Body Count

The pioneering rap metal band assembled by Ice-T in the early 1990s is known more for the "Cop Killer" controversy than for its actual music. But listen carefully: ferocious guitar licks and hardcore rhymes dominate, and there are unapologetic anthems like "KKK Bitch" and "Momma's Gotta Die Tonight."

It can't be easy being a self-appointed censor: Not only must you sit and fume as the world
goes to hell in a boombox, but you're faced with the time-consuming task of sifting through
countless rap and metal albums in order to ferret out offensive material. That's why the
P.M.R.C. and its ilk ought to be grateful for Body Count, rap star Ice-T's thrash album, since
it provides the porn patrol with the equivalent of one-stop shopping. Hate those... More >

Exploiting and burlesquing the style's whiteskin privilege from "Smoked Pork" to "Cop Killer," Ice-T's metal album takes rap's art-ain't-life defense over the top. Not only does he off pigs, he murders his mom--because she taught him to hate white people. Then he cuts her up, sticks her well-catalogued body parts in Hefty bags, deposits same all over this great land of ours, and suggests that listeners with parents on the racist tip follow his example. For Satanism he tangles with a voodoo queen and enters the "Bowels of the Devil," a/k/a the state pen. He wilds with Tipper's 12-year-old nieces, f*cks his "KKK Bitch" in the ass when a rally gets his dick hard, and fakes an orgasm for good measure. And like any long-haired frontman worth his chart position, he sings a tender ballad--in which a coke fiend steals enough money to buy the best sh*t, then goes cardiac when he smokes it. (Grade - A-)