Ice-T

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
From the Streets to Stardom

Ice-T’s Story of Resilience and Success

 

Wednesday, April 16, 2025
7:30 p.m. at Texas Hall

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FREE for students, faculty, and staff!

 

Ice‑T not only invented gangster rap—he lived it. Through his music, his multiple books, and his lecture tours of America’s prisons, high schools, libraries, and colleges, Ice‑T has become a cultural icon and an influential spokesman for America’s youth, regardless of color.

Born an only child in New Jersey, Ice‑T learned the art of survival quickly. Both of his parents died before he was 11 years old, resulting in him being shipped to Los Angeles to live with an alcoholic aunt. By age 16, Ice‑T struck out on his own, becoming involved in crime while navigating the Los Angeles gang scene before ultimately joining the U.S. Army.

His first break in the entertainment industry came when the producers of the film Breakin’ asked him to rap in the movie. He went on to become rap music’s original gangster, writing songs like “Six in the Mornin” and “New Jack Hustler.” Ice‑T subsequently formed the thrash metal band Body Count with high school friend and guitarist Ernie C. The group’s 1991 self-titled debut contained the controversial single “Cop Killer.” At the 2021 Grammy Awards, the group won the Best Metal Performance award for its song “Bum Rush.”

As his politics were grabbing headlines, Ice‑T’s film and television career was taking off. He acted in films New Jack City, Ricochet, Trespass, and Johnny Mnemonic, all while building a flourishing television career. In January 2012, his directorial debut, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; later that year, the documentary he produced, Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Ice‑T currently stars in NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Detective Odafin Tutuola. The show is the longest-running TV drama in television history, and Ice-T has acted in every season of its record-breaking run. He was also host and executive producer of the crime show In Ice Cold Blood on Oxygen and the legal series The Mediator on Fox.

Ice‑T has released four books: The Ice Opinion (1994), Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption: From South Central to Hollywood (2011), Split Decision (2022), and the fictional work Kings of Vice (2013).

Ice‑T is a spokesman for Tide, CarShield, Cheerios, Sanofi, and GE and was the voice of NBC’s 2022 Super Bowl promos. In 2023, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2024, he released a new album with Body Count, Merciless, and filmed the 26th season Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.