Tracy Lauren Marrow, better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop and heavy metal. Ice-T began his career as an underground rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays. The following year, he founded the record label Rhyme $yndicate Records and released another album, Power (1988), which would go platinum. He also released several other albums that went gold, including The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech... Just Watch What You Say! (1989), O.G. Original Gangster (1991) and Home Invasion (1993).
Body Count is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1990. The group is fronted by Ice-T, who first established himself as a rapper but co-founded the group with lead guitarist Ernie C out of their interest in heavy metal music. Ice-T took on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of Body Count's songs, while Ernie C has been responsible for writing the group's music.
West Coast hip-hop is a regional genre of hip-hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast of the United States. West Coast hip-hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the early to-mid 1990s with the birth of G-funk and the emergence of record labels such as Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, Ice Cube's Lench Mob Records, the continued success of Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and others.
Rhyme Pays is the debut studio album by American rapper Ice-T, released on July 28, 1987, by Sire Records. The album peaked at number 93 on the US Billboard 200 and number 23 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Ken Lawrence is a nerdcore rapper who purports to be the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking rapping under the name MC Hawking.
Pinoy hip hop or Filipino hip-hop is a style of hip hop music performed by musicians of Filipino descent, especially Filipino-Americans.
Emerging in the first half of the 1980s, Swedish hip hop originated in the cities of Stockholm and Malmö. Early on, most rappers in Sweden performed in English. Funkalics and The Latin Kings, two very different acts united by their innovative use of the Swedish language, debuted a decade later and paved the way for a second, and bigger, breakthrough for Swedish hip hop. Today, some of the most popular rappers use Swedish, often in different accents.
Robert "Bob" Khaleel, better known by his stage name Bronx Style Bob, is an American rapper from the Bronx, New York City.
"Cop Killer" is a song by American heavy metal band Body Count. Released on the group's 1992 self-titled debut album, the song was written two years earlier, and was partially influenced by "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads.
Live and Let Die is the third and final studio album by the American hip hop duo Kool G Rap & DJ Polo. It was released on November 24, 1992, via Cold Chillin' Records and features Big Daddy Kane, Bushwick Bill, Ice Cube and Scarface. The singles "Ill Street Blues" and "On The Run" both received consistent airplay on Yo! MTV Raps and BET's Rap City upon release.
Home Invasion is the fifth studio album by American rapper Ice-T, released on March 23, 1993, via Rhyme $yndicate/Priority Records. It was originally set for release in 1992 as part of his deal with Sire/Warner Bros. Records, and supposed to be his first official release through his own Rhyme $yndicate record label, now in full control of the content as part of a new distribution deal with Priority Records.
Power is the second studio album by American rapper Ice-T, released on September 13, 1988, by Sire Records. Recorded at Syndicate Studios West in Los Angeles, the home studio of DJ Evil E, it was produced by Ice-T and Afrika Islam. The Los Angeles Daily News noted that its lyrical themes ranged from sex to gun violence, and that Ice-T "implicates everyone from radio programmers to the police as accomplices in the decline of western civilisation." The album contains lyrics that began a feud between Ice-T and rapper LL Cool J. The album cover, which features Ice-T's then-girlfriend Darlene Ortiz, Ice-T, and DJ Evil E, was described as "perpetuating stereotypes" by the Chicago Tribune and "violence-glorifying" by both the Chicago Sun-Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Ice-T VI: Return of the Real is the sixth studio album by American rapper Ice-T. It was released on June 4, 1996, via Rhyme $yndicate/Priority Records. The title is a play on words based on the movie Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, with the "VI" referring to it being his sixth album. Production was handled by several record producers, including Aquel, Big Rich, DJ Ace, Dre MC, E-A-Ski, Hen-Gee, Mad Rome, San Man, SLJ, Trials of Flowalistics, and Ice-T himself. It also features guest appearances from Hot Dolla, Powerlord JEL, Mr. Wesside, Godfather of Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., Sean E. Sean of Body Count, Deft Saplin, K-Wiz Spurt, and Angela Rollins.
"There Goes the Neighborhood" is a song written and produced by Ice-T and Ernie C and performed by American heavy metal band Body Count. It was released on March 12, 1992 via Rhyme $yndicate/Sire/Warner Records as the lead single from the band's self-titled debut studio album, Body Count.
Hip-hop or hip hop, formerly known as disco rap, is a genre of popular music,that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s primarily from African American, Afro-Latin, and Afro-Caribbean musical aesthetics practiced by youth in the South Bronx. Hip-hop music originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence social movement led by the Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation. The genre is characterized by stylized rhythmic sounds—often built around disco grooves, electronic drum beats, and rapping, a percussive vocal delivery of rhymed poetic speech as consciousness-raising expression. The music developed as part of the broader hip-hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, breakdancing, and graffiti art or writing. Knowledge is sometimes described as a fifth element, underscoring its role in shaping the values and promoting empowerment and consciousness-raising through music. In 1999, emcee KRS-One, often referred to as "The Teacher," elaborated on this framework in a Harvard lecture, identifying additional elements that extend beyond the basic four. These include self-expression, street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street entrepreneurialism, which remain integral to hip-hop's musical expression, entertainment business, and sound production. Girls’ double-dutch was also recognized as a key stylistic component of breakdancing, according to KRS. While often used to refer solely to rapping and rap music, "hip-hop" more properly denotes the practice(s) of the entire subculture. The term hip-hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping may not be the focus of hip-hop music. The genre also centers DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
"Colors" is a song by American rapper Ice-T, co-produced by Afrika Islam, featuring DJ Eric Garcia, or Evil E. It was issued as the title track for the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The song was released as a single in 1988. In 2008, it was named the 19th-greatest hip hop song of all time by VH1. The song was Ice-T's first to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 70.The song samples "Ain't We Funkin' Now" by The Brothers Johnson.
"I Ain't New Ta This" is a song performed by American recording artist Ice-T. It was released as the first single from the rapper's fifth studio album Home Invasion. The song was produced by Tracy "Ice-T" Marrow, Shafiq "SLJ" Husayn and Alphonso "DJ Aladdin" Henderson, and released on April 14, 1993 via Rhyme $yndicate Records. The single peaked at number 62 in the UK and number 49 in New Zealand.
Low Profile was an American hip hop duo from Los Angeles. The group consisted of rapper William "W.C." Calhoun Jr. and record producer Alphonso "D.J. Aladdin" Henderson, who went on to pursue a career in visual arts. The duo made its debut with Rhyme $yndicate Records, on a compilation album produced by Ice-T and Afrika Islam, before becoming a duo on Priority Records.
Notorious is the debut studio album by American rapper and producer Donald D. It was released in 1989 via Ice-T's Rhyme $yndicate Records label with distribution through Epic Records and CBS Records Inc. The recording sessions took place at Syndicate Studio West and Wide Tracks Recording Studio in Los Angeles, California. The album was produced by Afrika Islam and Donald D, with executive production provided by Ice-T. Reaching a peak position of number 78 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, the album remained on the chart for a total of 18 weeks. It spawned two singles: "F.B.I.", which peaked at number 8 on the Hot Rap Songs, and "Notorious".
