Ice-T is stepping behind the camera with Fame and Fentanyl, a two-hour A&E special airing August 25 at 9 P.M. ET, spotlighting the deadly grip of fentanyl across America and the lives it continues to steal—including those of Prince, Mac Miller, and Coolio.
The Hip-Hop icon serves as both host and executive producer of the documentary, which weaves together harrowing stories from grieving families, law enforcement officials and the music industry’s most tragic losses.
The project aims to expose the scope of fentanyl’s devastation and educate viewers on its lethal presence in the drug supply.
“Fentanyl, for me, came out of nowhere. By the time I learned about the drug, I had already lost people to it. It’s a poison in the drug world, and I wanted to do everything that I could to make people aware of its danger,” Ice-T said in a statement about the project. “Everyone knows someone who has fallen victim to fentanyl.”
The film arrives as the U.S. sees a sharp decline in overdose deaths.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug-related fatalities dropped from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024—a 27% decrease.
Opioid overdoses, including those involving fentanyl, fell from 83,140 to 54,743 during the same period. Still, fentanyl remains the leading cause of overdose deaths, accounting for nearly 70% of all drug fatalities.
“These are the stories that everyone needs to hear,” Ice-T added.
Among those stories are the high-profile deaths of artists who unknowingly consumed fentanyl-laced substances. Prince died in 2016 after taking counterfeit painkillers containing the synthetic opioid.
Mac Miller passed away in 2018 from a mix of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.
Coolio, best known for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died in 2022 with fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine in his system.
The list continues with Rich Homie Quan, who died in 2024 from a combination of fentanyl, codeine, alprazolam and promethazine.
The documentary dives into how fentanyl is often consumed unknowingly, as it’s frequently mixed with other substances.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 5 out of 10 pills tested in 2024 contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl—down from 7 out of 10 the year before.
The CDC also reported that overdose rates are still disproportionately high among Black, Hispanic, American Indian and multiracial populations, with the highest death rates among adults over 55.