Every week, Ice-T will school us on the major points of each episode of Ice-T's Rap School. Class is in session for Episodes 1 and 2, after the jump...

Episode 1

On the show's concept:

It was sort of an ill partaking because it's such an odd theory. It seemed very easy for it to come out corny, you know? But it just came out good.

On dealing with kids:

I got kids, and I always felt like I knew how to deal with kids. I'm not a person who was shy from kids. I get along with kids well because I tend to deal with them like adults. But I never taught a class or anything.

On the importance of teaching kids about hip-hop:

I think it's important for kids to learn different cultures and different sides of life. I think it's just as important for a prep school kid to learn hip-hop as it is for a kid from the ghetto to get a feel for their life. I think everybody needs to understand each other. Hip-hop was a good way to get these kids into another lifestyle.

On the Rap School kids' inexperience with hip-hop:

A lot of kids get to come home and watch television, but a lot of kids don't. A lot of kids are steered away from it by their parents. Hip-hop is an aggressive form of music. And if you're living in a different clique, maybe it's just not your thing. My wife, Coco, she was into dance music. She had a slight view of hip-hop, but she didn't know who Wu-Tang Clan was or anything of that nature. A lot of people will listen to whatever's on the radio, but won't consider themselves hip-hop fans, much less try to do it.

On Sophia's use of the word "ghetto":

I noticed when I got around these kids, they would use words that they didn't really know what they meant. When a girl that age says "ghetto," it's just what she's heard, and it's a chance right then for you to say, "Hey. Do you know you could offend people like that?" It's like when little kids call people fat. They might say very offensive things, but they're kids. It's an adult's job to say, "Yo. I know you don't mean it in a negative sense, but you don't realize that somebody will hit you in the face." I have a term I have, which is "inside words." There's a lot of negative slang that people can be used as long as they're part of it. If you're fat, you say "fat." But if a skinny person calls someone fat, there's a problem. I tried to explain it to the kids and she kinda got it. Nobody probably ever told her that. "Ghetto" to Sophia meant, "where I'm not from," the slums, the bad area. And, see, when you're from the bad area, you turn it around and you try to become proud of it. A person that's from the hood will say to a yuppie, "You ain't from the hood," like that's something to be embarrassed of. You have to wear your pain as a badge of honor, that's how you negate the real issue of it. And the thing of it is, Sophia really ain't rich. They're going to prep school and stuff, but on a scale of 1-10, the richest kid in the class was Mary. That's another thing you find out about life: kids that are really, really well-off tend to be a little bit more sensitive. It's always the people who think they're well-off that aren't so sensitive. The star is humble, but it's the guy who thinks he's a star who's acting up. So, I'm in there, on top of these kids because I'm looking at it like, I know I might look like the bad guy, but I try to clean their act up a little bit.

On his first experience with the South Bronx:

I went to the South Bronx, I think it was 1984. I had experienced hip-hop from the West Coast up to that point. It was a culture shock for me, but I didn't have Sophia's fears because I come from rough neighborhoods and I realize that there's really no problems in any place if you follow two rules. One is stay away from people that seem aggressive, and two is stay out of dark alleys. If you do those two things, you probably won't have a problem, I don't care who you are. People don't usually come mess with you, you have to put yourself out there.

Episode 2

On calling hip-hop an "aggressive" form of music:

"Aggression" may not be totally the absolutely correct word, but whatever you're speaking on, you can't be wishy-washy about it. If you listen to Common and he's talking about rights and positivity, he's being aggressive toward the positivity. You can't be a rapper and say, "Maybe. I don't know. I'm kinda good. Uh…my record's all right." You have to be opinionated. I don't know, maybe "assertive" is a better word than "aggressive." A lot of these kids were not assertive. You have to mean it. You don't walk onstage and tell people, "I think we're gonna have fun tonight." You say, "We're gonna party, g*****n it."

On kids rhyming about violence (Phil, at one point, compares himself to a sniper in a rap he wrote):

I don't have any problems with that because I know how to control it. I'm into everything. The violence and all that is just part of male stuff. If Phil is playing videogames, he's killing a lot of s***. It kinda shakes girls different ways, but then, I come from a different rap background, where we used to say that if the girls like the record, it's not a good record. If you listen to metal or hardcore, a lot of that stuff is so testosterone-based that there ain't nowhere for a girl to fit in. So I said to Phil, "If you wanna go that way, fine." That record is Phil's alter ego, it's what's in his head. My main thing was, no portraying anything like that and playing like it's the real. If you're saying, "Yo, this is fantasy, I'm just trippin' right now," then I'll let that ride. That goes even for my music, like "Cop Killer." I'm not a cop killer. I portray him. That's part of the art.

On his history with dancing:

Hell yeah, I used to dance. I was in the Breakin' movies, I was a breakdancer a Fame episode. I think when you get into hip-hop, you get into hip-hop like these kids do. You hear the rap record and then you indulge in the larger culture. Before I knew it, I was hanging around hip-hoppers and I was learning to DJ. I couldn't really do it well, I was always much better of a talker.

Comments

[Amanda]

This show is straight garbage. It just shows how fake rap artist are, have been, and will always remain, why doesn't he invest in children in the project public school systems? GARBAGE

[brianna]

i like the show...i liked the last one i love the song and all of the girls are rapping i just wanted to no what its called

[MR.SCREAM]

WHAT A F@CKING WASTE OF TIME!

HEY ICE, WHY DON'T YOU BACK TO THE HOOD AND GET SOME KIDS WHO

REALLY DESERVE A BREAK. YOU DID IT FOR THE MONEY, DIDN'T YOU?

THIS SHOW WAS "ALL-THAT....AND A BAG OF SH!T".

STICK TO PIMPIN' , PIMPIN'.

[Omar Chiles]

To (Ice T)

My name is Omar Chiles, and my life started off as a struggle whlie my family and I went through the wire.
I am 13 years old, I been rapping for 4 years now.I came up in hardknocks of Callie, in the Bay Area, I got adopted, my mom gave me up, on the ghetto streets, of Frisco with no comfort and she was poor, I heard stories about my dad being in San Quinn Prison, but I dont know I just, and I never knew not one of them.I got adopted to a family called (The Chiles Family)my adopted dad died when I turned 2, years later we moved to texas, now im in Fortworth texas rapping trying come up when itz my time to shine Figga deal me playa.Can I hook up with you and yo playaz and get down with a tough rap career, because this is my dream and I only got one chaance to do this pimpin.

Holla back!

[MsU2Babe]

Just checking out some of the Archives. Came across Rap School. Gotta say this, love it just as much now as I did then. So where are the kids? Lets hope they kept the same feeling going.
Peace-

[tracey washington]

a long time ago i had a song make in new york and it was a rap song called governor's words and it was songed by you and llcool j. At lease i thought it was. it was your voices. but a cadillac eat the tapes. but i need some help because i have songs writtens and i need some guidence. could you please write me at this address. 1035 oakforrest dr. apt.25 eastman, ga. 31023