The Ice Opinion

THE ICE OPINION Ice T, as told to Heidi Siegmund (St. Martin's Press, $17.95) You want the really shocking truth about Ice T? He's a passionate-and compassionate-social philosopher, a man with both spiritual vision and an understanding of why gangs and ghettos have gotten so violent. That (along with an outrageous sense of humor) is what this book reveals, and, as just about anyone who ever talked to Ice T can tell you, it's 100 percent accurate. Heidi Siegmund, a music journalist and Entertainment Weekly contributor, presents the real Ice T-edgy and articulate-which should only help white middle-class readers (who might be put off by his street tough style) focus on his ideas. Ice T is not obsessed with killing cops (though he does think they function in the black community as little more than a violent gang). He's obsessed with bringing hope to young black men, who, he says, are given no reason to believe in anything but violent self-assertion and death. A -Greg Sandow