Who is Tracy Marrow Jr?
The son of Grammy recipient and hip-hop legend Ice-T, Tracy Marrow Jr was born on 23rd November 1992 in New York City, USA. A budding artist himself, Tracy, nicknamed “Little Ice”, is 5ft 8in (1.76m) tall and weighs 154lbs (70kgs).
Family & Upbringing
Ice-T met his first partner, Darlene Ortiz, in the L.A.-based youth cultural center Radiotron in 1985. At the time, Ice-T was the house MC and Darlene was a student; the brunette bombshell caught the rapper’s attention, and he told her he wanted her to be his album cover model.
Darlene was still in high school when she met the future rap mogul – Ice-T is almost a decade older. Following that fateful encounter in Radiotron, the pair began going on dates, and Ice-T confessed that he didn’t actually have an album – or a record deal – yet. However, Darlene stuck around, perhaps due to her rough childhood with an emotionally abusive mother, who wouldn’t let her leave home in order to keep cashing in her monthly child support payments.
To make extra money between gigs, Ice-T worked as a pimp, and Darlene is quoted as saying: “That very well could’ve happened to me. I was that open when I met him”.
Fortunately, that never happened, and in 1988 she became the first hip-hop album model after gracing the cover of her then-boyfriend’s project “Rhyme Pays”, which was also the first rap album to have a parental advisory label.
At 24 years old, Darlene found out she was pregnant with her and Ice-T’s first – and only – child together. Tracy Jr. was born was when she was 25, and by this time the rap legend and Darlene had been crowned hip-hop’s first power couple.
However, life in the public eye took its toll on both parties, and Ice-T ended the relationship in 2002 after almost two decades.
Despite promising to always take care of Darlene and his son financially, the rapper allegedly neglected his firstborn at times, with Darlene saying: “I knew I was gonna be OK, but for our kid it could’ve been much better”.
Following the split of his parents, Tracy Jr. remained in New York City with his mother, who began working as a fitness instructor and personal trainer as well as penning her memoirs. Later on, Tracy Jr. would inherit his mother’s love for sports, and play on his high school’s soccer team.
Meanwhile, Ice-T married glamor model Coco Austin in 2005 following a whirlwind romance – the couple welcomed their daughter, Chanel Nicole, a decade later.
From 2011 to 2013, the public couple had their own E! Network show, “Ice Loves Coco”, which garnered them a lot of support thanks to their supposedly picture-perfect relationship. Interestingly, the couple have cited musicians Sharon and Ozzy Osborne as their main inspiration to marry, with Coco saying: “You know she [Sharon] has a crazy husband that’s totally off the wall, and she just sticks by him no matter what – that’s me too.”
Despite their separation, Darlene has never spoken ill of her ex-partner and appears to remain on good terms with Ice-T to this day. Her book, “Definition of Down: My Life with Ice T & the Birth of Hip Hop”, was released in 2015 and received generally positive reviews.
Career
Tracy Jr. moved out at 20 years old. A born entrepreneur with a love for the finer things in life, he learned how to fly planes and took up interesting hobbies such as poker and golf, while also selling business names to make a living.
In 2013, it was confirmed that Tracy. Jr would begin performing backing vocals for “Body Count”, the heavy metal band formed by his father and guitarist Ernie C in 1990. In 2021, the band won Best Metal Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards for its song “Bum Rush”.
Tracy Jr. doesn’t appear interested in pursuing an acting career, or releasing any solo music for the time being, and as of 2022 has been part of his father’s band for almost a decade.
Controversies
Having been active in the industry for almost half his lifetime, Ice-T is no stranger to the occasional public controversy. In 1992, he asked to be released from his contract with Warner Bros. Records after facing backlash and death threats for his track “Cop Killer”. Warner Bros. agreed, which led to the rapper releasing his next album through Priority Records.
Of the song, which was vilified by conservative media, Ice-T has since said: “If you’re gonna tell the truth, they’re gonna call you controversial because they’re too scared to say anything. But some people have to say something. You gotta stand up.”
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Back in 2013, the hip-hop star allegedly filed for divorce from Coco after indie rapper AP.9 claimed to have slept with the model on several occasions. The cheating scandal took the internet by storm, but the couple’s PR team blasted the claims, saying: “Ice and Coco are doing totally fine. Those papers are fake”. In 2019, AP.9 gave another interview discussing the couple, who chose not to reply to his comments.
Coco’s parenting has also been called into question, especially after sharing on social media in August 2021 that she continued to breastfeed her daughter, who was five years old at the time.
The bullying from online trolls led to Ice-T going on Twitter and asking one user: “Why the F are you worried about MY Child??? That’s what’s weird… Now go back in the basement”.
Personal Life & Net Worth
Tracy Jr. is a notoriously low-key individual whose Instagram profile is private, and there’s no information online regarding his possible prior relationships. His individual net worth is estimated to be $100,000, while his father is reputedly worth $40 million, thanks to his decades-long careers in the acting and music worlds. Darlene is worth roughly $1 million, having worked tirelessly since her separation from Ice-T.
