Ice-T Shares Word Of Advice For Artists Who Want To Stir Up Controversy: ‘Stand On It’

Trigger Warning: This article contains references to violence.

Ice-T definitely believes in saying it like you mean it! The rapper, who is gearing up for the release of his band, Body Count’s upcoming album, Merciless, shared his take on controversies and also gave a piece of advice on the same. 

While answering a fan-submitted question to The Guardian about feeling the “heat and regretting” after releasing his band’s 1992 song Cop Killer, Ice-T gave a perfect response.

The musician responded that he never questioned himself, but the “heat” appeared when they began sending bomb threats to Warner Bros. He said, “I threw the rock, that’s my heat.” The rapper added that when other individuals are hurt, “that’s nerve-racking.”

Ice-T further shared, “But I got news for people: Anybody that thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. You get a lot of buzz, but now you need lawyers,” adding, “So don’t just say something stupid and then back-pedal — if you’re going to say something, stand on it.”

According to an article in People magazine, when the track was released, The Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) demanded a boycott of Time Warner’s products. Police organizations across the country supported this demand. Dennis R. Martin, former president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, stated that at the time, the song heightened racial tensions in cities across the country and was partially blamed for the shooting of two officers.

Ice-T told the Associated Press that he did not go out or even do what he said in the song at any point. The musician shared that he sang in the first person and as someone who had had enough of police brutality. He shared that he never “killed no cop. I felt like it a lot of times. But I never did it.”

The shareholders and executives of Warner Bros. began death threats, which eventually led the rapper to announce that he would pull the track from all subsequent copies from the band’s self-titled debut. 

According to the Washington Post, during a press conference in 1992, he said, “When people go after the company, that’s a real punk move.” The rap mogul added that they are terrified of going after him. He continued, “This is my fight — and Sister Souljah’s fight, Ice Cube’s fight.”

He reportedly made the journalists watch a civil rights documentary before announcing his decision regarding the controversial song. After the documentary, he said he did not understand why he was supposed to like the police. Ice T said that his leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X did not like them, and they have not been friendly with black individuals.

The rapper also said that he respected those who did their jobs correctly. He stated, “As for the brutal ones, I’d rather get rid of them before they get rid of me.”

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