Ice-T feels the love at Hollywood Walk of Fame
LOS ANGELES >> Ice-T's reputation as an O.G. original gangster is now set in stone — in the form of a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. The rapper and actor was honored with a recording industry star Friday, the walk's 2,747th, at 7065 Hollywood Blvd.
Taking the mic to speak on Ice-T's behalf 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 quartercentury 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 on Earth. It goes back now 25 years,” Wolf said. “I'm now gonna show how old I am by saying, `Ice is the coolest guy I have ever met,' and I've said that to him. I don't know what the term for it is — `the bomb'? I don't know.”
He went on to praise the actor, who plays Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on “SVU,” for his work ethic and his “universal appeal,” saying that nobody gets the reaction Ice-T does when filming among the public on city streets.
“He is universally liked by his compatriots,” Wolf said, “and I assume the same is true of the music world.”
Then it was time for Hargitay to talk about the Walk of Fame, which she considers an “unspeakably sacred” place where her star sits next to her mother Jayne Mansfield's.
“Your whole story runs so deep,” Hargitay said of IceT's legacy. “It runs deep particularly here in L.A., and it runs deep around the world. You are a rapper and an actor and an artist. And at a time when people overuse words without thinking and wearing out the meanings, you are indeed the real O.G.”
She continued: “You have lived a story that has shaped how you look at the world. A story that would have hardened many people beyond recognition. but instead it filled you with humanity, with humility, with grace and with oh-so-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 for so many more.