Ice-T Awarded at the 33rd Annual GRAMMY Awards

Quotes
"Black power, it's in effect. . . . you still a slave to the man; prepare for revolution";
"Prepare to Die"; Ice-T, Original Gangster, 1991, Sire Records, Warner Bros. Records, Time Warner.

"Now I'm black but black people trip [become upset] 'cause white people like me; white people like me but don't like them. . . . I don't hate whites, I just gotta death wish for motherfuckers that ain't right. . . . you got black skin, still you got to show and prove, friend. . . . so what's in store, I'm talking about a race war. . . . once the bullets start flying, people start dying, it's all because of lying. . . . America was founded on that racist shit; I judge a devil by his deed. . . . there's gonna be a lot of white kids rolling with the Africans; you can't sweat skin, 'cause there'll be a lot of blacks down with the Republicans. . . . you wanna know what I think is in store, justice or race war. . . . being black ain't no fucking minority, it's a fucking majority, so they got to make us hate each other. . . . does somebody want a race war. . . . we're all together; open your eyes; get wise; put your brain in gear; who wants a race war";
"Race War"; Ice-T, Home Invasion, 1993, Priority Records, Thorn EMI, now being called The EMI Group.

"White boy, yah, you; you and I will die holding each other's throats. . . . we're at war. . . . these are the last days. . . . or possibly am I intelligent enough to only hold the conditions of the ghetto itself to blame; not; who creates the conditions; who stops affirmative action and welfare; who loves the three-strikes law; didn't see them at the Million Man March. . . . Armageddon is near; I am the fourth rider of the apocalypse. . . . I hate you; you hate me. . . . racism is the number one enemy of earth; there's only one race, the human race; and if we don't get it together soon, this song is true";
"Last Days"; Body Count, Violent Demise: The Last Days, 1997, Virgin Records America, The EMI Group.

Article
      Ice-T, Melle Mel, Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, Quincy D. III, and Quincy Jones were awarded February 1991 for "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" for "Back on the Block" from "Quincy Jones/Back on the Block."

      Before 1990, Ice-T, like other rappers, was letting his listeners know with almost every song that he spoke the "truth," that listeners would learn lessons from his lyrics, and that he influenced behavior with his lyrics. With his words his sympathies became clear. Concerning South Central and "brothers on the streets killing brothers," he claimed on his 1989 album that there was a white conspiracy: "the system has us geared to kill one another, selling dope to poison each other, the plan of the man." On his 1988 and his 1989 albums, Ice-T praised the rap groups Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions.

      On the 1989 rap, "This One's for Me," Ice-T said that the decision makers at an LA radio station were "punk bourgeois black suckers" who did not "represent the black community" because they did not play Ice-T, Public Enemy, or Boogie Down Productions. It did not take long for radio stations to conform and to play constantly the black artists who churn out violent racism. We hear on the same track that the CIA, FBI, or President Bush were responsible for cocaine coming into The United States so that "the young kids on the streets ain't the enemy." Public Enemy returned the support by praising Ice-T on its 1990 track called "Reggie Jax" and on its 1991 track called "How to Kill a Radio Consultant."

      Later in 1991 after his GRAMMY Award, Ice-T continued outlining what he said were conspiracies perpetrated by whites. The whites plot with their "economic prison," brainwashing blacks into believing that they should remain poor in the ghetto killing each other. Ice-T says that he has taught some million blacks about "the tricks . . . inflicted on the black man," and about dealings with whites he says "too late to make up now because it's on." "I am the one," he says, "that has got you living in constant fear." ("Escape from the Killing Fields.") "Black power, it's in effect. . . . you still a slave to the man; prepare for revolution." ("Prepare to Die.") In his 1993 rap, "Message to the Soldier," he says that blacks are "left in to battle the devil with no voice" because "the First Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with black people," and he promises that "there will be retaliation, soldier."

      Also in 1993, on the track called "Race War," Ice-T lets everyone know that a race war would be likely to start and that whites would be to blame for it because whites historically enslaved non-white peoples around the globe and because whites stymie non-whites from gaining wealth in societies dominated by whites. "Once the bullets start flying, people start dying, it's all because of lying."

      He joins in on the opening track of an album that came out in 1995 in order to boost the turnout for Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March held in Washington DC in the Fall of the same year. The album, called One Million Strong, promotes violent racism mixed in with doctrines coming from extremist black Muslims and extremist black Jews.

      Ice-T plays lead rapper with a group called Body Count, the group that created the infamous 1991 song "Cop Killer." On their 1997 CD, Body Count still glorifies cop killing. On the "Dead Man Walking" track, the Body Count rappers say that a typical criminal who is sentenced to death wound up on death row because he had such a tough life, and that he never had a chance to avoid leading a life of crime. The criminal in the lyrics tells the judge that the judge is a racist, and he threatens, that if he ever gets out of prison, he will kill all the jurors. In "Last Days," the last track on the CD, Ice-T gives his reasons that such criminals exist, and he threatens whites that they had better change some social policies or suffer a race war. He specifies disdain for the elimination of racial and gender preferences in affirmative action policies (in California), and for time limits given to welfare recipients.

      In the beginning of his rap, which really has the tone of a speech, Ice-T asks white listeners how it is that they may feel that they can identify with him when, all the while, his lifestyle is "polar opposite" theirs. "Under normal circumstances," he says, he would be invading their homes stealing from their "rich parents," pistol whipping their "little" sisters, and then staring back at them in a courtroom full of whites. He asks white listeners if it is voyeurism that interests them in watching a "black man sing."

      Have whites also become numb to the violence, he asks. He addresses the listeners as "white boy" and tells them that whites and blacks will probably end up killing each other. "The world is at war," he says, and "we're at war."

      Ice-T asks listeners the following question: if one looks at all of the words that he has ever sent out into the public domain, should he be considered a racist or as someone who is just telling it how it is? He says that he was "raised" on crime in an environment filled with hate where there were not many whites. There was "black-on-black genocide," and white cops. He asks: "do I hate you; do I hate myself?"

      He finishes his speech by relieving blacks of some or all fundamental responsibility and passing it off onto whites. He issues his ultimatums as follows: "or possibly am I intelligent enough to only hold the conditions of the ghetto itself to blame; not; who creates the conditions; who stops affirmative action and welfare; who loves the three-strikes law; didn't see them at the Million Man March. . . . Armageddon is near; I am the fourth rider of the apocalypse. . . . I hate you; you hate me. . . . we're gonna have nothing if we don't make a change soon. . . . racism is the number one enemy of earth; there's only one race, the human race; and if we don't get it together soon, this song is true: we are living in the last days." In the long quote above, Ice-T doubts the sincerity of whites because not many whites showed up at the Million Man March, and he tops off the sincerity test, which is steeped in his violent racism, by not denouncing Louis Farrakhan anywhere on his album.

      The cover art on the CD's shows two arms reaching upward, parallel in a sign of unity, and their hands make gang signs. The hand of a black makes a sign of the CRIPS, and the hand of the brown makes a sign of the cholos. We see in the background what looks just like the flat center of Los Angeles, and our vantage point is from high up, which must be from up in the Hollywood Hills. Glimmering lights mark the long straight boulevards all the way as they shoot outwards and upwards into the nighttime horizon.

References
Power, Ice-T, 1988, marketed and distributed by Sire Records and Warner Bros. Records under Time Warner.
The Iceberg: Freedom of Speech. . . Just Watch What You Say, Ice-T, 1989, Sire Records, Warner Bros. Records, Time Warner.
Original Gangster, Ice-T, 1991, Sire Records, Warner Bros. Records, Time Warner.
Home Invasion, Ice-T, 1993, Priority Records, Thorn EMI, now being called The EMI Group.
Violent Demise: The Last Days, Body Count, 1997, Virgin Records, The EMI Group.

Posted at http://home.att.net/~phosphor on June 30, 1999.

Last editing was posted July 23, 1999.

The above is not a complete summary of Ice-T's connections to violently racist music, and readers may want to research and expose more of it.

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