Back in 1992, Ice-T’s heavy metal project Body Count released their self-titled debut album, which included one of the most controversial protest songs of all-time, “Cop Killer”. The lyrics express the frustration that many in the Black community were feeling. The original album version reference then Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, and Rodney King who was brutalized by the LAPD on March 3, 1991.
According to Ice-T, “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”.
Due to the uproar, the album was pulled and reissued without “Cop Killer”. The studio version of the song still hasn’t been re-released and isn’t available on streaming services, but there is now a new version that is. R&B singer Macy Gray along with her backing group California Jet Club reworked the track for her recently released album The Reset.
According to Gray, “The album was written right in the thick of the pandemic. It was just a really good time to make an album because everybody was emotive and expressing themselves. Everybody was just like releasing and letting go. Most musicians are musicians because they aren’t great communicators, so it all came out in the album. “
“There is a song called PTSD, which is a song about how my country gave me PTSD, cause after all that I was traumatized,” adds Gray.
Part of that PTSD stemmed from the ongoing issues with police brutality, a theme that is heavily dealt with on the timely album. The album was composed in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. Sadly, the themes still resonate in the wake of the modern-day lynching of Tyre Nichols.
Along with her music, Gray was motivated to co-find My Good, an organization created to support families who have lost loved ones to police violence.
“I don’t think people are aware that three people die via the police on average every day. So, the 99.9% of those you don’t hear about, and most 99.9% of those don’t get any kind of settlement. Don’t see a penny. You know, you have moms 10 years later still going to court fighting for justice.”
Even though the lyrics of “Cop Killer” will still make a segment of people uncomfortable, the anger towards corrupt cops is at an all-time level. More and more people are raising their voices to declare “fuck police brutality!”