AllHipHop’s Tim Sanchez caught up with Ice as he blew some heads off in “Call of Duty.” In this new two-part exclusive, Ice-T talks everything from fatherhood, terrorism in today’s world, politics, the ever changing music business and his future business plans.
The winds of change have been pretty gusty in 2015 and few people know this as much as Ice-T. The Hip-Hop icon and his wife Coco welcomed their newborn daughter Baby Chanel Nicole into the world. Yes, at the age of 57, the original gangster Ice-T is tackling the role of dad once 24 years after the birth of Lil Ice, his last child. This time, he said Coco shoulders the majority of the burden. “I don’t change diapers,” Ice tells AllHipHop. “I can and know how to do it and I’ve actually changed a lot of them in my day. The present situation doesn’t call for it because my wife is around.” The gangster rap pioneer more than willing to re-enter the world of fatherhood.
Change. Ice-T has continued to evolve, taking on a talk show and podcast host duties to his already busy world of acting and music recording. He even created a huge two-city music festival to go along with his documentary “The Art of Rap.” True heads know that Iceberg is more than just an entertainer. He’s always had an affinity for the politics and community. And he does not mince words.
AllHipHop: There was a terrorist attack in Paris a few weeks ago and now we just recently experienced one here at home in San Bernardino, CA. What are your thoughts on it?
Ice-T: I don’t think any place is safe considering the situation that the United States has itself in. There are people who are unhappy with us and at any time, a small group cell can decide to take action. We have ISIS now and before that it was the Taliban, and in the future, there will probably be more groups with their own ideologies that think our country is evil and that we need to be done away with. It’s unfortunate, but I think that’s the future our kids are going to have to grow up in. There is no real way to prevent it. Every time it happens, people yell “guns” but there’s 270 million guns on the streets already. You can make them all illegal tomorrow, but there’s still going to be 270 million guns out there. To me, that’s not the answer.
The United States likes to try to fix problems that we’ve allowed to fester for hundreds of years. Then you get someone like Donald Trump who doesn’t want to allow Muslims into the country and do mass deportations, and that’s the worst thing that you can do because that will cause more people to hate us.
AllHipHop: Since you mentioned Donald Trump, what are your thoughts on him?
Ice-T: I think the man can run a good hotel. He’s a businessman in that sense, but he made his money in hotels and golf courses, that doesn’t mean he knows how to put a tire on a car or cook spaghetti. Just because you’re intelligent in one facet of life doesn’t mean that you can run the country. The other guy, Ben Carson, is a genius as a surgeon, but that doesn’t make him qualified to run the country either. The people of this nation are, I hate to say it, dumb – in that anyone who can out-do them in anything is deemed smarter. To run the country you have to be a special type of person. You need to know how to talk to our enemies, and move with strategy. People hate President Obama, but he’s a cool motherf**ker, talking real smooth in the cut. He’s ill! Nobody knew he was going after Bin Laden and Saddam like that. Trump, on the other hand, will loudly declare war on a motherf*cker and say some wild sh*t. You’ve got to be more calm use some strategy as a leader. Dude just talks too crazy, and you know it’s easy for anybody to say that they can wipe out ISIS. And then he talks about killing family members, just crazy sh*t. Even if that was your plan, you can’t just say it. I’m like, “What the f*ck is wrong with this dude?”
AllHipHop: Isn’t it weird how he could say dumb stuff like that yet attain higher poll numbers each time?
Ice-T: It’s wild how he can say stuff like that. Like I tell people, “I’m crazy but I’m not stupid.” I say crazy s**t, but I know what I’m doing. You’ll have to search hard to find me saying some dumb sh*t. Some people don’t think before they speak. I’ll tell you what the problem with the United States is. The people that support the likes of Trump, the radicals, they are the ones that show up when it’s time to vote. The people that he’s reaching are active whereas those that oppose him are more laidback when it comes to voting.
I voted for Barack Obama because I liked him and I believe that he had an agenda. I know that when he got into office that he really couldn’t go through with it because you really don’t run sh*t as the President – and he got a wake-up call. This time around, I’m probably going to vote just to help defeat Trump. I really think he’ll get us all killed. The Commander-In-Chief is a powerful position, I was in the military, so I know. To be able to send troops out is some heavy sh*t. Trump scares me in that aspect.
AllHipHop: Have you settled on a candidate yet?
Ice-T: I’m a Hillary fan because of her husband – I like Bill Clinton. Someone mentioned Bernie Sanders to me the other day and I got him confused with Ben Carson for some reason. I don’t know anything about Bernie though – I haven’t really investigated yet.
AllHipHop: Bernie seems to be the guy that the Hip-Hop crowd is leaning towards. He just got an endorsement from Killer Mike.
Ice-T: I f*ck with Killer Mike – I like him. He’s an intellectual. But you know, politics has always been confusing to me. I’ve made it to the age that I am and over the years it seems like whoever was President never made a difference in my life. I’m more concerned about war and foreign situations that can easily be a United States situation, especially with the wrong person in charge. F*ck taxes, I’m worried about bombs. People are worried about how much they’ll have to pay in taxes with a certain President in charge but what good is that if we’ve got missiles being launched at us?
AllHipHop: I had a discussion the other day where I told someone that we will make more enemies if we shut off our borders.
Ice-T: You can shut off the borders and make guns illegal, but you still got everything that’s inside the country already. You’ve got Muslims in the United States that aren’t radicalized. How are you going to treat them? You’ve got millions of Mexicans in the country already. You’re going to have to go running up in businesses to snatch motherf*ckers. You really think that’s going to go smoothly? But hey, like I said, we’ve allowed this country to get dirty for 400 years and now they want to try to clean it up. Good luck.
AllHipHop: 2016 is going to be an interesting year for sure.
Ice-T: Hey, I was telling Coco that yesterday. I told her that this upcoming year is going to be very f**king interesting. I’m just going to try to stay in my crib and watch TV and monitor it from my bunker.
AllHipHop.com: Congratulations on the birth of your new daughter Chanel. She’s beautiful.
Ice-T: Thank you, she’s sitting right here with me watching me play video games and blowing up s**t.
AllHipHop: That’s awesome. She’s going to be a gamer just like her daddy, huh?
Ice-T : You know, kids adapt to their environment. If you have music playing in the house, they just vibe into it. Lil Ice grew up in a recording studio, but this one here, she’s just chillin’ – she sleeps right through it.
AllHipHop: It’s been a while since you’ve had a baby in your life. How has the adjustment been?
Ice-T: It’s not a real adjustment for myself since Coco takes care of the kid. She slid right out into the family, we brought her home, and the dog took a couple of sniffs and was like, “Ok. It’s got a face, nose and eyes. It must be a little person.”
Coco is on top of everything. When the baby cries at night, she wakes up. I can sleep through a shoot-out so much hasn’t changed for me. The only thing that’s a challenge is when it’s time to go somewhere because we’ve got the two dogs and now the baby – it’s turning into the Griswold’s from Family Vacation.
AllHipHop: So no diaper changing or bottle feeding?
Ice-T: I don’t change diapers. I can and know how to do it and I’ve actually changed a lot of them in my day. The present situation doesn’t call for it because my wife is around. Bottle feeding is easy because Coco will load them up and one of us will feed it to the baby.
AllHipHop: Did Coco have an easy or difficult labor?
Ice-T: It wasn’t difficult. What happened was this, Coco had a doctor’s visit and he informed us that since she had reached full term already, they could induce labor and do it all in a controlled environment. We checked in to the hospital the following Friday and they did a small inducing procedure and she woke up the next morning with a feeling that the baby was ready. The doctor’s gave her brief breathing and pushing instructions and by the time we reached he third push – out popped the baby.
AllHipHop: I bet some women are reading this right now wishing they had it that easy.
Ice-T: I think every woman has their own particular journey when it comes to pregnancy. The worst thing you can do is listen to what other women went through because it’s not going to be the same. Coco was very fortunate and the doctor told us that a lot of it had to do with her fitness. It was a dream pregnancy, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t happen for anybody else. I’ve noticed that women come with these horror stories and make it seem like it’s going to be the end of the world.
AllHipHop: That’s a blessing for you because I had a friend whose wife turned in to the exorcist during labor and cursed him out.
Ice-T: They have epidurals for difficult pregnancies but I guess some women refuse them. I don’t know if they get a medal or a prize for doing it the hard way – that’s on them. They offered Coco one when she first started to get a little inconvenienced and said yes. I left the room and by the time I came back, she was chillin’ like she was ready to have some champagne. But the women that want to do it naturally, I guess they get a prize or something for doing it the difficult way – I don’t understand it.
AllHipHop: The baby has been pretty quiet since we’ve been on the phone. Is she always like this?
Ice-T: She’s a very quiet baby, as all of my kids have been low-key. I’m a low-key individual so I guess it runs in the family – we’re all pretty chill. I think if kids are in loud households where there’s screaming and yelling, they’ll pick on it as they tend to mimic their environment. Coco and I are kind of like yuppies in the sense that we do everything organized. We prepare so that we can eliminate surprises. That’s just how we run our household.
Coming soon, Part 2 of this exclusive conversation with the legendary (and extremely busy) Ice-T.
