Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ice-T 'Made A Few Calls' To Get Kanye In 'Art Of Rap'

'We respect each other, and I know he's a spitter,' Ice tells 'RapFix Live' of the typically interview-shy West.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway


Ice-T on "RapFix Live"
Photo: Natasha Chandel/ MTV News

Kanye West doesn't do press, but he gets the most press — or so he says in his new single "Mercy." Booking a Yeezy interview isn't the easiest thing to do these days (trust us), but when you're Ice-T, nothing is impossible.

In his new documentary film "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," the original gangsta logged dozens of interviews with rap's biggest names, including Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and, yes, even Kanye West.

"I just made a few calls, you know what I'm sayin'? I got connections that got connections to his people," Ice told MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway about how he was able to book the elusive 'Ye to take part in his film.

On Wednesday (June 13), the rapper/actor walked onto "RapFix Live" and broke down the origins of rap in a very basic way. His film, however, really breaks it down. "We respect each other and I know he's a spitter," Ice said of Kanye. "I know he can really rhyme, so we made the call and he was like, 'No problem.' "

After the verbal agreement, it was just a matter of locking down the globetrotting Kanye. In his film, Ice got rappers to talk about their art and even got all the talent involved to kick a freestyle — another not-so-easy feat (again, trust us). Ice-T believes that when West was made aware of all the other rap legends involved in "Something From Nothing," he was motivated to put his best foot forward. "Competition and excellence brings everybody's game up," Ice said, referencing 'Ye's rhyme that appears in the film.

Booking the talent wasn't much of a problem; for Ice, the hardest part of the doc was editing all the raw footage. "We shot 52 rappers. We had a six-hour edit on this film. I had to figure out how to cut this down to two hours, so there is so much extra material," he said. "There's a director's cut that's just incredible."

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