Ice-T has insisted that “controversy” is not a way to make money.
The rapper — whose real name is Tracy Lauren Marrow — caused a stir in 1992 when he and his band Body Count released the track “Cop Killer”. While the furor created “a lot of buzz” when it was decided that it was an attack on the police, he has insisted that the move was not particularly lucrative.
“I never really questioned myself, but the heat came when they started sending bomb threats to [our record label at] Warner Bros.,” he said, responding to a fan’s question in The Guardian. “I threw the rock; that’s my heat. But when other people could get hurt, that’s nerve-racking. But I got news for people: anybody who thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. You get a lot of buzz, but now you need lawyers. So don’t just say something stupid and then backpedal – if you’re going to say something, stand on it.”
The “I’m Your Pusher” hitmaker was the founding member of the heavy metal band. When a fan pointed out that, as a Black man, that was a groundbreaking thing to do at the time, Ice-T never “really cared” about that angle of it and just followed his musical ambitions.
“I didn’t really care, I was just trying to do me,” the Law & Order: SVU star stated. “Of course, yes, it feels good to see the genre merge and change, but that wasn’t my agenda. My agenda was simple: to play in a band with [guitarist] Ernie C. Touring in Europe with Public Enemy, I’d noticed the kids would mosh off of fast rap, and that’s what sparked the idea to do Body Count: to do a fast rock band. It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s get Black people in.’ It was just … I’m going to do this s—.”
