Ice-T Says the Coronavirus Pandemic is a “Recalibration of the World as We Know It”
Body Count frontman, rapper and actor Ice-T was our featured guest on last week’s episode of The MetalSucks Podcast, and as seems to be the case with pretty much every interview in the world right now, the topic naturally turned to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A lot has changed even in the two weeks since this episode was recorded — this pandemic is progressing with lightning speed — but even so, Ice-T had some prescient predictions on how things would play out and what the world might look like after it’s all over.
On the inevitability of a global pandemic impacting humankind:
“Honestly, I think it’s just an out of control thing that was going to happen eventually, and as much as we like to play like we’re prepared for these types of things, we aren’t.
“And I think, you know, we spend so much money on war and all that other stuff, I’ve been aware that the biggest threat to humans would be some form of a disease, some form of a virus or something, a long time ago.
“So, maybe if they make it through this one, which I’m pretty sure they will ’cause this thing is not as deadly as it could be, I think that it’s going to put everybody on check for this type of situation, these outbreaks, ’cause this won’t be the last one.”
On how deeply this could impact individuals on a financial level and destroy their lives, even if they survive the virus:
“I tell people, I say, ‘You may never catch it and even if you do, you’ll probably survive it. But what’s going to affect you is the economics.’ C’mon they shut my show down, I lost like one million dollars, I got a friend that lost five million dollars in the stocks, and I’m saying that with all humbleness. That’s somebody [who] it won’t kill me, you feel me?
“Now, if that happens to somebody with a lot less money and in a worse situation, that could be their last… that could be it. And I mean, really it. So there’s people out there that don’t have anything, and it’s serious now. My friends in L.A. say people are coming out of supermarkets with baskets of food and there’s people outside waiting to say, ‘Hey man, I need that.’”
Ice’s predictions for how the world would adjust, made in the early days of lockdowns and social distancing in mid-March, are already coming true:
“Yeah, and this has only been four days… now what if it goes six months? So you’re basically looking at a recalibration of the world as we know it, like the way the world operates.
“My friend, Afrika Islam, my old school partner from way back, [he] produced all my records, he’s in Germany and so he’s giving me the heads up out there. He says they’re shutting down the EU, like all the borders are going back up. Germans [often travel] to Poland and all that, no… stay in your country. All that stuff is starting to start up and his wife is in Bulgaria, she’s stuck.
“And I told my friends, I say ‘You better get where you want to be before they put in this travel ban and you get stuck. If you’re home, you’re probably in the best place.’ If you’re traveling you could get fucked real bad. Like if you were in Australia or something and got stuck and only had a few dollars, it could get bad real quick.
As for the potential economic consequences on an individual level, Ice was succinct (and humorous):
“The problem is when everybody’s hurting, see, that’s the problem. It’s like my phone turned into a Cash App hotline.”
Listen to the full episode right here or below, and don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher.
Thanks to Gretchen P. for the transcription!
