Body Count are a fusion of metal, rock, rap and hardcore. The brain behind the band is the rapper Ice-T. While he is a rapper, this is his rock record. The music isn’t that strong but Ice-T tries to put a strong message into each song and even the fillers. Each filler is about 5-10 seconds and it is a message in the form of a news bulletin. Some examples include “This weekend, 17 youths killed in gang homicide, now sports.” and “Our statistic, at this moment there is more black males in prison than in college.” All the band is black and Ice-T’s lyrics are what make up for it. A lot are quite shallow but he does have some good opinions. The majority of the lyrics is about race, one song is about Ice-T killing his mother for telling him to not trust white people and one song is even about killing cops for holding up black people (more on this in a minute).
The sad thing is that this album never got any attention at all but one song on the album caused out-burst. Cop Killer is about killing cops because as the story tells, Ice-T was held up by a cop because he was black. This caused riots in America and the PMRC went crazy trying to ban the track. The track actually ended up becoming a true story in America until the PMRC won the fight and the track was banned. This is quite sad because this is one of the best songs on the album and while the lyrics are quite controversial, it is true in many ways. A lot of the lyrics are quite divisive, KKK Bitch is about Ice-T getting naughty with a white girl. Smoked Pork is a 46 second filler and it follows Cop Killer in a way. It is quite creepy for something so true. The Winner Loses is about drug addiction and the album just goes into each other.
Okay, Body Count aren’t great musicians, the guitarist barely goes out of basic power-chords. The drummer never goes out a basic beat and the bassist isn’t anything to smile about. It is a fun listen and they’re great if you don’t take them too seriously. The band stands for what no other rock/metal band does, they take a stand for black people. It is quite fresh to see these days. After this album the band just fell apart. This was released on a major label and because of the Cop Killer incident, they got dropped. They then signed to an independent label and released Born Dead which failed compared to this album. Half the band have passed away with one committing suicide and one dying from a disease. The irony of the whole thing is that Ice-T plays a cop in one show.
Favourites include Cop Killer, Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight, The Winner Loses and Body Count’s In The House. While Cop Killer is very explicit, it’s still a great starting off with a bit of spoken word by Ice-T and then this full on punk song with machine gun sounds throughout the song giving it certain imagery. It’s an entertaining song even though it’s pretty simple. If Cop Killer has a big imagery going on then Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight is it’s big brother. It has the same guitar riff throughout the song and the whole lyrics is based on Ice-T’s mother telling him not to trust any other race. “She said, don’t trust white people, don’t trust white people. They’re no good, they’re no good. They’re just gonna rip you off, they’re just gonna rip you off.” says Ice-T and the song has an amazing climax. Ending with Ice-T stabbing his mother with a kitchen knife and setting her on fire. Ice-T screams, “Burn bitch! Burn bitch, burn you racist bitch!!!” Ice-T then puts the parts of his mother’s body into bags and sent it to other countries.
The Winner Loses is a ballad starting off with a simple acoustic pattern and Ice-T actually sings heart out in the song. The song speaks of a friend Ice-T had that was wasting his life away because of cocaine. The chorus is repeated a lot but it’s chorus is pulled off well. The song has a cool guitar solo and it sets an emotional atmosphere. The guitar solo lasts for ages and the chorus sings “You want to get high as the sky, you’re kissing your life goodbye, you think it’s a game that you play but the winners lose all some day.” The song ends with the chorus over acoustic guitar, it’s a great song. Freedom of Speech is a more rap song than a rock song and is simply attacking the PMRC (for those who don’t know, the PMRC is an organisation ran by Tipper Gore in censoring music with a parental advisory sticker) and it features Jello Biafra.
If you are easily offended then please don’t listen to this but if you want a rock/metal record with a heavy rap influence then this is right up your street. There is 7 filler songs on this but they at least serve a purpose on the album and the songs don’t really have a lot of substance. This is a fun listen for a while but it isn’t something you could put as your favourite album. It’s okay to listen to this if you’re white but if you are coloured then this could certainly relate to you. In many ways the lyrics could relate to the hardcore bands of the 80s. Body Count come from poor areas and they don’t have a lot of money so that could relate to the hardcore bands.
Cathedral says, “Fun listen but nothing to get excited about”
