His rap-thrash metal hybrid outfit Body Count have now spent over 30 noise-filled years together, but they're not on a nostalgia trip. Their 2017 single Black Hoodie was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Metal Performance category. “I’m like everybody else,” says Ice-T. “Fuck awards. Fuck awards! ‘Oh, I got nominated for one? Shit. What am I gonna wear?’”
Meanwhile, Black Hoodie echoed the authority-baiting controversy first stirred up by Body Count’s 1992 hit Cop Killer. Now aged 63, the rapper – who has worked with the likes of Slayer, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Black Sabbath – shows no sign of slowing his mouth.
You’ve written some uncompromisingly brutal songs about street life. What’s the closest you’ve ever come to death?
“Oh, I came close to death quite a few times: I’ve been in gunfights, I was in a robbery, and I got shot a couple of times – I’ve been through a lot. I was shot back before it was popular to say you got shot. [Today] people are like, ‘Oh, I got shot!’ I was embarrassed! The most recent one was when I was robbed in Los Angeles. We were lined up and I thought we were going to get executed.”
What happened?
“Some cats came up on my record label. They had myself, [DJ] Evil E, [Body Count member] Sean E Sean, my buddy Rich, my daughter and her friend in the office. They started wiping the door handles off and I’m like, ‘Oh man, this is about to go down.’ Then something told them to leave and they broke out. We came to find out I was set up by a guy I thought was my friend. He probably said, ‘Rob ‘em, don’t hurt ‘em.’ But that doesn’t matter. What if somebody had lunged at a gun? Yo, I came close to death, but now I stay in the house, play a lot of Xbox and mind my own business.”
Did music save your life when you were a kid?
“Absolutely, because I didn’t really have a plan. I was trying to brainwash myself into thinking that I was gonna hustle, or maybe I could rob a bank. I had no idea what the fuck I was gonna do in life and when music came along I was good at it. I had stories to tell and I was a songwriter. I can’t play instruments and I’m not a singer, but they say, ‘You sing rock.’ Well, who the fuck in rock can sing? These motherfuckers are like Cookie Monsters, yelling and growling. That’s why metal is kinda close to rap, because you’re not hearing a melody, you’re just yelling words and it’s not that much different. Especially if you look at New York hardcore. That shit is real close to rap.”