Ice-T's documentary Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap will be in theaters this Friday, June 15th. We've already seen some clips from the movie, including Eminem freestyling, Nas freestyling and even Ice-T himself spit a few bars.
He recently spoke about the movie to Time, and the origins of rap: "In the movie, Mos Def quotes Q-Tip: 'Rap is not pop. If you call it that, then stop.' The true origin of rap is counter-culture. The true origin of rap is say something that they’re not saying on the radio. So when you kind of blend into what popular culture is doing, you’re losing the power of hip hop."
He continued to talk about if rap can be popular without becoming pop, "I think that a rap aficionado, the hard-core rap fan, will always go away from pop, in the same way a hard-core jazz fan will never think Kenny G is really a jazz artist. You gotta kind of know there’s always going to be that purist who’s going to be like if it ain’t beats and rhymes, if there ain’t a DJ, then that ain’t hip hop. I understand it. I’ve never really been into pop rap but, hey, if that’s what some of these artists want to do, that’s cool, but then they can’t feel like they’re going to be welcomed in that hard-core club where it’s really just spitters."
"We’ve got to keep rocking the boat," Ice said. "We’ve got unemployed people, we’ve got a black President, we’ve got election year, we’ve got Occupy Wall Street. If you’re just going to rap about ‘I got money and we balling,’ and all that, you’re not doing with it what it was meant to do. It’s meant to rock a party, but it was meant to change the world."
He also commented on the whole Nicki Minaj debacle at Hot 97 Summer Jam this year, and he supports Nicki's decision. "Rap will always be critical of itself," he said, "That’s just part of it. The Nicki Minaj situation, I think that was not a good call. If they don’t want to respect her, I don’t think they should have invited her."
