Why Ice-T thinks new faculty rap is “goofy”

Ice-T is the godfather of gangsta rap, and his 1987 album Rhyme Pays is a specimen of high-quality early West Coast hip-hop. His monitor ‘6 N The Mornin’ is taken into account one of many first of its form, and even Dr Dre has thanked him for making a lane for Californians in rap.

Though Ice-T is a legend who has seen the tradition develop and evolve, akin to so many iconic artists, he isn’t pleased with the present state of hip-hop. The Los Angeles lyricist (actual title Tracy Marrow) hasn’t launched a solo album since his 2006 mission Gangsta Rap. Nonetheless, he has unveiled it’s unlikely he can be releasing music because the tradition has no area for OGs like him anymore.

Chatting with Selection, Marrow defined why he selected to not launch an album within the 2010s, exclaiming, “Hip-hop changed! The music got goofy to me. The kids started looking weird. It all turned into something I wasn’t comfortable with. There was a point where I was selling tons of records, then it cooled off.”

He continued, “I felt a certain way. Then I realized Public Enemy, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Wu-Tang Clan weren’t selling records, either. There was a paradigm shift. These kids got softer, and soft is not something I’m able to give audiences. The first word in hip-hop is ‘hip’, so how something stays hip for over ten years is difficult.”

Ice-T, who lastly acquired a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame earlier this yr, has continued to make music along with his rock band, Physique Rely. Nevertheless, since 2006, he has centered on performing, particularly, as Detective Odafin Tutuola on the TV collection Regulation & Order: Particular Victims Unit. 

Regarding tv, in 2012, Ice-T additionally gave followers One thing from Nothing: The Artwork of Rap, a Netflix collection that noticed him journey from coast to coast interviewing rappers, together with the likes of Eminem, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. 

Though the state of the tradition is probably not good, Marrow continues to be proud that what was a small underground scene has turn into one of many world’s most influential genres of music. You may hearken to Ice-T’s hit ‘I’m Your Pusher’ within the video beneath.