Maybe no one saw the humor, or maybe they were distracted by the barely competent heavy metal of the album, but rapper
Ice-T's heavy metal group launched a hurricane of publicity with their self-titled debut album,
Body Count.
Ice-T's music had been hard as heavy metal for a number of years, and on 1991's landmark
OG Original Gangster, he recorded the speed metal/hip-hop fusion "Body Count" with his band of the same name.
Body Count's lineup included Ernie-C (guitar), D-Roe (guitar),
Mooseman (bass), and
Beatmaster V (drums), all of whom attended Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles. On the 1991 Lollapalooza tour,
Ice-T performed with
Body Count and earned a substantial amount of fans and praise. "Body Count" was a highlight of
OG and, not coincidentally, it was the most serious and best song on their 1992 album. For the rest of
Body Count, the band engaged in heavy metal clichés and lyrics that were either humorously over the top or cringe-inducing.
After it was out for a couple of months, fury over the song "Cop Killer" made the album a symbol for everything that was wrong with popular culture. After several months of constant bad publicity, Warner Brothers and
Ice-T pulled the song from the album; several months later, he parted ways with the record company.
Body Count released their second album,
Born Dead, on
Ice-T's new record label, Priority, in 1994. The record failed to generate either controversy or sales and disappeared shortly after its fall release, after which
Mooseman left the band. Despite declining interest in
Body Count,
Ice-T stuck with the band, recording the group's third album,
Violent Demise: Last Days, in 1997; sadly,
Beatmaster V fell victim to leukemia early that year. Upon the release of
Violent Demise, most critics suddenly got
Body Count's sense of humor and, consequently, the album received fairly good reviews, yet failed to sell. In 2005 the band was revived and hit the road. Three live DVDs and one live CD were sourced from the tour.
–
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi