Over the course of our interview, Ice delved into topics such as the decline of manhood (hence the title of his metal band Body Count's new album, Manslaughter), his support of veteran's causes (he is, in fact, a vet), the importance of work (even if it's illegal) and why you have to watch out that you don't get "Oprahed."

We did eventually get on the topic of the police, to which Ice-T said, "Cops are human beings." It seems that at 56 years old, it's really the men of today whom Ice has beef with. He'd like to see them just stand up and express their opinions, but for now, he's going to attempt to do it all on his own. "I'm just trying to put balls back into music."

What inspired the song "Manslaughter"? I'm just looking at manhood now. People are afraid to have an opinion. If they have an opinion, they might lose some 'likes' on Facebook! It's the 'p-y-ification' of males. I'm not talking about gay men. I'm not talking about women. I'm talking about men not standing up, having some balls, and being about something. I just miss that aggression in the rock days when I was coming up, bands that were about something. I'm from the era of Rage Against the Machine, they opened for us here in New York. Punk, Black Flag. You couldn't just come on stage and yell, you had to push something. Maybe I'm just trying to put balls back into music.

Hip-hop also seems to have lost its aggression over the years. It's gone. Right now, hip-hop is basically materialistic bulls-t. A pop bubble full of bulls-t. You're creating this belief that everybody's drinking champagne and driving around in Maybachs. But the majority of them aren't. The [artists] who aren't, are faking it. They're basically turning into the people we hated when we started to rap. The people who flaunted their money and threw it at you. We're turning into that. In rap, there's room for songs about nonsense, there's room for songs about clubbin', but there's also room to make change. You've got to have something in the lyrics that is about something. Even on this album, Manslaughter, it isn't a political record, I don't even reference the government. Some of the songs have no meaning�but then there are songs that are about something. That's missing in hip-hop.

"I Will Always Love You" is about veterans. You've gotten involved with the organization Veterans Matter, and you're a vet, but that's not that well known. Yeah, I'm a vet, I always wanted to do a song about the military experience, and I wanted to do it with military jargon so the vets would feel it. Like, if you do a song about prison, and you can talk the lingo, then cats know you've been to the joint. So, when I'm talking about 'A.I.T.'-that's Advanced Individual Training-or 'downrange'-that's what they call it when you go to war-all the different terms that I use, it's my way of saying, 'I'm talking your language, guys.' My thing is, whether we're misdirected in our wars, or whether we're fighting for the wrong thing, you've still got to respect the kids going over there, they believe they're doing the right thing. They're nineteen, they're 20, they're 25, they're coming home with their legs blown off, now they can't even find a place to live, they're unemployed. It's a sad state. Our government will have you risk your life, and when you come home, there's no reward. They turn their back on you. It's like, if you're not gonna re-enlist, we don't care about you anymore.

You seem to champion a certain kind of traditional values on the song "Get a Job." I used to get up at five in the morning and drive to work. And then like, 12 in the afternoon, my friends would call me and be like, 'I need some money.' You slept 'til 12! The lyrics, 'Stop begging, get a job. Get a gun! Go rob somebody!' Go do something! At least make an effort! I remember one time, my daughter had a boyfriend and he wanted to borrow some money. And I was like, 'Get him a ski mask and a starter pistol! Tell him to call me from jail. Let me at least see some type of effort.' But that's the humor of Body Count. Body Count is grindhouse. It's over the top. It's ultraviolent. It's ultra-sexual. To the point that it can't be taken seriously. We're not a rock band that wants to convince you that we're dead serious about things. Even go back to the first record 'Smoked Pork.' 'Well, I'm just eating these donuts!' It's dark f-ked up Ice-T humor. But there's a point there. It's not meant to be taken literally. I had someone come up to me and say, "Well, how come on the 'Talk S-t, Get Shot' video, you only shot white people?" And I'm like, 'Well, the video director only brought white people to shoot.' I didn't tell him who to bring. My stuff has always been very based on humor.

You cover Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized," but you changed the lyrics to fit your life today, talking about your wife bugging you about playing too much XBox, having a vegan criticize what you're eating and trying to retrieve an online password. And getting "Oprahed." You gotta pay homage to Suicidal Tendencies. Suicidal was the first band to connect the gangster/skater thing. Mike Muir is a beast. We have the same look. 'Institutionalized' is a masterpiece! 'All I wanted was a Pepsi!' Small world - the guy who did a lot of my early album covers, Glen E. Friedman, used to manage Suicidal and produced their first album. So when we went to get the rights for the song, we're calling our buddy up! Who happens to be a vegan! 'God, Ice, why'd you go so hard on the vegans!' I just wanted to rant. So I picked some targets, like Oprah. We had a term, 'Getting Oprahed.' That's when you come home from work and your wife has been watching daytime television, and you get broadsided: 'You're eating too much celery, you're gonna get cancer!' 'What are you talking about?' 'I saw it on Oprah!'

'Getting Oprahed' is getting broadsided by daytime TV. The first rant about the XBox, that's not my real life. My wife doesn't have a problem with me playing XBox, her theory is, 'At least I know where he is.' Then I talk about the internet, who hasn't had a password problem? At the end of the record, we made sure to say, 'Suicidal!' We wanted to make sure no [younger] kids thought I invented that song. I want them to say: 'Suicidal? What did he mean when he said that? Oh, that's a band.' Maybe it will help them to sell some records.

Read the rest of the interview - here.

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