Ice-T

Although one of West Coast rap's leading figures, Tracy Marrow, son of Solomon and Alice, was actually born in urban Newark, New Jersey, and christened Tracy by his father.

Marrow's stage name Ice-T was originally his street moniker, styled after the famous ex-pimp turned author Iceberg Slim.

All of Ice-T's records on Sire/Warner Bros. Records spell his name Ice-T, while the spelling without the hyphen is more often used on more recent records.

After leaving the Army, Ice-T began his extremely long career of recording raps for various studios on 12".

These tracks were later compiled on "The Classic Collection" and also featured on disc 2 of "Legends of Hip-Hop".

In 1989, Ice-T formed his own record label, Rhyme $yndicate Records, which was distributed through Epic/SME Records.

In 1991 he released his classic album OG: Original Gangster, which is regarded as one of Gangsta Rap's defining albums.

Ice-T debuted as an actor in the films Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo in 1984, only two years after his first 12" ("The Coldest Rap," 1982) appeared.

In 1991, he embarked onto a serious acting career, playing a police detective in Mario Van Peebles' feature film New Jack City, gang leader King James in Trespass (1992), followed by a notable lead role performance in Surviving the Game in addition to his many supporting roles, such as J-Bone in Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and the marsupial mutant T-Saint in Tank Girl, 1995.

In 1995 he had a recurring role as vengeful drug dealer Danny Cort on the television series New York Undercover, which was co-created by Dick Wolf.

In 1999, Ice-T starred in the HBO movie Stealth Fighter as a United States Naval Aviator who fakes his own death, steals a F-117 stealth fighter and threatens to destroy United States military bases.

In 2007, he appeared as a celebrity guest star on the MTV sketch comedy show Short Circuitz.

Also in late 2007, Ice-T appeared in the short-music film "Hands of Hatred" which can be found online.