0008 : Dopepics Archive : Body Count at Club Lingerie

Enough time has passed that by now lots of people are no longer aware of the civil unrest that took place in Los Angeles in the early 1990's. These events not only impacted Los Angeles. They ultimately impacted the world.

Shit Gets Crazy

In Los Angeles, in the late 1980s, South Central and Compton were ground zero for the crack epidemic and an escalating gang war between the Crips and Bloods. This ushered in an era of aggressive and often brutal tactics by the LAPD.

The Streets Hit Back

In 1987 the rapper Ice-T recorded the title theme for Dennis Hopper's movie Colors. This film brought national attention to LA's gang culture. It also introduced the world to west-coast-gangsta-rap, a new genre of protest music speaking truth to power in the most literal way possible. 

The following year, in 1988, NWA released the groundbreaking album Straight Out Of Compton. On the controversial track "Fuck Tha Police", when Ice Cube states "Fuck tha police coming straight from the underground" this line hits differently than anything that came before it. It literally felt like a declaration of war between the streets and the LAPD.

While other rappers like Schoolly D (Philadelphia), Boogie Down Productions (NYC) and Ice-T (LA) all played a role in bringing first-person narratives of street life to the forefront of popular culture - Straight Out Of Compton was a spark that started a revolution.

Shit Hits The Fan

In 1991, a group of white racist LA police officers brutally beat an African American citizen named Rodney King. The assault was captured on video tape by an amateur videographer who had recently purchased a Sony Handicam. After the video was broadcast by local television station KTLA, the story became a full-on international media frenzy. 

In April of 1992, 13-months after the Rodney King beating, a jury acquitted the four LAPD officers charged in the case. The shocking verdict ignited six days of civil unrest across Los Angeles resulting in 60 deaths, thousands of injuries, and over $1 billion in property damage. Today, these events are often referred to as the Rodney King Riots or the LA Riots.

Everyone who lived in LA during the riots remembers where they were the night it started. I had a particularly interesting perspective. I was at my girlfriend's apartment in the Hollywood Hills, up the street from two LA landmarks - Tower Records and the restaurant Spago. We had a panoramic view of the city. There were too many fires to count. Strangely enough, I believe Ice-T had a very similar perspective. At the time, his house was literally right next door to my girlfriend's building. Walking her dog, we would often see him coming and going.

Body Count Releases "Cop Killer"

Also in 1992 Ice-T and a guitarist named Ernie C, a friend of Ice-T's from high school, released their first album under the band name Body Count. With lyrics by Ice-T, the songs on their self-titled album covered similar themes as his rap music. What changed is that Ernie C and the rest of the Body Count were a hard rock band. While the change in musical genres brought Ice-T and Body Count some acclaim, it was one track on the album, called "Cop Killer", that became the center of a full-on controversy.

The release of "Cop Killer" — a song written from the perspective of someone enraged by police brutality, just weeks before the Rodney King verdict, was treated by the LAPD as a provocative act. With lyrics such as;

"I got my twelve gauge sawed-off
I got my headlights turned off
I'm 'bout to bust some shots off
I'm 'bout to dust some cops off" 

and

"I got my brain on hype
Tonight will be your night
I got this long-assed knife
And your neck looks just right"

the release of Bodycount's "Cop Killer" enflamed what was already a very tense environment. Arguably, the song did more to benefit the politicians and LAPD in that its inflammatory lyrics were used as justification for why outsized force by the police was needed. 

By the time Warner Brothers and Ice-T agreed to remove the track from future copies of the album every media outlet in the country had weighed in on the issue. Even the President, George W. Bush, personally pushed to have the song banned.

About The Photos

I took these photographs of Ice-T fronting the rock-band Body Count on February 3, 1992 at Club Lingerie in Los Angeles. In ways he probably never imagined he would soon be at the forefront of a national first amendment rights debate and a cultural revolution. 

In February of 1992 tensions in Los Angeles remained high in anticipation of the trial for the cops who beat Rodney King. The trial began on March 5, 1992, Body Count's album was released on March 10th, and the trial ended on April 29th with an acquittal that sparked a riot.

This show was likely a warm up for the Body Counts' 1992 tour. At the time, Club Lingerie's capacity was about 300 people. It was happy to have the opportunity to see them in a small venue. By September of 1992, Body Count were playing stadiums with Guns and Roses and Metallica. Despite all of the controversy, they went on to play 105 shows that year.