The buzz is building for the long-awaited porn debut of rapper/actor/former pimp Ice-T, Ice-T's Pimpin' 101. The Tony Diablo-directed video, which Ice hosts and provides music for but does not have sex in, was originally scheduled for a January 28th release date but has been pushed back to sometime this month. The delay has resulted in an unexpected media frenzy over the tape, which was produced by Fatt Entertainment/Antigua Pictures and will be distributed via IVD.
"Much of the coverage is coming from hip hop magazines who want to tackle the angle of how he made the switch from hip hop to mainstream TV and now porn," IVD Director of Publicity Mitch Mitchell told AVN.com. "If you think about it, he's just going back to his roots, as he was a pimp before anything else."
According to Todd Blatt, President of Antigua Pictures, Source and XXL are among the rap mags to cover the video, as well as mainstream media such as Entertainment Weekly, Blender and CBS News. "The National Enquirer is doing an big exclusive story that will come out tomorrow and Star has one coming out too," confirmed Blatt. "Plus, he'll be on Late Night With Conan O'Brien Friday night."
"We sent a bunch of DVD trailers over to Conan's people to see if they'd give 'em away to the audience, but they said it was too hard for them," said Mitchell. "Hopefully he'll talk about the video with Conan. In fact, I've been fielding a lot of calls from Europe too, believe it or not, based on that DVD trailer."
"We certainly expect it to do well," Mitchell continued. "We've been fielding media and sales calls and have lots of pre-orders. So people are really waiting for this release."
Fans can catch the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star at the Key Club in West Hollywood, Calif. Saturday night with his band Body Count.
