Ice-T Says Controversy Doesn't Make Money: 'You Get a Lot of Buzz, but Now You Need Lawyers'

Ice-T’s advice to musicians who want to say something controversial? Stick to what you really think and defend yourself.

Ahead of the upcoming album by his heavy metal band Body Count Without mercythe 66-year-old rapper answered fan questions from The Guardian. One person asked about the band’s 1992 protest song “Cop Killer” and whether he was feeling the “heat” and regretted releasing it.

“I never wondered, but the heat came when they started sending the bomb threats to Warner Bros. I threw a rock, that’s my heat,” Ice-T explained. “But when other people might get hurt, it’s nerve-wracking.”

“But I have news for people: anyone who thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. There is a lot of talk about you, but now you need lawyers,” he continued. “So don’t just say something stupid and back off – if you’re going to say something, stick to it.”

Ice-T in January 2024.

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Following the song’s release, The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) called for a boycott of Time Warner products, which law enforcement organizations across the country followed suit.

Former National Association of Chiefs of Police president Dennis R. Martin claimed at the time that the song fueled “racial tensions in cities across the country” and was partially responsible for two police shootings.

Ice-T defended the creation of the song, saying Associated Press, “At no point do I go out and say, ‘Let’s do it.’ I sing in the first person as a character fed up with police brutality. I never killed a cop.

Warner Bros. executives and shareholders began receiving death threats, eventually leading to Ice-T, born Tracy Morrow, announcing that he would pull the song from all subsequent copies of Body Count’s self-titled debut.

“When people attack society, that’s a real punk move,” Ice-T said at a 1992 press conference announcing the song’s removal from The Washington Post. “They’re afraid to come after me. This is my fight — and Sister Souljah’s fight, Ice Cube’s fight.”

Body Count at Afropunk Brooklyn on August 23, 2014.

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Ice-T forced reporters to watch a 40-minute civil rights documentary before announcing the “cop killer” decision.

“I don’t understand why I should like the police,” he said after the documentary ended. “None of my leaders liked them. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. They were never friends of black people. As for the ones who do the job right, I have all the respect in the world for them. As for the brutal ones, I’d rather get rid of them before they get rid of me.”

The rapper and actor played NYPD detective Odafin Tutuola Law and Order: Special Victims Unit since 2000. Recently, X user asked Ice if the show was back to “normal” after it “woke up”.

The “Colors” rapper immediately shut him down, asking “Who the F is woken up? Lol. Like f*ck….”

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Source: HIS Education