Ice-T has a weird life journey, from gangster rap to reality TV show character with his wife in ‘Ice Loves Coco’, to now documentary maker.
In his new film ‘The Art of Rap’, Ice-T interviews many rap and hip hop legends and attempts to go beyond the stardom, exploring what goes inside the minds of the grandmasters of the style.
Illustrated by numerous performances of classic raps, freestyle rhymes, there are revelations like this one, ‘We created something from nothing’ or ’Hip hop didn’t invent anything, hip hop re-invented everything’, and of course the cast is a who’s who of the hip hop world: Afrika Bambaataa, Big Daddy Kane, B-Real, Bun B, Chino XL, Common, DJ Premier, DMC, Doug E. Fresh, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Grandmaster Caz, Ice Cube, Ice-T, Immortal Technique, Joe Budden, Kanye West, Kool Keith, KRS-One, Lord Finesse, Lord Jamar, Marley Marl, MC Lyte, Melle Mel, Nas, Puerto Rico, Q-Tip, Raekwon, Rakim, Ras Kass.
In a synopsis, the film is described as ‘a better understanding of, and a tribute to, an original American art form that brought poetry to a new generation’,.. and should I add a lot of cash?
I am probably the last person who should be talking about rap but I understand, watching this trailer, that Ice-T wanted to show the rap artists under a positive light, and documented the art of rap, the rhyme writing process,… but should he have ignored all the rivalries, the fights, the shootings, the Tupac-Notorious-B.I.G. murders, the misogyny and homophobia? And above everything else, all the bling, that makes them in such a bizarre position when they are still pretending representing the streets.
The film, which has been out since June 15, is Ice-T’s directorial debut.
Ice-T has a weird life journey, from gangster rap to reality TV show character with his wife in ‘Ice Loves Coco’, to now documentary maker.