Ice-T has never shied away from being outspoken. Never forget, the breakthrough single by his rap metal band Body Count was called Cop Killer and espoused the virtues of shooting your local law enforcement. Needless to say, it caused a stir.
So, when Classic Rock asked the music icon and Law & Order: SVU actor about the impending US election, we knew we’d get an uncensored take. On top of that, though, we also received Ice’s thoughts on everything from nuclear war to local government. It was one of the more meticulous responses on the subject we’ve heard from a musician all year.
“I believe that had God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates," Ice replies sarcastically when asked for his thoughts on the election, which takes place on Tuesday November 5. "I don’t believe anyone who’s really capable or should be a politician wants to be a politician anymore. I just don't. I don’t like either side."
While Ice is famously down on both major US political parties - recent Body Count single Fuck What You Heard was a scathing takedown of both sides ('Let's talk about the blue and the red, half the dirty motherfuckers should be locked in the feds') - it seems he has some particular disdain for Republican nominee and convicted felon, Donald Trump. "You know, I despise Trump," he says. "I think Trump is an absolute piece of shit. I think people vote with their wallets, so they believe that he’s gonna potentially put money in their pockets and some shit. But it didn’t happen last time.
“I think the good thing about Trump is that he let the world see how fucked up the United States is. He let the world see how racist and how scandalous a great portion of our country is. Nobody can just look at dude and say he’s a solid motherfucker. He’s got more fucking felonies than all my criminal friends put together and doesn’t even have an ankle bracelet on. It’s just showing us how this country is operated and run, so it’s crazy.”
Ultimately, though, he firmly believes both sides are problematic, arguing that more voters should be concerned with local government than what is necessarily happening on a national scale.
“I didn’t even know Kamala was in the White House until Biden stepped out, so she just popped up out of nowhere," he muses. "But like I say in the song Fuck What You Heard, ‘Both wings are on the same bird.’ At the end of the day, it’s government. And if you go to prison, you don’t go to a Democrat prison or a Republican prison, you go to the federal government’s prison, although I know they both have different policies and stuff.
“At the end of the day, the different states will be able to lay their own law downs, you know? Marijuana isn’t legal federally, but it’s legal in how many states? So that lets you know how much power the federal government has over shit. People need to be more concerned with who their governor is and who their mayor is, versus the president."
Ice also circles back to his ongoing comparison between the Democrats and Republicans and gang culture, something that is a central theme of Fuck What You Heard, in which he labels them the 'Democrips' and the 'Bloodpublicans'.
“It’s just ironic that [the parties] wear red and blue," he says. "The gang thing is that once you say you’re Republican, you have to roll with everything they say, and once you say you’re a Democrat, you have to agree with everything they say. That’s a gang, yeah. That’s a gang mentality. You gotta to stay down. And if you’re the gang leader, you’re like, ‘Look, if you’re in my gang you agree with every fucking thing I say,’ and I don't think anybody truly does.
“One girl asked me, ‘In your job, did you become more conservative?’ And I’m like, ‘Define conservative.’ You can't even define that shit. Like, what is liberal? I know what is your definition, that could be totally misconstrued from my definition.
“Hopefully we don’t blow this whole fucking planet up," he concludes, casting an eye to the world's wider problems. "I think that’s the big problem right now. We’re on the brink of thermonuclear war. All over the world, there’s so much tension, that's the big problem.”
Body Count's new album Merciless is out November 22
