From: jfine@engin.umich.edu (Sinister Stairs)
Subject: Re: Body Count
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 21:27:46 EDT
Organization: The Church of Suicidal

[ Note: this article is being cross-posted to alt.rap ]

In article <1992Apr15.154548.23697@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> jks2x@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jason K. Schechner) writes:

>	I was watching eMpTyV last night (talk about boredom!) and I
>saw a video by a group called Body Count.  Believe it or not, this group
>is headed up by Ice-T and is actually metal not rap!
>	Has anyone out there bought the album and is it any good?  The
>song I saw last night was 'There goes the neighborhood'.  I'm mainly
>wondering if Ice-T rocks that one song then does his (c)rap for the
>rest of the disc.

    I've given the entire CD a listen, and this is my personal opinion.  I
believe this album will most likely appeal to:  a) People looking for
interesting cross-over material.  b) Fans of both rap and metal.  c) *Very*
hardcore Ice-T fans.  c) Metal posers who want other people to think they are
bad-ass, hardcore players (frontin').
    As far as being a rap album, this is terrible, obviously, because Ice-T
doesn't even rap.  As far as being a metal album goes, it is only mediocre, the
music is okay, but Ice-T doesn't sing/scream enough and the metal intensity
isn't there.  It's actually tough to describe the vocals on this album, Ice-T
doesn't really rap or sing, it's somewhere in between.  The closest I can
come to describing it would be as Mike Muir's earlier Suicidal Tendencies stuff
or Run-DMC on "Walk this Way."
    As far as cross-over albums go, this one is pretty good.  The hard guitars
for metal are there, and Ice-T has lyrics typically found in rap songs (as
opposed to metal songs).  It's about rebellion and being a bad-ass motherfucker.
It's about killing cops.  If you are looking for a rap or metal album, avoid
this like the plague.  If you are looking for a unique cross-over album, this
could be the one for you.

(Btw, my personal suggestions for music to pick up for metal/rap:)

    "Rock Box", _Run-DMC_ by Run-DMC
    "King of Rock", _King_of_Rock by Run-DMC
    "Jam Master Jammin' (remix)", by Run-DMC
    "Walk this Way", _Raising_Hell_ by Run-DMC w/ Aerosmith
    "Raising Hell", _Raising_Hell_ by Run-DMC
    "Iron Man", by Sir Mix-a-Lot w/ Metal Church
    "Bring tha Noize", by Public Enemy w/ Anthrax
    (This list is not exhaustive by any means, just my personal recommendations)

(I noticed that most often, the one rap group metal fans are willing to accept
is Run-DMC, and Run-DMC is respected by all the b-boys, so you can collect
respect either way.  I've also noticed that metal crosses-over to rap better
than rap crosses-over to metal.)


    Again, these are just my personal opinions, comments welcome.  If you
want to flame and say, "Why the hell are you posting this, Bodycount isn't
metal/rap"--then FUCK YOU, you are nothing but a close-minded, ignorant
fool.



+-------------------+-----------------------+---------------------------------+
| UU   UU  MMM  MMM | The University of     |                Jonathan H. Fine |
| UU   UU  MMMMMMMM | Michigan, Ann Arbor   |       a.k.a. Shadowjack on MUDS |
| UU   UU  MM MM MM |                       | sinister.stairs@um.cc.umich.edu |
| UUUUUUU  MM    MM | "GO FUCKING BLUE!"    |           jfine@engin.umich.edu |
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