Ice-T Talks Reality Show, Marriage, Rap Career, And Acting

Ice-T sat down with Pop-Eater while promoting his new book that is due out in July. During their chat Ice opened up about jokes, what inspired his career, what being married to Coco is like, the secret to a happy marriage, and how he feels about playing a cop on TV after having a hit song “Cop Killer.” Find out what Ice had to say after the jump!

@Julie1205

Hip-hop and screen star Ice-T has just published a memoir, ‘Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption – from South Central to Hollywood.’ In it he writes honestly about his time as a successful thief and hustler to controversial rapper to beloved actor as Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on ‘Law & Order: SVU.’ It’s a fascinating tale of redemption and quite unexpectedly romantic as the real-life Tracy Morrow waxes about his wife of ten years, Coco. The two will soon be starring in their own reality show, ‘Ice Loves Coco,’ that starts in July. Ice talked to PopEater about that and the book in a lighthearted interview that turns sugar-sweet when talking about why he’s got such a solid marriage.

“Oh no, she’s out of her mind. She looks like a superhero. She’s a doll,” he says, later adding, “I really admire my wife. I think she’s the best and I love everything she does and we admire each other.”

First of all tell me about the reality show.
Ha! That’s where you want to start? It’s a little show we’ve been working on. We kind of went against reality shows. They’ve been after us for a long time, they begged us, they pleaded with us. We said that we’d do something on our terms. It’s called ‘Ice Loves Coco.’ It’s a fun show. It’s a show about our life and how Coco runs my life. It’s done in good taste and nobody’s fighting. It comes out June 12 on E! after the Kardashians.

So there’s no deep dark secret that will be revealed on the show?
None of that. I’m kind of goofy and so is Coco. That’s the only secret.

How is Ice-T goofy?
People listen to my music and in my music I’m always serious. It’s kind of like if you met Clint Eastwood you wouldn’t think he jokes because all his movies are so hard and the guy I play on ‘Law & Order’ is pretty hard but I can have fun. My wife is crazy so you’re going to see how we get along.

Your wife does look like she could be a cartoon character.
Oh no, she’s out of her mind. She looks like a superhero. She’s a doll. We’ve been married ten great years. If you watch reality TV you’d believe there’s not a happy woman on earth. That’s a lie. You don’t necessarily have to show all that negativity to keep people watching. I believe there’s an audience out there that just wants to see people have fun.

So you’re here to tell me that Ice-T likes a good fart joke?
I love a good fart joke. If you go to Twitter, you’ll see I talk about farts and all kinds of good stuff.

What is the secret to a happy marriage?
First you’ve got to marry the right person. There’s a saying when a woman finds a man it’s the right time, when a man hits the right time he’ll find the right woman. I think with men it’s more about us sowing our wild oats, getting to that point, another thing they say is a woman marries a man hoping to change him and we marry you hoping you’ll stay the same. So you’ve got to get around those two things. Also admiration. I really admire my wife. I think she’s the best and I love everything she does and we admire each other. Admiration is way different than love. You can love somebody and still think they’re beneath you.

Your entire career was inspired by a sergeant in the army calling you a loser.
Absolutely. I had gotten my girlfriend pregnant and my daughter was a baby and I was trying to do the right thing and get off the streets and the sergeant said to me one day, ‘You’re here because you cannot make it in civilian life.’ Sometimes things like that cut so close and I was dead set on a mission to prove him wrong. I didn’t want to stay in there forever and when I would have bad moments I would hear him say that. Sometimes a little negative comment might trigger you so that’s what triggered me.

Does it bug you hearing nerdy white people use rap terms?
It doesn’t really bother me. It bothers me when people use it incorrectly. I think the one that bothers me the most is when people use the word wack but they spell it with an h.

You were part of a robbery crew but you hated stealing.
It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s that I hated the risk. So therefore during it I wanted to take it all. It was like, I don’t like doing this so if we gotta do this let’s just rob them blind. (Laughs). Every time I did something I was trying to retire, now some people like it, they’re there for the fun and excitement of it. I knew that when you did it your days were numbered in the low digits. At the end of this story all my friends went to prison, a lot of them are still in for life. I was very fortunate because I detoured off that road and went into rap. I think in the book I don’t make it seem like I was smarter, opportunities just happened and something in my mind said, ‘Go this way.’ My plan was never to go be on network television. I mean come on, how far fetched is that?

Don’t you think it’s ironic the guy who wrote ‘Cop Killer’ plays a cop on TV?
It bothers more people that it bothers me. (Laughs). The thing of it was, ‘Cop Killer’ was a character too. I was singing as somebody. That wasn’t me, that was a character I created. It is kind of ironic at the end of the day. I tell people I have no allegiance to crime. When I was breaking the law the cops were the opponent, they weren’t somebody I hated. I just thought I could outsmart them. If there’s anything I hate it’s racist people, that’s just a a piece of shit human being.