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Ice-T

Age: 51
Height: 5' 11"

Birth Place: Newark, New Jersey, USA
Born: Feb. 16th, 1958

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Ice-T's Main TV Roles

Show	Character(s)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Detective Oda&hellip
I Love 1990's (UK)	Ice-T
The Belzer Connection	Ice-T

NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at IMDB

BIOGRAPHY:

The legendary gangsta hip-hop emcee Ice-T was born Tracy Marrow on February 16, 1958, in Newark, New Jersey. He moved to Los Angeles, California, to live with his paternal aunt after the death of his father while he was in the sixth grade; his mother had died earlier when he was in the third grade. His aunt lived in the South Los Angeles district of Crenshaw, colloquially referred to as South Central. He became immersed in the street life of the inner-city and eventually became a member of the West Side Rollin 30s Original Harlem Crips.

In 1979, Marrow joined the Army after leaving Crenshaw High School, but his 4-year hitch was enough for him, as he was a leader, not a follower. "I didn't like total submission to a leader other than myself," he said. After ETSing from the Army in 1983, he returned to South Central with the intention of becoming a hip-hop musician. More than music, his life got caught up in street life as as a jewel thief and as a pimp. (His nomme de guerre, Ice T, is an homage to the fabled pimp and raconteur Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck (III)). He committed himself totally to his music after a 1985 car crash.

As a musician, Ice-T played a major role in the creation of the gangsta incarnation of hip-hop music and was a colossus of the West Coast hip-hop scene, despite his East Coast, greater New York, origins. Though his music displays a political consciousness, like the indictments of racism that were a hallmark of seminal hip-hop group Public Enemy, it also is nihilistic as befits a chronicler of street life. His most infamous song, the heavy metal "Cop Killer," was one of the major battle in the cultural wars of the 1990s, in which cultural conservatives enlisted the Moses of the right wing, Charlton Heston, to get Ice-T dropped from his then-label, Sire/Warner Bros.

The charismatic Ice-T has also achieved success as an actor in movies and on TV. He plays Detective Odafin Tutuola on the TV series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999), which is ironic for someone famous for "Cop Killer" and his feud with the L.A.P.D. Ice-T currently resides in North Bergen, New Jersey, with his wife, Nicole Austin (I).

TRIVIA:

Hip-hop artist, well known as the father of gangsta music, which spawned the careers of artists like N.W.A., 'Snoop Dogg' (qv), and the Geto Boys.
His feud with former LAPD chief 'Daryl Gates' (qv) was widely reported by the American press.
His longtime partner was Darlene Ortiz. They have one son together, Tracy Marrow Jr.
Chose his pseudonym in honor of author Iceberg Slim (pen name of Robert Maupin Beck, 1918-1992; aka, 'Robert Beck (III)' (qv)), an ex-pimp turned author whose heavy-hitting novels detailed the hard life of the criminal underworld.
His daughter's name is Letesha and his son's name is Tracy Marrow Jr. and is called Little Ice.
His song "Cop Killer," which was recorded with his heavy metal group Body Count, was the subject of a national debate on the glorification of violence in the media. After the song was removed from Body Count's self-titled debut album, and after further controversy over the artwork for the then-forthcoming "Home Invasion" album, he was dropped by Sire/Warner Bros. Records, which had released the album. The split was amicable, even though Sire had assigned the catalog number 45119 to the album. Later pressings of the self-titled Body Count album were replaced by the Ice-T solo track "Freedom of Speech (Just Watch What You Say)." "Home Invasion" was released eventually by Ice's now-defunct label, Rhyme $yndicate Records, through Priority/EMI, with the intended artwork intact.
Is good friends with "Six Feet Under" vocalist 'Chris Barnes (VI)' (qv).
Attended Crenshaw High School in south-central Los Angeles.