Ice-T Reacts To Being Canceled After SNL Appearance
Ice-T isn't too worried about being canceled, saying people have been trying to cancel him for decades.
This article is more than 2 years old
Tracy Lauren Marrow, better known as Ice-T, is notably unconcerned with the prospect of being canceled for appearing on Saturday Night Live. In response to being threatened with so-called “cancel culture” taking aim at him, the Law & Order mainstay took to Twitter to remind his fans that “These MFs have been trying to Cancel” him for decades. If you’re familiar at all with his history, you know the rapper isn’t even coming close to exaggerating.
These apparent calls to cancel Ice-T came after the Boomerang star appeared in a cameo for a Saturday Night Live spoof of HBO’s House of the Dragon. Dave Chappelle, the controversial comic who hosted this weekend’s SNL, introduced the clip–in much the same way he used to on Chappelle’s Show–as part of House of the Dragon‘s Season 2. Instead it featured Chappelle and some of his most beloved Chappelle’s Show characters.
Ice-T also appears briefly in the clip, playing who Chappelle calls “Light-skinned Larry Targaryen.” The two share a few barbs, including Chappelle pretty accurately telling the rapper, “You look like E.T. when they dressed him up for Halloween.”
It wasn’t actually the House of the Dragon spoof that some fans took exception to, but Dave Chappelle‘s monologue, and Ice-T is reportedly getting targeted by association. Chappelle’s monologue addressed the controversy surrounding Kanye West’s antisemitic comments. Though Ye was one of the comic’s targets, he also attacked the corporations pulling their support from the rapper, including noting one of them–adidas–was founded by Nazis.
To anyone who remembers how many people first learned of the rapper in the early nineties, it should be no surprise that Ice-T doesn’t find himself fearing the notion of being canceled. His musical career began in the eighties, and by 1991 he’d released 4 studio albums starting with 1987’s Rhyme Pays. But it was his inclusion in the very first Lollapalooza tour in 1991 that put him on mainstream’s radar, and a lot of the mainstream didn’t like what they heard.
In 1991’s O.G. Original Gangster, Ice-T did something he’d never tried before–he included a track from his new heavy metal band Body Count. When he toured with other musical acts for Lollapalooza, parts of his set would be with his new band, including performances of what would prove to be one of the most controversial songs of the decade: “Cop Killer.” The song is written from the point of view of a man getting revenge on violent and racist police officers.
Ironically, Ice-T has since become much more well known playing fictional police officers. He starred opposite Wesley Snipes (Blade) as Detective Scotty Appleton in the 1991 crime film New Jack City. For over twenty years, he’s played Sergeant ‘Fin’ Tutuola on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
