn how to say no, because when you
Speaker 1: say yes, you take someone else's problem and turn it
Speaker 1: into yours. Damn, I had to learn how to say
Speaker 1: no to a lot of people. But no, it's a
Speaker 1: great word. It'll test the temperature of any relationship, even
Speaker 1: your woman. See, you gotta have like we talked about
Speaker 1: the daily game, you gotta have limits because take takers
Speaker 1: have no limits. Yo, they'll ravage you, you know, So
Speaker 1: you got to set a limit. You know. I use
Speaker 1: my gut, but I've been fortunate. I've been betrayed, I
Speaker 1: got set up by my boys, almost got killed. I've
Speaker 1: been through it. Have you got to the point where
Speaker 1: you have to protect your energy as well? Now too?
Speaker 1: Like where you understood that as well? Yeah, yeah, well
Speaker 1: it gave me high blood pressure. Well so now if
Speaker 1: you try to if me and you were friends and
Speaker 1: you try to aggravate me, my brain says, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna let you kill me. You ain't gonna kill me, right,
Speaker 1: So I learned how to you know, I can just
Speaker 1: connect from people real quick. And it's a known fact.
Speaker 1: So the people that are in my circle. Note, Ice
Speaker 1: is not my na. The nigga's name is Ice. I
Speaker 1: don't want no stress. Everybody better keep it calm and
Speaker 1: I will excommunicate you, like, don't bring it. My boys
Speaker 1: will call me up and be like this to be like, yo,
Speaker 1: what's up Ice? No drama? No drama? Right, no drama,
Speaker 1: no drama, you know, because but my life is you know,
Speaker 1: I'm in a different place right now. Man, Like you look,
Speaker 1: I got Fisher Quams and I'm not. I spent my
Speaker 1: time on the front line. I'm cool. Like niggas is
Speaker 1: like I'm outside. I'm like, I'm inside. Man, let me ask.
Speaker 1: So you know, there's a period between eighty eight, eighty
Speaker 1: nine ninety and which, like I will say that you
Speaker 1: became the go to pundit or voice to politically speak
Speaker 1: on behalf of you know, rap music or like you're
Speaker 1: on Donna Hue this week and you're on you know,
Speaker 1: Tech Copple this weekend, like you how exhausting was it
Speaker 1: like having that weight placed on your shoulders because you know,
Speaker 1: there was a point where and I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember this, I think back in the eighty six
Speaker 1: run dmcum did a show and either an Anaheim or
Speaker 1: Long Beach or something, and you know, this is the
Speaker 1: first time we're hearing about like violence and rap music
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And suddenly it's like you were
Speaker 1: the chosen spoke like mouthpiece for all all of these
Speaker 1: like talk shows. How exhausting was that. I kind of
Speaker 1: wanted to smoke you did, so you wanted to play
Speaker 1: the outlaw and just no, I wanted to play the
Speaker 1: person that could could could intellectualize it and break it
Speaker 1: down for these people. You know, like my whole life
Speaker 1: has almost been explaining to the squares what the streets
Speaker 1: is thinking, and explained to the streets how the squares
Speaker 1: are thinking. Like I've been that translator in between, because
Speaker 1: even though I am hood, I'm also well read and
Speaker 1: relatively intelligent. So I could I spoke in front of
Speaker 1: Congress and uh, you know, I can break it down,
Speaker 1: you know, for for what's going on. So when they
Speaker 1: were coming at me about free speech or this than
Speaker 1: the other, I was like, yeah, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day was me,
Speaker 1: Chuck and Chris who who kind of like would have
Speaker 1: and even still today, man George Floyd comes up, my
Speaker 1: timeline blows up like I and I'm like, it's it's
Speaker 1: honestly a damn shame that there's no youngsters, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, Killer Mike is out there, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a damn shame that there's no real young people that
Speaker 1: can really speak for the culture. Damn, you're right, I
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, Kendrick doesn't speak that much, but
Speaker 1: there's nobody out there on the front line speaking about shit,
Speaker 1: you know. So they keep going to me, and like
Speaker 1: I always tell people, I say, I'm gonna put it
Speaker 1: out there. If what we need right now, we need
Speaker 1: a twenty year old public enemy, some little bad motherfuckers
Speaker 1: who would go head up with all the bullshit and
Speaker 1: let them know what's up. And a rebirth of a
Speaker 1: young Lauren Hill your mouth to you guys, heres man,
Speaker 1: you know, because those things are lacking right now in
Speaker 1: hip hop, you know, and that those voices are needed.
Speaker 1: And you know, the kids ain't gonna listen to me.
Speaker 1: I'm their grandfather. You know what I'm saying. So they're
Speaker 1: not listening. But some little twenty year old cats coming
Speaker 1: out popping that ship and letting motherfuckers know you bullshit
Speaker 1: and you're worried about this Gucci shit you over here
Speaker 1: fucking up da da da da blow. What Public Enemy
Speaker 1: did for us, We need another group to do that
Speaker 1: for the youth. Exactly. Yeah, I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about og original gangster recording that out. What happens is
Speaker 1: hip hop doesn't have a name for what we're doing.
Speaker 1: They don't have a name for the music yet, so
Speaker 1: they're trying to call it reality rap. They don't really
Speaker 1: know what it is. And I permitted I called my
Speaker 1: stuff reality rap, but that wasn't true because it's not
Speaker 1: everybody's reality. It was my reality. So QB comes out
Speaker 1: straight out of Compton, Straight out of Compton dropped. I
Speaker 1: was already on my third album when they dropped. They
Speaker 1: it felt like Godzilla had landed, Like they came out
Speaker 1: like WHOA. I was like yo, And the first lyrics
Speaker 1: straight out of Compton, crazy motherfucker name ice Que from
Speaker 1: the gang called niggas with attitudes. So they referred to
Speaker 1: their rap group as a gang. The press said gangster rap.
Speaker 1: That's where the term gangster rap came from. The press
Speaker 1: coined it from Q. Now I've been doing it for
Speaker 1: two years, so I said, okay, well, if it's gangster rap,
Speaker 1: I'm the original gangster feel me. Now, OG is a
Speaker 1: term that gangs have been using in LA decades. It
Speaker 1: just means first generation of the set. So if Questlove
Speaker 1: is OG roots, he's there might have been people to
Speaker 1: change members, but he's OG. He's one of the first members.
Speaker 1: So here comes this word original gangster. And I do
Speaker 1: an album that had twenty four cuts on it and
Speaker 1: they had just stopped making vinyl and it, you know,
Speaker 1: it was supposed to have been a double album. And
Speaker 1: I always like to do first. I was always into
Speaker 1: doing first. I'm like, I always like, you can always
Speaker 1: argue who is better, but you can't argue who is first,
Speaker 1: you know, So I want to be first, And Chuck says.
Speaker 1: Chuck says, iced Tea is the only person he knows
Speaker 1: that does things that totally jeopardize his entire existence. To
Speaker 1: stay away, you know, just just fuck it. Everything's going good.
Speaker 1: Fuck it, Let's just try it a different way. So
Speaker 1: that's it. The og album and it was a big,
Speaker 1: mega long album with a lot of different lenses and
Speaker 1: a lot of different energies. All Right, y'all, that's it
Speaker 1: for Part one. Ice Teve gave Team and Supreme so
Speaker 1: much game on this episode that we had to make
Speaker 1: it a two parts. So make sure y'all check out
Speaker 1: Iced Teeth Daily Game podcast with weekday Words of Wisdom
Speaker 1: and give them a listen. You know, stay tuned for
Speaker 1: QLs Part two with one and only legendary Iced Tea
Speaker 1: next week, where we talked about his TV and his
Speaker 1: film work. All Right, Bate, What's Love? Supreme is a
Speaker 1: production I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.