CD Reviews

Body Count

Murder 4 Hire | Escapi

By TED DROZDOWSKI | September 18, 2006

2.0 Stars

You could argue that rap metal reached its apex with Body Count’s homonymous 1992 debut and its controversial “Cop Killer.” Rapper Ice-T and his pack of LA metallurgists were on fire then, blending humor, social commentary, and 10-ton riffs. Now they go down in flames, though any sparks have flickered out by the midpoint of this wallowing mess, right after the uninspired “In My Head,” which manages to make a first-person narrative by a psycho stalker dull. The few emotional peaks are in guitarist Ernie C’s solos, which stretch and squeal in the title tune and “The Passion of Christ.” But Ice-T’s vocals sound flat and unemotive, and that’s especially damaging to “Down in the Bayou,” a satire of redneck livin’ that needs a little joie de vivre if it’s to sink its fangs. Maybe it’s the weight of his losing his original Body Count mates to illness and drive-bys (drummer Beatmaster V to leukemia, guitarist D-Roc to lymphoma, bassist Mooseman to a South Central shooting). Maybe it’s the crushing irony of his day job: playing a cop on Law & Order: SVU. Or maybe deep down he’s just as tired of this genre as the rest of us.

Related: Pity the fools, Tears of joy, Def and dumb, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Ice-T

| More

ARTICLES BY TED DROZDOWSKI

TOM HAMBRIDGE | BOOM! | August 23, 2011
Roots rock is the new country and ex-Bostonian Tom Hambridge is the style's current MPV.

COUNTRY STRONG | SOUNDTRACK | January 11, 2011
This steaming pile of songs is emblematic of the state of mainstream country music — all artifice, no heart, calculated anthems written to formula and meant, like the film itself, to do no more than capitalize on the genre's current success and rob its undiscriminating fans.

MARC RIBOT | SILENT MOVIES | November 02, 2010
This exceptional, eccentric guitarist has traced a slow evolution from screamer to dreamer.

IN MEMORIAM: SOLOMON BURKE, 1940 — 2010 | October 11, 2010

REVIEW: RONNIE EARL AND THE BROADCASTERS | SPREAD THE LOVE | September 07, 2010
Boston-based blues-guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl seems to be considering his past on his 23rd album as a leader.