Overcoming Adversity
Ice-T’s life has often been defined by overcoming adversity. As a child he lost both of his parents by the time he was 11. He was then shipped from New Jersey to Los Angeles to live with an alcoholic aunt who treated him horribly. At 17 he moved out and started living on his...
Ice-T’s life has often been defined by overcoming adversity. As a child he lost both of his parents by the time he was 11. He was then shipped from New Jersey to Los Angeles to live with an alcoholic aunt who treated him horribly. At 17 he moved out and started living on his own in south-central while the violent and infamous gang culture exploded. To add to this, he got his girlfriend pregnant. Faced with that responsibility, he decided to join the army. While in the army, he learned the power of discipline. He also got tremendous inspiration from a drill sergeant who told him, “You’re in here because you can’t make it in civilian life!” After his stint as a Ranger, he settled into civilian life by becoming a master criminal. It was during this time period that Ice got into a horrific car accident and was in a coma for three days. At this point in his life, the new musical form of Rap debuted and quickly caught on. Ice had always made gang rhymes (“Crips don’t die, they multiply”) and realized that he had a talent for writing street poetry. Rather than mimicking the braggadocious party raps that everyone else was doing, he created the genre of gangster rap. When he approached record labels about his music he was always told three things: only East Coast rappers sell, rap music is a fad, and you’re not talented. Time and time again, Ice was thrown into adversity. The tune of his life was the repetitive ‘obstacle, opportunity, obstacle, opportunity’. His mindset at every juncture brought him success. In his lecture Overcoming Adversity he talks about the lessons he learned and what he did to not just survive, but to THRIVE. In the current climate that we’re in, these inspiring lessons are even more relevant and profound.
