(CNN) -- If anyone knows hip-hop, it's Ice-T. 

The rapper-turned-actor has added a title to his résumé: filmmaker. Ice (born Tracy Marrow) recently sat down with CNN to answer some iReporter questions and discuss his new documentary, "Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap." 

The film explores the genre as art form and includes lots of big names in the music industry, including Kanye West, Nas, Eminem and Dr. Dre. When it came time to find voices for his project, Ice didn't have to look far. 

"I did the film by calling only my friends I had in my address book," the rapper said. "All my homies I'd been in the business with over 20 years. (I told them,) 'I'm just going to ask you questions, not about the money, the cars, the jewelry, the beef, but the craft.' " 

In an earlier interview, the star of "Law & Order: SVU" noted that there was an abundance of rap stars who wanted to appear in his documentary. 

"There's lots of people I would love to have interviewed, but you got to remember the movie only could last two hours," he explained. "At the end of my filming, I had 52 rappers shot. I had 35 rappers waiting to be shot. My first edit was four hours, so I just couldn't fit everybody into the movie, so yeah, there's a lot of people missing, but I think I was able to get a good cross-section of the different styles of hip-hop." 

His decades in the rap game allowed him insider access and candid interviews. 
How many rappers participated?
 I had 52 rappers shot. I had 35 rappers