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title: Rapper Ice-T Records Dungeons &amp; Dragons Audiobook for Audible
description: &quot;You roll a 5 and encounter a... WTF??&quot;
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author: Kyle Chayka
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article:published_time: 2014-02-06T16:11:25.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:04.100Z
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![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd19b62b2a5593ab1/69868206169ab0859b277e2d/ice-t-final-level.jpg?branch=production&width=349&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# Recording a Dungeons & Dragons Audiobook Was One of the Hardest Things Ice-T Has Ever Done

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by 

[Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/)


## Kyle Chayka


Feb 6, 2014 4:11 PM UTC

![Ice-T](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd19b62b2a5593ab1/69868206169ab0859b277e2d/ice-t-final-level.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

Even his podcast title is appropriate.

Even his podcast title is appropriate. iTunes

by 

[Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/)


## Kyle Chayka


Feb 6, 2014 4:11 PM UTC

When rapper and _Law and Order_ star Ice-T tried to expand his talents into the burgeoning field of recording audiobooks, “It took me three-and-a-half hours to read 25 pages,” he said on a recent episode of his [podcast](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNEkjbgxRG0). That’s because he was trying to read a Dungeons & Dragonsbook.

The experience of trying to pronounce vocabulary like [Zerthimon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerthimon), [Vlaakith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlaakith), and [Krusk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons%5F%26%5FDragons%5Ficonic%5Fcharacters) was exhausting. “When you read these books, you make up the pronunciation in your head. But to actually verbally say this words? Son,” he said. “I needed breaks. I needed water.”

Recording a 40-page short story eventually took Ice-T two days. “Every word you’re saying is pretty much made up. \[Characters\] talk like Yoda: Outside I go, into the sun thereof, in, out….how do you read this \[stuff\]?” the [_Los Angeles Times_ transcribes](http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-ice-t-dungeons-dragons-audiobook-20140205,0,3370890.story#axzz2sXqDCWv9).

If fantasy writing is too much, maybe he could just rap about D&D instead? [Verses](http://rapgenius.com/Body-count-cop-killer-lyrics) like “I got my brain on hype, tonight’ll be your night, I got this long-assed knife,” are… almost appropriate. If they were about knights slaying giant monsters in caves instead of policemen.

It’s a great marketing move: an Ice-T audiobook is pretty much the only way you could make us buy anything D&D related. Just don’t call it [nerdcore](http://frontalot.com/index.php/).

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