Ice T doesn't want to make hip-hop music any more.

The 56-year-old musician is releasing a new rock album with his thrash metal band Body Count and says this is the kind of music he prefers now as hip hop has lost its way.

He said: ''Hip-hop's gone in a different direction - it's club music, no content, just, 'I got money, cars, girls'.

''Underground hip-hop's still prolific, but the stuff on the radio sucks.

''Ice T has always been about hardcore, aggressive music. With Body Count, it's art, it's over the top, it's hypersexual.

''I roll with the people who get it. The people who don't, I throw them a Barry Manilow album.''

And Ice also mocked hip-hop fans who ''act tough'' but have no idea what it is really like in the worlds they enjoy hearing about.

Discussing his track 'Wanna Be A Gangsta', he told NME magazine: [It's critical of] suburban kids listening to rap and acting tough behind their keyboards.

''If they touch down on those streets, they're gonna get their ass sewn up.''