It’s not what is seen, but what is heard. Poetry in the form of hip hop, Black Ice personifies the illusion of Philly street boy to educated street man. Raised in Philadelphia, by way of Japan, born Lamar Manson, Black Ice has seen, experienced and lived the life of what you hear in music today. But at what cost will it consume you, is the message he wants to convey.

Scheme: When did you realize your talent through poetry and spoken word?

Black Ice: I’ve never been able to escape it. My mother is one of the best nurturers I’ve ever met. She raised me and my three brothers all individually, according to who we each were. My mom used to make me write about everything; when I got in trouble, when I was happy or even when I was scared. I was a giddy little kid. When I started liking little girls, I used to write letters for my friends. Mine were better than the “circle yes, no, maybe so”.

I came up on spoken word as an adult. I went to a poetry spot, looking to meet women. It was open mic night and when this cat messed up, the audience gave him lots of love and support. I was blown away. Being the aggressive person that I am, it surprised me to see what I would talk about everyday in the barber shop, in spoken word form at the club. I was able to release what was on my chest and people would understand what I was saying.

Scheme: How important is your voice, as a Black man, father, and son, in your opinion?

Black Ice: My voice is my gift; it’s pointless if I’m not going to say anything. It’s mad important. I can see in society now, how important it is…sometimes I’m discouraged, but I definitely know what I can contribute. It was invested in me; my whole family was a rare circumstance coming up in center city. I was raised by men who had wives, opinions, jobs. My mom was no college professor; my dad was no brain surgeon. I’ve got blue collar people, but their gift was nurturing, and I always wanted things to be sincere.

Scheme: Since we are approaching the end of the year 2006, reflecting back, what are your thoughts on your work, your progress within the Black community, and the advancement if any on youth of color?

Black Ice: There is more to be done! I’ve gone through growing pains, life happens. It’s been heavy on the life side and career side. Recording my album and going through a divorce. I’ve been making that marriage between label and artists. From the outreach that I’ve done, I would have to say that I have completed most of what I was to complete in 2006. I’m proud of the things that I’m saying, the album I put out. I think that I’ve inspired a lot of people in a bigger way than I did in 2004, 2005. From the way people responded, I know that it’s a process and that I’m in the process doing what’s necessary.

If I sit back, then I know I’m not doing what’s necessary. Even when my album came out, I sat back thinking that I was here now and then I had to sit back and get a good look at what is “here now”. I’ve gained enough notoriety and face time that it’s almost like a college degree. Before all this Black Ice stuff…I realized that this has been given to me for a reason. I want to get in the faces of these young folks. You get caught up in being an artist and being a star. I had to go back and get down to earth. I think my job is pretty much done for 2006.

Scheme: Explain your Hoodwatch Movement Organization.

Black Ice: It’s my camp! Hoodwatch Movement is an extended family. Same way cats have Dipset, DTP, I got the Hoodwatch camp. They are REAL hood, but they are very intelligent. They come from where they come from, we are zero tolerance. We are in the minority, but we’ve always been. We watch the hood like guardian angels. We have a writing program that we’re getting ready to start. We go into holding prisons, boys clubs, recreation centers, we pull up on the corner and get out and holla at niggas on the corner. We were brought up in the hood, same block just different sides of the streets. So we know the block and we have more impact than those that saw the block from afar.

Revitalizing the hood where we stay means zero tolerance and no drugs. We do have a mind and mouth to say we won’t take that in our hood, so that our neighborhoods can become better. A lot of cats are missing that attention, where niggas care about the place they live in. We know we have to provide something to these cats, so that they can stop doing what they’re doing. From just being black and having a lack of education, you can’t get a job of substance; what’s put in front of you is the drug game. They need to see that there is a different side of life.

“We are who we are, but I want to get at the kids and stay in the 7 and 8 year old’s ears. Telling them, “you’re going to be something …there is no other compromise, there is no if or you might; you are going to be something.”

Cats that cook that coke are chemists, cats that stack that paper are accountants, cats that can pick that dude to cook that coke and stack that paper are investors; they know what will sell and who can do it. We are a necessary commodity. In order to gain respect and equality, you have to gain that necessary power and recreate our culture. I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of other cultures in the last six years…and what I’ve learned in what I don’t see in us is that we don’t look out for each other. I’ve learned from Jewish cats who have welcomed me into the culture. I’ve been a bar mitzvah and DAMN! This is what they do for the young boys. We’ve been taught to say F*** them white people, but we can learn from them just like they learn from us. Just like Asian people, who have their own markets for their people and communities, we don’t do that, because we are consumers. We are who we are, but I want to get at the kids and stay in the 7 and 8 year old’s ears. Telling them, “you’re going to be something …there is no other compromise, there is no if or you might; you are going to be something.” And they love it. Because we know it’s necessary.

Scheme: Do you have a main approach or theme you try to implement when speaking? Or, do your subjects range from topic to topic?

Black Ice: When I’m performing, I just give them me, or in between tracks and poems I’ll give them something to explain the poem and break it down. I believe that my life has been full of the experiences, and that it has to be that way because of my gift, so people have somebody to learn from, without being preached to or lashed out at or bragged to. I just bring me and my experience. That’s why I’m giving the experiences that I’ve been given.

Scheme: I read that you are releasing a Hoodwatch Movement: Volume 1 Mixtape, plus your own solo album, “The Death of Willie Lynch”. How will your mixtape and solo album differ from other hip hop albums? Will you incorporate poetry/spoken word in the album as well?

“When I wrote my first spoken word piece, I said it with the mindset of a classic MC, I wanted it to be progressive.”

Black Ice: I say things that most cats aren’t saying because my approach is sincere. My mom described it as elegantly abrasive. I’ve rhymed ever since rhyming was rhyming. Spoken word is another form of writing. Rakim was ill to me, but LL was nice too. When I wrote my first spoken word piece, I said it with the mindset of a classic MC, I wanted it to be progressive. Different from everyone else, but I wanted it to be ill and entertaining at the same time. The only approach I could imitate was to implement the culture that engulfed me and that’s hip hop.

Media has played a big part in separating a hip hop from poetry. It seems like it’s another extension of hip hop culture, but it its not. Personally, I love syllables, I use as many as possible without loosing content. That’s just how I approach it; I approach it like a MC.

Scheme: Speaking of hip hop; what is hip hop doing that is good, bad and ugly?

GOOD:Black Ice: It’s standing. As much as cats want to hate, they are not doing what they would need to do to be an artist or to enjoy being a working artist. I like seeing Slum Village in car commercials. Make cats see how valuable your talent is. As far as material, Busta Rhymes came out and really said something. Lupe Fiasco, brilliant! I love that, he’s young and on point. He masters several different rap styles and says things that other cats should have said. He’s got Hov’s flow down packed and does it better than Hov.

Jazzy Jeff, for 10 years, has been going around the world educating cats from Bangkok on classic hip hop, that’s a brilliant thing to me. A couple of classics dropped out this year; Busta, The Roots came out with their most politically charged album, Method Man…everybody is saying something.

We’re moving further into commerce, cats are owning their own labels and maintaining their integrity. You don’t need a record deal to do your thing anymore. Independent artists and integrity is competing with major record labels.

BAD: Same shit, from some of our most powerful voices continue to brag; such as having dinner with Nelson Mandela, giving out water instead of educating us about that and why should we give a f***. The bad is that classic artists like Method Man, who is a pillar in Def Jam, didn’t get the publicity he deserved for his latest album. Content wise, we are horrible, at least what’s being promoted or put on TV is horrible. VH1 Soul has classic hip hop and R&B joints, but adults are watching VH1 Soul , kids are watching other channels like MTV, BET, etc.

“My daughter likes Lil’ Wayne and my son used to like 50, but when Lupe came out he was all over it.”

Being the father of a 12 year old girl… I know what was on my mind at 12, but I also know what was being presented to me at 12 and I wasn’t singing about sex. Just being real as a parent, while I’m Black Ice, my daughter likes Lil Wayne and my son used to like 50, but when Lupe came out he was all over it. We still haven’t taken responsibility for our children or ourselves, our businesses, our integrity; we continue to sell out the culture and our children for a dollar. A lot of these cats sell out for notoriety.

UGLY: Those HORRIBLE, mother f***kin videos! No creativity, a lot of ass, flash, just horrible videos. We could be so much more creative than that. Giving chicks 150 dollars for their work for the day, so they can put their ass out. We have lost so much respect for ourselves.

Scheme: Scheme Magazine focuses on the hip hop generation; showcasing artist like yourself that value education, so that youth understand how important reading, school, and higher education is….what have you done to help implement those ideas in the community?

Black Ice: I have writing courses in a couple different places. I’m always at colleges and universities so that students know that they are important to me, so that they see how you should bring back your education to your communities and allow other cats to see and witness that. I want to be like Will Smith, he does his thing. I just don’t have the means to right now. I do the work for the people, I try to get students to want more than what society presents to them; I want them to know how to search for it. I think that’s the work I’m supposed to be doing.

Scheme: How is Lamar Manson different from Black Ice?

Black Ice: Mar likes being around the house, I don’t like going anywhere. I used to club and all that stuff, but I like to chill and watch my kids, I learn a lot from them. Black Ice is the arrogant side of me, he’s the loud side of me. I’m blessed and fortunate that I get to have a loud side to express myself. But as soon as I get off the stage, I’m Lamar. Some people say it’s a detriment because you have to stretch yourself, but I want people to get to know me; that’s another part of me that comes out on stage. Hollywood is kind of wack. I don’t really like Hollywood. My pop would look at me funny if I came in his house like a star. Mar is father of four and loving it. I’m really silly; my mom always said if I didn’t do what I’m doing now, I should do stand up comedy. I like to chill and watch a good movie and read. And I love my kids. Those are the things that make Black Ice so phenomenal.

Scheme: Share with me some of the opportunities you’ve had that allowed you to present your message to the masses.

Black Ice: LIVE 8 was the largest audience I’ve had. Russell Simmons called me and ask me to be apart of that. My little 2 minutes of fame; unless you were in Philly you could only see it online. Being apart of Live 8, the Mary J. Blige Tour, Def Poetry Jam (HBO) are some of the biggest things that I’ve been apart of. There aren’t too many progressive cats out there. BET’s Rap City put me in the eyes of a lot of kids…and they need that.

Scheme: What is your biggest fear?

Black Ice: Wow…damn, not do what I’m supposed to do in this lifetime. Not handling what I need to handle. Whatever my thought process is, if I don’t handle that, then i’ts a failure. If I don’t raise my kids either equal to or better than I was raised it’s a failure…not completing the task at hand, whether parental or career wise, then, I’ve failed.

Scheme: When did you have your most influential moment as an artist?

Black Ice: I have two: Martin Luther King high school in NYC, Ja Rule was supposed to be there, but he couldn’t come. The kids didn’t know that, but I showed up and at the time I was a nobody, only Russell Simmons knew me. I was introduced as being a Def Jam poet. At first there was a lot of negative attention, but by the time I was done, students and teachers were on their feet. Kids were crying, nodding their heads. I was signing autographs for the perfect reason, because I had touched them. They didn’t know who I was and it was like God placed me in this position to do what I needed to do and he was going to show me how I could make a career out of poetry. This is how you touch people and that’s when I said, “Okay, I want to do this.”

The second: The first hip hop summit where every hip hop head attended. I got there and Russell Simmons told me I was going to open up for Farrakhan. Once I started to spit, I looked out in the crowd and saw the faces of the celebrity hip hop heads nodding and these cats were really feelin’ my stuff. Puff, Cornel West, Colin Powell, Queen Latifah, Method Man, Redman; this is what I’m seeing as I’m spittin and rappers were looking at me and when I was done, they all jumped on their feet. It was like the biggest orgasm ever; it was the bigger than Live 8. Making those stars jump on their feet because what I said was real and it was nothing those niggas speak about and Farrakhan was up their quoting me to the rappers. I was flippin’ out and afterwards, he pulled me closer and whispered in my ear about not stopping what I was doing and counting on me and the heavens were counting on me; that what I said and what I stand for is solid.

Shcheme: In the year 2007, where do you see yourself and what type of things to you hope to accomplish?

Black Ice: In 2007, I plan to drop another album, do a little bit of acting, and bring my kids along. I see myself doing better than I was this year, even financially. Bring my kids closer to who they are and get a little better as a man. Plus, I want to start working out; get my sexy on.

You can hear and view music by Black Ice by visiting www.myspace.com/blackicemusic