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The 65-year-old rapper and" Law & Order: SVU" star was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With his wife Coco Austin and daughter Chanel by his side, Ice-T (real name Tracy Lauren Marrow) exhorted the audience to harness the bad energy of "haters" as motivation.
Ice-T informed Fox News, "It's fuel, "I eat haters for food."
The celebrity went on to say that he has prevailed despite efforts to "cancel" him. "They've been trying to cancel me for 40 years... I'm difficult to cancel," he continued. "I've already let everybody know all my flaws, all my vices and people rock with it. When someone tells me you can't do it, that means I got to do it."
In a stirring statement from the stage, he elaborated on the individuals who had stood in his way over the years.
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"I really want to thank the mother******* haters, cause you really make me get up in the morning and be the best I can be," he shared. "All the naysayers, all the people that wanted to end my career, now I'm on the Walk of Fame. And that's the motivation. You got to let the haters motivate you," Ice-T shared as the crowd roared with applause. "If it wasn't for the haters, I definitely wouldn't have pulled this off, I swear to God. Thank you so much. I'm going to give you so much more to hate in the future, trust me. I love y'all."
In the 1990s, with the release of "Cop Killer" by Ice-metal T's band Body Count, actor Charlton Heston was one of the rapper's most vocal opponents. Ice-T disclosed to Yahoo Music in a 2017 interview that "The world was considerably gentler back then."
"We did not have Internet access. People were not accustomed to confronting artists. Similar to when rock 'n' roll was initially introduced, they believed recordings would bring about the end of the world "Ice-T provided context at the time.
In addition to his wife and kid, Ice-T was accompanied by a number of acquaintances, including rappers Ice Cube and Chuck D and the creator of Law & Order, Dick Wolf. But it was his longtime SVU co-star Mariska Hargitay's remarks, in which she referred to him as "the OG of friendship," that truly stunned the audience.
"The reason that you have fame in my heart is because you are the OG of friendship," Hargitay shared from the podium, People reported. "You are my real deal, my true blue, authentic, unshakable friend, and I cannot tell you what that means to me."
