Was there ever a moment during the furore over Cop Killer when you were feeling the heat and/or questioning yourself over releasing it? Sophisticles
I never really questioned myself, but the heat came when they started sending bomb threats to Warner Bros. I threw the rock, that’s my heat. But when other people could get hurt, that’s nerve-racking. But I got news for people: anybody that thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. You get a lot of buzz, but now you need lawyers. So don’t just say something stupid and then back-pedal – if you’re going to say something, stand on it.
When you founded Body Count, a Black man performing heavy metal was pretty rare. Have you enjoyed the growing crossover between hip-hop and heavier music in recent years, and the increasing diversity in genres such as hardcore and metal? MrPleebus
I didn’t really care, I was just trying to do me. Of course, yes, it feels good to see the genre merge and change, but that wasn’t my agenda. My agenda was simple: to play in a band with [guitarist] Ernie C. Touring in Europe with Public Enemy, I’d noticed the kids would mosh off of fast rap and that’s what sparked the idea to do Body Count, to do a fast rock band. It wasn’t like, “Let’s get Black people in.” It was just … I’m going to do this shit.
How did it feel to put yourself in the shoes of a psychopath for your new album’s lead single? VerulamiumParkRanger
That song sounded like I imagine a psychopath’s brain would sound: very erratic, very crazy. One of the things I’ve always loved to do is become people in my songs – like rapping from the perspective of a cop killer. So I just sat back and I tried to think like a psychopath. It wasn’t really hard.
What was it like working with Motörhead for Born to Raise Hell? Did you keep in touch with Lemmy? AllThisRunningAround
The fact Lemmy even knew who I was was dope. Lemmy was cool, but I really didn’t get to kick it with him. But the fact that he’d requested me for the track – that’s all I needed to know. He was a legend.
Usually our collabs come from knowing people and being friends. Like Amy Lee from Evanescence came about because Vince [Price, bass] was working with them on the road. Having Dave Gilmour on the new record was a long shot, though. It started with me wanting to do Comfortably Numb, because I believe right now we are all comfortably numb – you can watch someone get set on fire on television and then just start watching the football game. We did the song and Pink Floyd’s publisher just said “no, no way”. My manager reached out to David Gilmour, and the next thing we get a call saying: “I want to play on the record.” I’m sure there’s purists that might hate the song, but fuck them.
Is Body Count in the house? IvanBunin77
Yeah, definitely. We’ve been back in the house ever since [2014’s] Manslaughter. Once we connected with [producer] Will Putney we caught our second wind. We had a low moment because we lost some band members and that’s going to hurt any band, but we got our groove back.
On your debut Lollapalooza run you regularly performed Sly & the Family Stone’s Don’t Call Me N*****, Whitey with Jane’s Addiction. Has the time passed when Black and white artists can duet on such a culturally weighted song? McScootikins
I don’t really fuck around with people that are worried about getting cancelled. Somebody once said: “Ice-T is the only person who does things that totally jeopardise his career just to stay awake.” But if we’re not going to push the line, then why even make the song? It should rub some people wrong.
Do you have Charlton Heston pompously reciting Body Count lyrics – as he famously did at that Warner Bros shareholders meeting – as your ringtone? Haigin88
Fuck him. You know what we did? We made a gold record for him. We thanked him for talking shit because it got us a lot of attention.
How did you go from rapper and rock musician to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? EnriqueCortesRello
My first acting job I had to play a cop for New Jack City and I was dropping an album called OG Original Gangster – I thought it was career suicide, but people accepted it and none of my peers had anything bad to say. They called me to do four episodes, and it just kept on giving, 25 years later. Hip-hop was doing this paradigm shift away from acts like me, Public Enemy and Ice Cube into this weird other world where I wouldn’t have survived. So maybe it was like a lifeboat pulling up next to me. Like, OK: time for you to change your main hustle. It’s been a good ride, and it keeps me contained – when you’re a musician and only a musician, you got a lot of free time, and that free time can get you in trouble.
How much do you miss [Law & Order co-star] Richard Belzer? CoveRoad
I really miss Rich. He passed the same week I got my star [on the Hollywood walk of fame], so that was a bittersweet moment. Belzer was my OG. He was the guy who showed me the ropes. He taught me it’s not who has the most scenes, but who has the most memorable scenes – when you’re in, make sure those scenes are memorable.
I thought you were excellent in [2001 crime drama film] ’R Xmas. What was it like working with Abel Ferrara? Drea de Matteo seemed to suggest it was a chaotic yet creatively satisfying shoot? penny_lane00
Abel Ferrara, he’s a wild man, he was all over the place. Schoolly D worked with him on King of New York, and he told me: “Abel is a great guy, he taught me a lot about the film business. Although he did also introduce me to heroin.” Then he says – and this is my favourite quote: “One thing about Abel is he will never lie to you. Unless he’s lying to you.”
So, anyway, after the movie’s done, I say: “Abel, I want to go to the screening.” I show up at his apartment on the Lower East Side, thinking we’re going to a place to see the movie. He’s got a little TV with a VCR at the bottom of it, sitting on his kitchen table. His boy is laying on the couch with his sock hanging off his foot, and Abel’s in the back with some chick. He tells me, “The movie’s right there, just watch it.” I say, “On this screen?” And he says, “Yeah, that’s how most people are going to see it anyway.” So I sat in his kitchen while he was doing who knows what in the bedroom, his boy’s on the couch asleep, and I watched the whole movie right there in a crazy Lower East Side apartment. So my experience with Abel is just as wild as anybody else’s. But the movie came out dope, and I would work with Abel again. He’s a rite of passage if you’re a New York actor.
What were your first thoughts when you read the script for Johnny Mnemonic? arashikage
William Gibson wrote that, and I knew he was an incredible sci-fi writer. Keanu Reeves was just coming off Speed, so he was hot as hell. Henry Rollins and Dolph Lundgren were in the movie. Plus the offer was good, so I really didn’t care about the script. It was a fun ride, and I’m proud of that movie.
I became good friends with Henry Rollins when we were on Lollapalooza together. I learned a lot about being a lead singer from seeing him come on stage barefoot with “Search & Destroy” on his back. I was like, this motherfucker’s bad – I gotta be bad like him. It was a sense of just being true to yourself: to be and do what you want, because if you’re really a leader you dictate what the culture is, you don’t let the culture dictate to you.
Where do you stand on AI technology? Should there be limits? RDMiller
I don’t think there’s anything we can do to stop technology coming to eat us. Have you ever seen a movie about the future where it was happy?
• Body Count’s new album Merciless is released 22 November on Century Media
