Body Count, the Most Genuine Rap Metal You Will Find.
To anyone who has never heard of Body Count, I think it's time for you to be informed. I only found out about this particular band recently when I saw them on this years download festival Bill. I know they have been around a long time, but I am always late to pick up on these things,but example I was at least a year late to know that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were married. But that aside, for everyone else who lives under a rock with Patrick Starr, let me tell you about Body Count.
There are 2 key parts to understanding the wonder which is Body Count, who are definitely not your conventional band. The first to note about the band is they are a trash metal band, that bit is normal enough. Now have you ever heard of Ice T? Not the drink, but the rapper who stars in the TV show law & Order as the badass cop and the singer of 99 problems (bonus fact that many people don't know, Jay-Z master piece which is 99 Problems was not actually his own but a cover of Ice T, *oh boom mind blown*). Well, Ice T is the singer for Body Count. Let me put that into perspective. Ice T, a gangsta rapper combined with thrash metal. This is not a poser trying to combine gangsta rap and metal, this is a genuine fusion of a man who has made a career as a rapper making metal music. Let that odd picture sink in, it took me a good week to just comprehend the crazy combo this mix of genres is. When I was a kid and watched Law & Order with my parents (yeah I was an odd kid, who at the age of ten watches law & Order) I couldn't believe that dude chasing bad guys use to be a damn rapper, it was just too bazaar for my brain to deal with. Now that I have finally accepted this information to be true and finally have peace with my life, I am thrown another curve ball... he makes metal noise. I was like 'seriously dude, I thought I finally understood you and you just screw me over again, god damn it Ice, I thought I had you sussed, why make me question everything again.'
he looks so happy on Law & Order, who wouldn't want to take him bowling?
Okay, so I hope you now understand quite how badly that this combination confused me, it took me weeks to really understand this as a combination, it was just too much, any time anyone mentioned Body Count or Ice T I had to have a lie down. But once I got past this insane proposition of a band, I actually gave them a listen. I wasted weeks trying to understand and should have just listened. They are stupidly addictive. It is such an odd combination, like chilli and chocolate, it should not work but it SO does. Now I feel like Ice's lyrics are not always that amazing, some of them are great but some others really confused me. Saying this however, being someone who has a very limited knowledge of rap music and being far more of a metal head, the lyrics feel like they belong more to rap music, from a man who has genuinely lived the life as a gangster (not saying that he did, I couldn't actually see Ice carrying a gun and shooting cops like he does in one of his songs, he just seems to nice, I could far better imagine inviting to go bowling or watch a film, he seems like that kinda guy). As he is a gangster at heart as his lyrics would suggest, even in the setting which is thrash metal he can't let his past go, however this is not a complaint as it works brilliantly. The music side of it as well is excellent. This is not a band posing to be a metal band just as a gimmick, they genuinely are a metal band like any other. Songs like Talk Sh*t, Get Shot and KKK B*tch are great musically as a metal band. This is shown from the Album Manslaughter which has a cover of Ice T's original 99 problems and damn it's good, it's so good, so so good, incredibly good, I have 99 problems and this song ain't one. It truly shows that this is a band who honestly want to be making metal.
Overall, this bizarre chalk and cheese combination of gangsta rap and thrash metal, a combination that should not work, works! Probably more so than most genre mashups I've listened to. Body Count are honestly one of the greatest rap metal bands I've ever heard, as well as being the most genuine and honest. All I can say to you if you have never listened to them before, in the words of one Shia LaBeouf, Just do it! You are in for a roller coaster of a ride but damn, it is so worth it.
(and Bonus song, Ice T 99 problems before the Z of Jay did it)
(and Bonus song, Ice T 99 problems before the Z of Jay did it)
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