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Dann Florek Made Up a Rap for Ice T Years Ago on SVU — and It's Actually Pretty Good
Definitely busting this out at the next birthday party we attend.
It takes guts to bust a rhyme in front of a platinum-selling rapper, but Dann Florek pulled it off.
Florek, who for decades played NYC Police's Capt. Cragen on both Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, recalled the time he decided to toast his co-star Ice T in verse, and it's better than you're probably expecting.
Dann Florek rapped for Ice T's birthday
On comedian Marc Summers' podcast, Florek recalled that Ice T joined the SVU cast at the end of the show's first season in 2000, playing Det. Fin Tutuola. For Ice's birthday at the time (February 16), Florek took what he knew about his co-star — that he's a famous rapper — and used it to create a very special birthday message, which went a little something like this. (FYI: Ice T's legal name is Tracy Lauren Morrow):
Today is your birthday, not yesterday or tomorrow
So happy F-ing birthday, Tracy L. Morrow
You can call yourself Ice T if you wish
But anyway you slice it, you’re one crazy bish
As Florek remembers it, Ice T was impressed, crossing his arms and observing, "Chief wrote me a rhyme."
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as the two actors went on to film literally hundreds of episodes together. During the celebration for SVU's 25th anniversary, Florek remarked, “Some people have been telling me I'm like the OG of the show, but that's the OG right there,” pointing to Ice T.
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Florek's sweet words for Mariska Hargitay
Though we still think of her as Det. Benson, Olivia is actually the captain now! And Florek had equally kind words for Mariska Hargitay, who has starred on SVU since the beginning.
Calling Benson's ascendancy "a beautiful passing of the baton,” he recalled the brief cameo he made on the show's 500th episode (Florek retired from SVU in 2014). “I got to do one little scene, I think I shot it on Zoom, and I was able to say to her — I'm gonna cry — 'You have no idea how proud it makes me to say 'Captain,'" he told People.
RELATED: USA Network Is Airing a Marathon of Law & Order: SVU Episodes for the 25th Anniversary
The veteran actor also told a touching anecdote about what the show has meant to fans. "On the way at the airport today, I was stopped again — and this has happened the entire time. People said, 'As a family, we don't do all that much together, but we watch SVU and then we discuss it' — and all around the country, you know, they get on the phone and do it. How good is that?"
