Happy birthday to the legendary Ice-T! The O.G. of gangsta rap turns 59 today.

Ice has been doing his thing since the 1980s, and of course, he was one of the hip-hop artists who helped put the West Coast on the map. Before N.W.A. and 2Pac and Snoop Dogg, there was Ice-T, who dropped his debut Rhyme Pays back in 1987. He'd follow it with hit albums like Power, The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say!, and O.G. (Original Gangster), before Hollywood came a-calling.

After making his name as an actor in hit movies like New Jack City and Trespass, Ice eventually landed the role of Detective Fin Tutuola on the mega-hit police procedural Law & Order: SVU. Since 2000, Ice has been helping to put bad guys behind bars on the small screen.

And Ice and his wife Coco have been a high-profile celebrity couple since 2002.

Ice recently commented on a possible sequel to New Jack City and hinted at a possible reboot of the hit 1990s FOX cop series New York Undercover, on which he was a recurring guest star.

“Just to be around, me and Wesley [Snipes] and Chris Rock to be still in the game, it’s a blessing,” the veteran rapper-actor told BOSSIP. “It’s been talked about. A New Jack 2 has been talked about.”

“A New York Undercover sequel has been talked about [too],” he said. “Maybe I could be captain over there. You never know. you just gotta stay around and the game will come to you.”

CHECK OUT SOME CLASSIC ICE-T VIDEOS

Rolling Stone’s 20 Coolest Hip-Hop Covers
 

More From