Mike Tyson Talks Teaming Up With Madonna On "Iconic" Song From "Rebel Heart"

Mike Tyson officially teamed up with Madonna and Chance the Rapper on Madonna's new song "Iconic" from her highly anticipated album "Rebel Heart".  










Although Tyson, 48, hasn't heard the finished single yet, he revealed to Rolling Stone that his character was similar to his 1998 appearance as a hype man on battle rapper Canibus' "Second Round K.O."

"Madonna calls you and tells you to come somewhere, you go," the former boxer-turned-actor stated, noting: "I didn't know what the hell I was going there for. I'm just there having a good time and hanging out with Madonna. She has her producer there and I go into the studio and I didn't know if she wanted me to talk or rap. I just go in there and start talking. I'm talking about my life and things that I have endured. I'm saying some really crazy stuff. It was really intense."

Tyson improvised his part of the track, which he claims was done in one take and took inspiration from a controversial leader. "When I did it, I think about being some guy like (Benito Mussolini and they're really arrogant, but you try to come from a positive perspective and be uplifting. You watch Mussolini on television - even though we don't understand what he's saying - he is so mesmerizing. I look at myself in that way.

"I know people may say "this guy's a fascist" and all this stuff, but man, you can take positivity from watching him," Tyson explained, adding: "No wonder why Hitler was attracted to him. This guy's a hypnotic figure. There's so much pride behind what he's saying. I'm not even Italian and I feel the pride he's projecting. He had that street swag; he was doing this stuff with his hands and moving his head before it was even hip-hop."

While this is the first musical collaboration between the two celebrities, their history together goes back decades. Tyson reveals he first met the Queen of Pop in 1988 during a double date between himself, then-wife Robin Givens, Madonna and her ex husband Sean Penn. When the foursome went to watch a Pee-wee Herman film, Tyson and Penn both fell asleep midway through the movie, leaving their dates time to bond.

"She's an awesome, serene person," Tyson said of Madonna, noting: "She's trying to do something that since the beginning of time has been the most difficult thing to do: Save the world. I commend her for that. She is a fighter in every sense of the word and from an intergalactic perspective."

"Doing the song with Madonna makes me think this (music career) could really happen," Tyson claimed, adding: "Most guys that come in there drink a bunch of liquor or smoke 100 blunts. I just went in and boom, one take. Everyone thought it was cool."


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