Ice T – Body Count – Body Count – LP

Fronted by Ice-T, Body Count was co-founded with lead guitarist Ernie C because of their combined interest in heavy metal music. Ice-T took on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of the group’s songs with Ernie C responsible for writing the group’s music. Their controversial debut was released on Sire in 1992.

The song Cop Killer was the subject of much issues for the band and label although Sire Records’ parent company Warner Music defended the single, Ice-T chose to remove the track from the album because he felt that the controversy had eclipsed the music itself.

The group departed from Sire the following year releasing three further albums on different labels, none of which have been received as commercially or critically well as their debut album.

Three out of the band’s original five members are deceased: D Roc died from lymphoma, Beatmaster V from Leukemia and Mooseman from a drive-by-shooting.