Be Somebody!

I have become increasingly surprised at the number of people I run into who have never heard of Mr. T. I was always under the impression that the man was one of the icons of our generation. I mean seriously... The A-Team rocked. So I have taken it upon myself to enlighten all who will read.

We will start out with a blurb from wikipedia:

Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud, May 21, 1952) is an actor known for his roles in the 1980s television series The A-Team and as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III.

Laurence Tureaud was born in Chicago, Illinois, the eleventh of twelve children; he and his four sisters and seven brothers grew up in the city's housing projects. He was a college football star, studied martial arts, and won a scholarship to Prairie View A&M University, Texas, but was thrown out after a year.

For about nine years Mr. T was a bodyguard to the stars, protecting such well-known personalities as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross. He charged around $3,000 a day and his business card famously read, "Next to God, there is no better protector than I." He always boasts that he never lost a client, saying, "I got hurt worse growing up in the ghetto than working as a bodyguard."

In 1970 he changed his name by deed poll from Laurence Tureaud to Laurence Tero and then in 1980 to "Mr. T" so that people would have to address him as "Mr."

It was while reading National Geographic that Mr. T first saw the unusual hairstyle for which he is now famous, on an African Mandinka warrior. He decided that adopting the style was a powerful statement about his African origins.

A friend of mine the other day somehow got his hands on an old motivational video that Mr. T did back in the 80s. I have seen few things in my life as funny as this. One of the segments on the video is a rap that Mr. T wrote about "Mothers." You should check out this clip if you haven't seen it already.

I also recently found out that he released a rap CD in about the same year... I am going to see if I can get my hands on some of the tracks.