Ice-T stood by his decision to tweak the song “Cop Killer” to “ICE Killer,” defending he was merely “protesting” with the lyric change.
The rapper addressed the controversial music moment, which occurred during the Vans Warped Tour in July 2025, on “The Breakfast Club” on Wednesday, where he defended that not all musical artists needed to get political with their platforms — but that he felt compelled to say something at the time.
“I think the only people that should speak on [issues] are the ones that really carry it with them daily,” he 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.”
As the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star continued, he explained that he has “political things” that he thinks about, but this particular incident was an unplanned act of protest.
“Now when I did that, that didn’t happen just recently,” he noted of the modified song, which he first dropped in 1992 with his band Body Count. “When I was [in LA], 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 LA audience, and it just came out. I didn’t know I was gonna do it.”
Inspired by what he saw, Ice-T said the change from “Cop Killer” to “ICE Killer” was meant to be a protest not an encouragement of violence: “I’m just protesting.”
Ice-T admitted that in the wake of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE, his viral Warped Tour moment resurfaced, leaving him wary about what’s to come for the U.S.
“I think we’re headed into 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.”
Watch Ice-T’s “Breakfast Club” interview above.
