Claire Reid
Ice-T has explained he no longer releases solo music because ‘kids got softer’ and the music became ‘goofy’.
The 65-year-old kicked off his career as an underground rapper back in the 1980s and was signed up to Sire Records in 1987, releasing debut album Rhyme Pays shortly after.
The same year, he launched his own record label - Rhyme $yndicate Records - and released his platinum selling album Power in 1987.
From there, he co-founded the heavy metal band Body Count, and has also carved a successful acting career for himself with more than 150 acting credits to his name on the both big and small screen, including a long-running role in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit as Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola since 2000.
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Alongside his acting, Ice-T - real name Tracy Lauren Marrow - has kept his musical career alive across the decades and still releases music with Body Count, but he’s not put out a solo album since 2006’s Gangsta Rap.
Explaining why he’s stepped back from making new rap albums, he told Variety: “Hip-hop changed.
"The music got goofy to me. The kids started looking weird. It all turned into something I wasn’t comfortable with.
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“There was a point where I was selling tons of records, then it cooled off.
"I felt a certain way. Then I realized Public Enemy, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane and Wu-Tang Clan weren’t selling records, either.
“There was a paradigm shift. These kids got softer, and soft is not something I’m able to give audiences.
"The first word in hip-hop is ‘hip’ so how something stays hip for over 10 years is difficult.”
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He added: “Besides, I still do my Ice-T: Art of Rap shows, which is my legacy hip-hop.
"Think of it like seeing Frank Sinatra. You want to hear the classics.”
Fair point, well made.
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The rapper's lengthy career was recently recognised with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, something he says he would have believed ‘impossible’ at the start of his career.
He told Variety: “When I started making records, I didn’t come into the music business thinking I would be a star.
"I was just seeing if I could get a fan base. I didn’t want to be the best rapper. I just wanted to be mentioned among the greats: LL Cool J, Run-DMC.
"Getting any ‘star’ was way out of reach.”