Earnie C. from Body Count on Gate Keepers
2024-12-12 13:05:00 +07:00 by Mark Smith
Earnie C. from Body Count was on the Turned Out A Punk Podcast. Really enjoyed the episode.
I wasn’t a big fan or anything, and I didn’t really understand their cultural significance at the time, but I definitely remember them being around. I also didn’t know they were already quite an established band by the early to mid 90s, when I got into music. I was listening to pretty much all the bands he mentions and saw many of them live. It’s a really interesting interview, it totally fits in with my recollection of the music scene from back then.
I definitely remember that there weren’t many black artists in the scene. Like many from my generation I watched a lot of MTV. Occasionally I would stumble across Yo MTV Raps, so I was peripherally aware of the rap scene, I had some NWA and Public Enemy cassette tapes, but I was mostly an alt rock and metal guy. It’s cool to hear about how these cultures ended up getting intertwined through music, and that great things can emerge out of stuff that seems really shocking at the time.
This bit about gate keepers jumped out at me, cultures find a way to integrate different peoples in the most unnexpected ways [20:39]:
Damian: That’s the thing about Body Count. There are bands that come out and have an impact but Body Count changed pop culture. There were like real conversations, it seems kinda quaint to say it now because this is a post Body Count world, but people were really threatened by your record. Even in Canada it was banned, where I’m from.
Earnie C.: Right, it’s like we were the first, what do you call it…cancel culture. We were cancel cultured before it was a thing! But now, Ice was talking about this the other day, about how he ends up doing on a Cheerios box, or doing commercials and things like that. It’s because the people that were so scared of us, the gate keepers have changed. Now the people that grew up with us, aren’t scared of us. Aren’t scared of guys from South Central L.A. They’re not scarred of us. That’s how we become part of pop culture, because the gate keepers have changed. The old guys that were in charge, that were scared and intimidated are gone. And the 40 year old kid that was 13 listening to our record, and loving it, they are in charge of things now.
It was fun to remember. I was suprised by how vivid that time still is in my mind. #