Hip Hop History Month #2

Born Tracy Marrow in Newark, New Jersey, on February 16, 1958. He grew up in Summit, New Jersey, with his parents.

When Ice-T was in third grade, his mother suddenly died of a heart attack. He says, "My mother was a very supportive and smart woman, and I know she cared about me, although she wasn't very affectionate toward me. I only have a few specific memories of her, vague and distant, like some grainy home movie, someplace in the back of my mind."

Just four years later, his dad also suffered a fatal heart attack. "I was still so young that the experiences of both of my parents' deaths are kind of blurred together in my mind. And being an only child, I was going through all of it in my own little bubble," says Ice-T.

in the early 1980s, Ice-T spent four years in the United States Army, after which he returned to Los Angeles and took up a life as a self-styled hustler. Crime paid for a time, allowing Ice-T to take impromptu trips to the Bahamas and collect over 350 pairs of sneakers, but soon his addiction to the high life began to fade. In an interview, Ice-T recalled his breaking point: "I had a friend who I looked up to, 'cause he made more money than me. And he said, 'Yo, Ice, you got a chance. Do that rap thing.' And that word 'chance' messed up my mind. And I just gave up hustling completely."

Because every hip-hop artist needs a nom de guerre, "Ice-T" came into being with help from author Robert Maupin Beck III, whose pen name "Iceberg Slim" became Tracy Marrow's inspiration. After spending a few years honing his craft by creating music for videos and releasing various recordings, Ice-T signed with Sire Records in 1987. Later that year, he released Rhyme Pays, his debut album, which eventually went gold. His recording of the theme song for Dennis Hopper's gang-themed movie Colors (1987) also garnered the new artist plenty of attention. The movie explored life in the Los Angeles projects and marked the beginning of Ice-T's controversial depictions of South Central in his artistic work. When the Black community pushed back against Colors' cultural critique, Ice-T said, "People should give Dennis Hopper credit—he de-glamorized the situation. He just showed the street gangsters. He didn't show the kids wearing their diamonds and cruising in their Ferraris."