Ice-T has called on the current generation of hip-hop artists to “get a hold” of themselves.
The 65-year-old rapper-turned-actor – whose real name is Tracy Marrow – reflected on the deaths of prominent figures in the genre from drug use or violence in recent years, with losses including the likes of Nipsey Hussle, Migos’ Takeoff, Pop Smoke, and XXXTentacion, and admitted he doesn’t know what tragedy it will take before the modern crop of musicians realise things need to “calm down”.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, he said at Essence Fest over the weekend: “My generation, we lost Tupac, we lost Biggie and we got the memo. Everybody calmed down. We all figured this out: We [were] rapping to get out of the streets.
“But the youngsters who are out here behaving like that, these kids are millionaires so I don’t know how many young people gotta get lost, I don’t know which one might trigger that message, but I think it’s time for this generation to get a hold of itself.”
The ‘Lethal Weapon’ singer – who released his first studio album, ‘Lethal Weapon’, in 1987 and his last, ‘Gangsta Rap’, in 2006 – also noted that “hip-hop was supposed to be a fad,” but now rappers are “billionaires” and he’s thrilled with the way the genre has evolved over the last 50 years.
He said: “Hip-hop has gray hairs. The beauty of it is that it’s still here, still flourishing and people still love it.
“It’s gone through a lot of different growing pains and stuff, but for them to say it was a fad — now you have hip-hop billionaires! Hip-hop is a culture. A youth culture, started by kids.”