"The power of the white world is threatened whenever a Black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions"
-- James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"



When I asked Priority records if you were gonna be listed at the hotel under a pseudonym, they said, "Are you crazy? This man is without fear." Because you're saying stuff that's so unpopular, do you ever fear for your safety?

Ice T: Naw man, hell no! First off, once you die, you're dead. No more cable bill, nothing. So what is there to be afraid of? I don't have bodyguards. I couldn't live like that. Like when Malcolm X got rid of his bodyguards, you might not understand it, but I understand it. Because there's a point when you realize how diabolical the enemy is, and you realize that when they want you dead, there's nothing you can do about it. I could have one-hundred bodyguards here — I mean, the bullet's gonna come right between my eyes. So how can you be in fear? So you just walk, and if it's time, it's time. As soon as you're not afraid to die, you become extremely dangerous. The ultimate epitome of expression is the brink of insanity, when you take that "I don't give a fuck" attitude and you start creating shit nobody else would do. I've already lived past my life expectancy. I talked to Minister Farrakhan, and he's a cool guy, but we disagree on a whole bunch of shit. I was sitting in front of Minister Farrakhan, and I'm like, "Look, I'm a eat some sausages, and I ain't gonna tell you that you won't catch me with no white woman," right? And he said to me, "Ice T, I'm going to tell you something. I've never had anybody come and talk to me the way you do. You're either a very crazy man or you're very powerful, and I'll bet my life on the second." And then he also said, "Don't even worry about anything happening to you, 'cause anyone who kills you, their children will slaughter them in their sleep."

I was reading an attack on you by (actor and noted Republican conservative) Charlton Heston in the "National Review." While he defended the protection of freedom of speech, he also cited the Oliver Wendell Homes Supreme Court decision that said free speech "doesn't include the right to yell fire in a crowded movie theater." Can you see how people would consider a song like "Cop Killer" irresponsible in a sense?

Naw, I can see how someone who misunderstands the record totally might think that, but they wouldn't be the listeners of the record. I am totally anti anyone that backs me under the First Amendment — I don't even believe in the Constitution. I believe the Constitution is a figment of your imagination. First off, let's just think about the Constitution as a whole. Anybody who knows that two-hundred years ago, when they wrote the Constitution, it said point blank that Black people were considered property. The mindset of some people that could sit down and say, "Is everything right? Do we have a Bill of Rights? Everything looks okay, right?" and, at the same time believe they could own people, means these were insane people. They were totally insane! So everything in the Constitution is twisted and warped into the mindset that it's okay to own somebody. That right there voids the whole muthafucka out. Then, also, why in the fuck do I need a First Amendment to tell me that I have the right to speak? You do not need that. Every person has got the right, under God, to speak. You have a heart, you have lungs, and you have a mouth. You don't need a law to allow you to speak. See, as soon as you allow a law to tell you it's okay to speak, the same law can say you can't speak. When you give law the power over you, you become a slave to the law. And the law will be bent and twisted to their — the insane people who mad the law — wishes. So fuck the First Amendment man! Fuck that! I can say anything I want because I am a human being, and I do not need a fucking law to tell me what the fuck I can say and cannot say. They might incarcerate me if I break the law, but does that mean they're right? It means I'm caught by madmen, I'm being held in prison by the psychopaths. Fuck Charlton Heston, I have the right to say what I want under God!

Explain the concept behind an album title like Home Invasion.

With that album I felt that all the drama that was going on — I was living in a shitstorm — was basically built around the information being exchanged to the white suburbs. You hear it being said over and over that if rap music only stayed in the ghetto, nobody would be screaming about it. The linear notes of Home Invasion say "We've been in your house a long time, moms, you don't know." The parents are sitting there talking this racist shit, and the kids are sitting there listening to Public Enemy in their walkman right at their dinner table. And the parents don't know. For so many years the white family structure was able to tell their kids to hate everything, and now it's not working anymore. The kids are like, "Why? I'm not going to carry this fucking luggage. Why? What is the problem with having another race at the country club? Why are we so scared?" It's a very tough scenario for them to deal with.

Reginald Dennis had an editorial in the Source a long time ago where he said, "Mark July 28, 1992 on your calendars as the beginning of the end of rap music." Do you think this whole censorship thing — as far as you having to pull "Cop Killer" — is going to have a discouraging effect on what people can say on records?

Well, it'll change. As far as Reggie Dennis, he's an asshole. He can suck my dick. Before we go any further, I'm doing a full out boycott on the Source Magazine. We don't talk to them no more. That fucking magazine is a joke! Let that go on the record — they're assholes. Primarily because they call themselves "The Source," but they find themselves corresponding with mainstream media too much. The media says this, and they go along with it, instead of coming up with something to counter it, which would really be to the benefit of hip hop. Also, I don't think they're qualified to judge records. I don't dig their fucking scoring system. Plus, they play this "kiss-kick" relationship with the artist. If you look into the issue with Run-DMC on the cover, they give me Artist of the Year; you turn to the last page, Reginald Dennis is in there dissing me, Chuck D, and Ice Cube. We beating the kid's ass on sight, man. He'll be a Reginald Denny looking muthafucka! I'm getting death threats, I got the fucking FBI and CIA tapping my fucking phone, following me around, sweating my daughter at school and shit. And this asshole can sit back and pass judgment on me, having no idea what the fuck is going on. But anyhow, as far as his worrying about the death of hip hop, hardcore hip hop will cease to remain on major labels because they're afraid, and they have reason to be afraid; the people won't back them when they're attacked. The people lay dormant. When the cops attacked Warner Brother's (records), there were 2,000 cops on the street. There were like fifty — naw, less than that — twenty protesters to back up my record. So people just lay dormant and let these people move. Chuck D said the most important shit when people asked him, "What do you think about the people who don't agree with Ice T pulling the record?" He said, "Those who aren't in the war should not comment on the battles," which means shut the fuck up if you ain't out there playing hardball, don't come trying to tell Ice T what he should do.

Colman MaCarthy of the Washington Post (August 8, 1992) said, "As for the talentless Ice T, a foul mouthed spewer of hate, who once attacked Tipper Gore in a rap song as a 'sex starved, silly bitch,' his fifteen minutes of fame are up." What's your reaction to that?

Who is he? He tells me my fame is up, but do you know who he is? Whatever. This is the opposition, they're out there. You gotta remember, as long as we run this agenda, which is to get shit right, we're always gonna run into opposition. So, every chance they can, it's like, "Let's make Ice T look bad." The press says: "Ice T folds to Quayle." Think I give a fuck about the Vice President? Can you imagine me folding to Quayle's wishes? But this is what the fuck they write. Then when we pull out from Warner Brothers, "Ice T dropped." You see? All right, bust this — I got 520,000 orders on Home Invasion. When I was signed on Warner Brothers, I made $.93 cents a record. On my own label I make $7.00 a record. So did I get dropped? When people make these stupid statements, I'm like, "Fuck you man! I'm rich enough to have you killed fool, so don't come talking no shit to me about no bullshit like that. I can get a thousand crackheads to attack you for $100 a pop, and you would have a nightmare you'd never forget." It's kinda good sometimes for you to stir shit up so when you see the opposition come out, you really see where they're coming from. Write MacCarthy back and say that, "No, Ice T's fifteen minutes are not up. He said he would take the last fifteen minutes of his fame fucking your wife. No, I take that back...he might take an hour and fifteen minutes!"



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