Body Count won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance on Sunday, earning frontman Ice-T his first award at the ceremony in 30 years. The band won the award for “Bum Rush”, from their 2020 album, Carnivore.
The veteran metal act beat out fellow nominees Code Orange, In This Moment, Poppy, and Power Trip for the award. Power Trip were nominated following the tragic death of lead singer Riley Gale this past summer, and Ice-T would have been just as happy if they had won. As he told Heavy Consequence last year, he was equally rooting for Power Trip, telling us, “It would be just like I won the Grammy ’cause [Riley Gale] was my guy.” Prior to Gale’s passing, the Power Trip vocalist guested on Body Count’s song “Point the Finger”.
The Grammy win for Body Count is their first as a band, and the first for Ice-T in 30 years. In 1991, he took home the first-ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for the song “Back on the Block”, which also featured Quincy Jones, Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, and Quincy Jones III. That marked his only other Grammy victory.
On Twitter, Body Count acknowledged the win while paying respect to Riley Gale, “Thank you to the @RecordingAcad and all the nominees. A big shout out to Riley Gale, Rest In Power.” Meanwhile, Ice-T tweeted, “Ohhhhh Shit!!! WTF just happened???!”
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When we caught up with Ice-T in December after the nomination, he told us, “I think just to be nominated, it sounds corny, with all the thousands and thousands of records that come out every year, is a great accomplishment and we’ll take that. Of course, we want to win but it’s mind-blowing.”
Congrats to Ice-T and Body Count on their Grammy win for “Bum Rush”. Check out the video for the song and the aforementioned tweets below, and see the updated list of Grammy winners here.
Thank you to the @RecordingAcad and all the nominees. A big shout out to Riley Gale, Rest In Power 👊🏽 https://t.co/rdw7TTl7IM
— BODY COUNT (@BodyCountBand) March 14, 2021
Ohhhhh Shit!!! WTF just happened???! 💥💥💥💥
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) March 14, 2021
Congrats Best Metal Performance – ‘BUM-RUSH’ @BodyCountBand ✨ #GRAMMYs
WATCH NOW ⬇️––#GRAMMYPremiere https://t.co/RxyLdKA9Hv
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) March 14, 2021