Ice-T might have risen to fame within the ’90s as a rapper and fronting the band Physique Rely, who courted controversy with their music “Cop Killer,” however nowadays he’s a cop himself — no less than on TV. He’s Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on NBC’s long-running police procedural Regulation & Order: Particular Victims Unit, which kicks off its milestone twenty fifth season on Thursday, Jan. 18, and it’s the rapper-actor’s twenty fourth season on the Emmy-winning crime drama.
Over the present’s many seasons, it has featured numerous entertainers as visitor stars earlier than they made it large (Stephen Colbert, Bradley Cooper, Adam Driver and Hayden Panettiere, for instance), in addition to family names (Carol Burnett, Robin Williams, Angela Lansbury and John Stamos, to call a couple of). However SVU has additionally given all the pieces from blink-and-you’ll-miss-it visitor spots to pivotal roles to musicians apart from Ice, who has turn into a beloved staple alongside Mariska Hargitay’s Captain Olivia Benson (who one in all Taylor Swift’s cats is called after).
Amongst them? Miranda Lambert, Heavy D, Sabrina Carpenter, Dave Navarro, Questlove (who performed a useless physique!) and plenty of extra.
“The one factor about Anna Chan Dick Wolf [and production company Wolf Entertainment] is that they perceive how musicians translate into appearing — they don’t have any concern of that,” Ice tells Billboard. “I feel Dick Wolf’s principle is, ‘In case you might be a star at one thing, you may be a star at something.’”
“My entire profession doing music and being on SVU, I’ve by no means had Dick Wolf or any individuals then attempt to speak to me about music or something, like, ‘Oh, Ice-T did ‘Cop Killer” or this that or the opposite,” provides the actor-musician. “I feel from the Wolf perspective, ‘The larger the star Ice-T is elsewhere, the larger the star I’ve on my present.’ So after I go win a Grammy, it’s like SVU now has a Grammy Award-wining actor. He understands energy is energy.”
As for his run on the procedural, Ice — who’s up for a 2024 Folks’s Selection Award for drama TV star of the 12 months — tells Billboard it’s not simply his appearing talents that hold Fin on the drama. “[Wolf] sits again, he watches not solely a efficiency however what are you bringing — form of like what I all the time say is he appears at a present and goes, ‘If anyone’s tuning in to see Ice-T, sure, he stays on the present.’ In case you’re on the present they usually don’t suppose they’re tuning into see you, you may get one behind the pinnacle within the parking zone, you recognize?” the Grammy winner says. “For some cause, he likes me. I feel I’ve executed extra tv with Dick Wolf than anyone in his camp. I’m on 5 reveals; I’ve been on seven, counting crossovers.” (The Regulation & Order franchise has boasted a complete of seven totally different reveals thus far.)
As for a way for much longer Ice can see himself enjoying Fin, the reply is a very long time. “Yeah, I’ll keep on it. I’ve nothing higher to do,” he shares. “Like I mentioned, proper now, it’s a simple gig for me. I’m nonetheless capable of do Physique Rely, my music, I gig on the weekends; I obtained a daughter in class — it’s a lot simpler. Once you’re touring, it’s a must to do 200 days a 12 months on the street. … I mentioned when Regulation & Order ends — at any time when it does finish — I’ll simply exit and skim for all Samuel L. Jackson’s components!”
However till then, he’s comfortable to maintain carrying Fin’s defend, and having musicians visitor star on SVU alongside him. “I simply find it irresistible after they deliver hip-hop artists on,” Ice tells Billboard. “It’s a kind of reveals the place should you obtained a fanbase and also you throw your identify within the hat, they could name you.”
Whereas Ice isn’t certain which musician he’d prefer to see on the police procedural subsequent, there are a couple of who’ve stood out in his thoughts as a few of the most notable visitor roles. Learn on to see which 5 musicians are Ice-T’s favourite cameos on Regulation & Order: SVU.
Regulation & Order: Particular Victims Unit airs on NBC on Thursdays. Make amends for previous seasons — in addition to different reveals within the Regulation & Order franchise — on Peacock.
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Massive Boi
Character: Gots Cash
Season: 10
Episode: 7 (“Wildlife”)
12 months: 2008“Massive Boi from OutKast has been on the present,” Ice displays. “He had a pet tiger, or some s–t.”
It was artwork imitating life on this bloody episode of SVU. Massive Boi portrayed rapper Gots Cash, who grew to become an individual of curiosity within the homicide of a girl who was smuggling an unique chicken. Gots — who did certainly have one of many apex predators as a “pet” — finally grew to become pet meals when hyenas killed him after he labored with Det. Elliot Stabler (SVU OG Christopher Meloni, who now stars on L&O: Organized Crime) to reveal the wildlife smuggling ring and assassin.
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Ludacris
Character: Darius Parker
Seasons: 7 & 8
Episodes: season 7, episode 18 (“Venom) and season 8, episode 22 (“Screwed”)
Years: 2006 & 2007“I had fun with him,” Ice shares of Luda’s two episodes. “He truly obtained to play via his personal day in court docket; he defended himself, which was form of cool.”
In one of many present’s most chilling visitor roles, Luda performed Darius, the “cousin” of Fin’s son Ken in a component that spanned two episodes and two seasons. The younger males’s actual relationship — that of half-brothers who share the identical mom — comes out in court docket after Darius is placed on trial for the homicide of a younger mother and her child boy, whose our bodies Ken tried to uncover in an alley after Darius, after an evening of consuming, informed him what occurred. The brothers’ relationship was revealed when their mother (Fin’s ex-wife) revealed underneath duress on the stand that Darius is her son, and that she was impregnated when her personal father raped her.
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Hilary Duff
Character: Ashlee Walker
Season: 10
Episode: 19 (“Egocentric”)
12 months: 2009The “So Yesterday” singer appeared as a younger, irresponsible mom who’s suspected of killing her daughter after Ashlee’s mother studies the kid as lacking. Seems the little lady died after contracting measles from an unvaccinated boy, whose mom is then charged with manslaughter for refusing to vaccinate her son.
“Hilary Duff was on!” Ice remembers. “She did a factor.”
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Harry Connick Jr.
Character: ADA David Haden
Season: 13
Episodes: 12, 13, 15, 17 (“Official Story,” “Father’s Shadow,” “Looking Floor” and “Justice Denied”)
12 months: 2012“Harry Connick got here on and did his romantic function with Mariska — that was cool,” the rapper-actor says of the three-time Grammy winner, who had a recurring half as prosecutor David Haden. The ADA and Benson had speedy chemistry and kissed by the tip of Connick Jr.’s first episode. However alas, they weren’t endgame (aka Bensler), and referred to as off their romance by the tip of the crooner’s run on the present.
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Snoop Dogg
Character: Banks
Season: 20
Episode: 22 (“Diss”)
12 months: 2019Snoop had a small function within the episode, enjoying a rapper named Banks who’s suspected of assaulting fellow hip-hop artist Justin Anderson’s (Orlando Jones) spouse after the 2 males obtained right into a diss struggle.
“Snoop Dogg’s humorous as a result of I get a name from Snoop, and he’s like, ‘Yo, Cuz. I ain’t gonna lie. I ain’t by no means watched the present, however me and wifey began watching it and we watched that s–t for, like, six hours, Cuz. That s–t’s exhausting as a mothaf–ka, man,’” Ice remembers of how the “Drop It Like It’s Scorching” rapper landed a component on SVU. “I mentioned, ‘You need to come on the present?’ He mentioned, ‘You may get me on there, OG?’ I mentioned, ‘I can put your identify within the hat.’ I informed him, and inside 5 episodes, he was on there.”
Reporting by Steve Knopper.
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