Education/early years
Body Count was born in the early 90s, with him and fellow Crenshaw High School Ernie C (lead guitar), Mooseman (bass), Beatmaster V (drums) and D-Roc (rhythm guitar) teaming up around their love of heavy metal and hard rock music. Ice-T became the vocalist, although he didn’t feel like he had the right voice for metal at the time, as he already had an established career as a rapper.
The group debuted in Lollapalooza in 1991, with part of Ice’s set being their solo hip-hop songs and the other half being Body Count. The set was a huge success and in 1992 the band released their self-titled debut album.
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affecting
Ice-T has said in the past that Body Count’s two biggest influences were Black Sabbath and Slayer, with hardcore punk and crossover thrash music – like Suicidal Tendencies – also playing a big role. In a previous interview, Ernie C explained: “We wanted to be a big punk band […] Our first record is almost a punk record.”
The band paid homage to their influences on several occasions, recording their own version of Suicidal Tendencies’ hit “Institutionalized” and doing a double cover of Slayer’s tracks, “Raining Blood” and “Postmortem”, from the Slayer classic Reign in Blood. album. Body Count also covered Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” and “Hey Joe”, written by Billy Moses and made famous by Jimi Hendrix. They also wrote their own version of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”.
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Style and sound
Body Count has often been credited with giving rise to the rise of rap-metal – in some cases nu-metal in general – for its use of hip-hop-style vocals over heavy, thrash music. Arguably, Ice-T doesn’t necessarily rap in the majority of Body Count’s songs, but his bold, aggressive delivery has a cadence reminiscent of rapping, earning the band the rap-metal label.
Although they’ve been placed in many genres over the years, the most apt description of Body Count’s sound would be crossover thrash, which is basically a mix of metal, hardcore, and thrash.
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“Cop Killer” Controversy
Just as the group was beginning to ride high on their budding success and popularity, a major controversy crumbled over their heads. One of the songs on their debut album was titled “Cop Killer” and was meant to criticize corrupt police officers. However, many police organizations across the country were offended by the songs.
Notably, George HW Bush, who was President of the United States at the time, criticized Warner Bros. Records for even considering allowing the song to be released. Ice-T ultimately chose to remove the song from the album because he “didn’t want my band to be typecast”.
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Death of Beatmaster V, Mooseman and D-Roc the Executioner
Unfortunately, during Body Count’s tenure as a powerful metal band, three of the original members passed away. In 1996, Beatmaster V died of leukemia shortly after the band finished recording their third album, Violent Death: The Last Days.
Mooseman, who left the band in 2004, died in 2001 after being shot in a drive-by shooting. At the time of his death, Mooseman was a member of Iggy Pop’s band The Trolls.
Finally, D-Roc the Executioner died in 2004, his cause of death being attributed to complications from lymphoma. Ice-T and Ernie C are the only remaining original members of the group.
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Hiatus
After D-Roc’s death, Body Count released their fourth album, Murder 4 Rental, which dropped in 2006. The band then chose to keep a low profile for a while, with Ernie C releasing a statement about his tentative plans. “We will continue the band,” he said. “I don’t know if it will be Body Count, but in some form Ice and I will always play together.”
In subsequent years, the group’s activity was sporadic. In 2009 they played a set for the 15th anniversary of the Vans Warped Tour. They also wrote an exclusive song for the Gears of War 3 video game, titled “The Gears of War”, in 2011.
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Back on stage
In 2012, six years after their last album, Ice-T announced that Body Count would be releasing a brand new album, Manslaughterwhich was released in January 2013. The album was the band’s first and only recording with Summerian Records and featured guest vocals from Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta on one track.
A few years later, Body Count signed to Century Media Records and released Bloodlust (2017). This album featured guests like Dave Mustaine from Megadeth, Randy Blythe from Lamb of God and former Sepulture frontman Max Cavalera. It also earned the band their first Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, for the song “Black Hoodie”.
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Carnivorous
Last year, Body Count published Carnivorous, which led to their victory at the Grammy Awards this year. The album was critically acclaimed and featured a new track with Jasta, as well as tracks with Evanescence vocalist Amy Lee and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo.
Particularly, Carnivorous also featured a song with the late Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, who died in 2020, and was also nominated with his band for Best Metal Performance of 2021.
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