Cop Killer (song)
Encyclopedia
"Cop Killer" is a song by American band Body Count
, from its 1992 self-titled debut album
. The lyrics are sung from the point of view of an individual who is outraged by police brutality
and decides to take the law into his own hands by killing police officers. The song's words were written by Body Count's lead vocalist, Ice-T
, while its music was written by the band's lead guitarist, Ernie C
. Ice-T has referred to it as a "protest record
." The song was written in 1990, and was partially influenced by "Psycho Killer
" by the Talking Heads
.
The song provoked much controversy and negative reactions from political figures such as then-President
George H.W. Bush, then-Vice President
Dan Quayle
and Tipper Gore
, co-founder Parents Music Resource Center
. Others defended the song on the basis of the band's First Amendment
rights. When Ice-T began to feel that the controversy over the song had eclipsed its musical merit, he chose to recall the album and re-release it without the inclusion of the song, which was given away as a free single.
song "Psycho Killer
" with partially inspiring the song. "Cop Killer" was written in 1990, and had been performed live several times, including at the 1991 Lollapalooza
tour, before it had been recorded in a studio.
The recorded version mentions then-Los Angeles
police chief Daryl Gates
, and Rodney King
, a black motorist whose beating by LAPD
officers had been caught on videotape. Shortly after the release of Body Count
, a jury
acquitted the officers and riots broke out in South Central
Los Angeles
. Soon after the riots, the Dallas Police Association and the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) launched a campaign to force Warner Bros. Records
to withdraw the album.
.
In an article for the Washington Post, Tipper Gore condemned Ice-T for songs like "Cop Killer," writing that "Cultural economics were a poor excuse for the South's continuation of slavery. Ice-T's financial success cannot excuse the vileness of his message [...] Hitler
's anti-Semitism
sold in Nazi Germany
. That didn't make it right." Some critics argued that the song could cause crime and violence. Dennis R. Martin (Former President, National Association of Chiefs of Police) argued that:
, and cited the fact that Ice T had portrayed a police officer in the film New Jack City
. Many people from the music world and other fields were supportive of the song. For example, in direct response to the criticism made by Dennis Martin above, Mark S. Hamm and Jeff Ferrell argued the following:
Ice-T stated of the song, "I'm singing in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality. I ain't never killed no cop. I felt like it a lot of times. But I never did it. If you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie
is an astronaut
," in reference to Bowie's song "Space Oddity".
In a July 1992 editorial in The Wall Street Journal
defending his company's involvement with the song, Time-Warner co-CEO Gerald M. Levin
repeated this defense, writing that rather than "finding ways to silence the messenger," critics and listeners should be "heeding the anguished cry contained in his message."
The National Black Police Association
opposed the boycott of Time-Warner and the attacks on "Cop Killer," identifying police brutality as the cause of much anti-police sentiment, and proposing the creation of independent civilian review boards "to scrutinize the actions of our law enforcement officers" as a way of ending the provocations that caused artists such as Body Count "to respond to actions of police brutality and abuse through their music. [...] Many individuals of the law enforcement profession do not want anyone to scrutinize their actions, but want to scrutinize the actions of others."
after local police had told the management that they would no longer respond to any emergency calls at the store if they continued to sell the album.
In July 1992, the New Zealand
Police Commissioner unsuccessfully attempted to prevent an Ice-T concert in Auckland
, arguing that "Anyone who comes to this country preaching in obscene terms the killing of police, should not be welcome here," before taking Body Count and Warner Bros. Records to the Indecent Publications Tribunal, in an effort to get it banned under New Zealand's Indecent Publications Act. This was the first time in twenty years that a sound recording had come before the censorship body, and the first ever case involving popular music. After reviewing the various submissions, and listening carefully to the album, the Tribunal found the song "Cop Killer" to be "not exhortatory," saw the album as displaying "an honest purpose," and found Body Count not indecent.
At the July 1992 annual shareholders' meeting
for Time-Warner, actor Charlton Heston
, who was a minor Time-Warner shareholder, was given the opportunity to address the crowd, and, in a well-publicized speech, recited lyrics from both "Cop Killer" and another song from Body Count, "KKK Bitch" - which namechecked Tipper Gore herself - in an attempt to embarrass company executives into dropping the album.
Some death threats were sent to Warner Bros. Records
executives, and some stockholders threatened to pull out of the company. According to his 1994 book The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?, Ice-T decided to remove the song from the album of his own volition. Eventually, the album was re-issued with "Cop Killer" removed. Alongside the album's reissue, Warner Bros.
issued "Cop Killer" as a free single. Ice-T left the label in 1993, following additional disputes over his solo album Home Invasion. The performer stated of the controversy that "When I started out, [Warner] never censor
ed us. Everything we did, we had full control over. But what happened was when the cops moved on Body Count they issued pressure on the corporate division of Warner Bros., and that made the music division, they couldn't out-fight 'em in the battle, so even when you're in a business with somebody who might not wanna censor you, economically people can put restraints on 'em and cause 'em to be afraid. I learned that lesson in there, that you're never really safe as long as you're connected to any big corporation's money."
The studio version of "Cop Killer" has not been re-released, although a live version of the song appears on the 2005 release Body Count: Live in LA. According to Ernie C, the controversy over the song "still lingers for us, even now. I'll try to book clubs and the guy I'm talking to will mention it and I'll think to myself, 'Man, that was 17 years ago,' but I meet a lot of bands who ask me about it too and I'm real respected by other artists for it. But it's a love/hate thing. Ice gets it too, even though he plays a cop on TV now on Law & Order SVU
."
Body Count
Body Count is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1990. The group is fronted by rapper and actor Ice-T, who founded the group out of his interest in heavy metal music, taking on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of the group's songs. Lead guitarist...
, from its 1992 self-titled debut album
Body Count (album)
Body Count is the eponymous debut album of American heavy metal band Body Count. Released in 1992, the album material focuses on various social and political issues ranging from police brutality to drug abuse. The album presents a turning point in the career of Ice-T, who co-wrote the album's songs...
. The lyrics are sung from the point of view of an individual who is outraged by police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
and decides to take the law into his own hands by killing police officers. The song's words were written by Body Count's lead vocalist, Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
, while its music was written by the band's lead guitarist, Ernie C
Ernie C
Ernie Cunnigan, better known by his stage name Ernie C, is the lead guitarist of heavy metal band Body Count.-Early life:Cunnigan grew up in Compton, California and attended Crenshaw High School with Ice-T. Cunnigan was one of the few students attending the school who was interested in rock music,...
. Ice-T has referred to it as a "protest record
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
." The song was written in 1990, and was partially influenced by "Psycho Killer
Psycho Killer
"Psycho Killer" is a song by American New Wave band Talking Heads from their 1977 album Talking Heads: 77, written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. The band's "signature debut hit" features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Allmusic calls it a...
" by the Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
.
The song provoked much controversy and negative reactions from political figures such as then-President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H.W. Bush, then-Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
and Tipper Gore
Tipper Gore
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore , née Aitcheson, is an author, photographer, former second lady of the United States, and the estranged wife of Al Gore...
, co-founder Parents Music Resource Center
Parents Music Resource Center
The Parents Music Resource Center was an American committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual.The committee was founded by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice...
. Others defended the song on the basis of the band's First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights. When Ice-T began to feel that the controversy over the song had eclipsed its musical merit, he chose to recall the album and re-release it without the inclusion of the song, which was given away as a free single.
Background
Ice T referred to "Cop Killer" as a "protest record," stating that the song is "[sung] in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality." Ice T has also credited the Talking HeadsTalking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
song "Psycho Killer
Psycho Killer
"Psycho Killer" is a song by American New Wave band Talking Heads from their 1977 album Talking Heads: 77, written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. The band's "signature debut hit" features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Allmusic calls it a...
" with partially inspiring the song. "Cop Killer" was written in 1990, and had been performed live several times, including at the 1991 Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
tour, before it had been recorded in a studio.
The recorded version mentions then-Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
police chief Daryl Gates
Daryl Gates
Daryl Gates was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1992.-Early life:...
, and Rodney King
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King is an American best known for his involvement in a police brutality case involving the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991...
, a black motorist whose beating by LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
officers had been caught on videotape. Shortly after the release of Body Count
Body Count (album)
Body Count is the eponymous debut album of American heavy metal band Body Count. Released in 1992, the album material focuses on various social and political issues ranging from police brutality to drug abuse. The album presents a turning point in the career of Ice-T, who co-wrote the album's songs...
, a jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
acquitted the officers and riots broke out in South Central
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots or South Central Riots, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were sparked on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted three white and one hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a...
Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Soon after the riots, the Dallas Police Association and the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) launched a campaign to force Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
to withdraw the album.
Reaction
Following its release, the song was met with strong opposition, with critics ranging from President Bush to various law enforcement agencies, with strong demand for the song's withdrawal from commercial availability, citing concerns of promoting anti-police sentiment. Conversely, Ice-T defended the lyrical content of the song as did various other proponents who did not believe that the song posed any risk and remained in support of the song continuing to be released and sold.Criticism and controversy
CLEAT (Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas) called for a boycott of all products by Time-Warner in order to secure the removal of the song and album from stores. Within a week, they were joined by police organizations across the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In an article for the Washington Post, Tipper Gore condemned Ice-T for songs like "Cop Killer," writing that "Cultural economics were a poor excuse for the South's continuation of slavery. Ice-T's financial success cannot excuse the vileness of his message [...] Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
sold in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. That didn't make it right." Some critics argued that the song could cause crime and violence. Dennis R. Martin (Former President, National Association of Chiefs of Police) argued that:
Defense of the song
Others defended the album on the basis of the group's right to freedom of speechFreedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, and cited the fact that Ice T had portrayed a police officer in the film New Jack City
New Jack City
New Jack City is a 1991 crime film starring Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, and Chris Rock. Snipes stars as Nino Brown, a rising drug dealer and crime lord in New York City during the crack epidemic...
. Many people from the music world and other fields were supportive of the song. For example, in direct response to the criticism made by Dennis Martin above, Mark S. Hamm and Jeff Ferrell argued the following:
Ice-T stated of the song, "I'm singing in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality. I ain't never killed no cop. I felt like it a lot of times. But I never did it. If you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
is an astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
," in reference to Bowie's song "Space Oddity".
In a July 1992 editorial in The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
defending his company's involvement with the song, Time-Warner co-CEO Gerald M. Levin
Gerald M. Levin
Gerald M. "Jerry" Levin is an American mass-media businessman. CNBC named him as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time".- Early life and education :...
repeated this defense, writing that rather than "finding ways to silence the messenger," critics and listeners should be "heeding the anguished cry contained in his message."
The National Black Police Association
National Black Police Association (United States)
-History:The National Black Police Association was organized in November of 1972. This organization started after a meeting in St. Louis, Missouri where there were over thirteen different African American Peace Associations present...
opposed the boycott of Time-Warner and the attacks on "Cop Killer," identifying police brutality as the cause of much anti-police sentiment, and proposing the creation of independent civilian review boards "to scrutinize the actions of our law enforcement officers" as a way of ending the provocations that caused artists such as Body Count "to respond to actions of police brutality and abuse through their music. [...] Many individuals of the law enforcement profession do not want anyone to scrutinize their actions, but want to scrutinize the actions of others."
Further controversy and decision to withdraw song
Over the next month, controversy against the band grew. Vice President Quayle branded "Cop Killer" as being "obscene," and President Bush publicly denounced any record company that would release such a product. Body Count was removed from the shelves of a retail store in Greensboro, North CarolinaGreensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
after local police had told the management that they would no longer respond to any emergency calls at the store if they continued to sell the album.
In July 1992, the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
Police Commissioner unsuccessfully attempted to prevent an Ice-T concert in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, arguing that "Anyone who comes to this country preaching in obscene terms the killing of police, should not be welcome here," before taking Body Count and Warner Bros. Records to the Indecent Publications Tribunal, in an effort to get it banned under New Zealand's Indecent Publications Act. This was the first time in twenty years that a sound recording had come before the censorship body, and the first ever case involving popular music. After reviewing the various submissions, and listening carefully to the album, the Tribunal found the song "Cop Killer" to be "not exhortatory," saw the album as displaying "an honest purpose," and found Body Count not indecent.
At the July 1992 annual shareholders' meeting
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
for Time-Warner, actor Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, who was a minor Time-Warner shareholder, was given the opportunity to address the crowd, and, in a well-publicized speech, recited lyrics from both "Cop Killer" and another song from Body Count, "KKK Bitch" - which namechecked Tipper Gore herself - in an attempt to embarrass company executives into dropping the album.
Some death threats were sent to Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
executives, and some stockholders threatened to pull out of the company. According to his 1994 book The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?, Ice-T decided to remove the song from the album of his own volition. Eventually, the album was re-issued with "Cop Killer" removed. Alongside the album's reissue, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
issued "Cop Killer" as a free single. Ice-T left the label in 1993, following additional disputes over his solo album Home Invasion. The performer stated of the controversy that "When I started out, [Warner] never censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
ed us. Everything we did, we had full control over. But what happened was when the cops moved on Body Count they issued pressure on the corporate division of Warner Bros., and that made the music division, they couldn't out-fight 'em in the battle, so even when you're in a business with somebody who might not wanna censor you, economically people can put restraints on 'em and cause 'em to be afraid. I learned that lesson in there, that you're never really safe as long as you're connected to any big corporation's money."
The studio version of "Cop Killer" has not been re-released, although a live version of the song appears on the 2005 release Body Count: Live in LA. According to Ernie C, the controversy over the song "still lingers for us, even now. I'll try to book clubs and the guy I'm talking to will mention it and I'll think to myself, 'Man, that was 17 years ago,' but I meet a lot of bands who ask me about it too and I'm real respected by other artists for it. But it's a love/hate thing. Ice gets it too, even though he plays a cop on TV now on Law & Order SVU
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
."
Covers
- SoundgardenSoundgardenSoundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
covered "Cop Killer" at a few live shows. - A.N.I.M.A.L.A.N.I.M.A.L.A.N.I.M.A.L. was a Groove metal band from Argentina....
recorded a spanish version included in their 1998 album, "Poder Latino".
Track listing
External links
- Ice T interview on the subject
- Both sides of the debate