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- THE WEEK, Page 23ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTIce-T Melts
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- Facing continuing attacks, the rapper yanks his antipolice anthem
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- It managed to enrage a lot of people, from small-town police
- officers to congressional leaders to a former National Security
- Council aide named Oliver North. It put actor Charlton Heston in
- a prominent new role as the Tipper Gore of Beverly Hills. The
- stormy controversy revolved around rap star Ice-T's Cop Killer,
- a song that, many argue, condones murder and fuels hatred of
- police officers. Last week the L.A. rapper, who made a foray
- into heavy metal on his latest album, Body Count, moved to
- withdraw Cop Killer from that record.
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- Ice-T said he made the decision on his own as a response
- to the growing wave of protest against the album's distributor,
- Warner Bros. Records, and its parent company, Time Warner. The
- rapper claims that Warner Bros. Records staff members had
- received death threats. Police groups had called for a boycott
- not only of the album but of all Time Warner products. Some
- record stores had already pulled Body Count off their shelves.
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- The company has ceased manufacturing the album in its
- current version and has asked retailers to return unsold CDs and
- cassettes to Warner Bros. Records for full credit. The company
- will reissue the album, minus the Cop Killer track, in the next
- few weeks. But Ice-T fans will still be able to get their hands
- on the single. The rapper said he'll give away old versions of
- Body Count at concerts. "I'll bring it back to South Central,"
- he proclaimed, referring to L.A.'s riot-torn neighborhood.
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