Split Decision: Life Stories

(Paperback)

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Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Ice-T unveils a compelling memoir of his early life robbing jewelry stores until he found fame and fortunewhile a handful of bad choices sent his former crime partner down an incredibly different path.

Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s, earning acclaim for his music before going on to enthrall television audiences as Odafin Fin Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it could have gone much differently.

In this poignant and powerful (Library Journal, starred review) memoir, Ice-T and Spike, his former crime partnercollaborating with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Centuryrelate the shocking stories of their shared pasts, and how just a handful of decisions led to their incredibly different lives. Both grew up in violent, gang-controlled Los Angeles neighborhoods and worked together to orchestrate a series of jewelry heists.

But while Ice-T was discovered rapping in a club and got his first record deal, Spike was caught for a jewelry robbery and did three years in prison. As his music career began to take off, Ice made the decision to abandon the criminal life; Spike continued to plan increasingly ingenious and risky jewel heists. And in 1992, after one of Spikes robberies ended tragically, he was sentenced to thirty-five years to life. While he sat behind bars, he watched his former partner rise to fame in music, movies, and television.

Propulsive (Publishers Weekly, starred review), timely, and thoughtful, two men with two very different lives reveal how their paths might have very well been reversed if they made different choices. All it took was a split decision.

Author Bio

Ice-T is an award-winning rapper, actor, songwriter and producer. He released a string of groundbreaking rap albums in the 1980s and then formed the Grammy Awardwinning metal band Body Count with high school friend and guitarist Ernie C. He has appeared in numerous films, includingNew Jack City,Ricochet, andTrespass.In his role as Detective Tutuola on NBCsLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ice holds the distinction of being the longest running male actor on any primetime drama in history.Through his music and lecture tours, Ice-T has become an influential spokesman for Americas youth. Follow him on Twitter @FinalLevel.

Spike,bornin Los Angeles in 1962,first met Ice-T in the early 1980s and was an original member of Ices Rhyme Syndicate. He currently resides in LA and devotes much of his time to leading outreach programs aimed at at-risk youth.

Douglas Centuryis the author and coauthor of numerous bestsellers includingUnder and Alone, Hunting El Chapo,andTakedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire, a finalist for the 2003 Edgar Award in the category of Best Fact Crime. A veteran investigative journalist, Century last collaborated with Ice-T on the acclaimedIce: A Memoir of Gangster LifeFrom South Central to Hollywood.