BODY COUNT Commence Work On New CD

BODY COUNT, the Los Angeles-based band led by rapper Ice-T, have commenced work on a new studio album, tentatively due at the end of the year.

"I can't walk down the street without people asking me, 'Where's BC?'," Ice told MTV.com. "It's funny that BODY COUNT was 10 years ago and since then there hasn't been a powerful black rock band. So I guess they need us to come back, like Godzilla — he comes back every now and then and tears up the city."

The group's six-year hiatus, which went into effect right after BODY COUNT released 1997's "Violent Demise: Last Days", was caused by several factors, not the least of which was the fact that two of the group's principals had died.

"We lost our drummer, Beatmaster V, to leukemia," Ice explained. "Then Mooseman, who played bass, got killed in South Central in those situations I rap about every day. Those were like two of the main players in the band, and to try to find somebody else was hard so I just let the band go away."

The group is now completely revamped and in the studio, preparing for a comeback. But Ice doesn't expect BODY COUNT's music to stir up the kind of controversy it caused back in 1991 with their infamous song "Cop Killer".

"We're gonna come out here and rock and roll," the 45-year-old MC said. "I wasn't trying to start all that drama with that [BODY COUNT] album. On the song 'Cop Killer' I was just being honest. I never really reached for controversy. I just said what was on my mind, like I'm saying now.

"Since Clinton was in the White House, everybody became very complacent, everybody kicked back," he continued. "He had sex in the White House, what's there to worry about? But now we got Bush — or son of a Bush — in there, and he's out to control the world. He's trying to be Julius Caesar and so it's time for more music about things. It's time for BODY COUNT."