"Colors" is a song by American rapper

Ice-T Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), known professionally as Ice-T (or Ice T), is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop music, hip hop and heavy metal music, heavy metal. Ice-T began his career as an underground r ...

, co-produced by Afrika Islam, featuring DJ Eric Garcia, or Evil E. It was issued as the title track for the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The song was released as a single in 1988.Ice-T - Colors (Vinyl)
Discogs.com, Retrieved July 17, 2010. In 2008, it was named the 19th-greatest hip hop song of all time by

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

.VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs
Stereogum.com, Retrieved July 17, 2010. The song was Ice-T's first to chart on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, where it peaked at number 70.The song samples "Ain't We Funkin' Now" by

The Brothers Johnson The Brothers Johnson was an American funk and R&B band consisting of the American brothers George ("Lightnin' Licks") and Louis E. Johnson ("Thunder Thumbs"). They achieved their greatest success from the mid-1970s to early 1980s, with three ...

. Ice-T himself re-recorded the song with his band

Body Count A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate. Often used in reference to military combat, the term can also r ...

in 2020 for the album, ''

Carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

''. In 2021, gang scholar and sociology professor

Stefano Bloch Stefano Bloch is an American author and professor of cultural geography and critical criminology at the University of Arizona who focuses on graffiti, prisons, the policing of public space, and gang activity. Bloch is the author of ''Going All ...

, aka "Cisco," called "Colors" "the greatest sociological text ever written on gang activity and identity".

Charts

Cover versions

*In 1996, the song was covered by

Society Burning Society Burning is an American Industrial metal, coldwave industrial rock band composed of Daveoramma (born Dave Mansfield, Dave Creadeau), Twitch, and Boom chr Paige (born Boom Fernandez). The group was founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 19 ...

for the

electro-industrial Electro-industrial is a music genre that emerged from industrial music in the early 1980s. While EBM (electronic body music) has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial tends to have a grittier, complex and layered sound ...

various artists compilation, '' Operation Beatbox''. *The song was covered by the

groove metal Groove metal, sometimes also called neo-thrash or post-thrash, is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre is primarily derived from thrash metal, but played in slower tempos, and making use of rhythmic guitar pa ...

band

Machine Head A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses, and others, and ...

and released on the 1997 bonus disc version of their album, '' The More Things Change...'' *

C-Murder Corey Miller (born March 9, 1971), better known by his stage name C-Murder, is an American rapper. He initially gained fame in the mid-1990s as a part of his brother Master P's label No Limit Records, primarily as a member of the label's supergr ...

made a remake called "Cluckers" (featuring Fiend) on his debut album, '' Life or Death'', in 1998.

References

1988 singles 1988 songs Ice-T songs Songs written by Ice-T Songs written by Afrika Islam Songs about crime {{1980s-hiphop-song-stub