I've never read for a movie, I've always been given them.

Ice-T in the music has done some outrageous things.

If I'm going to be a jazz player, I need to understand Miles Davis.

If you're really a rapper, you can't stop rapping.

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

My father's family came from Virginia and Philadelphia. He wasn't a brother who talked a lot. He was a workingman, a quiet, blue-collar dude.

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

So from an actor's perspective, you really have no idea how you're acting.

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

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

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

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.

When you start a business, go for the lowest hanging fruit.

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

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

A lot of the younger kids now can rap, but they're scared of the crowd. Mastery of that stage is an MC. I don't know if you've seen any great MCs on stage but when you do it's like wow, this is more than the words to rhymes.

I don't feel that rap has been respected as an art form. Because people have seen rappers rap off the top of their heads, they don't think it is difficult.

I think everybody wants to redeem themselves after they've done something that might be considered negative. I don't think anyone wants to go to the grave negative.

I think when people say 'real hip-hop,' they want it more buried in the streets. They want it more connected to the streets and the grime and the roughness of the streets. They don't want the fluff.

I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Summit, an upscale town in north Jersey. There was this tiny area of Summit where most of the black families lived. My parents and I lived in a duplex house on Williams Street.