Body Count stopped by The Tonight Show to perform their recent song, “Comfortably Numb,” an updated version of Pink Floyd‘s 1979 single. The track, off the group’s new LP Merciless, sees frontman Ice-T rapping his own lyrics over the familiar music.
Ice-T sat down with host Jimmy Fallon to discuss the new album, as well as working with Pink Floyd and David Gilmour to get permission to use the classic song. “Not only David Gilmour, but David Gilmour and Roger Waters, who haven’t agreed on anything in 20 years,” Ice-T confirmed. “Rappers always listen to music for tracks they could rap over, breakbeats, things like that, and I always liked the bass line to ‘Comfortably Numb.’ I wanted to rap on it.”
The rapper added that he “doesn’t know” what’s going on between Gilmour and Waters. “You’ve got two people on opposite sides who approved the song, which made me feel really good,” Ice-T said. “Because that means that the song is honest and real.”
Earlier this year, Ice-T spoke to Rolling Stone about how the song came together. “When we originally contacted their publisher, they said ‘no,’” Ice-T said. “It was not a diss, but kind of like ‘Pink Floyd doesn’t do samples. They don’t do ads, either.’ We were fucked. I wasn’t going to take the lyrics and put it on another track. I was just going to burn it.”
He explained that the situation changed once Ice-T’s team circumvented the publishers and took the proposed track directly to Waters and Gilmour via their managers. “Once we got to David, he was like, ‘Fuck, yeah. I love this song. I approve it,’” Ice-T said. “And then Roger listened to it and his only comment was, ‘Who’s singing?’ When he heard it was Ice-T, he approved it.’”
Ice-T added that making Merciless was possible due to his acting career on Law & Order: SVU. “I’m on television and I’m making a substantial wage over here and I got money in the bank,” he said, “and so I could actually make an album like this album right here, Merciless. People think you lose your hunger when you get some money. But it can also make you more reckless. It can give you some balls. You can go, ‘Fuck It. I’m now going to say what I feel like saying.’”