Ice T Partners with Brothers Grimm Seeds

Interviewed by Aaron Robinson - Editor & Tocarra Eldridge-Robinson

Brothers Grimm Seeds has partnered with cultural icon, actor, and cannabis justice advocate Ice T to bring you BodyCount - a genetic lineage of Purple Urkle and Rosetta Stone (Brothers Grimm legacy strain, celebrated for its uplifting energy and cerebral clarity, and named a High Times magazine Top 10 Strain of 2018).

The BodyCount strain is a tribute to Ice T's legacy. It is bred in-house by Brothers Grimm's founder and Breeding Director, Rick "MrSoul" Campanella. "Ice T has always been more than an entertainer - he's a truth-teller, a justice voice, and a force for change. We're honored to launch BodyCount with someone who walks the walk," says Laura "MrsSoul" Campanella, Brothers Grimm's project leader.

Although Ice T is not a consumer of cannabis, however, he has been a vocal supporter of legalization, criminal justice reform, and economic equity.

The Medicine Woman, his New Jersey dispensary, is centered as access for communities harmed by prohibition and has created numerous jobs in areas targeted by failed drug policies.

Consciousness Magazine had the opportunity to interview the icon figure Ice T about his partnership with Brothers Grimm Seeds and much more. Here is what he has to share.

Tocarra Eldridge-Robinson: Body Count is a metal band you co-founded back in the early 90s and is also the self-titled of one of the bands albums and a record you all released back in the 90s. Now BodyCount is also an exclusive strain named for your legacy and a tribute to you. What type of gratification is this for you?

Ice-T: It was the idea of a seed company to name it BodyCount. I know now with marijuana, weed and cannabis, a lot of the strains have cool names. I definitely should have had OG, but they took that name a long time ago.

Their thought was to name the seed BodyCount. So, I guess it's going to lay you down.

Aaron Robinson: Absolutely. Regarding this amazing product, you are in collaboration with Brothers Grimm Seeds. How did this collaboration come into existence? Because I think it's a great thing.

Ice-T: Well, the thing is, most people know that I never really smoked marijuana. I was always a straight edge person. I never drank. I didn't do anything. When the cannabis industry opened up, I saw it as a business opportunity. I decided to try to open up a dispensary in New Jersey. I partnered with my friends out of L.A. that ran a dispensary called The Medicine Woman, because I didn't know anything about the industry. I called them. I said, “If I had a chance to get a license, would you mentor me?” They said, “We'll partner with you.” So I'm 50-50 partners with The Medicine Woman. The benefit of that is I got to basically franchise my dispensary. On day one, it was running, because my partners in L.A. had been running a legal one for eight years. So it was only smart for me.

So now I'm in the cannabis business. So next thing I know, I do a partnership with Don, who did a vape pen. And I don't have anything against marijuana, because I don't think anybody's ever died from it. So my thing is, of course, I'm a businessman. I mean, how long am I going to act? So I'm like, okay, I need to try to diversify. And I think it's cool. So I got into it.

And my partner, John Boy, we were friends from L.A. We were hustlers in the streets of L.A. and now we've both changed our lives and got it going. So he ran across the people from Brothers Grimm. They figured out, okay, let's do Ice. So I'm just like, okay, cool. It seems cool. The people seem cool. We more or less wanted to get in business with people that we liked.

So these people, Brothers Grimm, seemed to be very cool, very mellow and everything.

Tocarra: Okay. So it's set to drop on October 1st. Would you like to briefly talk about this upcoming release?

Ice-T: It's September 28th. We're doing something in New York. Me and Montel Williams are going to get together at my dispensary, to try to strum up some publicity. At the end of it, it's going to be Brothers Grimm distribution, how are they going to put it in what stores. I'm just hoping that the BodyCount seeds make the best weed that ever happened in history. That's what I'm hoping for. It's a seed.

Aaron: Your style alone and you making gangster music and being in the hip hop music industry and you have never smoked marijuana. How did you surpass that?

Ice-T: The thing of it is that in the streets, they got different levels of the game. Most of the shot callers and the leaders don't get high. If you get into anything, I don't care what kind of gangsterism you get into - when you get to the top tier, those guys are straight. I mean, everybody else can get high, but the person making the decisions has to be on point. So me, myself, I'm an orphan. I don't have a mother, father. I have no living sisters, brothers, nothing. So I always felt that being high compromised my position in the street. I had to be on point. I had to be my own body guard.

So the story goes, when I was young, one of the big homies tried to get me to hit weed. He's like, “Yo, smoke some weed.” I'm like, “Nah, I don't want to hit the weed.” He said, “Well, if you don't hit the weed, you're a bit-h.” I said, “Well, I'm a bit-h. Make me hit it.” And then he's like, “Oh, you’re tripping.” I'm like, “Nah.” And once you tell people, I tell kids, like, whatever you do, just stand on it. If you have the courage to be yourself, that's more respect than falling in line. I don't have any tattoos. Since I've been an adult, I casually drink now, you know what I'm saying? If I'm out at a club, I might sip some champagne and have a little cranberry and vodka, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm not living in that zone. It was more about being safe. And then now, since I got a dispensary, I tried these gummies, man, like I tried some gummies, right? Because I still don't smoke anything, right? I'm not a smoker, but I tried the gummies. I tried ecstasy before the fentanyl hit and all that. Now I'm scared to take any pills. So honestly, I think right now, weed, marijuana, cannabis is the safest high. And getting it from a legitimate dispensary, not getting it off the street is the safest way if you're going to do it.

Aaron: Absolutely. And you were just talking about your dispensary that's in New Jersey. I love the way you, for the community, having people getting jobs and so forth and you're doing other things for us and helping reform people to get back to get jobs.

Ice-T: That's part of opening a dispensary. When you get ready to open a dispensary, they make sure, they’re like, okay, you have to be community minded. You have to have all your situations in place. So that's that. If you want to get that license and I take my hats off to them, of course, that's something we wanted to do. But that's part of opening up the dispensary. You got to do this. I mean, they were giving out more licenses to people that had convictions. This is the problem, though. Even if you get a license, like they say, “Oh, we're giving out licenses to everybody in the hood and this whatever,” you still need a couple million dollars to open a dispensary. And no one gives out loans for that. You can't get a business loan for cannabis. That's because it's only state. It's not federal. It's a trick, so you got to go to private people to put up money and stuff like that. So a dispensary we decided we’d open, we had about three million dollars that had to be put together to get the doors open. So even with the license, you still got to have a bag. Let's keep it 100. They make a lot of noise. Oh, they're giving them out. Yeah. OK, cool. But can you get the doors open?

Tocarra: So being a cannabis justice advocate, why is that so important to you? And then just having a voice?

Ice-T: I just think right now, there's a lot of people that are in jail right now for marijuana offenses, which is ridiculous. It's kind of like, if it's legal now, let them out. Okay, you broke the law then because it was illegal then, but now it's not. All of them, people should be, their records, they should monitor and release. They've done their time. So anyone sitting in prison at this moment for marijuana is ridiculous. That's absolutely ridiculous. I say, you can't really, we can talk about the dangers of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, opioids. All marijuana offenses should be decriminalized.

Aaron: For sure. For those individuals looking up to you as an icon figured that they may never cross paths with in the future. Like, they look up to you from your beginning days to now, everything you've been through from the streets to you being successful. What words of encouragement would you share with them so that they can be successful and come from that beginning to now?

Ice-T: You got to suck a duck. You got to stay away from suckers like this. Out of everybody out there it is one person over here to help you. There's five that hold you back. And knowing how to pick the right people to roll with is the key to it. Our circle is tight.

You just can't be around everybody because only a few people are going to make it. And, you and your wife, if you guys are on a mission and you guys are going and you guys got your focus in the direction that you're trying to go and don't let anybody deter you from that, and don't share your dreams with people. That is a waste of time. Do it and let them see the results of the dream. Don't even waste your time telling people why I plan on doing this. They'll shoot it down. I don't speak on anything till it's already happened. I never say I got this. That's one of the things that people always ask. What do you have coming up? Like, I don't want to jinx it. You just have to wait and see because it may not happen. My best advice is only take advice from people you admire and admiration is not just like I like his sneakers. No, I like how they live. I admire you guys for having a 15-year relationship, 18. So maybe somebody might want to be like that. If you have a friend that ain't got no girl, don't take no relationship advice. If you've got a buddy that's broke, don't take financial advice. Like, look at the person who is giving you the advice.

Then people always ask me, they say, “Well, you've been married 25 years." I'm like, I know how to be married to my wife. That's all I know. I don't really know how to be married to your wife. Most people that are successful are very delicate with advice. I just say, have the confidence to be you, whatever that may be.

Do not follow trends. That ain't going to make you. If you’re looking at Ice-T, if you watch me, I set the trends. I don't follow nobody's sh-t, and it takes courage. You got to have that, but then that's why you get respect. That's why you get respect. You get respect because they’ve seen you fight battles. They’ve seen you stand for something. They’ve seen you hold a position. Anyone can take a position, but a soldier holds a position when you're attacked. Stay in your lane, follow your own dreams. It's your dream, nobody else's. And don't pay attention to other side betters that have nothing to do. Somebody said, well, Ice, how do you do it? I say, ‘I don't pay attention to people that haven't done it. Like you show me you did it, you got my full attention.’

Aaron: We've been publishing for 20 years. We have a non-profit called Still I Rise where we give back to the youth, underserved people in the community, and we feed and clothe the homeless. We've been doing that for 11 years. Also my wife, she's a recording artist who has had some records with some significant individuals. But like you said, we notice when we grow in the levels, we lose friends.

Ice-T: The thing is, when you give back, that's for you. That's for you. That's your moral compass. That makes you feel good. That makes that person you see in the mirror look back at you correctly. We all have our charities and we all give, sometimes to a fault. Sometimes you're nice to a fault where the people you give didn't respect it or don't appreciate it. But there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, most friends are really only in it for a benefit. They're really in it because they see there's something that they can get. They can angle you. A friend only wants your friendship. That's it. And here's a good one that you won't really know who somebody is until you tell them no.

And what happens is the older you get, you hold on to your friends. When you can look at your friends and say, ‘how many people have a flawless relationship?’ People ask me, they say, “Well, Ice, how do you pick your friends?” I said, “I really don't pick them they fuck-d themselves out of our friendship.”

That's what it is. And there's a saying, they say, ‘don't feel bad cutting people off because they didn't feel bad when they was fuck-ing you’. Don't feel any kind of way, cutting them off and stuff. I've cut people off and let them back in. I put people in a penalty box. Some people have made minor infractions.

Tocarra: That’s true.

Aaron: Absolutely. Before we conclude, is there anything else you would like to add that we didn't discuss?

Ice T: No, just thank you for supporting us. As I said, this is just an endeavor business-wise for me, but using this platform, I'm really trying to just push everybody toward this cannabis industry because of the dangers of the other industries out there.

For more information about Ice T please visit:

Website: https://icet.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/icet/

Twitter: https://x.com/FINALLEVEL

BrothersGrimm Seeds

www.brothersgrimmseeds.com

Laura Campanella aka MrsSoul - Chief Executive Officer of Brothers Grimm Seeds

Contact: 918.209.1916 Email: laura@brothersgrimmseeds.com

Instagram: https://brothersgrimmseeds.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCulzdWbkz82YalbJ7rjB-nw

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