Ice-T

Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s and early ’90s as a gangsta rapper who developed a reputation for being fearless when it came to courting controversy. “Cop Killer” (1992), a song about police brutality that he recorded with his thrash metal band, Body Count, was one of the most notorious songs of the 1990s, sparking widespread boycotts of Ice-T’s music and prompting condemnation from then U.S. Pres. George H.W. Bush. In 2000 Ice-T joined the cast of NBC’s police-procedural television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999– ), playing none other than a police officer, Detective Odafin (“Fin”) Tutuola.

Early life

Ice-T was born Tracy Marrow and grew up in the town of Summit, New Jersey. His mother, Alice, died of a heart attack when Marrow was in the third grade, and his father, Solomon, died of the same cause four years later. An only child, Marrow moved to Los Angeles to live with his aunt after his father’s death. He attended high school in L.A.’s South Central neighborhood, where he was exposed to gang culture. Although he was never a gang member, he often wrote slogans and rhymes for others who were in gangs. For extra money, he sometimes engaged in petty crime. In 2023 he told Spin magazine, “I was aware of gang banging and understood the principles of it. Near the end of high school, I started hanging out with the hustlers and cats that were more about getting money, right? That’s a whole other [clique] of cats.”

After graduating from high school, Marrow enlisted in the army, where he was introduced to hip-hop music. Hearing the song “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang for the first time, he thought he could try rapping too. When his stint in the army was over, he returned to Los Angeles and began working as a deejay at parties and rapping while hustling extra money through robbery. Marrow also started going by the moniker Ice-T, which came from his friends’ nickname for him—“T” for Tracy—and from his favorite author, a former pimp named Iceberg Slim (byname of Robert Beck).

First singles and album

In 1983 Ice-T released his first single, “Cold Wind-Madness/The Coldest Rap,” through Saturn Records. The song’s lyrics were a mix of raps that he had already written and lines that he made up on the spot, such as “from the womb to the tomb, I run my game / ’Cause I’m cold as ice, and I show no shame.” He began playing in clubs, and the following year he appeared in the break-dancing movie Breakin’; he also featured on “Reckless” from the film’s soundtrack. “Killers” (1984) was his first single broaching political topics, including police brutality, domestic violence, and capital punishment. With “6 in the Mornin’” (1986), Ice-T fully emerged as a gangsta rapper, spitting out lines such as “I’m a self-made monster of the city streets.”

In 1987 he signed with Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records, and released his first album, Rhyme Pays, produced by Afrika Islam. Ice-T’s authenticity was praised in a review by Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau, who wrote, “Can’t know whether his streetwise jabs at [then U.S. Pres. Ronald] Reagan and recidivism will make a permanent impression on his core audience, but his sexploitations and true crime tales are detailed and harrowing enough to convince anybody he was there.” In later years, however, Ice-T would describe his songs as “factions,” a blend of fact and fiction.

From the Rhyme Syndicate to “New Jack Hustler”

In 1987 Ice-T formed his own label, Rhyme Syndicate Records, and appeared the following year on a compilation album of West Coast and East Coast rappers, Rhyme Syndicate Comin’ Through. He released his next album, Power, to positive reviews and recorded the title track for Dennis Hopper’s Colors (1988), a film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall as cops who patrol Los Angeles’ gang-besieged streets.

The Iceberg (Freedom of Speech…Just Watch What You Say) (1989) was his most incendiary release yet, with confrontational songs such as “Shut Up, Be Happy” and “You Played Yourself,” lyrics addressing censorship, vocal contributions from the Dead Kennedys’ frontman Jello Biafra, and rock and heavy metal instrumentations incorporated into the album’s mix. In addition, he rapped on “Back on the Block,” a Grammy Award-winning single produced by Quincy Jones that also featured Melle Mel, Big Daddy Kane, and Kool Moe Dee. In 1991 he released O.G. Original Gangster, the first of his albums to reach the top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart. Among its tracks was “New Jack Hustler,” the theme song for Mario Van Peebles’s film New Jack City, in which Ice-T had a lead acting role. “New Jack Hustler” garnered Ice-T his first solo Grammy nomination.

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Body Count, “Cop Killer” controversy, and fallout

“Body Count,” another track on O.G. Original Gangster, notably introduced Ice-T’s metal band of the same name. In 1992 he and the band released a song called “Cop Killer” (included on the album Body Count) that exploded Ice-T’s notoriety. Released one year after the police beating of Rodney King, an African American man who had been pulled over by police in Los Angeles in March 1991, the song directly addresses the event, beginning with a sarcastic dedication to the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Cop Killer” drew intense criticism, including from U.S. Pres. George H.W. Bush, numerous other politicians, various police groups, and the National Rifle Association, for its depiction of violence against police and lyrics such as “tonight we get even.” Ice-T was placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s watch list, and his album was pulled from shelves in three national chain stores. Later that year he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone dressed as a police officer. In his interview with the magazine, he was unapologetic: “Why all this protest about a record that speaks about killing cops and not protest against the cops killing kids out there in the streets?” He also clarified, “It’s a record about a character. I know the character, I’ve woken up feeling like this character. When I saw the riots [in Los Angeles after the officers’ acquittal] on TV, I wanted to get out there, but I’ve never clicked over.”

Warner Bros. Records initially supported his freedom of speech. However, the controversy, as well as proposed artwork for his next album, Home Invasion (1993), eventually caused the label and artist to sever ties, leading Ice-T to sign with Priority Records to distribute the album. Home Invasion became his highest-charting album, peaking at number 14 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Other albums and retirement of solo career

His second Body Count album, Born Dead, was released in 1994, followed by the solo rap album VI: Return of the Real in 1996 and Body Count’s Violent Demise: Last Days in 1997. Other notable releases include the rap albums Seventh Deadly Sin (1999) and Gangsta Rap (2006; his final solo album) and Body Count’s Bloodlust (2017), which features the tracks “No Lives Matter,” a commentary on police brutality and racism, and “Black Hoodie,” which was nominated for a Grammy. In 2021 “Bum-Rush” from Body Count’s Carnivore (2020) won the Grammy for best metal performance.

In an interview with Variety in 2023, Ice-T explained why he stopped releasing solo albums: “Hip-hop changed. The music got goofy to me. The kids started looking weird. It all turned into something I wasn’t comfortable with. There was a point where I was selling tons of records, then it cooled off. I felt a certain way. Then I realized Public Enemy, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Wu-Tang Clan weren’t selling records either. There was a paradigm shift. These kids got softer, and soft is not something I’m able to give audiences.”

That same year he released The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories, a compilation album including five previously unreleased songs.

Acting career, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and other projects

Ice-T continued to act, appearing in movies such as Ricochet (1991), Surviving the Game (1994), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and Tank Girl (1995). He also had guest-star roles on many TV shows, including New York Undercover and Batman Beyond. His first reality show, Ice-T’s Rap School, ran for one season on VH1 in 2006.

Ice-T’s best-known role has been as New York City Detective (later Sergeant) Tutuola on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2023 he reflected on the irony of being cast as a police officer after his notoriety with “Cop Killer.” Pointing out that in the series he plays a cop in a unit that investigates sex crimes, he explained to Variety, “If I had to be a policeman in real life, it would be that type of cop because there’s no gray area. You’re chasing rapists and pedophiles. It’s hard to be a bad cop in that unit.”

Ice-T’s other television work includes producing the reality show The Peacemaker: L.A. Gang Wars, which profiles gang mediator Malik Spellman.

Ice-T published the memoir Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—From South Central to Hollywood (2011), followed by Split Decision: Life Stories (2022), which he wrote with his friend Spike, who was incarcerated for more than 20 years after taking part in a robbery that resulted in murder. The book discusses the different choices the two friends made that led them down very different paths. Ice-T has also presented a TED Talk about the importance of community to an audience of inmates at Sing Sing prison (2014).

Personal life and honors

Ice-T met his wife, model Coco Austin, in 2001 on the set of a music video. The couple had a reality show, Ice Loves Coco (2011–13), as well as a talk show, Ice & Coco (2015). They share a daughter, Chanel. Ice-T also has two children from prior relationships, LeTesha and Tracy, Jr.

In 2023 Ice-T received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year he was a headliner at the National Celebration of Hip-Hop, a free concert and cultural event that was held in Washington, D.C., to honor the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop.