Who

Ice-T is a pimp-turned-rap star-turned-wisecracking television detective on Law & Order. He's also the husband of an unbelievably proportioned pinup model named Coco.

Backstory

Born in New Jersey, Ice-T (then known as Tracy Marrow) moved to South Central L.A. to live with his aunt after his parents died in a car accident. He joined the Army after high school, but eventually fell into a career as a gang-banger and pimp. A 1985 car crash supposedly convinced him to trade his thuggish ways for a music career; he went on to be a pioneer on the early L.A. rap scene, releasing the milestone gangsta album O.G. (Original Gangster) and writing such explosive ditties as 1992's "Cop Killer," which prompted a massive outcry—complete with death threats to Warner Brothers Records execs and calls for a Warner boycott—before the label eventually pulled the track from his CD. Intermittent albums throughout the '90s and a 2006 comeback attempt aside, T's music career has more or less fizzled, but he's managed to reinvent himself as an actor.

Of note

In the mid-'80s, Ice-T was the scapegoat for Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center, which slapped a parental advisory label (the first ever on a rap album) on his record Power. Things have changed a bit for T—the reformed gangster rapper is now a middle-aged man taking a paycheck from NBC. His longstanding role on Dick Wolf's Law & Order: SVU—in which, ironically, the "Cop Killer" rapper plays a cop—has made him a household name (and much more palatable to middle America). But T doesn't like to think of himself just as the man who plays Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola alongside crackers like Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, and Richard Belzer. In fall 2006, he starred in Rap School, a VH1 reality show on which he taught prep school kids the timeless art of rising to rap stardom. He also provided the voice of Madd Dogg in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

In print

T published The Ice Opinion in 2004, in which he sermonized on issues ranging from education to drugs. He also dispensed some relationship advice. To entice the ladies, T suggests that men "Give a woman a reason to like you. Wash your ass. Do some sit-ups."

Personal2

In 2005, Ice-T married the buxom model Coco (real name Nicole Austin), who has the looks of an anime-inspired blow-up doll, and the cover of his latest album, Gangsta Rap, features the happy couple, nude, sharing some quiet time on a fur-covered bed. With his ex-wife Darlene Ortiz, the rapper has two children, Letesha and Tracy Jr.

Habitat

Coco and T live in North Bergen, NJ. An episode of Cribs revealed that his home looks a lot like the dream house of a teenage video game geek—it sports a soda vending machine and a life-size statue of a samurai warrior.

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