Sunday, January 25, 2015

Video Of The (Past) Week: Body Count

Kudos to Ice-T and his metal band Body Count for at least trying to update Suicidal Tendencies' classic 1980s punk-thrash song Institutionalized for the 21st century on their 2014 album Manslaughter.

Sure, we're a long way past the terrific self-titled first album in 1992, with had such tracks as The Winner Loses, C-Note, KKK Bitch and the controversial Cop Killer (on the first pressing, replaced with Freedom Of Speech in subsequent releases after the first week), but the band is still trying to hold its own despite no longer having the backing power of Sire/Warner Brothers behind them, and they're mostly successful at it.

They talk about social issues, they make some noise, they're energetic, they play shows and festivals, they get out there and spread their message.

This video, directed by Frankie Nasso and featuring Ice-T's real-life wife (model Coco Austin), is a tad too 1980s-ish for my taste - representing the lyrics a little too literally - but it fits with Ice-T's current message-with-humor theme.

I'll give it a B for effort.


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