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Miami Heard “Cop Killer” Even Without Ice-T on Stage
In 1992, police groups pressed for Body Count’s record to be withdrawn. Miami stores pulled it from their shelves. Then, at Lollapalooza in Bicentennial Park, Soundgarden played the song with Body Count’s guitarist.
In July 1992, a few people picketed the Spec’s record store on Lincoln Road. Inside the company, executives debated whether to keep selling Body Count, the album by Ice-T’s metal band. Police organizations elsewhere had called for a boycott of Time Warner, the company distributing it, over the song “Cop Killer.” Spec’s joined other retailers in pulling the album.
The argument had reached Miami without Ice-T needing to play a concert here. To police groups opposing the record, the song appeared to encourage violence against officers. Ice-T said it expressed anger at police brutality. The disagreement grew into a national campaign over what stores should sell and what record companies should release.
There was also confusion about the music itself. Ice-T was known as a rapper, but “Cop Killer” was a song by Body Count, his heavy metal band. Miami music writer Greg Baker pointed out that distinction while reporting on the local stores’ decisions. Spec’s said its executives had debated the issue and rejected a report that the small Lincoln Road picket had caused them to pull the album.
Weeks later, the song was heard at a Miami concert after all.
Lollapalooza came to Bicentennial Park on August 22, 1992. Ice-T and Body Count were not on that year’s bill. Soundgarden was. During its set, the Seattle band performed “Cop Killer” with Body Count guitarist Ernie C joining them onstage.
The performance was captured on video. Years later, Soundgarden included the Miami recording in the anniversary edition of Badmotorfinger, preserving the date as more than a disputed memory or an incomplete concert listing.
It was a striking turn in the song’s history. By then, Ice-T had agreed to remove “Cop Killer” from future copies of Body Count’s album amid the pressure surrounding it. Yet in Miami, musicians from another band chose to play it in front of a festival audience. Ernie C’s presence connected that performance directly to the group that had made the record.
In Miami, retailers responded to the national boycott campaign. Soundgarden later played the contested song at Lollapalooza here. Reports of police trying to stop Ice-T concerts in other cities belong to those cities, not this Miami episode.
What happened at Bicentennial Park captures how difficult it was to contain the argument once the music was public. An album could come off a store shelf, but the song could still travel through other musicians and onto another stage.
That summer, Miami became part of the “Cop Killer” story in two ways. One unfolded in a record store, where people decided whether customers could buy the album. The other happened onstage, where Soundgarden and Ernie C made sure the song could still be heard.