Ice-T

Ice-T's lyrical preoccupations (pimping, police brutality, thug life) are now the most clichéd motifs in hip-hop, but he was the first West Coast rap star to get those themes over to the massive record-buying public of Middle America. While he often wore the de rigueur gangsta uniform of ski cap and wifebeater T-shirt, Ice-T's lightish skin and flowing ponytail gave him a different look, and his unadulterated, intelligent rhymes were often critical of criminality on both sides of the law. Born Tracy Morrow in Newark, NJ, in 1959, Ice-T was raised in the gang-infested streets of South Central Los Angeles, and took his MC handle from the infamous pimp-turned-novelist Iceberg Slim. His first single was 1983's "The Coldest Rap" (much of his early work reappeared on 1993's The Classic Collection). He quickly found his opinionated footing. Power (1988) featured "I'm Your Pusher," based around Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman," a strong antidrug song ("For this bass you don't need a pipe/Just a tempo to keep you hype") where a deadpan Ice-T hooked up a jonesing customer with "dope" 12-inch records. No matter how important such songs were at the time (and their message remains relevant), the tinny drum programming has not dated well. Yet the rolling groove of "Colors" (his theme song to the 1988 film of the same name), where Ice-T tells the first-person tale of a gangster ("I'm a nightmare walking/Psychopath talking"), retains a rugged musical appeal. From the screaming sirens of "Home of the Bodybag" that open 1991's O.G.: Original Gangster, Ice-T presented an adrenalized, near-classic: gangsta rap with a minimum of bullshit. In 1992, he fronted his heavy metal group Body Count, and while they were no better than the countless rap/metal acts they spawned, the ensuing media firestorm over their track "Cop Killer" spurred Ice-T to take to the lecture circuit, speaking at Harvard about First Amendment rights and civil liberties. Film and TV work has been a big part of Ice-T's career: a rapping cameo in the 1984 movie Breakin', more substantial roles in films ,New Jack City and Trespass, and a current starring role (as, of all things, a police detective) in NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. -- Pete Relic

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide