Ice-T's directorial debut, 'Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap,' documents the genre's history through interviews with such artists as Dr. Dre and Kanye West. But the rapper-turned-actor (he's now a regular on NBC's 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit') made history himself two decades ago when he emerged out of South L.A. as one of gangsta rap's pioneers. He spoke with Pop & Hiss last week on the eve of his film's release.
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the riots. With a little distance, how do you reflect on the music of that period?
Hip-hop preempted the riots. In Body Count, we did 'Cop Killer' a year before the riots. If you listen to pre-riot records, we were saying, 'Yo, stuff is hot down here. The cops are out of pocket. It's not just us.' But it was a real tumultuous time, and the music reflected that. When the riots happened, I was in a studio. Dre was in a studio. I made a record called 'Race War,' which was me saying that we got to get it together before it screws us up worse. Rap was the narrator of that time.
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