Tracy Marrow (born February 16, 1958), better known by his stage name
Ice-T, is a
Grammy Award and
NAACP Image Award-winning American
rapper, actor and author. He is credited with helping in pioneering
gangsta rap, in the late 1980s. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayal of
NYPD Detective
Odafin "Fin" Tutuola on the
NBC police drama
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Background
[
Oscar party Ice-T and Nicole Austin.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Ice-T and wife [[Nicole "Coco" Austin|Coco] at the 2008 Oscars]]
Although one of
West Coast hip hop's leading figures, Marrow, son of Solomon and Alice,
was actually born in urban
Newark,
New Jersey, and christened Tracy by his father. When he was a child, he moved from his native Newark to the upscale community of
Summit, New Jersey. His mother died of a heart attack when he was in third grade and his father died of a heart attack four years later.
Ice-T has stated in his
biography that his father was of
Creole origin and his mother was
African American.
[User form, citing Ice-T's autobiography]