Call It A Comeback

09/23/1999 4:00 PM, LAUNCH
Billy Johnson Jr

Ice-T's ready to fight. He's putting on his boxing shorts, shoes, and gloves in his dressing-room trailer on the set of his new flick, Luck Of The Draw. In a few minutes, he'll be called to begin filming a boxing ring scene.

Ice plays the street hustler role all too well in the film that stars Dennis Hopper. "I'm not a drug dealer," Ice says of his character, McNealy. "I put my hand in anything I see a profit in, like the real gangsters do."

Ice-T knows a little something about real gangsters. An O.G., original gangster, himself, he is just as responsible for the West Coast's still-prevalent gangster rap scene as Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and Dr. Dre's N.W.A. While, like Ice Cube, Ice-T's film career has been on a steady incline (he says he's filmed at least seven movies this year), his rap records haven't generated a wealth of interest in hip-hop circles, since, say, his 1991 album O.G., which spawned his hit "New Jack Hustler," also on the New Jack City soundtrack. He made the headlines in 1992, however, when his metal group Body Count recorded the controversial "Cop Killer." Aftermath from the song included a parting between Ice and his former label, Warner Bros.

Ice's 1993's Home Invasion was way over-the-top, rubbing the noses of Body Count's critics in the dirt, and 1996's VI: Return To The Real sadly followed trends of rappers of the time. Ice admits record label pressures hampered his creative direction.

"It's hard when you're walking into a record label…they'll stalemate you," Ice says, "'Well that record's good, but since it's not going to be on the radio, we don't want to do a video.' So you end up saying, 'Well f--k it.'"

But 1999 appears to be a good year for Ice-T's rap career. His seventh album, 7th Deadly Sin, repositions him with one of the year's most chilling gangster rap records. The album, released on the Internet upstart Atomic Pop, returns to his roots. One song, "Always Wanted Ta Be A Hoe," is actually an upsetting story of a pimp doing his best brainwashing job on a young new recruit. "This goes out to all you ladies out there," Ice opens on the song. "A lot of you won't grow up to be lawyers or doctors, but you have a dream. And I think you should follow your dream…"

Since Atomic Pop depends on the Internet as a major means of promoting and even selling records, major radio and video support is not its main way of garnering a successful record. Ice says he would be happy if he sold 100,000 copies of 7th Deadly Sin on Atomic Pop. Racking up only 100,000 in sales would be an embarrassment for an artist of Ice's notoriety on a major label. But things are quite different for indies.

"I'm mentally not trying to SoundScan one record," Ice says, explaining 7th Deadly Sin's extremely non-commercial front. "I could give a f--k if I never get spun on radio. So now my mind is saying, 'Now, we can make some records. Let's make some motherf--king records.'" Ice plans to use his affiliation with Atomic Pop, which also distributes his label Coroner Records, to take a more underground approach to record promotion. He plans to service club and mix-show DJs, and if any of the records cross over, great.

Ice-T isn't new to opportunities of the Internet; he's been watching the rapid growth of the World Wide Web for three years. When his licensing deals with Priority and Virgin Records ended and an in-the-works distribution plan with Motown fell through the cracks, he was directed to Atomic Pop by his good friend, Public Enemy's Chuck D, who had just taken P.E. to the new Internet label.

"I've always been aware that this is where things are going," Ice says. "I've never been somebody like, 'The Net thing is wack.' Nah. Nah. Nah. The ability for me to put something out in cyberspace and people in Poland to see it is a monster." Ice says he's been taking advantage of the new technology by transforming his extensive fanclub list of 160,000 "writing fans" to include correspondence over the Net.

"I think hip-hop needs the Internet," Ice begins, "because a really bomb-ass, dope-ass hip-hop record will probably sell 50,000 records. The hottest sh-t, not the records that sell a million records--those are usually wack. Be honest, I mean, I'm not a hater. But 'Wild, Wild West' ain't no f--king hip-hop record and that sh-t will probably do 2 million. You got to go and get deep off into the grimy Money Boss Player acts from New York, some Brotha Lynch Hung sh-t that ain't never gonna get heard. My biggest record ever that everybody speaks on is '6 N The Morning.' It was never a major release. I sold like 25,000 of them and that's the record. I done made records that sold millions and that's the record. So when you got a format like that that really lends itself to something that isn't radio-based, that's going to be your sh-t."

As Ice heads off to the boxing stage, ready for his next scene, he explains another major change in his career that's sure to take his fans by surprise. The MC's trademark hairstyle--long, always permed--has undergone a major adjustment: the ponytail has been axed. Now, Ice's 'do is short-cropped and curly. "I cut the hair off for a movie called The President I did with Eric Roberts," Ice explains with a smirk, "and I just f--king went in there one day and they said, 'You know, you got to play a federal agent,' and I said, 'Well, f--k it. Cut my hair off.' And motherf--kers was like, 'Ice! You cut your hair!' But the cool thing is, now you guys get to see it grow back."