On this day (June 10) in 1992, the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas called for a boycott of Warner Bros. Records and Time Warner. The label distributed Ice-T’s band Body Count’s debut album, which included the highly controversial protest song, “Cop Killer.” The song offended members of CLEAT.
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Body Count released their self-titled debut album on March 10, 1992, and did not release “Cop Killer” as a single. However, the band started performing the song during concerts, including their set at Lollapalooza in 1991. The fact that the controversial track was an album cut is likely why it took months for it to come to the attention of the Texas-based law enforcement group.
According to United Press International, the proposed boycott would not just impact Warner Brothers Records. Instead, it would impact the Time Warner-owned Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. Additionally, the Houston Police Officers Association asked the Houston City Council to refuse to renew a multimillion dollar cable contract with Warner Cable “until the conglomerate bans distribution of the record and apologizes to officers nationwide.”
“Time Warner is committed to the free expression of ideas for all our authors, journalists, recording artists, screenwriters, actors, and directors,” Warner said in a statement. “We believe this commitment is crucial in a democratic society, where the full range of opinion and thought–whether we agree with it or not–must be able to find an outlet.”
The controversy surrounding the song only grew from there. Then-President George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle spoke against “Cop Killer,” calling it obscene. However, sales of Body Count doubled, with huge sales spikes in Houston, Texas, according to Rolling Stone.
Ice-T Reacts to “Cop Killer” Controversy
Later that year, Ice-T chose to remove the song from the album. As a result, Warner pulled copies containing “Cop Killer” from shelves and released a new, censored version of Body Count’s debut record. The version of the album available to stream today does not include the track.
Ice-T addressed the controversy surrounding the song during a music industry event in New York in June 1992. “At no point do I go out and say, ‘Let’s do it.’ 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,” he said. “That’s called a poetic license, and obviously these ignorant pigs don’t know nothing about music.”
He reflected on the decision to pull the song in a recent interview with The Guardian. “I never really questioned myself, but the heat came when they started sending bomb threats to Warner Bros. I threw the rock, that’s my heat. But when other people could get hurt, that’s nerve-racking,” he recalled.
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