Ice-T says he keeps politics out of Body Count lyrics, and reveals Death Wish as the next album’s working title.
Ice-T has said he deliberately steers Body Count away from direct political writing, on the grounds that the current state of American politics is already plain to anyone watching. Speaking to Czech Republic’s “Metalshop TV” alongside guitarist Ernie “C” Cunnigan, the frontman also confirmed the working title of the band’s next album and revealed that his own new rap record is being sold direct rather than streamed.
Asked whether the political situation in the United States would shape the next Body Count record, Ice-T pointed back to a track from the last one.
“I write the lyrics. I personally stayed away from politics. We did ‘F**k What You Heard‘ [with lyrics like] ‘both wings are on the same bird’ on the last album, because at the end of the day, it’s government. Whether you’re what side, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, it’s government,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He continued: “It’s so obvious that the United States is having a s**t show right now, to the world. So to almost sing about it is redundant. It’s, like, we all know it. It’s obvious. So I try to pick things that are a little bit more abstract. You could come out and just talk s**t about [U.S. president Donald] Trump forever, but it’s just, like, the world knows.”
He added: “One good thing about being black is we’re not held accountable for America’s deeds. People are, like, ‘Y’all black. We not mad at y’all.’ We ain’t in charge of s**t. So we’re just going along for the ride. And when [former U.S. president Barack] Obama was in, the world wasn’t in this much disarray.”
The band have a title but little else so far.
“We got a title [for the next Body Count album]. And I just finished my rap album, which is called Criminal Migraine, that is coming out this month, on the 17th. I’m not streaming the record. We’re going strictly through IceT.com. That’s how we’re getting ready to sell all our records. We’re stopping the streaming. So the fact that I finished that, we’re getting ready to start the new Body Count album. So we have a working title. It’s gonna be called Death Wish.”
On timing, he was blunt: “It’s a process. We’re starting from scratch, so it starts off with the guys making riffs and coming up with all these different ideas and stuff, and then we gotta make them into songs. So it could be at least a year off.”
The decision to pull Criminal Migraine from streaming and sell it only through his own website is a significant one for an artist of his standing, and he framed it as the approach for everything going forward rather than a one-off. It would be his first solo rap album since 2006’s Gangsta Rap, ending a two-decade gap.
Body Count‘s records have grown heavier across the last decade, something Cunnigan put simply: “I think it’s an evolution. We’re just getting harder.”
Ice-T attributed part of it to the company they keep on festival bills.
“I think also, you’re out here [at various festivals] playing with harder bands, so you wanna compete. And you can see which way the music’s going. So everybody’s influenced by everything else. So you see the way it sounds. And I’ll listen to a band and I’ll say, ‘Man, I wish we had of made that song.’ You know what I’m saying? So now you go in the studio with those influences and it just keeps getting better. But we had a meeting today and I told them together, I said, if we can’t make an album better than Merciless, we shouldn’t make another record. So the object is always to outdo our last album,” he explained.
Merciless arrived on 22 November 2024 through Century Media, the band’s eighth studio album. Ice-T produced it with Vincent Price and Will Putney, and it drew on his interest in horror films, with guest appearances from Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse, Howard Jones, Joe Bad of Fit For An Autopsy and Max Cavalera. Four singles preceded and accompanied it: “Psychopath“, “F**k What You Heard“, a cover of “Comfortably Numb” and the title track.
Ice-T and Cunnigan formed Body Count in Los Angeles in 1990. Their 1992 debut carried “Cop Killer“, which drew national political condemnation and was eventually pulled from the album at the band’s own request.
