THE BEAST

Protests erupted in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Memphis as hundreds of people gathered in a call for justice over the death of George Floyd, who suffocated when he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer on May 26. Support from the National Guard was requested in Minneapolis to combat looting and rioting amid the protests.

Get ready…. Now they’re gonna blame it on the Victim. #ThenTheyPointTheFingerAtYou !

— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) May 28, 2020

When these things happen you get to see how people REALLY feel... I’ve been speaking out on Police Brutality for over 30yrs... And I’ve heard EVERY excuse.. pic.twitter.com/2XguR8LzyK

— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) May 28, 2020

‘What’s a brother gotta do, to get a message through to the Red White and Blue??
Do I gotta Die? Before you realize I was a brother with open eyes???!’ The Tension Mounts!

— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) May 27, 2020

Body Count is well known for the inclusion of the controversial song "Cop Killer", which was the subject of much criticism from various political figures, although many defended the song on the basis of the group's right to freedom of speech. Ice-T eventually chose to remove the song from the album, although it continues to be performed live. It was voted the 31st best album of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll, and is believed to have helped pave the way for the mainstream success of the rap metal genre, although the album itself does not feature rapping in any of its songs.

Ice-T referred to the album's final track, "Cop Killer" as a protest song, stating that the song is "[sung] in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality." The song was written in 1990, and had been performed live several times, including at Lollapalooza, before it had been recorded in a studio. The album version mentions then-Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates and the black motorist Rodney King, whose beating by LAPD officers was recorded on videotape.[19] In The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?, Ice-T wrote that the song " a warning, not a threat—to authority that says, 'Yo, police: We're human beings. Treat us accordingly.'" In an interview for Rolling Stone, Ice-T stated that "We just celebrated the fourth of July, which is really just national Fuck the Police Day [...] I bet that during the Revolutionary War, there were songs similar to mine."

On Tuesday, #GeorgeFloyd was killed by police in an incident in #Minneapolis , captured on video, where an officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes as he lay on the ground.

George’s family say they want the “four officers involved in his death to be charged with #MURDER ”. pic.twitter.com/vFo7wDxqvZ

— XTRA (@XTRARADIO) May 28, 2020

Minneapolis police ID 4 officers fired in connection with George Floyd's death; mayor calls for charges against cop kneeling on Floyd's neck https://t.co/Hb9fZfu1NJ

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 27, 2020

The National Guard has been called in to Minneapolis, where protests over the death of George Floyd have turned chaotic https://t.co/SepqxlTTcc

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 28, 2020