Ice-T
Tracy Marrow, better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American musician and actor.
He was born in Newark, New Jersey and moved to the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles when he was in the 7th grade. After graduating from high school he served in the United States Army for four years. He began his career as a rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays. The next year, he founded the record label Rhyme Syndicate Records (named after his collective of fellow hip hop artists called the Rhyme Syndicate) and released another album, Power.
He co-founded the rap metal band Body Count, which he introduced in his 1991 album O.G.: Original Gangster. Body Count released its self-titled debut album in 1992. Ice-T encountered controversy over his track "Cop Killer", which was perceived to glamorize killing police officers. Ice-T asked to be released from his contract with Warner Bros. Records, and his next solo album, Home Invasion was released later in the fall of 1993 through Priority Records. Body Count's next album was released in 1994, and Ice-T released two more albums in the late 1990s.
Since 2000, he has portrayed NYPD Detective Odafin Tutuola on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
“Diet food is for lazy people.”
“There is no such thing as a normal family so don't trip off it, just deal with it.”
“Dog's just want to sniff an ass and eat some food.”
“If you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut.”
“...As an artist, you need the naysayers and the nonbelievers to add fuel to your creative fire.”
“I don't rhyme about guns I ain't shotHoes I ain't caughtOr shit I ain't bought.”
“Don’t get too hung up on working with any one person, because it’s like a game of checkers where dudes are hopping over one another all the time, shouting, “King me, motherfucker!” It’s checkers, yo. But with a lot of money at stake.”
“That's one of the first things that comes out of young people's mouths when they're in love. FOREVER. And that's cool, it's all good-until you get old enough to realize what forever is.”
“Frankly, I don't feel the fire anymore from the youth. I miss my era when motherfuckers were fighting for shit, spitting fire in their lyrics.”
“That's basically the gangster code. Just be yourself. Just be you, dog. The easiest way to get your card plucked around a gangster is to be a fake. If we feel like you're trying too hard, if you're trying to act like you're from the street, you're in trouble.”
“That became the signature Ice-T style - rhymes that were "topical" and "vividly optical." To me it was street-level journalism, real-life observations told in poetry. That's the vision I tried to bring to all my recordings.”
“Never mumble some sarcastic shit to somebody who can obviously fuck you up.”