Arts
www.SanTanSun.com
April 5 – 18, 2014
59
Ice-T ready to hit promotion trail for ‘Manslaughter’ BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
Entertainer Ice-T is poised for a busy year. He is set to begin filming another season of NBC’s “Law and Order: SVU,” and his thrash metal band, Body Count, is promoting “Manslaughter,” its first new album since 2006’s “Murder 4 Hire.” Ice-T—who has a vacation home in Chandler near the family of his wife, Coco—takes it all in stride. It’s a balancing act that he maintains by juggling only one or two projects at a time. For example, he filmed “SVU” and pushed the documentary “Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap” in 2013. “I can’t really concentrate on more than two things at a time,” Ice-T says. “When all these things start to drop and you see me doing promotion—and I might be promoting three or four things at a time—they weren’t necessarily created simultaneously.” As part of the “Manslaughter” promotion, Ice-T and Body Count will perform during KUPD-FM’s UFest, which begins at 12 p.m. Saturday, April 12. Like previous years, the festival will be held at Quail Run Park, 4155 E. Virginia St., East Mesa. The daylong event also features A Day to Remember, Asking Alexandria, Trivium, August Burns Red, Redlight King, Powerman 5000, Devour the Day, Born of Osiris, LetLive, We Came as Romans,
among others. For more information, visit http://98kupd.com/ufest-2014. The show is a rarity these days for Body Count, which will soon begin filming videos for “Manslaughter” tracks. “We just finished a new Body Count album and it was time for us to go out and promote it and get on the road,” Ice-T says about the decision to play UFest. “We’re very excited about it. We’ve only done one show this year. This is really just the first show of a summer run we’re doing with Body Count.” The tour is taking place during a hiatus from “SVU,” an award-winning sex crimes drama. He has played Det. Fin Tutuola since 2000. “I think the key to ‘Law and Order’ is it’s a whodunnit at the end of the day,” he says. “Every show works independently. It’s fun. It has a twist and an end. “I think people enjoy trying to figure out how the show is going to come out. It’s the kind of show you don’t have to watch in order. It’s what they call a ‘procedural drama.’ I think sex crimes is something that really touches people seriously. A lot of people have been affected by stuff like this, so it strikes a chord. It’ll be on as long as the viewers are there.” Adding to his recent list of accomplishments is the co-penned autobiography “Ice-T: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—from
COMING TO EAST MESA: Ice-T, who plays Det. Fin Tutuola on “Law and Order: SVU,” is playing UFest in East Mesa with his thrash metal band Body Count. Photo courtesy of Michael Parmelee/NBC
South Central to Hollywood.” Ice-T says the book was a natural progression for someone who describes himself as an “artist.” “Artists create art,” he says. “There are a lot of different ways of doing it. I’m one of those kinds of people, if I have free time I want to create something—fix up my cars, decorate my house, decide I want to tell
a story. I’m a brainstorming kind of cat. I’ll sit back and say, ‘Man, I want to do that.’ Fortunately, I’ve been relatively successful at doing these things. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think anybody cared.” Christina Fuoco-Karasinski is the editor of the SanTan Sun News. She can be reached at christina@santansun.com.