Body Count feat. Ice T (USA)

Ice-T was born in Newark, but grew up in Los Angeles. After high school, he joined the Army and served as a ranger in the 25th Infantry. He did not enjoy the experience explaining "I didn't like total submission to a leader other than myself."

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. His song "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 rapcore/crossover 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.

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 gangsta rappers Smoothe Da Hustler and Trigger The Gambler.

Albums:
Rhyme Pays (Sire/Warner, 1987)
Power (Sire/Warner, 1988)
The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say (Sire/Warner, 1989)
OG: Original Gangster (Sire/Warner, 1991)
Home Invasion (Priority, 1993)
VI - Return of the Real (Priority, 1996)
The Seventh Deadly Sin (Coroner, 1999) ICE T

www.icet.com