Tracy Lauren Marrow
(born February 16, 1958 in Newark, New Jersey) better known by his stage name, Ice T
, is a rapper, actor, and author. He is credited with helping create gangsta rap in the late 1980s. Since 2000, he has played the role of Detective Fin Tutuola on the police mystery program, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. [1]
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ICE-T TICKETS
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Personal background
Although one of
West Coast hip hop's leading figures, Marrow, son of Solomon and Alice,
[2] was actually born in urban
Newark,
New Jersey, and christened Tracy by his father. When he was a child, he moved from his native Newark to the upscale community of
Summit, New Jersey. His mother died of a heart attack when he was in third grade and his father died of a heart attack four years later.
[3] After his father died, he went to live with his paternal aunt in
California and later attended
Crenshaw High School in the district of the same name in
South Central Los Angeles.
[4] After high school, he entered the
25th Infantry Division in the
United States Army, an experience he has said he did not enjoy.
[5]
He was previously in a relationship with Darlene Ortiz, who was featured on the covers of his 1987 album
Rhyme Pays
.
Currently, Ice-T is married to swimsuit model
Nicole "Coco Marie" Austin.
Career
Music career
After leaving the Army, Ice-T began his extremely long career of recording raps for various studios on 12-inch singles. These tracks were later compiled on
The Classic Collection
and also featured on disc 2 of
Legends of Hip-Hop
. His first song was "The Coldest Rap" in 1982. His first official
gangsta rap record was "
6 in the Mornin'" one of the first of that sub-genre ever recorded. He said he was influenced by the
Schoolly D record "P.S.K.," considered by many to be the first gangsta rap record (as it lionized the Philadelphia gang Park Side Killers).
He finally landed a deal with a major label
Sire Records. When label founder and president
Seymour Stein heard his demo, he said, “He sounds like
Bob Dylan.”
[6]Shortly after, he released his debut album
Rhyme Pays
in 1987 supported by
DJ Evil E,
DJ Aladdin and producer
Afrika Islam, who helped create the mainly party-oriented sound; the record wound up being certified gold by the
RIAA. That same year, he recorded the title theme song for Dennis Hopper's
Colors,
a film about inner-city life in Los Angeles. His next album
Power
was released in 1988, under his own label Rhyme Syndicate, and it was a more assured and impressive record, earning him strong reviews and his second gold record. Released in 1989,
The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech... Just Watch What You Say
established his popularity by matching excellent abrasive music with narrative and commentative lyrics.
In 1991 he released his album
OG: Original Gangster
, which is regarded as one of the albums that defined gangsta rap. On
OG
, he introduced his band
Body Count in a track of the same name; Ice-T toured with Body Count on the first annual
Lollapalooza concert tour in 1991, gaining him appeal among middle-class teenagers and fans of alternative music genres. The self-titled debut album by Body Count followed.
For his appearance on the heavily collaborative track "Back on the Block", a composition by jazz musician
Quincy Jones that "attempt[ed] to bring together black musical styles from jazz to soul to funk to rap", Ice-T won a
Grammy Award for the
Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, an award shared by others who worked on the track including Jones and fellow jazz musician
Ray Charles.
[7] Controversy later surrounded Body Count over its song "Cop Killer", a song intended as a narrative from the view of a criminal killing a police officer, from the
National Rifle Association and various police advocacy groups.
Consequently, Time Warner Music refused to release Ice-T's upcoming album
Home Invasion
simply because of the controversy surrounding "Cop Killer". When Ice split amicably with Sire/Warner Bros. Records after a dispute over the artwork of the album
Home Invasion
, he reactivated Rhyme Syndicate and formed a deal with
Priority Records for distribution; Priority released
Invasion
in the spring of 1993.
[8] Home Invasion
ranked low in sales and critical reviews, and Ice-T's regular fanbase shifted more towards upper-class white teenagers.
Ice-T had also collaborated with certain other
heavy metal bands during this time period. For the film
Judgment Night
, he did a duet with band
Slayer on the track "Disorder".
[9] In 1995, Ice-T made a guest performance on
Forbidden
by the heavy metal band
Black Sabbath.
Another album of his,
VI - Return of the Real
came out in 1996, followed by
The Seventh Deadly Sin
in 1999.
[10]
His first rap album since 1999,
Gangsta Rap
, was released on
October 31,
2006. The album's cover, which "shows [Ice T] lying on his back in bed with his ravishing wife's ample posterior in full view and one of her legs coyly draped over his private parts," was considered to be too suggestive for most retailers, many of which were reluctant to stock the album.
[11] Some reviews of the album were unenthusiastic, as many had hoped for a return to the political raps of Ice-T's most successful albums.
One of the last scenes in
Gift (film) includes
Ice-T and
Body Count playing with
Jane's Addiction in a version of the
Sly and the Family Stone song "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey."
Besides fronting his own band, Ice-T has also collaborated with other
hard rock and metal bands, such as
Icepick,
Motörhead,
Pro-Pain, and
Six Feet Under. He has also covered songs by
hardcore punk bands such as
The Exploited,
Jello Biafra, and
Black Flag.
Acting career
Ice-T debuted as an actor in the films
Breakin'
and
Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
in 1984, only two years after his first 12" ("The Coldest Rap," 1982) appeared. In 1991, he embarked onto a serious acting career, playing a police detective in
Mario Van Peebles' feature film
New Jack City
, gang leader King James in
Trespass
(1992), followed by a notable lead role performance in
Surviving the Game
in addition to his many supporting roles, such as J-Bone in
Johnny Mnemonic
(1995), and the marsupial mutant T-Saint in
Tank Girl
, 1995. Ice-T was also interviewed in the Brent Owens documentary
Pimps Up, Ho's Down
,
[12] in which he is quoted as saying "I can't act, I really can't act", and raps at the
Players Ball.
In 1993 Ice-T along with other rappers and the three
Yo! MTV Raps
hosts
Ed Lover,
Doctor Dre and
Fab 5 Freddy starred in the comedy
Who's the Man?
directed by
Ted Demme.In this movie Ice is a drug dealer who gets really frustrated when someone calls him by his real name "Chauncey" rather than his street name "Nighttrain".
In 1995 he had a recurring role as vengeful drug dealer Danny Cort on the television series
New York Undercover
, which was co-created by
Dick Wolf. In 1997, Ice-T co-created the short-lived series
Players
, which was produced by Wolf. These two collaborations led Wolf to add Ice-T to the cast of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
, where the rapper has portrayed a former undercover gang member, transferred to the Special Victims Unit, Detective
Fin Tutuola since 2000, whose character ironically says he is a
Republican. Ice-T also appeared in the
Law & Order
universe as pimp Seymour "Kingston" Stockton in
Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. His participation in this show is ironic, given the early controversy surrounding his group
Body Count with their song "
Cop Killer". Ice-T also appears in the movie
Leprechaun: In the Hood
. He once was presenter on Channel 4's
Baaadasss TV
.
In 1999, Ice-T starred in the
HBO movie
Stealth Fighter
as a
United States Naval Aviator who fakes his own death, steals a
F-117 stealth fighter and threatens to destroy
United States military bases. This movie is often criticized for its poor script, military inaccuracies, and significant use of footage from other movies.
[13]
Ice-T voiced
Madd Dogg in the video game
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
as well as Agent Cain in Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. He also appears as himself in
Def Jam: Fight for NY
and
UFC: Tapout
fighting video games.
Ice-T made an appearance on
Chappelle's Show
as himself presenting the award for "Player Hater of the Year." He was dubbed the "Original Player Hater."
At
WrestleMania 2000, Ice-T performed his song "
Pimpin Ain't Easy" during
The Godfather and
D'Lo Brown's entrance.
He also played as Hamilton in a 2001 thriller film named
3000 Miles to Graceland.
Beyond Tough
, a 2002 documentary series aired on
Discovery Channel about the world's most dangerous and intense professions, such as alligator wrestlers and Indy 500 pit crews, was hosted by Ice-T.
[14]
In 2007, he appeared as a celebrity guest star on the
MTV sketch comedy show
Short Circuitz
. Also in late 2007, Ice-T appeared in the short-music film "Hands of Hatred" which can be found online.
Reality television
On October 20, 2006 Ice-T's Rap School aired and was a reality television show on VH1. It was a spin-off of the British reality show Gene Simmons' Rock School, which also aired on VH1.
In Rap School, rapper/actor Ice-T teaches eight teens from York Preparatory School in New York City how to become a real hip-hop group called the "York Prep Crew" ( "Y.P. Crew" for short). Each week, Ice-T gives them assignments and they compete for an imitation gold chain with a microphone on it. On the season finale on November 17, 2006, the group performed as an opening act for Public Enemy.
Ice-T also made an appearance on NBC’s new game show "
Celebrity Family Feud" on June 24th 2008. In the show Ice-T and Coco teamed up in a competition against Joan and Melissa Rivers to compete for their favorite charity. The Rivers family won their round.
Political views
He has condemned the alleged involvement of the
Central Intelligence Agency in drug trafficking (in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal, as documented in the
Kerry Committee report and elsewhere
[15]) on tracks such as "This One's for Me" and "Message to the Soldier", and in sections of his book.
Although usually on the political left, he was criticized for
misogyny in his lyrics, and this has deterred some liberals from supporting him. In
The Ice Opinion
, he claimed that he was a feminist insofar as he believed in equal pay for women and equal rights generally. He argued against the position that being a stripper or a model is demeaning to women by an analogy with a man who considers a gay man to be demeaning all men by his actions, arguing that if the latter feeling is untenable, the former is as well.
The track "Escape from the Killing Fields" expressed a difference in views from rappers like
Chuck D,
Redman and
Ice Cube in that Ice-T did not see any virtue in staying in the
ghetto, but rather encouraged Black people to leave the ghetto. The last track on
O.G. Original Gangster
is a spoken-word opposition to the
Gulf War and to poor conditions in prisons. After
Born Dead
in 1994, Ice-T's music has contained much less political commentary than before.
In 1994, Ice-T wrote a book titled
The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?
.
The purpose of the 199-page book was to respond to questions about his political beliefs, his life and the controversy surrounding his music. Having often voiced controversial statements about corruption, he goes into detail about his suspicions of police/CIA involvement in drug trafficking and of how certain businesses profit from prison-building. The ten chapters are:
- The Jungle Creed
- The Killing Fields
- Crime and Punishment
- Men, Women and Sex
- Rap: the art of Shit Talkin'
- Religion: One Percent Nation
- Racism
- Riots and Revolution
- The Controversy
- The Future / No Fear
On June 17, 2008, Ice T appeared on DJ Cisco's Urban Legend mixtape, speaking against
Soulja Boy and
Hurricane Chris in correlation of Hip-Hop's criticized status:
“Fuck Soulja Boy! Eat a dick! This nigga single handedly killed Hip Hop. That shit is such garbage man. We came all the way from Rakim, we came all the way from Das EFX, we came all the way from motherfuckers flowing like Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube, and you come with that Superman shit? That shit is garbage. Hurricane (Chris) take them fucking beads out of your hair nigga! Man up. You niggas is making me feel real fucking mad about this shit.”
On June 23, 2008, Ice T responded to Soulja Boy's video response, where he apologised against Hurricane Chris for the comments, saying that the comments were made 'in anger' and that Hurricane isn't really in the beef. As for Soulja Boy, Ice-T apologised for the 'eat a dick'-comment, but continued to state that Soulja Boy's music is garbage. He also makes it clear that he isn't trying to set off a war against the
Dirty South. Instead, he said:
“If any war (is going to start), it's gonna be good hip-hop versus whack hip-hop, you understand what i'm saying? And if there has to be a war on that battlefield, i'm proud to be the general, nigga.”
[16] [17].
Discography
- 1987: Rhyme Pays
- 1988: Power
- 1989: The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say
- 1991: O.G. Original Gangster
- 1993: Home Invasion
- 1996: VI - Return of the Real
- 1999: The Seventh Deadly Sin
- 2006: Gangsta Rap
- 2008: Gangsta rap is Back
Filmography
- 1984: Breakin'
- 1984: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
- 1991: New Jack City
- 1991: Ricochet
- 1992: Why Colors?
- 1992: Trespass
- 1993: Who's the Man?
- 1994: Surviving the Game
- 1995: Tank Girl
- 1995: Johnny Mnemonic
- 1996: Frankenpenis
- 1997: Mean Guns
- 1997: The Deli
- 1997: Below Utopia
- 1998: Crazy Six
- 1998: Exiled
- 1999: Sonic Impact
- 1999: Frenzo Smooth
- 1999: The Wrecking Crew
- 1999: The Heist
- 1999: Judgement Day
- 1999: Urban Menace
- 1999: Stealth Fighter
- 1999: Final Voyage
- 1999: Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang
- 1999: Corrupt
- 2000: Guardian
- 2000: Sanity, Aiken's Artifact
- 2000: Gangland
- 2000: Leprechaun in the Hood
- 2000: The Alternate
- 2000: The Disciples
- 2001: Stranded
- 2001: Kept
- 2001: Tara
- 2001: Crime Partners 2000
- 2001: 3000 Miles to Graceland
- 2001: Point Doom
- 2001: Deadly Rhapsody
- 2001: R, Xmas
- 2001: Ticker
- 2001: Out Kold
- 2001: Ablaze
- 2001: Air Rage
- 2002: On The Edge
- 2004: Up In Harlem
- 2004: Lexie
- 2004: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- 2005: Tracks
- 2006: Copy That
- 2006: Scarface: The World is Yours
- 2008: The Majic 7
- 2008: Thira
- 2008: Celebrity Family Feud
- 2009: Darc
See also
| United States Army}}portal
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References
- Ice-T Points Out Gang Members In His L.A. 'Hood In The Early '90s, In The Loder Files
- Ice-T Biography
- The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?
- Ice-T Biography. ''allmusic''. Macrovision Corporation. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
- Ice-T addresses group, provides inspiration
- Coleman,
Brian, ''Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies''. New York: Villiard/Random House, 2007. pp. 238.
- Grammys Turn Into Quincy Jones Show
- Ice-T's Latest Gangster-Rap Caper Finds Him Alone and on His Own
- Judgment Night > Overview
- No thaw for rapper Ice T
- ''Page Six'': STORES HOT OVER ICE-T COVER
- Ice-T > Biography
- Stealth Fighter
- Ice-T Hosts New Show 'Beyond Tough'
- "U.S. Concedes Contras Linked to Drugs, But Denies Leadership Involved," Associated Press (17 April 1986).
- http://www.livesteez.com/videos/watch/zb7TI5H
- http://www.livesteez.com/videos/watch/T2MeIrP