Ice-T reveals why he changed controversial song lyric to protest ICE: 'We're headed in some very ...

The rapper talks about changing his song 'Cop Killer' to refer to an 'ICE Killer' and the dangers he sees in the current political climate. IceT reveals why he changed controversial song lyric to protest ICE: 'We're headed in some very ugly terrain' The rapper talks about changing his song 'Cop Killer' to refer to an 'ICE Killer' and the dangers he sees in the current political climate. By Raechal Shewfelt :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RaechalShewfeltauthorphotoc49d3a3b6aa442f588f2bbc0de804e09.jpg) Raechal Shewfelt Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at . She has been working at EW since 2024.

The rapper talks about changing his song 'Cop Killer' to refer to an 'ICE Killer' and the dangers he sees in the current political climate.

Ice-T reveals why he changed controversial song lyric to protest ICE: 'We're headed in some very ugly terrain'

The rapper talks about changing his song 'Cop Killer' to refer to an 'ICE Killer' and the dangers he sees in the current political climate.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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January 28, 2026 6:36 p.m. ET

Ice-T attends the 2025 Emmy Awards. Credit:

Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty

Ice-T says that lyric change in the 1992 song "Cop Killer" to "ICE Killer," which has attracted a lot of attention, wasn't something he had planned before taking the mic.

"I have political things I think about," the rapper said Wednesday on radio's *The Breakfast Club*. "Now when I did that, that didn't happen just recently. It happened when we played in L.A. at the Warped Tour [in July]. When I was there, ICE was active out there. So it's like I'm in the midst of ICE raids and stuff like that, and I'm in front of an L.A. audience, and it just came out. I didn't know I was gonna do it."

The star released the controversial song with his act Body Count in 1992.

Onstage, more than 30 years later, when the time approached for him to perform the track, "My brain just said, 'Do ICE Killer,'" said Ice-T, whose actual name is Tracy Marrow. "And it went over."

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The Grammy winner said that, whatever you call the song, it means much the same thing.

"You know, 'ICE Killer,' 'Cop Killer,' it's really protest," he said. "I'm just protesting."

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In fact, protests by many in Minneapolis and elsewhere followed the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this month.

As Ice-T sees it, the outlook for the country is not good.

"I think we're headed to some really ugly terrain," he said. "And Black people really ain't got nothing to do with it. It's bad. I think the moment somebody shoots an ICE agent, it's gonna get bad."

Rapper Ice-T performs at the Warped Tour 2025.

Scott Dudelson/Getty

When asked whether he thought it was an artist's responsibility to speak out on the issues of the day, the *Law & Order: SVU* star answered not necessarily.

"No, I think the only people that should speak on [issues] are the ones that really carry it with them daily," Ice-T said. "If that's who you are. If it's not, don't do it for publicity. Don't do it for hype. Don't let your publicist tell you, 'Speak on this topic.' Because if you're not educated enough to speak on it, you're going to end up caught out there."**

- Hip Hop & Rap Music

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Source: Hip

Published: January 31, 2026 at 03:57PM on Source: MANUEL MAG

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