Ice-T Highlights the Downside of Controversy: “You Get Buzz, But Now You Need Lawyers.” .Linh

Ice-T‘s advice to musicians who want to say something controversial? Stand by what you really mean and lawyer up.

Ahead of his heavy metal band Body Count’s forthcoming album Merciless, the 66-year-old rapper answered fan-submitted questions from The Guardian. One person asked about the band’s 1992 protest song “Cop Killer” and if he felt the “heat” and regretted releasing it.

“I never really questioned myself, but the heat came when they started sending bomb threats to Warner Bros. I threw the rock, that’s my heat,” Ice-T explained. “But when other people could get hurt, that’s nerve-racking.”

“But I got news for people: Anybody that thinks controversy is a way to make money, it’s not. You get a lot of buzz, but now you need lawyers,” he continued. “So don’t just say something stupid and then back-pedal — if you’re going to say something, stand on it.”

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Ice-T made reporters watch a 40-minute civil rights documentary before announcing the “Cop Killer” decision.

“I don’t understand why I’m supposed to like the police,” he said after the documentary finished. “None of my leaders liked them. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. They’ve never been a friend of black people. As for the ones that are handling the job correctly, I have all the respect in the world for them. As for the brutal ones, I’d rather get rid of them before they get rid of me.”

The rapper and actor has played NYPD detective Odafin Tutuola on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit since 2000. Recently, an X user asked Ice if the show is “normal” again after going “woke.”

The “Colors” rapper shut him down immediately, asking him “What the F is woke? Lol. Like I give a f—.”