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Ice T Information
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'Tracy Morrow' (born February 16, 1958 in Newark, New Jersey), better known as 'Ice-T' or 'Ice T', is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He is one of the pioneers of gangster rap and was also instrumental in creating rapcore.
Career
Musician
Ice-T started out with other West Coast rap pioneers such as Kid Frost,DJ Flash, and Egyptian Lover with Electro recordings. Later on, he changed his style and was the first West Coast rapper to be accepted by the East Coast. "6'n The Morning" is sometimes seen as the track that triggered the whole gangster rap movement. It was produced by The Unknown DJ, who produced electro funk tracks before and went on to produce Compton's Most Wanted. The song was inspired by Schoolly D's "PSK" and became itself the inspiration for Eazy E and N.W.A.'s "Boyz N The Hood." Ice-T went on to work with Afrika Islam, the man behind the beats on 1987's Rhyme Pays, 1988's Power and 1989's The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech... Just watch what you say.
As the title of this third album suggests, Ice-T was from the start not merely a gangster rapper-although he was one of the driving forces behind the new style-but also used rap music as a platform for social and political activism; Seymour Stein called him "the Bob Dylan of rap." On "Freedom of Speech," Ice-T attacked Tipper Gore for introducing the Parental Advisory sticker. In 1991, Ice T's fourth album, Original Gangster, came out; including raps about child abuse and drunk driving as well as the theme song from the movie New Jack City by Mario Van Peebles, the movie that re-launched Ice's career as an actor.
In 1991, Ice formed the metal band Body Count. Their debut self-titled album contained a song called "Cop Killer." which led to the Cop Killer controversy. This escalated to the point where death threats were sent to Warner Bros executives and stockholders threatened to pull out of the company. This eventually caused the album to be re-issued with "Cop Killer" removed, and Warner Brothers Records to drop him from the label. He answered the controversy by saying the song was written in character, and that "if you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut." Indeed, Ice-T has portrayed police officers many times in his acting career. However, many think that that does not excuse his composing a song glorifying the murder of police officers.
Virgin Records released his next album Home Invasion (1993), a politically-oriented album that featured a new female rapper named Grip and Ice T's longtime DJ Evil E as a rapper himself. On VI - Return of the Real, Ice returned to his gangsta rap roots. His 7th Deadly Sin (1999), one of the first records to be distributed via mp3 before appearing in record stores, continued in this vein.
In 2000, Ice-T teamed up with East Coast rap pioneer Kool Keith from the Ultramagnetic MCs to form the Analog Brothers, widely considered an artistically successful experiment. The same year also brought Ice-T's Greatest Hits: The Evidence. More recently, Ice-T formed a new group called SMG (Sex Money and Gunz) with East Coast gangster rappers Smoothe Da Hustler and Trigger The Gambler.
Ice-T has written and performed songs for many movie soundtracks including "Big Gun" for Tank Girl as well as title tracks for Colors, Dick Tracy, New Jack City, Ricochet, and Trespass (with Ice Cube.) (He starred in all of them, save Dick Tracy.) He teamed with Kid Frost to perform "Tears of a Mother" for the film No Mothers Crying, No Babies Dying.
Currently Ice-T is doing a minor club tour of Australia. While in Sydney, he revealed that a new solo album titled Gangsta Rap will soon be released, as well as a new Body Count album.
"I have been away from the music for a few years doing the Law & Order thing... We are just gonna put them out, push them and see what the hell happens", he said.
Actor
He debuted as a rapper 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' film New Jack City, followed by a notable lead role performance in in addition to his many supporting roles. He has also appeared in films such as R'Xmas by Abel Ferrara and Tank Girl. As for more current/recent acting engagements, Ice-T plays Det. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, perhaps an ironic role, considering the early controversy surrounding his group Body Count. Another TV series that features Ice-T is "Players." Ice-T plays Madd Dogg In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He plays himself in Def Jam Fight For New York.
Name
Ice-T was influenced by and takes his name from Iceberg Slim, an African American pimp-turned-author who wrote an autobiography. Ice-T wrote an introduction to Iceberg Slim's last book, Doom Fox. His name is also a pun on the name of the drink iced tea.
Discography
Albums
* Rhyme Pays (Sire/Warner, 1987)
* Power (Sire/Warner, 1988)
* The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say (Sire/Warner, 1989)
* (Sire/Warner, 1991)
* Home Invasion (Priority, 1993)
* VI - Return of the Real (Priority, 1996)
* The Seventh Deadly Sin (Coroner, 1999)
Scores
* Below Utopia: The Lost Score (Noo Trybe, 1998, soundtrack/to the movie Below Utopia aka Body Count)
Singles
* "The Coldest Rap" (1982)
* "Body Rock" (1984)
* "Killers" (1984)
* "Ya Don't Quit" (1985)
* "Dog N The Wax" (1986)
* "6 In The Mornin'" (1986)
* "Colors" (1988)
* "I'm Your Pusher" (1988)
* "High Rollers" (1989)
* "You Played Yourself" (1989)
* "Lethal Weapon" (1989)
* "Dick Tracy" (1990)
* "Superfly 1990" (1990) performed by Curtis Mayfield and Ice-T
* "New Jack Hustler" (1991)
* "Ricochet" (1991)
* "Trespass" (1992) performed by Ice-T and Ice Cube
* "Disorder" (1992) "Judgment Night" performed by Slayer and Ice-T
* "That's How I'm Livin'"/"99 Problems" (1993)
* "Gotta Lotta Love" (1994)
* "I Must Stand" (1996)
* "Don't Hate the Player" (1999)
* "Money, Power, Women" (2000)
Compilations and Bootlegs
* Ice-T & King Tee Having a T Party (Rams Horn 1991)
* The Classic Collection (Excello/Rhino 1993) Exec. Producer DJ Flash
* Cold as Ever (Blue Dolphin/Hitman/Caroline 1996) Exec. Producer DJ Flash
* Greatest Hits: The Evidence (Coroner/Warner 2000)
* The Early Years (2002)
* Gang Culture (Snapper, 2004) (Ice-T live in Montreux, Switzerland, 1995) (bootleg recording, released and distributed by a Dutch label called Disky and by Snapper/Charly in the UK)
with Body Count
* Body Count (1992)
* Born Dead (1994)
* Violent Demise: The Last Days (1997)
Ice T presents the West Coast Rydaz
* What Really Goez On (1998)
Analog Brothers
* "Pimp to Eat" (2000)
Ice T Presents
* Pimpin 101 - The Soundtrack (2003)
* Westside (2004)
with SMG (Sex Money and Gunz)
* Repossession (2004)
Videography
* The Iceberg Video (1989)
* O.G.: The Original Gangster Video (1991)
Awards
*MTV Movie Award nominee
Note
All of Ice-T's records on Warner Brothers spell his name 'Ice-T', while the spelling without the hyphen is more often used on more recent records. His earliest 12" shows the spelling 'Ice "T"', other 12"s use 'Ice-T' ("Reckless") and 'Ice T' ("Ya Don't Quit").
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