Divorced from the controversy that surrounded its release, Body Count's self-titled debut is a surprisingly tepid affair. Apart from the previously released "Body Count" (which appeared on Ice-T's 1991 album O.G. Original Gangster), the record is devoid of serious commentary, trading intelligence for a lurid comic book depiction of sex, violence, and "Voodoo." All of Ice-T's half-sung/half-shouted lyrics fall far short of the standard he established on his hip-hop albums. The controversial "Cop Killer" -- which is nothing more than a standard thrash metal chant -- stands out because it is one of the few tracks that doesn't rely on garish, cartoonish imagery. There's the saga of "Evil Dick," which tells Ice-T not to "sleep alone." There's "KKK Bitch," where he crashes a Ku Klux Klan meeting and screws the grand dragon's daughter. There's "Voodoo," where a witch doctor cripples our hero with a voodoo doll. There's "Mama's Gotta Die Tonight," where Ice-T offs his mother cause she's a racist. By the time the band works around to the power ballad "The Winner Loses" and Ice-T is crooning "My friend's addicted to cocaine," it's unclear whether the record is a parody or a horribly flawed stab at arena metal. It would help if the band wrote riffs that were memorable or if they conveyed a sense of kinetic energy instead of tossing out their riffs in a workmen-like fashion. Perhaps Body Count was intentionally humorous -- although the group's follow-up, Born Dead, suggests that it wasn't -- but in any case, the record was simply embarrassing. After "Cop Killer" was pulled from the album, it was replaced with a bland version of Ice-T's rap classic "The Iceberg" recorded with Jello Biafra.
Track | Artist | Duration |
---|---|---|
Smoked Pork | 0:47 | |
Body Count's In The House | 3:24 | |
Now Sports | 0:04 | |
Body Count | 5:17 | |
A Statistic | 0:06 | |
Bowels Of The Devil | 3:43 | |
The Real Problem | 0:11 | |
KKK Bitch | 2:52 | |
C Note | 1:35 | |
Voodoo | 5:00 | |
The Winner Loses | 6:32 | |
Their Goes The Neighborhood | 5:50 | |
Oprah | 0:06 | |
Evil Dick | 3:58 | |
Body Count Anthem | 2:46 | |
Momma's Gotta Die Tonight | 6:11 | |
Freedom Of Speech | 4:40 | |
Cop Killer | 4:09 |