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.

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

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.

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

I want to be able to say that a rap career could be ten albums.

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

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

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

I have to grow with my audience.

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

Everything we do helps the new artists in the long run.

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.

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

I've never been competitive with anybody but myself.

I mean rappin' to me is easy, it's something you can do over a week.

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

I'm competitive in that I would like to outsell my last record.

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.

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.

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

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

If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't sell, I'll go make a movie.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I'm a big fan of all styles, even Biggie and Wu-Tang, but I gotta do my thing.

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.

I'm on the front line and I am a rapper.

A good emcee will rhyme a lot of different ways. Don't limit yourself.

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.

An MC is somebody who can control the crowd. An MC is a master of ceremonies so not only can you say your rap, you can rock the party.

Being cool is when you win, you don't get too happy; and when you lose, you don't get too mad.

Every once in a while, I hear somebody call me Tracy to try to let me know that they know me, you know, personally. But most of my real friends will call me Trey, or 'Ice' was basically short for Iceberg. So they would call me - some of my boys call me Berg.

Hollywood has its own way of telling stories. I was just telling stories that I was familiar with. And it's what I want to do in the future: I want to take my audio cinema and put it on the screen.

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 have no hatred for cops. I have hatred for racists and brutal people, but not necessarily the cops. The cops are just doing what they're told to do.

I make an effort to keep it as real as I possibly can.

I started rapping before anybody had ever bought a car from it. It was truly about the art form and the culture, more so than now, where it's a successful way to make money. Back then you had to be doing it because you liked it.

I started writing rhymes first and then put it to the music. I figured out I could lock it to the beat better if I heard the music first. I like to get a lot of tracks, put the track up and let the music talk to me about what it's about.

I think L.A. radio is learning from the Bay. The Bay is a very classic place. Mac Mall, C-Bo, all that stuff, they love their artists, they're old school up there. My first big concert was playing in the Bay; I played the Fillmore.

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 men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You've got to harden the metal.

I think singing and acting go hand in hand. Take an R&B singer: one song says, 'I love you,' the next is, 'Baby, don't leave me', the next is, 'If you leave me I don't care.' You have to drop in and out of different perspectives.

I think the most successful are the most paranoid. The first thing people do when they buy a mansion is they build the biggest wall you could possibly build around it. What happens is, now you become a target. If I go into the hood, I'm at a disadvantage. They could carry guns. I can't. They can hit me in the face. I can't.

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.