Host: It's gonna be an interesting experience.

Ice-T: Okay.

Host: So yeah, just have a seat there. This is for you. Okay, what we're gonna do is play clips that we've prepared of your life. We'll invite you to reflect on the way that you saw yourself in the world back then. We call this your Perception Box. We'll then have you examine the ways that that way of perceiving has changed or not.

Ice-T: Got it.

Host: Do I have your permission to get personal?

Ice-T: Yes.

Host: Cue reel for act one.

TV Host: My next guest is a former gang member who some people say invented gangsta rap. Please welcome Ice-T.

Host: Sitting here with Ice-T. Thanks for being here. Thanks for helping us out.

Ice-T: I was born in 1958, and I was raised in Summit, New Jersey, which is a predominantly upscale, nice area in New Jersey. I was a good kid at school.

Host: And you had a rough early life. You lost your mother. How old were you?

Ice-T: I lost my mother when I was in the third grade, and my father when I was in the seventh grade, so. I don't have a real reference point to my mother. Now I remember her holding me and loving me, but I don't remember anything personality-wise. You know, I was too young by the time she passed. I remember I was sitting with her on the couch, and we were watching "Batman" the TV show, and she just leaned her head back. She was having a heart attack. And we lived in a duplex house, and they moved me over to the neighbor and that was the last I saw her. I just felt strange. It's a strange feeling, but like I said, I wasn't even crying. I was like, I was just confused. Like, what does that mean? After my mother passed, I was with my father. And I was in seventh grade, and they just called me into the principal's office and everybody had those faces and, you know, they say, "Your father's passed away." And once again, I was like in shock. You go into like a zone. Like, everybody's talking and you're just kind of like, "What's going on," you know? You're in limbo. Now I don't have a parent. Who's in charge of me? It just confused me. It just confused me on what the next move was, and that's when they shipped me to L.A.

Ice-T: And my life really turned when I went to Crenshaw High School, and that's gang-infested. I kind of had a chip on my shoulder. I was kind of like, "Why am I getting dealt all these bad hands," you know? Like, what did I do to deserve this? And I didn't like living with my aunt. I was kind of like I was dropped on them, so I felt like I was a burden.

Host: Did they provide a sense of family for you?

Ice-T: No, I've never had a sense of family. I've never had a sense of family. That's why it's new to me now to have a family. Once I stepped out of my aunt's house and I was 17, there was no one to fall back on. So I was in survival mode, and I started to migrate toward the players and the hustlers. These were cats that were about money. You start off gambling, then they teach you how to do three-card monte on the bus. Then you start breaking in car stereos. Before I knew it I was doing small time crime, which started to escalate. And rap just kind of dropped out of the sky.

Ice-T: Well, I'm hustling during the day, but at night I'm doing parties. I got DJ gear and I'm rapping.

Voiceover: Rapping is very essential part of the street scene. If you take like any regular record and you lay a rap over it, it'll change the whole meaning of the record.

Ice-T: When I got into rap, I wasn't trying to connect my past life to rap. I didn't know I could, because we were criminals. And it was a moment when that merged. I was in a club with Russell Simmons. I got called onto the stage and that day I was dressed like I usually dress. I had on a Fila suit, I had my perm, I had my hat, I was the player Ice-T. Not the rapper Ice-T. And I did the show. And when I came off the stage, Russell Simmons said, "That's you." That's you. Be Ice-T. Nobody's ever seen nobody like you rapping." Once I got the green light, I just opened it up with "6 in the Mornin" and **** just started to happen.

Award Host/Media: Performing the title track from "Ricochet." This is Ice-T. For best rap performance by a duo or group. "Back on the Block," Ice-T, Melle Mel- This is Ice-T. Yo! MTV Raps.

News Anchor: Some police officers across the country now say they're feeling threatened by the lyrics of a rap song.

Host/Detractor: Your detractors would say that the music is second-rate stuff that wouldn't rate a mention if it didn't have these references to violence.

Ice-T: The hardened exterior on me is a shield. It's not like the way I want to be. You know, where I grew up, you say, "Me name is Tracy," they say, "That's a ***** name." Now I gotta fight you. I just met you. So I'm either going to be predator or prey. I'm gonna be predator if I gotta pick one. You know what I'm saying? So even though I'm not necessarily taking advantage of people, I have to put on a predator image, like I'm the wrong person. Like, don't come over here, it ain't sweet. But I don't wanna be like that.

Host: Do you feel like you've moved beyond that hardened exterior?

Ice-T: I think we all grow. I think we evolve. Coming from not knowing a lot about life, as I started to grow and see other things, of course, my views expand. As far as who I am, I'm just trying to be honest with myself. I'm trying to just do what I think you can do as a human in this short period of time. The first big step I ever took outside of trying to get into music was acting. So when I got the chance to do "New Jack City," I was terrified because I had built this rap image and now I'm gonna step outta Ice-T and be another character. Well, would that work? Not only that, they want me to play a cop. Not really fans of the police, right? But I took that jump. It worked.

Scotty Appleton (played by Ice-T): So what's the rules? Just like life. It's survival of the fittest. This ain't business, *****. This is personal.

Police Officer: The tower center is holy ground. You got that?

Scotty Appleton: No, I don't got that.

Police Officer: Know why I brought you here? I never wanna see you anywhere in a place like this. You understand me?

Ice-T: I really wouldn't do this if I couldn't do it with my family at this point. And I brought the baby, Coco and the baby are here. Muhammad Ali said when a man has a child in the second half of his life after 50, it resets his life. The old Ice was less focused and a lot more angry about life. The new Ice now understands life and knows that it's not meant to be perfect, and it's never gonna be totally right. It's always gonna be ajar. And once you can live with that, when you can live in the chaos and understand the chaos is part of it, then you can find peace.

Host: If you could go back in time and talk to that boy in the third grade when you lost your mother, I know this is a hard thing to ask, what would you tell him?

Ice-T: I don't know what I would tell. I mean, I don't think I could tell him anything because they're in a reality that they have to deal with, the situations at hand. Your life is your accumulation of your experiences. Not one, it's the accumulation. So all those things made me who I am and I'm very proud and happy of who I am. So, I don't know, I would just say, you know, "Just keep your head up. It's gonna be all right." But see, here's the — I’m keep trickin’. Not knowing if it's gonna be all right is what makes you do certain things. So it's like, if I had told him it's gonna be all right, he might've cruised, he might've relaxed, he might not have been as forward with things. All of us need to have that little bit of doubt. That's what drives you, right?