"I Want To See Some Little Motherf*ckers Get Together & Give These Fools A Wake Up Call"

Rap veteran Ice-T has offered his take on what is the missing element in hip-hop and why rappers should focus on more than materialistic luxuries.

In Ice's eyes, hip-hop needs a return to its golden years when hip-hop acts like Public Enemy ruled the genre.

"I want to see some little motherf*ckers get together like a Public Enemy and give these fools a wake up call like, "F*ck this jewelry and cars bullsh*t," and bring it back to Armageddon! Don't get it twisted?the people that are making music now, I'm not mad at them. People think I'm mad at pop music [but] I'm not. I'm just saying the conscious music is lacking.There's no roots, really, and when you think about the groups that I name like the PE's and all that, they can't make records now because we're not the right age." (VIBE)

The rapper-turned-actors said he also missed hip-hop's edginess.

"We're the age of their parents. Kids don't want to listen to their parents, so we accept that so I'm saying there just needs to be some?how could KRS 1 and all of us used to be so militant at our age. Where are those kids that are gonna come out and really push the envelope? NWA did "F*ck the Police," we were going hard, we were getting arrested. Now everybody is trying to stay in their nice little safe bubble and I miss the edgy music. That's all I'm saying. Saying you sell drugs, that's not edgy to me, let's talk about some issues. Lupe fiasco does it. I've listened to some of his stuff. He's not afraid but there's a lack. I would love to be a fan of some new little bad ass cats coming out and letting mother fuckers know what's up." (VIBE)

A few months ago, Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man discussed the changing image of what makes a true emcee.

"There are genuine artists out there who love what they do and do it with a purpose, but then you have those dudes who are a bunch of fashonistas," Meth explained in an interview. "These kids are more concerned with the way they look than what's coming out of their mouths...Back when I first came out if you told a kid 'I'm an MC,' the first thing the kid would say to you is, 'Oh yeah, well say a rhyme for me.' ...Nowadays, you tell the kid you're an MC and he's like 'Oh yeah, where's your big chain at? Where's your watch? Where's your car? That's what it is now.' ...The majority of the people who listen to the music can't afford half that sh*t." (Wall Street Journal)

Producer/Rapper Swizz Beatz previously voiced his thoughts on the lack of real emcees in hip-hop.

"I think hip-hop is missing something that's real," Swizz said in a 2009 interview. "So we did 'Who's Real.' When we first dropped 'Ruff Ryders Anthem,' everybody felt like it was real. From that time to now, you don't really know who's real because everything is so watered down. The dog [DMX] is back. A lot of people are intimidated for him to make his appearance because you gotta understand that DMX is doing his thing. A lot of other artists are under pressure, a lot of labels are under pressure because it was something that they didn't even know how to contain. They didn't even know how to control DMX, the Ruff Ryders movement. Being with a movement for so many years, it's like being in the house with your parents. As a kid it's cool and your respect it but you wanna go out and explore your options." (Dr. Jay's)