When that first Body Count album came out, it was like a nuke going off across the country and huge wake up call for anybody who didn't know what was going on routinely in South Central and surrounding areas with the LAPD and the black community.
Weirder still was when Rodney King happened you had a whole bunch of suburban white parents who were shocked at what happened. I remember myself and all my friends were like, "Welcome to the party, Ice T, NWA and other groups have been talking about this for years!" We already knew about police brutality as teenagers well before our parents did. It was an odd juxtaposition.
Body Count really was and is something special. I discovered them far later than I discovered Rage, but they really are putting out gems even now with “No Lives Matters” [1] in 2017 and their take on Ice-T’s “Colors” in 2020 [2]. Apparently there is a new album in the works and I certainly hope they will continue putting out excellent music and social commentary of a kind you otherwise would only see coming out of hip hop.
I discovered rage because they gave out tapes at a body count concert and a friend picked one up. Rage was the opening band.
I have the original body count cd, I got on release day. They had one and they had to go looking for it in the back. I believe it was the same day as Bruce Springsteens double album.
We saw Rage at UMass student Union ballroom and Body Count later that year at a club in Amherst. Those 90s had some good shows.
I listened to Body Count in the 90s and then rediscovered them a few years ago when their remake of Institutionalized was recommended to me by Spotify. The lyrics on that one are hilarious.
Weirder still was when Rodney King happened you had a whole bunch of suburban white parents who were shocked at what happened. I remember myself and all my friends were like, "Welcome to the party, Ice T, NWA and other groups have been talking about this for years!" We already knew about police brutality as teenagers well before our parents did. It was an odd juxtaposition.