Ice-T realized that a true “paradigm shift” had occurred in the hip-hop scene in the mid-2000s.
Rapper/actor real name Tracy Marrow hasn’t dropped a solo album since 2006’s Gangsta Rap, but has since released a collaboration with his heavy metal band Body Count.
However, in an interview with Variety, Ice-T revealed that he has no desire to make any more solo records at this time, as he is “unfamiliar” with the scene.
“The music started going crazy. The kids started looking weird. It all became something I wasn’t comfortable with,” he explained. , and then it cooled down, it was a feeling, and then I realized Public Enemy, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Wu-Tang Clan didn’t sell records either, there was a paradigm shift, these kids Softer and not something I can give the audience.The first word in hip hop is ‘hip’ so it’s hard how something stays hip for 10+ years. ”
Ice-T went on to say that for now he is happy to do Ice-T: Art of Rap shows because his fans tend to “listen to the classics”.
Elsewhere in the chat, the 65-year-old expressed the thrill he felt when he was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this month.
“When I started making records, I didn’t enter the music industry thinking I was going to be a star. I just wanted to put my name among the greats like,” he recalls.