Single Slam – The Ski Mask Way by Body Count (Bloodlust)

Body Count have a new single out now called The Ski Mask Way. The Ski Mask Way is the second single out from Body Count’s planned release Bloodlust. Bloodlust will be released via Century Media Records on the 31st of March. The Ski Mask Way follows their pretty good first single, No Lives Matter.

Body Count are a heavy metal band fronted by legendary hip hop artist, actor, director and rapper, Ice T. Obviously, with Ice T at the helm, the vocals are nearly always delivered in an angry, rap style and often contain lyrical content to do with current political climates. Again that is similar to rap, but, musically, they play heavy metal with big drum beats and crunching riffs. Being rap and metal, there are obvious nu-metal comparisons to be made but they do hit harder than the typical nu-metal rap you would think of. I guess Body Count could be described as Limp Bizkit with balls.

The first single was surprisingly good and poignant. It dealt with the current political, race and economic issues happening in America. Specifically the divide between the rich and poor. The worry, before listening to it was that this music can sometimes be a mix of silly hip hop gangster lyrics with strong heavy metal riffing. No Lives Matter managed to avoid that by mixing important, meaningful lyrics with the crunching riffs.

The Ski Mask Way completely reverses that and returns to type. It is such a disappointment. Really.

It is three and a half minutes long and, if you removed the vocals or at least the lyrical content, you would have a short song with some pretty cool drumming, bass lines and riffing. That isn’t possible though so instead what we have is a load of nonsensical hip hop gangster stuff. The chorus is purely Ice T telling us “I gotta get paid”. He professes his intention to not ever do anything legally and tells us how “if you make money, he will come and visit you”.

It is so stupid. To follow up a song about the victimised poor with a song about victimising people. Oh the irony!

Other disappointments in The Ski Mask Way are the intro where they use a bulletin to announce that two suspects are on the loose. Police are searching for them after a violent home invasion. Another point in the song sees them break into someone’s house, threaten a man before announcing they are gonna kill his “bitch”. I am not sure what Ice T expects here. Am I meant to buy into these lyrics? Am I meant to jump around and feel passionate about pretending to rob people, burgle their houses and threaten their wives?

There is, despite all that, a positive. That is the music – if you can block out the woeful lyrical content. Ernie C is a great guitarist and is backed up well by Juan of the Dead. Ill Will, on the drums, is a talent and the bass playing from Vincent Price is strong. There are a ton of fast beats and crunching riffs. There is a strong and heavy breakdown near the end that, without the lyrics, would have any pit circling violently.

The problem is you can’t block out the lyrics. They are above the music and therefore, for me, this song is ruined. I look for much more in my lyrical content then guys telling you how they are gonna buss a cap in yo ass.

Any score this receives is just for the musical skills of the musicians in Body Count. As you can tell, I don’t like these lyrics. They are childish and stupid. Especially when coming from someone like Ice T. He spends the song telling us how we needs to get paid The Ski Mask Way. I imagine he doesn’t. He has a had a pretty strong musical career with some acting too. Well off guys pretending to be poor so that they can act like one of you is dumb. 59 year old blokes threatening to “shoot your bitch” doesn’t really have an impact either.

He should have stuck to things he believed in, like in the first song.

Still, it is just my opinion so you should check it out for yourself here. You may like it. It is available now through all the usual streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. If you like what you hear, you can preorder it from iTunes. Be sure to check out Body Count on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with news and other information on the band and their releases.