A new reality
On December 31, 2001, Ice-T married swimsuit model Nicole “Coco Marie” Austin. The marriage helped spur a series of successes.
Successful premieres of reality shows like Flavor of Love, Rock Docs, Hogan Knows Best and Celebrity Fit Club, opened the door for Ice-T. His first venture, Ice-T’s Rap School, taught eight teens from New York, business and performance aspects of the music industry.
On the season finale, the group performed as an opening act for Public Enemy. His series, Ice Loves Coco, premiered in 2011 for E! — and is still going strong.
Documenting history
Worried that rap music’s rich history was being forgotten, Ice-T set out to do something about it. The result was The Art of Rap, a performance documentary celebrating the craft of hip-hop. It premiered in the fall of 2012.
Ice-T and a skeletal crew tracked down a who’s who of rap’s history makers in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles and got them to talk about what goes into their music. He interviewed Salt of Salt-N-Pepa, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Common, Nas, Kanye West and Eminem to name a few.
At a premiere in the United Kingdom, Ice-T was quoted saying he made this film “on a shoestring budget,†yet it garnered rave reviews.
Not too bad for a guy who made a name for himself threatening the police.