The mainstream public may know Ice-T as sergeant Fin Tutuola on the long-running TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but long before his foray into television, Ice-T was a matter-of-factly outspoken rapper whose ascendant music career started in the early ‘80s.
Ice-T received critical accolades for his 1991 album OG: Original Gangster, the same year he co-founded the gangsta-rap/heavy metal hybrid band Body Count. In 1992, the outfit sparked a massive firestorm with the controversial track “Cop Killer”, which the media and public took as an attack on the entire police force when the band was actually targeting only corrupt individuals in the system.
This controversy did little to tarnish Ice-T’s star, however, and he continued to rise in the entertainment industry as a rapper, film and TV actor, director, record producer, and CEO. As part of Body Count, Ice-T has released 6 albums including Bloodlust, which dropped March 31st via Century Media.
Bloodlust showcases Ice-T and Body Count at their sharpest, lyrically, and most ferocious, sonically. They have something to say about the social divide and disconnect – politically, economically, racially, culturally – the whole messed-up mass.
As the official press release states so succinctly, Bloodlust, “…is stark mad and irate, a litany of lyrical missives that paint a four-dimensional picture of police brutality, racism and social inequality. Tracks like “No Lives Matter”, “Black Hoodie”, and album opener “Civil War” featuring metal icon Dave Mustaine pulse with a relevance and slam with a sense of urgency that’s been missing for far too long.”
Ice-T himself explains that this music is without racial boundaries and that while, “Racism is real… that’s not all that’s happening here. I’m singing to my white audience and letting them know that I see them as an ally, and I’m singing to my black audience and telling them to judge a devil by their deeds.”” In a world that’s down for the count, Ice-T and Body Count knocks listeners out by speaking and playing straight up and loud."
