The Legend of Ice-T Assessed on New Compilation
But does Crime Stories tell the whole tale of the gangsta rap icon?
Tracy Marrow is best known for his long-running role as Sergeant Detective Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuola on the enduring Law & Order: Special Victims Unit TV series, which will launch its 25th season next year and will continue airing in syndication until the sun goes supernova.
Long before he made his mark as an actor on what is now the longest-running prime-time television series in history, however, Marrow was a pioneering talent in West Coast hip-hop as rapper Ice-T.
The lengthy, and often times notorious musical career of Ice-T is documented by the recently-released compilation album The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories, a limited edition three-LP set pressed on 180-gram audiophile-grade clear vinyl with red splatter. Legend features 22 songs across its six sides, pulling material from the breadth of Ice-T’s career, including some of his best-known songs as well as previously-unreleased material, making the set a “must have” addition to the collection of any rap aficionado or hardcore Ice-T fan.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Marrow lost both his parents at an early age, and moved as a teenager to Los Angeles to live with relatives. Sharing a room (and stereo) with his cousin Earl, Marrow became a fan of hard rock and heavy metal music, particularly Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. He attended Crenshaw High School in South L.A. where he became affiliated with the Crips street gang. Marrow got involved in petty crime during his teen years, selling marijuana and stealing car stereos, later joining the U.S. Army in order to support his then-pregnant girlfriend.
It was while he was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii that Marrow first heard and became interested in hip-hop after hearing the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” arguably rap music’s first hit single. He started experimenting with his own raps over instrumental tracks and, buying an inexpensive stereo set-up with two Technics turntables, a mixer and some big-ass speakers, taught himself the DJ arts. Provided an early honorable discharge from the military with the rank of Private First Class after a little more than two years of service, Marrow worked to launch his career as a party DJ, but became better known for his rapping than for his skills on the wheels of steel.
After breaking up with his girlfriend, Marrow lapsed back into the criminal life he tried to avoid, robbing jewelry stores with friends from high school. But after being hospitalized due to a car accident, Marrow decided to pursue his career as a rapper and leave crime behind. Winning an open mic competition judged by O.G. rapper Kurtis Blow as “DJ Tracy,” he made the permanent name change to Ice-T after being beaten by a rapper named “Disco Daddy” a week later. He took the name Ice-T as a tribute to underworld writer/novelist Iceberg Slim (a/k/a Robert Beck), whose books on pimping and the criminal lifestyle Marrow had read during high school; Beck’s books like Pimp: The Story of My Life and Trick Baby: The Biography of A Con Man would inspire the literary quality of Ice-T’s lyrics.
From 1982 through ’84, Ice-T released a number of underground rap singles, songs like “The Coldest Rap,” “Body Rock,” and “Killers” becoming club hits with little or no radio airplay. Ice was featured on a single by DJ Chris “The Glove” Taylor called “Reckless,” which was used in the film Breakin’ and subsequently appeared on the movie soundtrack album. Inspired by rapper Schoolly D’s early ‘gangsta rap’ single “P.S.K. What Does It Mean”,” Ice patterned his lyrics and flow on the Philly rapper’s style, recording his own initial gangsta songs, “Dog’n The Wax” b/w “6 ‘N the Mornin’,” releasing the single in 1986.
AUDIO: Ice-T “6 ‘N the Mornin'”
“6 ‘N the Mornin’” became an enormous club hit, leading to Ice writing more about the L.A. gang life he knew, describing the streets and the underworld more explicitly and with greater literary brilliance than any previous artists. Despite his ties to the Crips, Ice purposedly wore the red and blue colors of both the Crips and the Bloods to appeal to members of both cliques. Ice signed a major label deal with Sire Records, whose founder Seymour Stein thought that he sounded like a rap Bob Dylan. Ice-T’s debut album, Rhyme Pays, was released in 1987 to mixed critical acclaim. The album inched its way to #93 on the Billboard magazine albums chart and hit #26 on the trade publication’s Top R&B/Hip Hop albums chart on its way to Gold Record status for a half-million flapjacks sold.
Legend features just one track from Rhyme Pays, tthe aforementioned “6 ‘N the Mornin’,” the song’s minimalist soundtrack featuring little more than a rudimentary beat from a Roland TR-808 while placing an emphasis on Ice’s story-song lyrics. Ice’s controversial, Platinum-selling sophomore effort Power followed in 1988, leading to a headlining spot on Public Enemy’s “Bring The Noise” tour that year. Legend only includes a couple of tracks from Power, notably the free-flowing, moody, and poetic “Drama” and “Soul On Ice,” a stark morality tale inspired by Iceberg Slim and offering an avant-garde electronic soundtrack with jazzy licks.
Firmly identified as one of the popularizers of “gangsta rap,” Ice-T was facing censorship and oppression both within the industry and while touring, which inspired 1989’s The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech…Just Watch What You Say!, the album sporting a title better-suited for a heavy metal release than Ice’s collection of gangsta rhymes and social commentary. Ice’s O.G. Original Gangster album followed in 1991 and introduced his heavy metal band Body Count; Ice-T would subsequently take Body Count on the road with the first Lollapalooza concert tour. Both of these albums sold Gold™ with O.G. charting in the Top Twenty on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart.
Body Count’s self-titled debut was released in 1992, the album displaying a different facet of Ice’s lyricism and stirring up a controversy with the stark, “inspired-by-real-life” track “Cop Killer.” The song resulted in further cries for censorship by the usual suspects, who doubled down on their demands by putting pressure on the Warner Brothers’ board of directors. Despite the album’s notoriety, or perhaps because of it, Body Count still earned Gold™ Record sales status, but it also meant the end of Ice’s longtime and successful relationship with the Warner Music-distributed Sire Records label.
VIDEO: Ice-T “Midnight”
The ominous, dark-hued “The Tower” from O.G. is a deep cut that deserves its place on Legend, while “Midnight,” with introductory discussion between Ice and rapper Randy Mac, is a sort of sequel to “6 ‘N the Mornin’” with a heavy dino-stomping rhythm, sound effects (screams, screeching cars, etc.), and an overall semi-metallic vibe. From The Iceberg, “Peel Their Caps Back” offers a similar creative aesthetic and an even bleaker story set to an unrelenting beat that bounces around your skull like a titanium superball. Much of the rest of the material included on Legend is, honestly, weaker than that from the Sire Records releases.
Leaving the WB universe, Ice also stopped working with producer Afrika Islam (a/k/a Charles Glenn), a legend in his own right who apprenticed with the pioneering DJ Afrika Bambaata after joining NYC’s Rock Steady Crew at the age of ten. Over the course of his career, Islam wrote material for the Soul Sonic Force, and remixed albums by Michael Jackson and New Order, as well as hosting his ‘Zulu Beats’ radio program. Islam helped Ice shape and develop his unique hip-hop sound, and at the end of their association, subsequent albums like 1993’s Home Invasion, 1996’s Ice-T VI: Return of the Real, and 1999’s The Seventh Deadly Sin – released by Ice’s own Rhyme $yndicate label and distributed by Priority Records – were produced by Ice and committee, with upwards of a dozen producer’s name listed on the albums.
With so many cooks in the kitchen for these Priority-distributed discs, the material is spottier, there are more guest rappers in the studio and, overall, the original Ice T sound is seemingly encased in amber, displaying little or no evolution or innovation. Not that there aren’t good tracks to be had from these LPs – the autobiographical “That’s How I’m Livin’” and “Addicted To Danger” from Home Invasion are righteous songs, the former a concise narrative of Ice’s early years set to a simple beat and the latter a fast-paced crime story with machinegun lyrics that reminds of NWA. From The Seventh Deadly Sin, the scorched-earth “Retaliation” is as bleak as anything Ice-T has ever recorded. Of the previously-unreleased tracks, “Feds In My Rearview” could have been pumped-up with better beats and slotted on any of the Sire LPs while the underproduced “Too Old For This Shit” displays a Geto Boys-level of paranoia.
The material offered by The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories represents only part of Ice-T’s enormous hip-hop legacy. Culling, more or less, two tracks each from Ice’s eight studio albums, the compilation omits such essential and enduring songs like “I’m Your Pusher” (from Power); “Lethal Weapon,” “You Played Yourself,” and “Freedom of Speech” (recorded with Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys) from The Iceberg; or “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme)” and “O.G. Original Gangsta” from the album of that name. For that matter, those early underground singles (especially “The Coldest Rap” and “Body Rock”) could have also been included here as most folks outside of Southern California have never heard ‘em.
Legend also eschews Ice’s notable soundtrack songs like the aforementioned “Reckless,” “Colors,” “Trespass” (with fellow rapper Ice Cube), “Disorder” (with metal gods Slayer), and “Ricochet.” Given the rapper’s penchant for collaboration, there are also tracks to be heard the Ice has recorded with talents as diverse and divergent as metal legends Black Sabbath, Megadeth, and Motörhead; reggae giants Black Uhuru; and rappers Everlast and 2 Live Crew, among others. There’s nothing on Legend from Ice’s heavy metal band Body Count, which is understandable, but he’s recorded almost as many albums with that band (seven) as he has on his own. If there was ever a rapper deserving of a deluxe, multi-disc, career-spanning box set, it’s Ice-T.
Still, The Legend of Ice-T does a fairly-impressive job of summarizing the artist’s lengthy solo career, which has now spanned five decades, in as succinct and representative a package as possible, highlighting Ice’s whip-smart lyricism, satirical bite, keen eye for detail, and understated sense of humor. Marrow has only released one solo rap album (2006’s middlin’ Gangsta Rap) since joining the cast of Law & Order: SVU and while he’s recorded four Body Count albums during the same period, his rapping has seemingly taken a back seat to his acting career, his status as a reality TV star, podcasting, and other media interests.
Nevertheless, The Legend of Ice-T cements the rapper’s status as an influential O.G. of hip-hop and is an excellent introduction to this influential and groundbreaking artist.
VIDEO: Ice-T breaks down all 22 songs from Crime Stories
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