Doctor Ice
b. c.1965, USA. Rapper thus named because he wanted to belong to the medical profession while at school, eventually declining such a career because ‘it meant too many more years to go through’. Ice was formerly a member of U.T.F.O., with whom he remained for five years, and before that Whodini, as a live dancer (one of the first such occurences). Striking out solo he enlisted the aid of Full Force member Brain ‘B-Fine’ Lou to write new material. The record was completed within one month. Ice toured to support it, appearing in white coat and with a medical team as part of the ‘theme’. His two dancers were presented as ‘patients’, and his DJ ‘the surgeon’. Other songs traced different ‘concepts’ but were similarly narrative: in the single excerpt, Sue Me, Ice is depicted in the accompanying video driving a white Porsche until his alter ego, Doctor Dread, crashes into him in a taxi, with riotous court scenes and accusation and counter-accusation following. Love Jones featured contributions from Full Force and Cheryl ‘Pepsi’ Riley, while the album closed with True Confessions, which featured a cameo from Lisa Lisa and Blair Underwood of L.A. Law fame, on a song concerning an unhappy married couple and their interceding lawyer. Renaming himself simply Doc Ice, he switched to Ichiban to set up his own Selph Records, which housed his RELY ON SELPH set. In the intervening years, rather than hanging up his stethascope as many had assumed, he had developed a career in acting and choreography, working on several high profile commercials and the feature film, Don't Let Your Meat Loaf.