Ice-T’s favourite video game series of all time
When Ice-T was a teenager, he fell into a life of crime that, sometimes, could get really dangerous. But, thankfully, art offered him a means of escape.
Ice-T is most famous for being a hip-hop and heavy metal artist, but music is hardly the only form that concerns him. He’s an actor, too, having appeared in several movies and TV shows, and he has also voiced characters in video games. By his own admission, in fact, he is a keen gamer.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2008, T admitted how much he loves video games. “The best one is Grand Theft Auto,” he claimed, “which is just fucking mayhem.”
T mentioned his voice role in the 2006 game Scarface: The World Is Yours, which, in his words, “teaches you how to sell drugs,” as well as his part in 2004’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That was the fifth main entry in the GTA series.
“I played a cracked-out rap star who had his lyrics stolen and the person that stole them became a star,” T said of his GTA character. “So I went on crack and by the end of the game I get my reputation and my mansion back. You start off as a kid in South Central LA, you build up your rep and then you get a gang. It’s definitely some crazy shit.”
Ice-T seems genuinely to be a massive fan of the GTA series, quite apart from the fact that he was in one of the games. The predecessor of San Andreas, 2002’s Vice City, seems to be a particular favourite.
“The Vice City games are the worst shit ever—in a good way,” T remarked to The Guardian. “It’s so intentionally wrong that you’ve got to get into it. You go, ‘Oh my God, if I’m out of money I just rob a liquor store.’”
While the GTA games have been consistently popular and beloved by critics, they have also garnered a lot of negative press. The Guinness World Records in 2008 declared it to be the most controversial video game series of all time, citing the fact that, as of that point in time, more than 4,000 news stories had been published about the games and their supposed negative features.
There has long been hand-wringing in response to the violence of the GTA games, with some even claiming links between the game and real-life violent incidents. Ice-T, for his part, thinks that it is absurd.
“Inside this world, all the things that you think about, you can do,” he said. “Does that make you want to do it in real life? No. To me it diffuses it. People say video games make kids violent. I don’t think so. It can be an outlet for that aggression.”