Ben Apatoff has written the first book about Ice-T’s heavy metal band Body Count. The book is part of the Bloomsbury 33 1/3 series that has published several titles chronicling noteworthy albums from pop artists across genres. Ice-T introduced his all-Black hardcore band in 1991 on his O.G. Original Gangster album and they performed at the first ever Lollapalooza that summer. Their debut album included the incendiary “Cop Killer” which was criticized by President George H.W. Bush and Vice-President Dan Quayle. Police organizations called for the boycott of Time Warner and Ice-T had the song removed from the album because he felt that the outrage had overshadowed the music.
Apatoff tells the story of a bunch of high school friends who got together and reclaimed rock and roll to tell stories from a Black perspective that was rarely if ever presented in mainstream media. The author conducted interviews with Ice-T, Ernie C, Sean E. Sean, Vincent Price, Ill Will, Juan of the Dead, Jello Biafra, Bobby Brooks, Max Cavalera, Dan Charnas, Doc Coyle, Heidi Siegmund Cuda, Chuck D, Laina Dawes, Ron DeLord, Corey Glover, Dave Halili, David Harleston, Gibby Haynes, Gary Holt, Howie Klein, Chris “Hot Rod” Long, Matt Mahurin, Bernard Matthews, Duff McKagan, Bob Merlis, Angelo Moore, Darlene Ortiz, Phyllis Pollack, Will Putney, Vernon Reid, Henry Rollins, Troy Staton, Steve Stewart, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ulrich Wild, Juan Williams, Mark Zonder and more. Body Count will be released on September 7, 2023.
