Long before Fred Durst and his ilk crawled from their trailers andstarted littering the airwaves with limp attempts at crossbreedinghard rock and rap, a number of other artists had already successfullyperformed the operation. In 1992, the O.G. himself, Ice T, threw hisbeenie into the ring with his heavy metal side project, Body Count.The band’s self-titled debut scored a hit on the charts with “ThereGoes the Neighborhood” and an even bigger hit in the pop-culturehistory books with “Cop Killer.” For obvious reasons, “Cop Killer”created a national controversy that sent album sales through the roofbut caused Warner Bros. to pull the track from the album (Ice T leftthe label shortly thereafter). Though dripping with humor andsarcasm, the album is far more than just a novelty and well worthlistening to for it’s musical and lyrical merits. Ice T can rock,especially when backed by the likes of lead guitarist Ernie C and therock-solid Mooseman on bass. “Cop Killer” may have gotten all theattention, but some of the real highlights of the album are trackslike “K.K.K. Bitch” (in which Ice T waxes about getting down withsome of Tipper Gore’s daughters) and the hard-hitting title track.Ice T’s pre-song banter (a la “Smoked Pork”) is hilarious. On thestrength of the album and the stir it created, the band ended up onsome strange concert bills, including Lollapalooza 1991 and in theopening slot for the megalithic Guns and Roses/ Metallica tour. Theband went on to release two more albums, but neither managed togarner controversy or album sales, and neither came close to touchingthe greatness of their debut. The watered-down version (minus “CopKiller”) is still industrial strength, but you can get the originalfor about $25 on ebay.

— Kenneth Smith