Ice-T

Body Count's new album, Bloodlust, will be out March 31 but yesterday, the band's new single was released. You can hear it-- and watch the provocative new video-- above; please do. It's special for me, mostly because Bodycount is a band I worked with when I was general manger of Sire Records. Seymour Stein had signed Ice-T to the label and he was a star-- a successful star who sold a lot of albums. In 1990 Ice asked me to come see his metal band, Body Count, play. Their music and stage show were right up my alley and they were a big hit at Lollapalooza in 1991.

This week, I had a call from Steve Knopper, a writer doing a story for Billboard, about how musicians may look at their responsibility to call attention to the political anomalies around Trump and Trumpism. I'll share that with you when it's published next week.

I was listed as the Executive Producer of the record from which the video above was made. I'm very proud to have played a small part in getting these ideas out in 1992. I would have wished the police would have learned something from the song and the ensuing controversy-- and, truth be told, many have. But not enough to stop the attitude that keeps the police murder of young black men at epidemic levels in America. I believe in peace and love and non-violence...

Blue America is at the tail end of a fundraising effort on behalf of Alex Law, the progressive Democrat running against South Jersey Machine incumbent Donald Norcross, brother of notoriously corrupt party boss George Norcross. Since being installed in Congress by his brother in 2014-- after the corrupt old Machine hack was driven out by scandal-- Donald Norcross has been a dependable vote for many of John Boehner's worst policies.

Ice-T released his fourth album-- and many say his best-- O.G., Original Gangster in 1991. It made it into the top 10 and was awarded a gold album. Ice lives in New Jersey now and Blue America decided to give away one of those original RIAA-certified O.G. gold record awards to help us raise contributions for a young candidate in New Jersey's First Congressional District, Alex Law. Turns out Alex is an Ice-T fan. "Ice-T's music and story," he told us, "are inspiring to me."

When I ran Sire Records and then Reprise bands often asked me if I would be the executive producer of their album. I never felt comfortable doing it-- showing that kind of perceived favoritism when I was responsible for all the bands and all their albums-- so I would routinely say "no, thanks." Except once. That once was a band I had signed to Sire, Body Count. My boss, Seymour Stein, had already signed the ground-breaking rapper Ice-T to the label but when Ice put together a punk/metal band, he brought it to me. I loved the live shows I had seen around L.A.