Book Review: Ice T - Ice

I can't even sit here and front and act like I'm an Ice T fan.

I can't say I ever took his rap game or his acting game serious. In fact, the only reason I've respected Ice all of these years is because of his street/pimp game. And I'm sure folk will take that the wrong way like I'm giving him props for being a street dude/pimp (but I guess I am) but the thing that I've always liked about Ice is at least he raps about what he's REALLY done and that there's no frontin' in his music. But one night I was watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (always supporting my Philly brethren The Roots on the show) and Jimmy had Ice T and CoCo on. And after listening to Ice chop it up about his life, hip hop acting, how he met CoCo and that he had a new autobiography "Ice" dropping, I was actually intrigued by dude. I mean, after knowing about Ice T as far back as his cameo in "Breakin" in '84, I realized, I had no clue about dude's story. How did he go from being in the streets to becoming one of the first west coast MC's to put LA on the map? How did he go from being in the hip hop game to being one of the 1st rappers to make the jump to the big screen? Didn't dude have a rock group that was catching hell back in the day for a song "Cop Killer?" What ever happen to his shorty Darlene who made his album covers the classics they are and how the hell did he scoop CoCo? Guess I gotta buy the book if I wanna find out huh?

Now the crazy thing about "Ice" is it had me hooked from the door. I finished the book in two days which says A LOT cause nowadays between marriage, parenthood, making beats, recording sessions, me & Dr. Roz counseling couples, etc. it now takes me anywhere from 2 months to 6 months to finish a book but Ice's book was such an easy read it was almost impossible for me to put down. Ice chops it up about everything from his childhood in Jersey, how he ended up on the west coast and how Grandmaster Caz help to get him in the hip hop game to how he got into acting, how he tried to convince 'Pac not to release "Hit Him Up" and of course, what happened between him and Darlene and in between all of that answer all of my questions about his life. I think what I loved most about the book was the way it was written with a "matter of fact" vibe. Ice doen't take 20 pages to explain his childhood home looked and another 20 pages to explain how he got casted for New Jack City. He's straight to the point about everything and truth be told, Ice has got A LOT of knowledge about the game. And not just the street game and rap game but the entire game of life.