Dear Reader:

You are viewing a story from GN Version 3.1. Time may not have been kind to formatting, integrity of links, images, information, etc.

Ice-T says gaming and rap broke out in popularity in the 80s, platform wars are nerdy

by rawmeatcowboy
16 February 2011
GN Version 3.1

A portion of a Game Informer interview with Ice-T…

GI: Whenever we talk to athletes, they all seem to game. Is it like that in hip-hop now?

Ice-T: What people don’t understand is that the video game industry broke right alongside the hip-hop industry. Video games, hip-hop, skateboards; all that kind of broke during the ‘80s. I had everything – the Ataris, the Segas. We grew up with it. The other thing they forget is that a lot of musicians spend their days on tour buses. If you’ve ever been on a tour bus, there’s nothing much to do. In the back of the tour bus, they’ll have a video game system. You start to learn to play the games. I’ve seen cats start a tour where they don’t really game, and by the end, they’re trying to get you to play them. You get hooked.

GI: Do you go back to the Atari 2600 and arcade days?

Ice-T: Absolutely. My first game system was an Atari, and I had a Nintendo. When I first started making money, if you see my episode of MTV Cribs, I had the actual video arcade games in my house. I had the first Mortal Kombat, the first Virtua Fighter, the first NBA Jam. I bought the arcade games because I found a place in L.A. where I could buy them. They were like $5,000, but I had them down in my studio in my house. But back to the nerd stuff, I think there is a nerd side to it when you get too deep into it. One thing they do now, I’ve noticed, is they have these platform wars, like “Xbox is better than PlayStation.” That’s nerdy to me. What the f— is the matter with you?

Full interview here