Ice-T Wants This Rapper to Return to ‘Law & Order: SVU’
Law & Order SVU has had a couple of rappers make guest appearances on their show over the years. But Ice-T recently shared he was hoping for one familiar emcee to return to the long-running franchise.
Ice-T hopes to see this rapper-turned-actor back on ‘Law & Order’
There have been a few hip hop artists who were invited on to Law & Order SVU. Among them were stars like Method Man and Snoop Dogg, who are also known for their respectable acting careers. Ice-T credited producer Dick Wolf’s eye for talent for spotting the latent potential in the musicians he’s cast.
“The one thing about Dick Wolf [productions] is they understand how musicians translate into acting — they have no fear of that. I think Dick Wolf’s theory is, ‘If you could be a star at something, you could be a star at anything,’” Ice-T told Billboard.
But out of all the rappers who appeared in the show, the California native was especially impressed by Ludacris’ performance in Law & Order. Ludacris already guest-starred twice on the show. And speaking with NBC, Ice-T confided he was one guest star he wouldn’t mind seeing for a third time.
“Have Ludacris come back,” Ice-T said.
How Ice-T and Ludacris got along in ‘Law & Order: SVU’
Ice-T seemed to have a lot of fun with Ludacris, and enjoyed watching the rapper’s character in action.
“I had a good time with [Ludacris],” Ice-T said. “He actually got to play through his own day in court; he defended himself, which was kind of cool.”
Likewise, Ludacris had nothing but good things to say about his time on Law & Order. It helped that, like most television viewers, Ludacris was already familiar with the long-running series.
“You just kind of stumble upon it,” Ludacris once told MovieWeb. “Especially if you understand how the original Law & Order…when I was young, I used to watch that off and on. From then, knowing Ice-T…you kind of stumble upon things, you hear about it. Once you start watching a television show that you love you can’t stop watching it.”
Ludacris wasn’t new to the acting industry before his Law & Order debut. He already had several film credits under his name. But Law & Order was one of the projects that reminded him how different shooting television shows could be from films.
“Yeah, I think it does give me different stuff and I feel like television moves a lot faster than movie sets do. It’s kind of like they have to get things done within a certain timeframe. So do movies but it seems like, as far as television is concerned, it just moves a helluva lot faster. It is different. I love working on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” he said.
Ludacris shared that he and Ice-T didn’t do this one thing despite being rappers
Both Ludacris and Ice-T were as known for their rap careers as much as they were for their acting. Because of this, Ludacris was asked whether or not he and Ice-T rap-battled each other on the set of Law & Order. But Ludacris laughed off the question.
“No, we don’t rap on the SVU set. It’s all about acting. We don’t battle it out. We might tell old stories, tour stories, but not focus on music while we’re on set,” he said.
Ironically, Ice-T recently explained why the chances of him ever rapping on the show were slim to none.
“I wouldn’t do that: That would be corny,” Ice-T told Today. “Because Fin would be able to rap as good as I rap. So, they would have to try to make me rap half-assed, which I wouldn’t do. Now, I got to draw the line somewhere.”
But Ice-T quipped that his Law & Order co-star, Mariska Hargitay, often asks for his expertise in hip hop.
“It’s funny, though, Mariska has me write her raps,” Ice-T added. “She wants to rap, like, ‘Write me a rap.’ So yeah, I wrote a rap for Joyful Heart [Hargitay’s foundation].. She’s got a little rap I wrote her early. She’s like, ‘It’s time for you to write me a new rap.’ All right, take it easy, Mariska,” he said.
