Ice-T

The ultimate backstage pass: a photographic inside look at the making of the groundbreaking hip hop documentary Rhyme & ReasonIn the mid-1990s, documentary filmmaker Peter Spirer embarked on a three-year odyssey to create a realistic portrait of hip hop, interviewing over 80 artists. Spirer captured a seminal moment as the culture balanced on the cusp of the mainstream. As Ice-T comments in the introduction to the book, "Rhyme & Reason is one of the few films that was there to document us before hip hop truly exploded." While filming, Spirer took stills using a medium-format Rolleiflex camera. These photographs form The Book of Rhyme & Reason. Spirer writes: "The Rollei allowed me to capture some amazing moments: Puffy getting a trim in his office while doing three tasks at once, Biggie opening record plaques on his couch, Ice-T and Mack 10 hanging with their homies, Heavy D at the barber, playing pool. There was the Jack The Rapper convention with Death Row making a statement, at a Disney World Hotel, that ended in chaos. There were magical moments such as Redman and Erick Sermon freestyling on the mic to amazed onlookers at a block party in Newark and watching Wu-Tang Clan chop it up on the block in Staten Island on a cold winter's day before they exploded." This coffee-table volume features over 130 of Spirer's photographs from 1994 to 1997. As hip hop commemorates its 50th anniversary in 2023, it is particularly fitting that many of these images from this formative period are being published for the first time. Peter Spirer (born 1963) is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated director and producer. His catalog of over 32 films includes Rhyme & Reason (1997), Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel, Life of an Outlaw (2002), the BEEF series (2003-05), Notorious B. I. G.: Bigger Than Life (2007) and The Legend of 420 (2017).

Ice-T tunnetaan hiphopikonina ja gangstarapin luojana. Televisionkatsojat muistavat hänet draamasarjasta Kova laki: Erikoisyksikkö ja elokuvayleisö muun muassa rainasta Määränpäänä Graceland. Monilahjakkuuden muistelmat ovat hämmästyttävä tarina siitä, miten lainsuojattomasta gangstasta tuli kulttuurin kultasormi. Ice-T kasvoi South Centralin jengejä kuhisevilla kaduilla ja jäi varhain orvoksi. Suurin osa hänen ystävistään päätyi jo alaikäisenä mullan alle tai vankilaan. Ice-T ajautui lain tuolle puolen ja tienasi elantonsa ryöstelemällä sekä kaupittelemalla huumeita ja varastettua tavaraa. Hän kuitenkin tajusi ajoissa muuttaa kurssia ja kanavoi tiiliä murskaavan energiansa taiteeseen. Lopulta hän saavutti kansainvälisen maineen muusikkona, tuottajana ja Hollywood-näyttelijänä. Hullunrohkeuden puolesta puhuvat muistelmat paljastavat niin katujen kuin Hollywoodinkin maailman armottomuuden. Kertomus vilisee ennen kuulemattomia tarinoita tutuista hahmoista, kuten Tupac Shakurista, Chris Rockista ja Flavor Flavista.

He's a hip-hop icon credited with single-handedly creating gangsta rap. Television viewers know him as Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola on the top-rated drama Law & Order: SVU. But where the hype and the headlines end, the real story of Ice-T--the one few of his millions of fans have ever heard--truly begins. Ice is Ice-T in his own words--raw, uncensored, and unafraid to speak his mind. About his orphan upbringing on the gang-infested streets of South Central, his four-year stint in the U. S. Army, his successful career as a hustler and thief, and his fateful decision to turn away from a life of crime and forge his own path to international stardom. Along the way, Ice shares never-before-told stories about friends such as Tupac, Dick Wolf, Chris Rock, and Flavor Flav, among others. And he offers up candid observations on marriage and monogamy, the current state of hip-hop, and his latest passion: mentoring at-risk youths around the country. With insights into the cutthroat world of the street--and the cutthroat world of Hollywood--Ice is the unforgettable story of a true American original.

Ice-T's experience with crime and gangs in Los Angeles and his years on Law & Order: SVU make him the perfect person to tell this thrilling story of revenge and redemption. Kings of Vice marks a new entry into the type of urban fiction immortalized by writers like K'wan, Elmore Leonard, and Donald Goines. Twenty years ago, Marcus "Crush" Casey was the leader of the Vicetown Kings, the most powerful crime syndicate in New York City. Then he was betrayed by his second-in-command and sent to prison. Now he's back on the streets and he has a lot more on his mind than just getting even. He needs to take back everything he lost: Find the friend who betrayed him and killed his only son, keep the cops at bay, and resist the one woman he knows he can't have. His time on the inside gave him a conscience and he also wants to help clean up the crime-infested neighborhoods that used to be his home. Crush will take back the Vicetown Kings and guide them to protect the city and its citizens...or die trying.