Lyrical subject matter includes war ("Shallow Graves"), drugs ("Street Lobotomy"), death ("Surviving the Game"), murder ("Last Breath") and the mosh pit ("Killin' Floor").
Among other tracks, the album features a cover of Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe," performed in the style of Jimi Hendrix' recording of the song, as originally featured on the Are You Experienced album. Body Count's cover of the song was first featured on the Hendrix tribute album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
In the liner notes, Ice-T dedicates the album "to all the people of color throughout the entire world: Asian, Latino, Native American, Hawaiian, Italian, Indian, Persian, African, Aboriginal and any other nationality that white supremacists would love to see born dead."[11]Born Dead peaked at #74 on the Billboard 200.[12]
^Metcalf, Metcalf. Turner, Will (ed.). Rapper, Writer, Pop-Cultural Player: Ice-T and the Politics of Black Cultural Production. Ashgate Publishing Company. p. 109. Moreover, the band's second album, 'Born Dead,' released on Virgin Records in September 1994, peaked at a lowly 74. Upon its release, the Los Angeles Times remarked that 'it's time to pull the plug on this genre [of rap-metal]. The novelty has worn off.'