Black Lives Matter? Ice-T And Body Count Have Something To Say About That

Body Count's new album, Bloodlust, will be out March 31 but yesterday, the band's new single was released. You can hear it-- and watch the provocative new video-- above; please do. It's special for me, mostly because Bodycount is a band I worked with when I was general manger of Sire Records. Seymour Stein had signed Ice-T to the label and he was a star-- a successful star who sold a lot of albums. In 1990 Ice asked me to come see his metal band, Body Count, play. Their music and stage show were right up my alley and they were a big hit at Lollapalooza in 1991. It's nice when you work at a record company and actually like the music you have to work.

In early 1992, we released the eponymous album and I was thrilled that Ice had decided to give me credit as executive producer. What an honor! Commercially-speaking, he album was modestly successful-- not on an Ice-T level-- but big for a debut by a new rock band. I don't remember the exact figure but we had sold a solid 100,000 albums when the record was "over." Returns started trickling back from the retail accounts and it was time to start thinking about the next Ice-T album. Then something incredible happened.

We hadn't got a lot of airplay or effective promotion for the Body Count album. But then the Dallas Police force got involved and started complaining about the song "Cop Killer." Complaining really loudly... and really effectively. DC politicians suddenly saw an opportunity to jump on a slightly, subtly racist "law and order" bandwagon. And it wasn't just Republicans. Suddenly we had Dan Quayle and then George H.W. Bush denouncing our artist and their song by name-- on national TV. The trickle of returns stopped and the orders for more album started coming in-- bigly! The album went gold quickly, quickly enough for me to make a gold album for Dan Quayle for helping get the massive sales rush going. (My boss asked me not to send it to him.)

Soon Tipper Gore and Joe Lieberman jumped in and started denouncing us. (Anyone remember the PMRC?) It turned into a real mess. The police would claim several times a week that they had a bomb threat for our building and kept evacuating us so they could search the building. It was pure harassment and it went on and on and on. In the end, the corporate bosses in New York were concerned about Time Warner's stock price. They demanded we drop Ice-T. We refused. They demanded louder. Eventually, the chairman of the company asked me if I wanted to go to New York and argue the case. I said sure. He asked me if I owned a suit. I said, "Of course... I had a bar mitzvah." He looked at me strangely and wished me luck. When the meeting was done-- they walked out cursing under their collective breath-- I was sure my career at Warner Bros was over.

The next time I saw these corporate overseers was about a year later at a company meeting. By then I was the president of Reprise Records, one of their crown jewels. They looked at me and I could see then thinking, "Oh my God, it's him again! Where are the aspirins!" In the interim, though, Ice decided to leave Warner Bros, amicably. I was sad too see him go but it worked out really well for him-- and Warner Bros was basically out of the Black Music business for years.

Among the guest musicians on the album-- not on this song though-- are Megadeth's Dave Mustaine )n the song "Civil War"), Randy Blyth from Lamb of God (on the song "Walk With Me") and Soulfly's Max Cavalera (on the song "All Love is Lost"). There's also a cover Slayer's "Raining Blood" and "Postmortem."

Here are the "No Lives Matter" lyrics:

It’s unfortunate that we even have
To say Black Lives Matter
I mean if you go through history
Nobody ever gave a fuck
I mean you can kill Black People in the street
Nobody goes to jail nobody goes to prison,
But when I say Black Lives Matter
And you say All Lives Matter
That’s like if I was to say Gay Lives Matter
And you say All Lives Matter
If I said Women’s Lives Matter
and you say All Lives Matter
You dilutin’ what i’m sayin’
You dilutin’ the issue the issue isn’t about everybody
It’s about Black Lives at the moment,
But the truth of the matter is they don’t really give a fuck about anybody
if you break the shit all the way down to the low fuckin’ dirty ass truth.

We say that Black Lives Matter
But truthfully they really never have
No one really ever gave a fuck just
Read your bullshit history books
But honestly it ain’t just Black
It’s Yellow, it’s Brown, it’s Red,
It’s anyone who ain’t got cash
Poor Whites that they call trash

They can’t fuck with us
Once we realize we’re all on the same side
They can’t split us up,
And let ‘em prosper off the divide
They can’t fuck with us
Once we realize we’re all on the same side
They can’t split us up and let ‘em
Prosper off the divide

Don't fall for the bait and switch
Racisim is real but not it,
They fuck whoever can’t fight back
But now we got to change all that
The people  have had enough
Right now it’s them against us
This shit is ugly to the core
When it comes to the poor  - NO LIVES MATTER

America’s always been
A place that’s judged by skin,
And racisim is real as fuck
Ain’t no way to play that off,
And in the eyes of the law
Black skin has always stood for poor
This is basic shit - They know who they’re fuckin’ with

They can’t fuck with us
Once we realize we’re all on the same side
They can’t split us up,
And let ‘em prosper off the divide
They can’t fuck with us
Once we realize we’re all on the same side
They can’t split us up and let ‘em
Prosper off the divide

Don't fall for the bait and switch
Racisim is real but not it,
They fuck whoever can’t fight back
But now we got to change all that
The people  have had enough
Right now it’s them against us
This shit is ugly to the core
When it comes to the poor  - NO LIVES MATTER

You never see ‘em pullin’ rich people
Out of they cars in their neighborhood
Because they know they got lawyers
They know they’ll sue their ass
They can tell who to fuck with
Unfortunately Black or Brown skin
Has always meant poor
They’re profiling you kid they know
You can’t fight back, but we about  to

In an interview with Paul Gargano last month, Ice said that he "may have an acting job to fall back on, but my core still looks out there and says that people are a bunch of pussies. What the fuck!?! I never had a hard time putting myself on the line, now I want people to stand up and open their eyes. People are dumb, they don’t know. The cops shoot kids and they say it’s white people-- it ain’t white people, it’s the cops! Racism is real, but that’s not all that’s happening here. I’m singing to my white audience and letting them know that I see them as an ally, and I’m singing to my black audience and telling them to judge a devil by their deeds. I’m trying to lose that picture of the one-dimensional gangster. Mother fuckers that act hard are the fakest mother fuckers in the world-- us right now, this is how human beings really are. We can joke and talk shit, we can hit a political note and be adamant and angry as shit, then on the next note you can be watching cartoons and bouncing your kid on your knee. I’m not worried about people misinterpreting me anymore-- the dummies misinterpret, and the real fans will assassinate them for that. The intention here was to make some great music, open some eyes, and offer people some entertainment. People should rock to this-- I didn’t want to make a mix tape, I wanted to make a BODY COUNT album."

I have a feeling the cops aren't going to be any happier about this one than they were about "Cop Killer," since the implication is clear-- that cops kill innocent people. I wonder if Trump's going to help it go platinum. Listen again.