Ice-T has never been the type to soften the edges, even for a guy who helped drop one of the most infamous protest songs of the ’90s, the present moment has forced a new kind of update.
During a Warped Tour performance last July, Ice-T tweaked Body Count’s notorious 1992 anthem ‘Cop Killer’, changing the hook to ‘ICE Killer’ onstage, now he’s explained why the switch happened and it wasn’t some pre planned stunt (per Billboard).
Ice joined The Breakfast Club on Wednesday (Jan. 28 US), saying the lyric change came purely from instinct while performing in Los Angeles as immigration raids unfolded around him.
“When I did that, that didn’t happen just recently; that happened in L.A. when we played the Warped Tour,” he said.
“When I was there, ICE was active out there. I’m in the midst of ICE raids. I’m in front of an L.A. audience and it just came up.”
Not rehearsed or expected
“I didn’t know I was gon’ do it. It’s time to play ‘Cop Killer’ and my brain just said, ‘Do ‘Ice Killer.” But of course, when the girl [Renee Good] got killed, they bring that press to the front. They had me in the news fighting with the police and it was two years old. When a cop pulled me over and it made it to the news.”
The moment he’s referring to comes amid intensifying outrage in Minneapolis following the killing of Renée Good, who was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on January 7th. Tensions escalated further after the death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti on January 24th, with multiple reports and footage disputing official claims about what happened.
Ice-T framed his lyrics as protest, not provocation.
“You know ‘ICE Killer,’ ‘Cop Killer’ it’s really protest,” Ice-T explained. “I’m just protesting. Like I said, I think we’re headed in some very ugly terrain and Black people ain’t got nothing to do with it. It’s bad. I think the moment somebody shoots an ICE agent, it’s gon’ get bad.”
In a separate warning captured by TMZ, Ice-T had blunt advice for anyone hitting the streets: “Stand strong and stay out the way,” he said. “These cats will kill you.”
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