Ice Cold Facts

“I should have trademarked that back in the day.” Ice-T is referencing the title of his 1991 solo album, O.G. Original Gangster, a term that has since become common vernacular, and one he’s been using for nearly 40 years. The pioneering gangsta rapper, who shot to notoriety with his 1987 debut, Rhyme Pays, and became a formidable presence on the hardcore scene with his thrash metal band Body Count, recently launched his own FAST channel, the aptly named OG Network. The free service allows visitors to celebrate “the rich legacy of urban culture through classic films” such as Super Fly and The Mack. The goal is to host original content like podcasts, short films, and vertical series. 

It’s the latest venture for the multifaceted artist. As he told his 1.7 million X followers on February 16, his 68th birthday, “Trust me, the game don’t stop…I’m just warming up!” And for all intents and purposes, that’s true. He stars in the longest-running primetime live-action television series in history, Law & Order: SUV, where he’s played Sergeant Odafin Tutuola for 26 seasons. He’s working on his ninth solo album, released his eighth album with Body Count, Merciless, in 2024, is the spokesperson for CarShield, and a doting dad to his 10-year-old daughter Chanel and devoted husband to wife Coco Austin. He also has two other children, son Tracy Marrow Jr. and daughter LeTesha Morrow, who regularly post about hanging out with their famous father. 

More from Spin:

• Robyn’s ‘Sexistential’ Surveys Middle-Aged Desire, Doubt
• Surfbort Is Stuck In This World and Making the Craziest Most Of It
• Dapper Group Wants to Connect Africa to the World Through Music

Now, as one of hip-hop’s elder statesmen, he’s able to share his hard-won philosophical wisdom with the rest of us, something he coined “Ice Cold Facts” on social media. Rather than a typical Q&A, we decided to run through a list of popular current topics to get Ice-T’s Ice Cold Facts on everything from Ozempic and the Winter Olympics to the Epstein files and marriage. 

Law & Order: SVU’s Record As Longest-running Primetime Live-action TV Show in History

We’ve been number one since season 21, and we’re on season 27 right now. That record has stood for six years. The show is just good, man. First off, it’s a whodunit. People love whodunits. They love mysteries. The writing is incredible because no matter what actors you have on there, I have to say the words they put in my mouth, so they’re writing it well. But I think the key to it is Law & Order: SVU is as much therapy as it is entertainment. A lot of the women that watch the show are survivors. So on a homicide show, the victim’s dead. On our show, the victim is alive. And a lot of people, women especially, will watch the show and see justice maybe that they didn’t get. And they watch Mariska as a hero go after these perps. It’s a little bit more than just entertainment. I think that’s what the hook is. The hook is that it’s helpful.

Being on a show where people say thank you is different than a normal show. I think that’s the key. It’s that entertainment and some type of it’s helpful. It’s therapy in a way to a lot of people and Mariska is just a badass. That’s rare on the show. She moved up to captain and she’s in charge and I’m riding shotgun with her.

Marriage

I had a comment on my Twitter that said, “I know how to be married to my wife, not your wife.” Being married to Coco might be easier than most. I think you have to communicate. You have to really listen to what the other person is saying. That helps if one person doesn’t really talk too much [laughs]. But I always said if your mate tells you something that they want and you don’t give it to them, it doesn’t make them stop wanting it. It just means you won’t give it to them, so pay attention when someone asks for something. Say if it’s in my realm or if you need me to walk in here in a hockey jersey, whatever the fuck’s gonna do it for you, I’m going to be with you and not the rest of the guys, or I’m going to be with you and not the rest of the girls.

Now this girl has to really consume my energy that I had for everybody. I’m a horny dog and I’m out here looking at every girl. Now you just want me to be with one person. They have to be willing to accommodate that male energy, but I think communication is key. Also try to relive what got you together, meaning do your date nights, dress up, remember whatever it took. If you met him in a bar, go back to the bars. But relive it.

If you like going to concerts, go to concerts. Don’t stop what got you here. Me and Coco will go out maybe twice a week for dinner. Also here’s another thing—you have to marry somebody who wants to be married. Not someone who wants a wedding or a ring but really wants to be in a committed relationship.

Women might want that, but a lot of guys want that. They want to start a family, but you got to want to be married. My last one is being married is like casting for a movie. I got to make sure you’re ready for all the scenes. It’s going to be fun scenes. It’s going to be action scenes. There’s going to be hard, dramatic scenes where I might need you or you might need me. Everybody isn’t ready for all the scenes.

Last but not least, love is conditional. It’s not unconditional, like dogs love you unconditionally. But a human, you create a condition. I love you under these circumstances the way it is. If I come home, get drunk and start busting Coco in the head, that’s not what she signed up for, so I’ve changed the condition. So stick to the conditions. The joke goes: A guy talking to the girl is like, “Is it going to be like this forever?” She says, “Forever.” He says, “Forever, ever?” She says, “Forever.” And as soon as he says, “I do,” she says, “OK, some things are about to change.” I think that’s a mistake women make, thinking they can marry somebody and fix them. Men are marrying what they see. Marrying Coco made me a better man, but it’s done very precisely. You don’t want to crack the diamond. You got to know how to do it.  

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 

They’re not doing what they said they were gonna do, but coming from this particular administration, what is honest and what is true, right? If you’re going after criminals, why are you pulling people out of Home Depot that are out there trying to make a living? It’s just outrageous. No one asked for it. I love Mexican people. I come from L.A. and my son’s mother is Mexican. I just don’t really rock with it. It’s not something we really need. If you want to do this type of immigration, this is the way I would have did it. If you get arrested and you’re undocumented, then you get deported. How’s that sound? If you break the law and you’re undocumented, You get deported. That does not mean running up in people’s houses and jacking people just because they look a certain way and all that. Look, if I was in another country and I broke the law, they’re either going to put me in their jail or they’re going to send me the fuck out of there. Honestly, to me, it seems like a show. The scary part of it is what happens if people start to actually exchange fire? It might be ICE and the police. Is this a distraction from the Epstein files? I just don’t know. 

Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show

I watched it. I think he did a great job. When we were at my house, I had a bunch of guys and all their wives were there, right? They were in the other room drinking, enjoying the Super Bowl and talking. When Bad Bunny came on, the whole room filled up with the girls and they were dancing. Chanel was dancing. I just think it was a good thing. It’s like, so what? Are we going to fight over who’s doing the Super Bowl every year? My funny quote was they said they didn’t understand a word he said. When Kendrick performed, they didn’t understand a word he said either and he’s speaking English. Every once in a while, more so now, you get to see how racist people can be. Like, “I’m going to go watch Kid Rock because I can’t stand watching the Puerto Rican guys.” One of the things that gets me is this term “America.” Trump should have said, “Make the States Great Again.” Little does he know that Mexico is America. We’re all Americas, dumbass. Like, come on, man. They can put a country-western singer up there. I don’t think there’ll be an outcry from the Black community that they put Garth Brooks up there. I think every once in a while, there’s a trigger warning for these people and they just lose it. Even when I post something, all the blowback I get is all racist. It’s like when they get mad, they can’t help but say some racial shit. That’s fucked up.

Piers Morgan 

Bad Bunny has earned his spot. The fact that we’re just unaware of how many Spanish-speaking people there are on the globe is crazy. I don’t like Piers…what’s that dude? Piers Morgan? I don’t like him, but he checked Megyn Kelly. He said, “What is the official language of the United States?” She’s like, “English.” And then he’s like, “Uh-uh.” It’s like you don’t have one, fool. 

Artificial Intelligence 

AI is coming to get us. You better figure it out and learn how to use it and understand it, because it’s coming. I think there’s a lot of great things that it could do. It might be able to cure cancer. I think it’s going to make social media become less powerful in a good way, because the kids are going to doubt everything and maybe do their own research. You know how they say believe half what you see? Now it’s believe none of what you hear. Believe none of it. If I see something suspect about someone and I have that person’s phone number, I’ll call ’em like, “What’s this?” Because social media is so anonymous, I can slander you. I can do things that are actually illegal and you can never find out who I am. I can write a whole fucking essay on you, do whatever. I’ve seen some very interesting uses for AI, especially in music.

Epstein Files

I know them shits got motherfuckers petrified. I know that. And I know I’m not in them. I know those two things. I know certain people are shaking in they boots behind that shit. But I think a lot of people could be on those files that are just innocent. There’s a billionaire, you got a jet, this and the other is going on. Nobody’s telling you about the creepy shit. They just like, “Yeah, I want to go.” You know what I’m saying? Like Chris Tucker said I was on the jet ’cause I was doing some type of charity work,’ so I think you can get hit with shrapnel from that shit. 

Diddy 

I guess everybody always knew that there’s a lot of creepy, weird shit going on.  I’ve never been introduced to any of it. I’ve never seen it. If anything was freaky, it was me doing it [laughs]. I’ve been to Diddy’s New Year’s party, things like that. But I’ve never been to nothing where it got to turn into a freak session. It’s funny though, people are like, “Oh well, it’s the Illuminati.” I’m like, “I ain’t never met them.” I think if they are out there, they know I’d tell [laughs]. 

Ozempic 

It started out as a diabetes thing, right? Well, fortunately, nobody in our house uses it. And hey, there’s a thing called body dysmorphic disorder for people that are already skinny who just think they’re not skinny enough. If you have that, it could go bad. We’re in a world where people are enhancing themselves. If you could run faster and you could take a pill, motherfuckers gonna take that pill. I did a movie called Johnny Mnemonic, where people had jacks in the back of their head. If you want to learn French, you just upload a fucking chip and you speak French, Spanish, whatever. The more people have access to morphing their bodies, they’re gonna do it. You got tattoos? To me, that’s extreme. Or piercings. Imagine when the first tattoo came out and somebody says, “I got an idea. I’m going to stick ink into your skin with needles.” They probably thought it might wash off.  They’re like, “Oh shit, I’m 90. This shit never comes off.” So I don’t know. People are afraid to take the COVID shot but taking Ozempic weekly.

Clipse Winning First Grammy After 16-Year Hiatus

I think that right now we’re in the cycle of golden-era hip-hop coming back in a powerful way because you’ve got Clipse, you got Nas, Slick Rick, Raekwon, De La Soul, all that stuff, and I’m working on a record right now. So there’s a new Ice-T album coming this year. It’s called Criminal Migraine. And Treach [Naughty By Nature] is at my studio. He’s working on his album, so there’ll be some music out because, what you gotta understand is that hip-hop went through a lot of phases. We come from the golden era, then it ended up going into ringtone rap, then it went from ringtone rap to Auto-Tune rap, then it went from that to trap music, then it went from that to mumble rap. Now it’s kind of coming full circle, because, see, Chanel is 10 and she likes hip-hop, but she likes the older stuff because she can rap along with it.

She has 2Pac T-shirts. She got an Eminem poster on the wall. She’s connected. This new generation, they’re almost smart enough to say, “This is not the best hip-hop that’s out right now. Let me find something that I can connect to,” so they’re going way back. Plus, every once in a while it’s cool to become retro.

Ice Cube goes out and sells out a stadium concert, an arena concert, coast-to-coast, by himself. This is inspiring. When you see Clipse get the Grammy, you see Killer Mike get the Grammy, you’re like, “This is inspiring.” These things had a lot to do with putting me back in the studio, because there’s a point in time when they’re doing mumble rap and all this, you’d be like, “They don’t want to hear me. It’s not time.” Now it’s time. 

Taylor Swift 

Chanel is not a big Taylor Swift fan. She’s more like…oh shit. What’s the other little girl that sings and kind of wears droopy clothes? Little white girl. Billie Eilish. I took her to see another little Latin girl she likes too. I took her to the concert. She sold out Madison Square Garden. Olivia Rodrigo. Chanel’s into that. Good shows, good concerts. Sound was good. When I go to a concert, I don’t only look at what I see, I look at the audience.

If the audience is standing up and they’re vibing and they’re singing every word, who am I to say I didn’t like the show? When I’m doing concerts, for 5,000, 10,000 people, everybody’s jumping around and I get the review, “The concert sucked.” I’m like, “So what’s my job, Nick? Making you happy or all the people that were there?” Everybody’s having a good-ass time and you’re talking about that.

The Player Haters Ball (Dave Chappelle skit)

That was fun being a hater. The secret to being a player hater is you’re just mad at everything. You’re mad at ev-ery-thing. You’re like, “Why has he got a wife? Damn.” You’re just mad. “I don’t like his car,” or “I don’t like how he looks.” You’re just angry. You’re just angry. To be a hater, you have to be really miserable. Now, you got backhanded haters that will give a compliment and backhand, like, “Wow, that’s a nice car. Wonder how much gas it needs.” They can’t just give a compliment. Or like, “That’s a nice car, but I don’t like the color.” Or I say, “Chuck D, he’s my motherfuckin’ man.” They’re like, “It’s fucked up what’s going on with his family and shit.” They can’t just give the compliment. They gotta bring some negativity into it.

Fame

Fame is just being known more than other people. That’s what fame is. It’s just you’re known. It doesn’t mean you’re known for anything good. Like I always say, “Don’t confuse popularity with respect.” There’s this thing I heard about fame, it goes like this: If we took a grapefruit, a normal grapefruit, and every day it came on television at noon on all channels, and it spun really slow for about two minutes. Every day, after six months, we could take that grapefruit, put it in Times Square, rope it off, and people would take pictures with that grapefruit. That’s fame. Now, you can be famous for doing great things. If you’re famous for doing bad things, they call that infamous. Big difference.  

Social Media 

Nowadays, with social media, you can become famous just by getting views. Now, if you ask kids today, the number one thing they want to be—what’s the answer? They want to be famous—not rich. People want clout so fucking bad. It’s the ultimate new sin. Let me say this for a record: Fame sucks if you don’t have a bankroll to back you. I don’t go to award ceremonies for that simple reason. I tell people, they say, “Are you going to the Grammys? Are you going to these awards?” I’m like, “No, I only go if I’m nominated or I’m presenting or performing.” I don’t want to be on the red carpet and they ask me, “Why are you here?” and I’m like, “I just want to be seen.” It’s the new generation. It’s the clout generation. The fame generation.  

Billboard Charts

I think Billboard charts are for the industry. When you’re in the industry, you want the number ones, you follow that chart, but normal people, I don’t see why they would follow those charts. I don’t think normal people follow the charts. I think when you’re trying to sell records, yeah, you want those number ones. You want to get on that Top 40. The fact hip-hop wasn’t in the Top 40 has to do with people making songs. It’s almost Drake got to make a record because Drake makes pop music, so the Top 40 is really a pop chart. Wu-Tang is not going to make it on the Top 40. It’ll make it on the rap charts, but it’s not pop. That’s why for all the hip-hop people, hip-hop is not pop. You have to be more of a pop-type rapper. The record has to play in the pop markets.

Winter Olympics

All I know is that my homie Snoop is over there. I seen him on a bobsled. My ni–a, I love it. I love the fact that Snoop is over there representing the United States. I know that the girl, the skier, broke her leg, because that was one of Mariska’s [Hargitay] good friends. Lindsey Vonn. Mariska hit me up and let me know she was at the Olympics. She took a picture with Snoop. That’s all I know. I respect nothing more than athletes. There’s no gray area. It’s not like, “Oh, my record is better than yours.” No, you got knocked the fuck out. It’s no, you can do better. The worst guy on the bench of the worst team in the NBA can break anybody in the country’s ankles, anybody out there that thinks they can play basketball. And these football players are like super-humans, these motherfuckers. So I have nothing but respect at an Olympic level. I respect anybody that can do anything I can’t [laughs].

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.