Illegal Foreign Object

In ’92, “Cop Killer” was one of those songs that seems like more of a myth than actual music. You simply could not find a version of the Body Count debut album that included the track. “Have you heard it,” you’d ask, only to be told, “Nah, man, but a kid at the skate park told me his brother has a copy of it that he recorded over the phone from a friend in Arizona”. Everyone in our circle of friends was on high alert for the record; everyone was asking everyone else how to get a copy. For a lot of us, tape trading was our lifeblood; it’s what turned us on to some of the greatest bands of all time, and those pre-Internet times were something else when it came to running down rare songs.

The previous year, the California rap scene had blown up in a very big way. Ice Cube released Death Certificate, Ice-T released O.G. Original Gangster, and DJ Quik dropped the G-Funk classic Quik Is The Name. As L.A. hip hop was on the rise, the L.A. rock scene was looking sillier and sillier. MTV had spent a decade cranking out the likes of Poison, Mötley Crüe, and Warrant. We all listened to (and loved) those bands, but the genre had gotten stagnant and repetitive. Rock ‘n’ roll just didn’t feel “dangerous” anymore, and 1991 signaled a shift in our listening needs. When Ice-T decided to marry his love for hip-hop and hardcore, as a bunch of punk rock-loving metal kids with a love for all things heavy, we were all ears. Anthrax and Public Enemy had just told us it was cool to embrace metal and rap with equal aplomb, and when the “Cop Killer” controversy hit, it only encouraged our incorrigible asses to make an even louder noise and raise an even more defiant middle finger. “You’re gonna tell us what we can and can’t hear? Fuck you!” Our fathers were racist pricks and they were doing everything they could to indoctrinate us. They told us their lies; cats like Ice-T told us their truths. It cannot be understated how much of that era was a war for the hearts and minds of the youth. For a lot of kids, this was the first time that we were being talked to about heady topics like police brutality, racism, gun violence, and drug abuse. There’s an important distinction there — we were being “talked to”, not “talked at”. Artists like Ice-T weren’t demanding that we listen to them. Instead, they were asking us to open our eyes, to get involved, to seek out the truth of our surroundings.

So, when the President and Vice President of the United States of America went on national TV to speak out against Ice-T, those of us in the know chalked it up for what it was — horseshit posturing. This wasn’t about a song — this was about control. Shareholders of Warner Brothers stock threatened to sell off their shares. One of said shareholders (and the president of the National Rifle Association), Charlton Heston, demanded Body Count be dropped by Warner Brothers altogether. Ice-T had gone and pissed off Moses, y’all! This was a bunch of rich, white men, men who had always been able to keep their thumb down on a large segment of the population, calling upon their dwindling hordes to slap us down. The LAPD responded, and all but declared war on Ice-T, his record label, his distributor, and hell, the music industry as a whole. Looking back on it, the entire ordeal was trumped up and blown way out of proportion, all in an effort to remind teens and minorities that we needed to “know our place”.

After taking full advantage of the controversy (and soaking up every last bit of free marketing garnered via the national media), Ice-T and Sire Records ultimately decided to yank the album, re-releasing it w/o the track. The extra press (and the remaining songs on the album) resulted in an RIAA gold record certification, the only one in the band’s history. Ice-T could have kicked against the pricks — instead, he understood what the rest of the album represented and didn’t want it to get shut down because of one song. If it had been a weak album that would be one thing. It wasn’t, and “Cop Killer” does not define it (even if it remains its most memorable track to non-fans).

“Cop Killer” ended up being one of the most talked-about songs of the year, with the controversy surrounding it only fueling our desire to play the track at insane volumes in the general direction of anyone we thought it might annoy. In that way, it’s a shame that so much of Body Count‘s notoriety is wrapped up in a single song, but as much as we were maturing, we were still just kids (and hardly above pissing off the establishment). Truth be told, “Cop Killer” isn’t even one of the band’s better songs, nor is it the band’s most violent from an imagery standpoint. It’s just the one that the self-righteous decided to use to push their narrative and exert control.

30+ years after the fact, Body Count is still going strong, built largely off the foundation of a killer debut. From the single “There Goes The Neighborhood” to the punk-fueled hate song “KKK Bitch” to the heart-wrenching “The Winner Loses”, Ice-T, co-founder Ernie C., D-Roc the Executioner, Beatmaster V, Mooseman, Sean E Sean, and Sean E. Mac plugged in and riled up the uptight masses. They, along with Biohazard breathed life into a subgenre of hardcore that would ultimately foster the likes of Deftones, Downset, Orange 9mm, and Stuck Mojo. Korn and Limp Bizkit owe Body Count a ton. Hell, Body Count took Rage Against The Machine out on one of Zach and Co.’s first tours.

In its history, the band has released seven albums, toured the world, and even messed around and won a Grammy Award in the Best Metal Performance category for the song “Bum-Rush”. Not bad for a group of guys who just wanted to play a little rock ‘n’ roll.

Track List:

1. Smoked Pork/Body Count’s In The House 8/10
2. Now Sports/Body Count 6/10
3. A Statistic/Bowels Of The Devil 7/10
4. The Real Problem/KKK Bitch 7/10
5. C Note 7/10
6. Voodoo 7/10
7. The Winner Loses 10/10
8. There Goes The Neighborhood 9/10
9. Oprah/Evil Dick 6/10
10. Body Count Anthem 7/10
11. Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight 7/10
12. Out In The Parking Lot/Cop Killer 7/10
13. Freedom Of Speech 8/10

Grade: 74