Body Count "Manslaughter"

 

Actually hit the wrong button while sampling this and bought it by mistake.

Best blunder I've made in some time.

Way back in the early days of my music retailing career in a small town south of Nashville, TN, this guy named Ice-T caught the fancy of some of my more knowledgeable rap clientele (of course, I figured "Rap" to be a passing fancy.................missed that one, huh?) and one locally influential DJ kept spinning it over and over at his gigs.  Gang life in LA.....I didn't like it but I liked ringing the register.  I'll admit to being fond of the cover of his album "Power" because of the scantily clad bodacious bombshell, not him, his buddy or the guns.  Still have the poster...

 

Shortly after I moved to Orlando, he came out with what many considered the defining moment for gangsta rap, "O.G."  When he was a kid, Ice had a cousin who turned him on to heavy metal music and a track on OG had a band he put together called Body Count.  They were on the bill for the initial Lollapalooza stop in Orlando, 1991, and absolutely blew me away.  They didn't even have an album out yet!  The guitarist, known as Eddie C., was incredible.  Hell, Henry Rollins came out and did a song with them!  Call it what you want, be it speed/heavy/rap metal, there was an underlying sense of humor that got lost in all the angst that surrounded the debut album a few months later.  "Cop Killer" was the track that riled everybody up and it was later pulled from the album and the cover art was changed.  I kept a cassette (!) of the sealed original and actually considered selling it a few years ago for $15.  May be worth more now...  Honestly, it wasn't all that good, lots of clichés, but they weren't the only band of that ilk getting away with it at the time.  Since the album was a Top 25 seller, a follow-up happened quickly and Ice tried to be taken more seriously.  The humor was gone, the musical attack was akin to being bludgeoned, and it didn't sell nearly as well.  I never gave the third album a shot (no pun intended) and no one else did, either. 

Along the same timeline as Body Count, Ice-T began an acting career in the movie New Jack City and several other films followed.  He's been on TV in Law & Order: SVU since the turn of the century.  Not bad in it, either.  I didn't even know he'd put out any other music since.  Turns out there was a solo and another Body Count in 2006.  Which was why I was curious when I saw "Manslaughter" on the release board and why I was sampling it when I made the click error. 



I'm sorry but I laughed my ass off at this video.  I'll be honest and say I had no clue that "99 Problems" was his first, much less recall Jay-Z making a hit of it a decade later...all I remember is the Billy Squier sample.  "Back To Rehab" has lines that say, "You say you're done gettin' high, BULLSHIT!", "You're checkin' in next week, BULLSHIT!"  That's a funny intervention....
They update Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized" and Mike Muir should be proud. 

Listen, this is better than anything they did previously and superior to 90% of the metal out there today.  Sure, there's still some rubber-stamped riffs but Ice and Eddie sound great (they are MY age, fer chrissakes) and all but one of the tracks clock in at under four minutes, so they get shit done and get out.  I read where they played Fallon but it wasn't on his channel.  I found this dude with it on his (watch it soon because you know it'll disappear) and his commentary as it plays says it all...

    

The record has appeared on Top Independent, Rock and Hard Rock charts as well as nudged the #100 spot on the Top 200.  Though it's far from anything I listen to now and even back in my younger Mad Rocker days I'd pass on most rap metal, but I'm very happy to add this to my catalog.