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Ice-T
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Ice-T, who was born Tracy Lauren Marrow on 16 February 1958 in Newark, New Jersey, is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop and heavy metal. He began in the 1980s as an underground rapper and signed to Sire Records in 1987, where his debut album Rhyme Pays was released. The following year he founded the label Rhyme $yndicate Records, named after his collective of hip hop artists, and released Power, his only album certified platinum by the RIAA. His subsequent albums, too, The Iceberg / Freedom of Speech… Just Watch What You Say from 1989, O.G. Original Gangster from 1991 and Home Invasion from 1993, received good reviews and gold status in the United States.
Music and breakthrough
In 1990 he founded the metal band Body Count, which he introduced on O.G. Original Gangster. The band's debut album appeared in 1992. The song Cop Killer, which was about killing police officers, led to controversy. Ice-T asked to be released from his contract with Warner Bros. Records, and Home Invasion came out on Priority Records.
Influence
As an actor he played small parts in Breakin' and Rappin', and got his big role as Detective Scotty Appleton in New Jack City from 1991. Since 2000 he has played Sergeant Odafin Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which made him the longest-running male actor in an American series. Ice-T is regarded as a pioneer of West Coast gangsta rap, and Body Count showed that rap and metal do not exclude each other.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1987Rhyme Pays
- 1988Power
- 1989The Iceberg / Freedom of Speech… Just Watch What You Say
- 1991O.G. Original Gangster
- 1993Home Invasion
- 1996VI: Return of the Real
- 19997th Deadly Sin
- 2006Gangsta Rap
- 2010Urban Legends
- 2026Criminal Migraine
Mentioned in other articles
- Gangsta rap Genre
After forerunners such as Schoolly D of Philadelphia and Ice-T of Los Angeles, N.W.A.