He got mad game, yo.

July 10, 2006 12:56 PM

Then, as he escorted me to the elevator, he said, “New Yorker? How many people see that shits?” He reflected a moment. “Damn. Who needs Hot 97? I got New Yorker and MySpace.”
posted by jne1813 (32 comments total)

The New Yorker reports this deadpan, no comment needed: “I’m not really trying to promote this,” he said, again stroking his thigh. “That’s not what it’s about. What happened happened, and I’m still alive, God willing. You know, just like the name of my album, ‘God Willing.’ ”
posted by nicwolff at 1:08 PM on July 10, 2006

Yeah, um, that was a crazy article. The Ice-T part, in particular, was just fabulous. The whole thing is deadpan.
posted by OmieWise at 1:40 PM on July 10, 2006

They talked briefly about current events. “I was meeting with Bill Gates, telling him about Hot 97 last week,” Jay-Z said. “He told me about what the world’s going to look like in five years, and I got scared. He’s just extra smart. I don’t even want to get into it.”

...awesome. This is a great essay.
posted by Flashman at 1:42 PM on July 10, 2006

What a fascinating, detailed article. There's a lot of historical ground covered, many insights, and some of the most hilarious quotes I've read in a while. Thanks for posting this.
posted by First Post at 1:50 PM on July 10, 2006

just read that the other day... articles like that are why i subscribe to the new yorker. loved it.
posted by jcruelty at 2:04 PM on July 10, 2006

i love the part where they blamed VH1 for sensationalizing drug dealing in rap
posted by paul_smatatoes at 2:13 PM on July 10, 2006

“If I died, or if I had to go through a shit bag—you know, where you get shot in the stomach and you can’t shit regular, got to wear the bag—they’d be playing me like crazy,” he said, still incredulous. “You have to damn near die to be famous these days?”
posted by xmutex at 2:17 PM on July 10, 2006

Articles like this are why I can't read other articles. Awesome and funny...and holy shit, I had no idea Ice-T's wife looked like that.
posted by birdie birdington at 2:31 PM on July 10, 2006

Now, to people it looks like ‘Well, you got shot. And you still went in there and did your job?’ Like, O.K., let’s put the shoe on the other foot. What was I supposed to tell a powerful influence like Flex, at Hot 97? ‘You know what, Flex? I’m sorry, man. I can’t do the show. I was standing downstairs—got shot in the ass.’ What, are you nuts? Right? It wouldn’t make any sense. So I had to do what I had to do.”

Holy crap. It's Ray from Achewood come to 300 lb. life!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:36 PM on July 10, 2006

Yes, there are many good articles in the New Yorker.
posted by Outlawyr at 3:10 PM on July 10, 2006

Cartoons too.
posted by Outlawyr at 3:10 PM on July 10, 2006

Great piece. I really wish there was a UK equivalent to the New Yorker (if only because I often buy it and find myself reading 10 pages on some senator I've never heard of and never will again).
posted by jack_mo at 4:22 PM on July 10, 2006

There was a great article/essay a while back about the general tone of condescension in the NY'er with respect to rap and hip-hop. I believe the focus of the attack was Adam Gopnik. This made me think of that.
posted by Mid at 4:33 PM on July 10, 2006

I had no idea Ice-T's wife looked like that.

Umm, hello? Ice-T?

But to make things more plain and simple to the layman, I find Ice-T to be the dopest, fly-est, O.G. pimp hustler gangster player hardcore motherfucker living today. To be honest, I am completely on his dick.

(ok, ok, I've listened to OG: Original Gangster one too many times!)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 4:35 PM on July 10, 2006

"You got to understand, I got in the rap game to get out of the streets. . . . Now the streets is in the rap game."
posted by 31d1 at 4:52 PM on July 10, 2006

it's true, ice-t wrote a song, i think called "Escape from the killing fields," where he talks about how stupid it is to think 'keeping it real' means you have to stay in the ghetto.



In constant fear
I'm the nigga you shoulda killed last year
But you played yourself
You let me gain wealth
Now I can change the way the cards are dealt
I've schooled my homeboys
Made 'em all understand
The tricks and twists
Inflicted on the black man
How ya make me think to be down
I gotta stay around
Down in the motherfuckin' battleground
There'll never be any good
Schools in the hood
There'll never be any cops
That are any good
The hospital is a great place to go to die
Real estate's cheap
Let me tell ya why

The man's got a
Sure
fire
system
A economic prison!

posted by jcruelty at 6:33 PM on July 10, 2006

My favorite part was the DJ feud between the competing stations. "Star" ascribing to a wacky antisocial extension of Ayn Rand theory he calls "Objective Hate."

But I think it's better-known as "High School." ; - P
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:56 PM on July 10, 2006

“If I died, or if I had to go through a shit bag—you know, where you get shot in the stomach and you can’t shit regular, got to wear the bag—they’d be playing me like crazy,” he said, still incredulous.

That's so true; my grandpa's "Colostomy Bag Blues"(She tore my heart out / No I don't feel fine / Don't know where my heart went / Just like my lower intestine...) would have been 2003's feel good hit of the summer if it hadn't been for Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love".


*Pours 40 of Sanka and condensed milk on the curb for Gr&npaS&nd*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:11 PM on July 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

The R. & B. artist Brooke Valentine dropped by on a Sunday evening to discuss her dating preferences (“He got to be chocolate but he can’t be purple: I want to be able to see him when I pick him up at night”).
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:39 PM on July 10, 2006

Articles like this are why I can't read other articles. Awesome and funny...and holy shit, I had no idea Ice-T's wife looked like that.

Ugh, those are some nasty fake tits.
posted by delmoi at 8:04 PM on July 10, 2006

In the preceding week, that doomsday plan had taken the form of berating his ex-colleague Envy, whose given name is Raashaun Casey, and his family, in spectacularly vile fashion, vowing, Mike Tyson style, not only to come after the Caseys’ child but to eat her; he made reference to spreading mayonnaise on her rear, as a dressing. He’d also indicated that he wished to “tinkle” and “skeet” on the girl (“your seed”), who is four, and offered five hundred dollars to any listener who could tell him which preschool she attended.

Wah!?
posted by delmoi at 8:42 PM on July 10, 2006

What's this guy's myspace, by the way?
posted by delmoi at 8:46 PM on July 10, 2006

I can't .. what... wow.
posted by blacklite at 10:30 PM on July 10, 2006

Re: Colostomy raps

Bowel trouble y'all
Stool settle, soft and loose
Soft and loose you got to give me the juice
the metamuce
posted by afu at 10:44 PM on July 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

What's this guy's myspace, by the way?

myspace.com/gravynyc
posted by samh23 at 10:57 PM on July 10, 2006

The results of typing "Objective Hate" into Google are fascinating...
posted by Fidel Cashflow at 11:33 PM on July 10, 2006

This would be why I don't listen to the "hip-hop". Bunch of gun wielding thugs with a penchant for iambic pentameter and the musical talent of a sack of turnips.
posted by jaded at 6:05 AM on July 11, 2006

This would be why I don't listen to the "hip-hop". Bunch of gun wielding thugs with a penchant for iambic pentameter and the musical talent of a sack of turnips.



i'll make sure to stay away from any party you're holding.
posted by jimmy at 7:48 AM on July 11, 2006

"Idiocy Abounds"

lol
posted by [@I][:+:][@I] at 9:56 AM on July 11, 2006

Metafilter: You can hear God laughing, “Swim, you bitches, swim!”
posted by matkline at 10:18 AM on July 11, 2006

That is a goddamn hilarious article. The MC's and wannabes depicted come across as deeply pathetic specimens.

People are just. So. Stupid.
posted by waxbanks at 12:57 PM on July 11, 2006

This would be why I don't listen to the "hip-hop". Bunch of gun wielding thugs with a penchant for iambic pentameter and the musical talent of a sack of turnips.

hip-hop is just like any musical genre, there are hangers-on and people just in it for the money or the girls or the free candy-corn, but then there are people with genuine talent and drive that produce beautiful works. You just have to look past the surface.

Damn Ice-T's wife has some nasty implants.
posted by nomad at 7:21 PM on July 12, 2006