Ice-T first altered the lyrics during a show in Los Angeles in the summer, at a time when ICE were active in the city
By Emma Wilkes 30th January 2026
Ice-T of Body Count. Credit: Scott Dudelson/Getty
Ice-T has elaborated on his reasons for changing the lyrics to ‘Cop Killer’ to ‘ICE Killer’ live recently.
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Despite the current tensions around ICE in the US at the moment, the Body Count frontman first made the change to the lyrics of the 1992 hit during a show in Los Angeles in July. As he explained during an appearance on Entertainment Weekly’s The Breakfast Club podcast, the change was rather spontaneous.
Advertisement“I have political things I think about,” Ice-T said. “Now when I did that, that didn’t happen just recently. It happened when we played in L.A. at the Warped Tour. 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.
“My brain just said, ‘Do “ICE Killer.”‘ And it went over.”
The message has become even more significant following the deaths of at least eight people in connection to ICE since the beginning of 2026, most notably the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The killings have sparked a wave of protests across the US, which have escalated today into a general strike.
US citizens have walked out of school and work and committed not to spend any money today (January 30) and tomorrow (January 31), with activists demanding the permanent removal of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from towns and cities across the US.
Recommended“I’m just protesting,” Ice-T continued. “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.”
He also encouraged those speaking out to do so from a point of authenticity. “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.”
Ice-T is one of many names from the world of music who have taken a stand against ICE in recent days. Bruce Springsteen wrote the song ‘Streets Of Minneapolis’ about the protests in the city, directly referencing Good and Pretti, for which he received criticism from the Trump administration for supposedly being “irrelevant”.
Others who have criticised Trump and ICE recently include Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Green Day, Neil Young, Moby, Zara Larsson, musician and Stranger Things star Joe Keery, Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal, Duran Duran, Dave Matthews and more.
AdvertisementBilly Bragg also released a track called ‘City Of Heroes’ recently, written in “tribute to the bravery of the people of Minneapolis”.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz are among those in politics who have called for ICE to end its presence in the city. Trump and many of his followers, however, have defended the actions of ICE, saying the agents were acting in self-defence.
