Em mentions from a new Q&A with Ice-T:THR: So it wasn't that anyone was resistant because they weren't sure they wanted to talk about it?
Ice-T: No, not really, because of the relationships I have. And this movie definitely is not “Meet your favorite rapper.” It's more like “Meet Ice's favorite rappers.” I went right into my address book. So everyone in this movie I have a relationship with. It wasn't like I had to say, “Oh, there's this particular rapper that I don't know, and we have to try to negotiate and find him.” My book has everybody. I mean, I got Kanye West, I got Eminem. We didn't get Jay, Jay was busy, but we got Dr. Dre, we got Cube. At the end of the day, we ended up with interviews with fifty-four rappers, and we couldn't cut to ninety minutes.
THR: Did any old feuds get sparked while you were doing the interviews or going back over old territory?
Ice-T: No. I kinda have always had diplomatic immunity and never really got involved in the beefs. I was able to get people that normally wouldn't necessarily be together because of beef or whatever. They didn't care. So you’ll see people that you'll say, “Oh, I didn't think they got along.” But they all get along with Ice, so that’s all that matters. Even Cube and Dre have gotten back together. They did “Chin Check” with NWA, they rejoined together. I remember Chino XL had a little beef with Em for a while, but that stuff is all small. There's no real heavyweight beefin’ going on like back in the day.
THR: What's your take away from having made this and seeing all that history all put together in one place?
Ice-T: You know what it is? To me, it's just one of those things that I'm glad I was able to capture and put together, because a lot of these guys will be considered the masters — people like Run DMC, KRS-One, Melle Mel, Bambaataa. And when you think about art, there is nothing where you can see Rembrandt sitting next to Michelangelo, sitting next to Leonardo, talking. It just didn't happen. So forever there's this film that has all these people in one place. And one thing this movie is about is what it's not about. It's not about the money, it's not about the cars, it's not about the girls — it's about the craft. And for twenty years I got interviewed and never got asked one question about the craft. People just figure you shit it out, but they wanna know what car you're in, what girl you’re fucking, your beefs. But they don't care how you do it. No one asks Eminem, “How the hell do you do it?”
Check out the whole thing, though. It's really interesting. This documentary sounds like it's going to be amazing. It's being shown today at Sundance.
