The Trials and repercussions of Body Count, Judas Priest, and Ozzy Osbourne

By Andrew Vetting

Since its inception in the late forties, rock and roll has been at the forefront of much controversy in the media. It has also been a source of debate and anxiety for social and political leaders, and especially for parents. From the suggestive hip-swiveling of Elvis Presley, to the outrageous stage antics of “shock-rocker” Marylin Manson, rock music has been seen as a social ill, and one that all people, particularly the youth, should be protected, and even censored from.

In the fall of 1992, a hailstorm of controversy was ignited that still resonates in the memories of millions of people throughout the United States today. It was widely publicized, was debated upon in the highest levels of court, and caused many to argue over how far to extend our freedoms of speech. The cause of all this turmoil was a single, three minute song from an album called “Body Count.” It was a little tune called “Cop Killer,” and the man at the center of it all was a rapper named Ice-T.

Born as Tracy Marrow in Newark, New Jersey on February 16, 1958, the rapper, now known as Ice-T, moved to California to live with his grandparents after his mother and father were killed in an automobile accident.

During his years a student at Crenshaw high school in South Central Los Angeles, Marrow became infatuated with music, particularly hard rock, rap, and Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop, at the time, was a new form of music that was sweeping the underground scenes of California. It was during this time that Marrow decided to change his name to Ice-T, a name which was in tribute to blaxploitation writer and notorious manager of prostitutes, (a practice known as “pimping”) Iceberg Freeman.

After dropping out of high school, Ice-T moved out of his grandparent’s house and into an apartment of his own in order to begin to pursue a career in music. After realizing that he was unable to support himself on his musical exploits, which consisted of a few unspectacular record singles, Ice-T turned to a life of crime. He joined a street gang and lived off of money he made from robberies, jewelry theft, and largely, from becoming a pimp in his own right.

After a near-fatal car accident that landed him in the hospital for many months, Ice-T decided to quit pimping and committing crimes to concentrate solely on music. He was able to find work performing in low-budget Hip-Hop musicals like Rappin’, Breakin’, and Breakin’ Two: Electric Boogaloo, which gave him some publicity when he contributed music to the soundtrack.

Finally, in 1987, Ice-T signed a recording contract with Sire Records, which was a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Records. His debut album for the label was called “Rhyme Pays,” and it became one of the highest selling records that year. Its success enabled him to form his own record label, called Rhyme Syndicate, which was distributed through Sire/Warner. Subsequent releases were throughout the rest of the 1980’s, and they became even more successful, making Ice-T one of the most popular and powerful artists in the country.

In 1991, Ice-T released the most successful album of his career, called O.G.: Original Gangster. Not only was the album significant from the standpoint of the great commercial success, but it was also significant for being the debut record of Ice-T’s heavy metal band, Body Count, on the song of the same name. The following year would find the release of the bands self-titled, full length recording debut.

The band was a project that Ice-T had wanted to pursue for years. The group consisted of old friends from his days at Crenshaw high school. Ernie C and D-Roc on guitar, Mooseman on base, and Beatmaster V on drums.

According to Ice-T, they would “get together every day after school to listen to Led Zepplin, Judas Priest, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath. We would just smoke weed and have a great time just rockin’ out.”

The album was filed with songs that boasted extreme violence and misogyny, with titles like, KKK Bitch, Mammas Gotta Die, and Evil Dick, but the song that raised the most controversy was the record’s last track, Cop Killer. Ice-T wrote the song to express his dismay over the result of the Rodney King beating case. The song is about a young, black man on a police killing spree to seek vengeance for all the unnecessary beatings and violence that they had committed against other black youths.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) viewed the song as inflammatory and claimed it would have a dangerous effect on the youths who listened to it. They felt the song was teaching teenagers how to brutalize and kill police officers, as well as encouraging insubordination and anarchy. The fury was so great that it placed Ice-T on the number two spot on the FBI’s National Threat list.

Picketers marched daily in front of the Time Warner building, and in front of record stores that carried the album. Death threats were sent to employees and executives of Time Warner. Even actor Charlton Heston took action by reading the lyrics to Cop Killer and KKK Bitch to the record company’s stockholders, who all reacted in astonishment to the lyrical content.

Despite all of this, Time Warner stood by Ice-T, and refused to give into the protestors, who were demanding the album to be recalled from sale. They stood strong until boycotts were called against all Time Warner products and businesses, including their Disney Land complex. Fearing that this would result in the loss of millions of dollars and the decrease in the value of the company’s stock, Time Warner finally gave in. They recalled the record from stores and demanded that Ice-T remove the song entirely, after which he would be released from his contract with them.

Ice-T responded to their demand by replacing the song with another, entitled Ice-T/Freedom of Speech. It was a spoken word song, written and performed with Jello Biafra and his hardcore band, The Deadly Kennedy’s. Ice-T then moved to Virgin Records for all the subsequent Body count releases, as well as his rap albums.

Body Count lasted for two more releases, each selling dramatically less than the other, before disappearing in 1999. Although the band was never taken to trial, sued for their art, or inspired any violence of any kind from anyone who listened to their music, they were still hotly debated on television news shows and in televised political forums. This makes them quite fortunate, compared to other bands who have had to fight for what they believe in court, and suffer dire consequences along the way.

A similar case of controversy brought on by extreme lyrics occurred only two years earlier, in 1990, with another heavy metal band named Judas Priest. They, too, aroused much controversy for a single song, but in a slightly different manner. They were accused of sending subliminal messages in the form of records that, if played backwards, instructed listeners to commit harmful acts of violence. The theory behind this was that the listener would hear the message subconsciously, and then respond accordingly. For this, the band was taken to trial.

The story of their controversy starts from as early as December of 1985. Two teen boys in Reno, Nevada were found dead in their near-by forest of a double suicide. The boys had shot each other in the chest with rifles, and they were found wearing Judas Priest t-shirts, and were said to have been listening to the album, Stained Glass, before departing to the forest to kill themselves. The parents of the boys brought the suit against the band and their record label, RCA/Victor, demanding that the album be removed from the store and that Judas Priest be punished and held responsible.

The case blamed one song in particular from the 1985 album. The song, titled Better By You, Better Than Me, apparently, when played backward, sounded as if it were saying “death is freedom” repeatedly. The band ardently disagreed with the accusation and pleaded innocent to the charge. In fact, Rob Halford, the band’s lead singer, was quoted saying, “It will be another ten years before I can even spell subliminal.”

After a long three-month period of deliberation, the band was found innocent of all charges. It was discovered that the two boys, named James Vane and Raymond Belkamp, were very drunk on that evening, and that they were also under the influence of drugs. Another determining factor in the groups’ innocence was the fact that both the boys were from very abusive families ands were raised in extremely depraved environments.

Although the band was found innocent of the charges, and were finding themselves back in favor with the music buying public, the incident did cause significant damage to its embers. Their lead singe and primary spokesperson through the trail became disillusioned with the group as a result, and left the band to pursue a solo career. The group ended up replacing him with a much younger Judas Priest cover-band singer named Tim “Ripper” Ownes, but this only resulted in declined record sales and faded popularity.

Another case of “incited suicide” was brought against singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1986. Unlike Judas Priest, however, Osbourne was not accused of “reversed subliminal messages,” but was accused of directly instructing his listeners to commit suicide through the song Suicide Song off of his album, The Blizzard of Ozz. In addition, as Body Count would be eight years later, parents, critics, and the medial alike accused him of having “extreme lyrics that would cause violent and harmful behavior.”

In his own defense, Ozzy Osbourne stated that the song was actually about the evils of suicide, drug, and alcohol abuse, and that it actually delivered a very constructive and positive message. The song taught its listeners that getting involved in substance abuse was like committing suicide, due to its damaging affects.

After a month-long trial, the case was dismissed, and Osbourne was free from having to pay any penalties. Although his innocence was widely reported in the media, Ozzy Osbourne had, once again, achieved a reputation of someone to be feared, and worked for years to dispel such an image.