Ice-T

Ice-T: You have to come in on a professional level to make it, otherwise you just can't get into rap.

Ice-T: You can't come out on a record dissing the system and be on a label that's connected to the system.

Ice-T: When I'm on stage, some kid watching who doesn't have a deal could be playa-hatin' but that's understandable.

Ice-T: When I make records I have full control of everything and I know how it sounds before it comes out, with films it's outta my hands.

Ice-T: When I first got into the rap game, I had an early dream of unifying rappers.

Ice-T: Well, I am very happy that I was able to play a part in bringing music from the streets onto the radio and into modern culture, I worked very hard and always believed in the sounds I was creating.

Ice-T: We have groups that do that, but I can't rap with the mentality of an 18 year old when I'm in my 30's.

Ice-T: Ultimately I am happy that everybody is embracing hip hop and the sounds from the streets.

Ice-T: The next day, I got a phone call from him and he told me to come and read for a movie called New Jack City. So I went over there and they told me I was gonna wear dreads and play a cop.

Ice-T: The best way to listen to the album is to put it on, get some Moet, lay back with your boys, and kick it.

Ice-T: That's when I really knew that people will always judge you for what you do, but as long as you do it well, ain't nobody's gonna be mad at you.

Ice-T: So you don't have to take us too seriously; I mean, we're already intimidating enough on stage.

Ice-T: So from an actor's perspective, you really have no idea how you're acting.

Ice-T: One thing I think is important is that rappers do not compete against each other.

Ice-T: Oh man, nobody is as tough as Mr. T. Ice T is pretty tough though as well.

Ice-T: Los Angeles is a microcosm of the United States. If L.A. falls, the country falls.

Ice-T: It's more scary but a little more fulfilling than music to me because music is audio excitement, but film is more dramatic.

Ice-T: If you're really a rapper, you can't stop rapping.

Ice-T: If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't sell, I'll go make a movie.

Ice-T: I've never read for a movie, I've always been given them.

Ice-T: I've never been competitive with anybody but myself.

Ice-T: I'm on the front line and I am a rapper.

Ice-T: I'm competitive in that I would like to outsell my last record.

Ice-T: I'm at a point where I don't have to wait for the income from the record to survive, so I'm in a comfortable zone, but I'll make rap records as long as I feel I have something to rap about.

Ice-T: I'm a big fan of all styles, even Biggie and Wu-Tang, but I gotta do my thing.

Ice-T: I'll never sell 14 million like Hammer, I just wanna do a good Ice-T show.

Ice-T: I was really scared of doing a movie because it was my first test of branching off.

Ice-T: I was born in Newark, but I went to school in L.A. so ain't no sense in me claiming New Jersey, I didn't run the streets there.

Ice-T: I want to be able to say that a rap career could be ten albums.

Ice-T: I mean rappin' to me is easy, it's something you can do over a week.

Ice-T: I have to grow with my audience.

Ice-T: I had a reason for every movie I did, especially Tank Girl because I'm into horror.

Ice-T: I don't know, Germany is like the #1 Metal country, and BC had a #2 record over there last year. We've toured extensively in Europe.

Ice-T: I don't have to put out another rap record. I can do it at my casual pace.

Ice-T: I ain't got no beef with east coast, I think it's just being hyped up.

Ice-T: Everything we do helps the new artists in the long run.

Ice-T: But even with the craziness, it's still Ice-T. It's real.

Ice-T: As long as I'm around the cats in the hip hop scene, they'll throw me a track and I'll write a rap over it.

Ice-T: As an actor, you can do what you want with your role. That's why they hire you; to take the role and make it real.

Ice-T: Any New York group can come to L.A. and sell out every show, but an L.A. group who goes to New York might not do the same because the audience hasn't been introduced to the group.

Ice-T: AIDS is such a scary thing and it's also the kind of thing that you think won't happen to you. It can happen to you and it's deadly serious.