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Ice-T’s reputation as the original OG guy is now cemented — in the form of a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. The rapper and actor was honored with a recording industry star on Friday, the 2,747th of the walk, at 7065 Hollywood Blvd.
Taking the microphone to speak for Ice-T were “Law & Order” franchise producer Dick Wolf, “Law & Order: SVU” co-star Mariska Hargitay and Public Enemy rapper Chuck D.
Ice-T — real name Tracy Lauren Marrow — was brought on stage to bask in the moment as Wolf stepped up to say a few words about their quarter-century relationship. In the audience sat his wife, Coco, and their 7-year-old daughter, Chanel, who would later join her papa at the podium.
“Ice has appeared in more of my shows than anyone else in the world. It goes back 25 years now,” Wolf said. “Now I’ll show what age I am by saying, ‘Ice is the coolest man I’ve ever met,’ and I’ve told him that. I don’t know what the term is for it — ‘the bomb’? I do not know.”
He went on to praise the actor, who plays Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on “SVU,” for his work ethic and “universal appeal,” saying that no one gets the response that Ice-T does when he’s filming in the crowd on the city streets.
“All his friends like him,” Wolf said, “and I assume the same is true in the music world.”
It was then time for Hargitay to talk about the Walk of Fame, which she considers an “unholy” place where her star sits next to her mother Jayne Mansfield’s apartment.
“Your whole story is so deep,” Hargitay said of Ice-T’s legacy. “It runs deep especially here in LA, and it runs deep all over the world. You are a rapper and an actor and an artist. And at a time when people use too many words without thinking and without spending the meanings, you are indeed the real OG.”
She continued: “You have a living story that has shaped how you look at the world. A story that would make many people hard to recognize. but instead he filled you with humanity, humility, grace and much wisdom. You are a devoted husband and a proud, proud, proud father, and you are taking your place here for all those reasons and more.
“But to me, Ice, the reason you’re here, and the reason you’re famous in my heart, is because you’re the OG of friendship. You are my true friend, my true blue, authentic, indefatigable friend, and I can’t tell you what that means to me.”
Hargitay, like Wolf, said she has never seen Ice-T complain in their many years of working together.
“You know why, Maris?,” the rapper broke in. “Hustlers don’t complain. We figure it out.”
Hargitay also revealed something: She said Ice-T lets her call him “Icy” — a nickname no one else is allowed to use.
Then came Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, who has his own nickname for the rapper: Iceberg.
“OG, original gangster, original god, is where Ice-T has been all along,” said Chuck D. “He changed the world with words. I nickname him Berg ’cause he’s so cool he could sink the Titanic and raise it again.”
He talked about how Ice-T – who was born in New Jersey but moved to the Crenshaw District as a teenager – brought East Coast and West Coast rap together in conversation before East vs West corporations became a “thing”.
“He brought the theater to hip-hop and rap, and you got frozen in the moment like he’s Alice Cooper’s Black rap, without biting the bird’s head,” Chuck D said as the friendly crowd laughed . “And he kept you in the palm of his hand with words, wisdom and intelligence.”
He then praised “Iceberg” for his efforts as an author, as a thrash metal artist and as an actor in films and television. He called him “the superhero that he is, the ambassador, the spokesperson, the father, the father, the husband and the bigger brother. And a friend too.” And he wished him a happy birthday; Ice-T turned 65 years old on Thursday.
“It’s been a good run,” said Chuck D, “and we’ll keep on running.”
When the student finally had Ice-T’s turn, he was not disappointed.
“I never thought I’d get a star — really? I mean, the way my life was going, it was what we can come up with in Hollywood and steal. We were really out here causing real problems. And this was just out of the question. Show business was just out of the question.”
Then came hip-hop, and Ice-T found something he could do, he said, telling the stories of the life he was living on albums including “Rhyme Pays”. When Ice Cube and NWA came up and the media branded the genre “reality” “gangsta rap,” said Ice-T, he declared himself the “original gangsta” who started it. He said he formed the Rhyme Syndicate to keep all the LA hip-hop groups from fighting each other.
“With the Syndicate” – based on mafioso Lucky Luciano’s commission of the back east crime families – “We didn’t have a single beef in LA between rappers,” said Ice-T. He was proud of that.
Then he got a role of a cop in “New Jack City,” Mario Van Peebles, which sparked his interest in acting. His career grew from there, eventually leading to New York and “Law & Order: SVU.” That turned into 24 years on the show, which he said he loves because of the “good people” involved. He said he’s still having fun, and that’s why he shows up.
As for the star-studded ceremony, he said he thought his friends were more excited than he was – and thanked them, along with his music, film and TV colleagues.
“Last but not least,” said Ice-T, “I want to thank the mother haters, ’cause you really make me get up in the morning and be the best I can be to be. All the naysayers, all the people who wanted to end my career, now I’m on the Walk of Fame… and that’s the motivation! You have to let the shepherds encourage you.
“If it wasn’t for the haters, I definitely wouldn’t have pulled this off, I pray to God,” he said moments later. “I’ll give you a lot more hate in the future.”
