Rapper-turned-actor
Ice-T will return to his Hip-Hop roots with his ninth studio album Gangsta
Rap, which arrives in stores on Halloween (Oct. 31) via the Los Angeles-based
Melee Recordings.The
new disc will be Ice-T’s first album since 1999’s The Seventh Deadly Sin
and contains 17 tracks that were mostly recorded in New York.Known
for trailblazing the path for gangster rap, Ice-T (born Tracy Marrow) is already
receiving backlash for the album’s controversial artwork. Its
cover shows him and his wife CoCo, both bare-naked, sprawled out on a bed. According
to label reps, the artwork will be stickered to avoid issues with retailers. The
insert features CoCo completely naked leaning against a car, advertising an upcoming
2007 calender. In
1982, Ice-T released his first rap single, "The Coldest Rap," which
was one of the first Hip-Hop records to use the words "n***a" and "ho,"
and is one of the pioneering records of gangsta rap. The
prolific rapper released his debut album Rhyme Pays in 1987 and has released
several groundbreaking albums, including Power (1988), The Iceberg/Freedom
of Speech…Just Watch What You Say (1989) OG: Original Gangster (1991)
Home Invasion (1993) and others.No
stranger to both the small and silver screens, Ice-T has starred in a multitude
of movies and television shows, including New Jack City, Surviving the Game,
3000 Miles to Graceland, and the Hip-Hop classic Breakin’.The
rapper is currently the focus of a new VH1 reality show, Ice-T’s Rap School,
in which he teaches young students the fundamentals of Hip-Hop and emceeing.
