Why did Thanatos cover Body Count's Cop Killer?
The reason is simple; the constant freak out over every song written by a black man that contained violent imagery made me what to do the cover.
It wasn't supposed to be a cover of just Cop Killer, however.
It was supposed to be a medley of the song and another one--Bruce Springsteen's State Trooper. Being good citizens we asked for permission. Body Count gave it (Sam got a number which wound up being Ernie C's cell phone). Springsteen's people sent a cease and desist order, despite the fact we hadn't actually, you know, released anything. This made my dislike of Springsteen's music a bit more personal though which was good. I no longer felt the need to pretend like I gave a shit about him. His fans would always do the Grateful Dead thing; they ask if you've seen him play and you respond "No, I hate his music." Then they come back with "But he puts on a FOUR HOUR SHOW." I don't want to see the man for 10 minutes let alone four HOURS.
But, as usual, I digress.
The point, of course, was that Springsteen or Johnny Cash can play songs about murder and mayhem and no one peeps. But a black man? HELL no! Unfortunately what we did was toss in some meaningless lyrics which gutted the entire point of the cover. Ideally I would have found another song by a less douchey artist than Springsteen. Or we could have just scrapped the song but I've never been one to waste recorded material.
Also let's dispense with the notion Cop Killer is a "rap" song. It isn't. It is a punk metal song by Body Count. It keeps getting put up as an Ice-T cover for some reason. Body Count is Ice-T's band of course but it is a rock act. That was also part of this. It was having a little bit of fun with the notion of a rap artist's metal song being covered by a white guy who then (sort of, as close as I could get to it) raps the song. This part of it was entirely lost on everyone.
Sometimes, no one gets my jokes.
But that is the story of the Cop Killer cover. It still strikes me as weird that it is, by far, the most streamed song by Thanatos. It is far from the only cover. It just goes to show you the power of Ice-T I guess.
The reason is simple; the constant freak out over every song written by a black man that contained violent imagery made me what to do the cover.
It wasn't supposed to be a cover of just Cop Killer, however.
It was supposed to be a medley of the song and another one--Bruce Springsteen's State Trooper. Being good citizens we asked for permission. Body Count gave it (Sam got a number which wound up being Ernie C's cell phone). Springsteen's people sent a cease and desist order, despite the fact we hadn't actually, you know, released anything. This made my dislike of Springsteen's music a bit more personal though which was good. I no longer felt the need to pretend like I gave a shit about him. His fans would always do the Grateful Dead thing; they ask if you've seen him play and you respond "No, I hate his music." Then they come back with "But he puts on a FOUR HOUR SHOW." I don't want to see the man for 10 minutes let alone four HOURS.
But, as usual, I digress.
The point, of course, was that Springsteen or Johnny Cash can play songs about murder and mayhem and no one peeps. But a black man? HELL no! Unfortunately what we did was toss in some meaningless lyrics which gutted the entire point of the cover. Ideally I would have found another song by a less douchey artist than Springsteen. Or we could have just scrapped the song but I've never been one to waste recorded material.
Also let's dispense with the notion Cop Killer is a "rap" song. It isn't. It is a punk metal song by Body Count. It keeps getting put up as an Ice-T cover for some reason. Body Count is Ice-T's band of course but it is a rock act. That was also part of this. It was having a little bit of fun with the notion of a rap artist's metal song being covered by a white guy who then (sort of, as close as I could get to it) raps the song. This part of it was entirely lost on everyone.
Sometimes, no one gets my jokes.
But that is the story of the Cop Killer cover. It still strikes me as weird that it is, by far, the most streamed song by Thanatos. It is far from the only cover. It just goes to show you the power of Ice-T I guess.
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