A.D. Amorosi In his lifetime, Tracy Marrow has been everything from a dancer and a DJ, to a thief and a weed dealer. Yet, from the minute Marrow became Ice-T, his renown developed and grew. Initially, being Ice-T meant becoming hip-hop’s most incendiary voice, a sinister avatar of the reality-rap style tagged by the press as “gangster” (along with his thrash metal band, Body Count). Equally famous was Ice-T’s gig as an actor-with-attitude in films such as “New Jack City” and — since 2000 — for television producer Dick Wolf’s police drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” as NYPD Detective Odafin Tutuola. Ice-T brings street cred to everything he does — including commercials. He beams with pride discussing his hood past and how its raw-knuckle spirit remains. Even seeing Ice-T riding a spin cycle, promoting Cheerios and heart health, is hardcore. And it all starts with hip-hop. Despite its current state of musicality being — in his words, “goofy” — Ice-T is the soul of rap’s rough potency. To wit: his appearance on the Feb. 5 Grammy Awards in a star-studded tribute to hip-hop in honor of the genre’s 50th anniversary.
