This week on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast, I sit
down with O'Shea Jackson AKA Ice Cube.
We met up with the entertainment icon in Las Vegas right before
the tip off of the 2021 Big Three season.
Cube shares why he and his business partner Jeff Kwatnitz
decided to start the Three on Three Basketball League back in
2017 and looks back on how a missed opportunity to commit
violence as a young man. Me and my friends was going
around around the corner to to kill him and he wasn't home.
Gave him a future. So thank God, you know, thank
God he wasn't home because we were young and we was mad and I
wouldn't be sitting here if it did.
He also opens up about the experiences that shaped his
music. It's.
A shame that your zip code determines on how you're
treated. And his efforts to fight racial
inequality, both in Hollywood. They just didn't want to all
black family. And on the political front?
How do you view the heat that you took for engaging with the
Trump administration? But we begin discussing his
involvement with Big Three. I wanted to start by talking to
you about the Big Three. Obviously we're here in Vegas,
Big weekend for you, but I want to take you way back to how the
idea came about in the first place.
Being a fan of of of hoops and playing three on three growing
up, we all play three on three in our backyards, playgrounds,
schoolyards, gyms. Most people play three on three,
more than five on five. So I was looking around and it
wasn't elevated to the professional level.
They had a lot of amateur tournaments going on.
Feeble, you know, does great on the amateur level, but it hasn't
been elevated to the professional level and nobody
had a good reason why. So, you know, I was looking
around and saying this is something that I would
definitely go to. So then it was all about, OK,
there's a void in the market. Could we really bring this to to
to reality? And the answer kept popping up.
Yes, a ton of work wasn't easy at all.
But here we are, Big Three well. On that front, I do understand
from talking to your long time manager Jeff that it's been a
big sacrifice. There's been a almost an
unexpected time investment, a lot of opportunity cost on your
end. Elaborate a little bit on that
if you don't mind. When you think of the idea, you
think, OK, we're going to as soon as we go in there, we're
going to sign the big TV contract, we're going to sign
the big merch contract, We're going to get all these sponsors.
But you really have to prove yourself.
You know, leagues come and they go.
And so we realize, OK, we're going to have to show people why
this is great before they buy into it, you know, you know,
wholeheartedly. So that was and kind of like a,
you know, revelation for us. We figured like, OK, this is
going to be, you know, a boulder that we got to push uphill.
But when we get over, the Crest has to make it.
More satisfying too, as you you know, have success that it you
know it doesn't happen, or you know it didn't happen overnight.
Yeah, I mean, you know, the book that that that we were going to
write is was this thick. Now it's this thick and probably
it'll be that thick. Just all the things we had to go
through to really bring this league into existence.
You know, it's a, it's a novel for sure.
What would you say has been the toughest part to date?
You know, it's always tough to, to raise capital, you know,
that's always tough, you know, and it's, it's, it's a drag,
it's boring. It's, it's, but when you have
passion, it makes it a little easier.
But everything else has been, you know, pretty much what we
expected. You know, we didn't expect this
to be a cakewalk or everybody would do it.
There's a reason that there's only one league that has really
came out of nowhere, you know, and still existed.
It's the UFC, you know, So that was 20 years ago.
You know, we win our fourth season.
You know, we saw the XFL come and go.
We saw the AAF come and go and many leagues will come and go
and we just hope to still be standing at the end of the.
Day well, and I understand you already had an opportunity to
exit. Somebody came in and I think
somebody in the NBA space said they'd give you 10 times your
initial investment and buy you out, and you guys said like, no
way, right? We knew this wasn't ready to
hand over yet. You know, we knew that, you
know, there's things that we wanted to accomplish with this
league and there's, you know, we want to make sure if we ever did
something like that, that, you know, the league, you know,
could could roll without us. You know, we still think for
this league to survive, you really need us to to put our
passion and our vision to work, you know, because we have a
major, you know, play. It's not just the big three
league. You know, we haven't even talked
about the big cup. The big cup is like the World
Cup, but for three on three. You know, that's our dream, to
have the whole world sending teams to compete outside of what
the Olympics is doing, which is not really focused on three on
three is focused on every sport imagined.
So that's a dream. That's our long play and we have
a lot of reception coming from a lot of different parts of the
world. In the the last season, pre
pandemic, Jeff was telling me that, you know, in Hollywood
there's always a period of time where you're the one doing the
selling, but then at some point the tides turn and people are
are selling to you. And he said the big three had
gotten to that place. How did you see that?
First it was what is Ice Cube doing with with basketball?
Then it was, oh, Ice Cube's little three on three
tournament. Then it became, oh, the big
three. You know, this is Ice Cube's
professional three on three league, You know, sort of
perception of where we were to where we are now.
We have great sponsors like Microsoft, Monster Energy Drink,
Taco Bell, Toyota, all these, you know, great sponsors buying
into, you know, the big three and and knowing that we have
something that could could last for a very long time.
What was the biggest challenge for you guys in navigating the
pandemic? Figuring out if we're going to
play a season or not. We even thought of a of a Big
Brother collaboration. You put our players in a bubble
and they got to play big three games to advance, you know, So
we were thinking of a lot of different ways to keep keep the
ball rolling and the most responsible thing to do was to
not play. It was the most responsible
thing because this time last year nobody knew if the world
was going to open up this year or next year or when.
So even a few months ago for that matter, right?
And we have to make our decisions pretty early in the
year like February, March. So we decided not to play.
And then it was all about survival.
It was all about, you know, keeping our sponsors and trying
to keep our partners who were going through their own issues,
you know, with, with cash flow and, and you know, businesses
going out of business and things like that.
So to still be here. What was your role in that
process? You know, just basically, you
know, figuring out what we needed to do to to kind of go
down to the bare minimum and still continue to exist to try
to make sure that we were letting the sponsors know that
we're coming back strong. Long term goals with it would be
what? Expanding, we have 12 teams.
You know, I believe we need you know, 16 teams and you know,
from there I believe, you know, just growing the league more
games, you know, we play eight games and then two playoff and
and championship games. So it's a 10 week season.
I think that needs to expand to maybe 1620 weeks.
So those are things that we're looking to do.
So we'll be at media day later today talking to some of the
guys. We'll also be at the games
tomorrow where I'll ask you a little bit more about the big
three. Then I wanted to take you back
though to kind of your earlier days and and start by asking you
about your parents first. Tell about when your mom once
forced you to take an ex-girlfriend to prom.
Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, I, you know, I was
scheduled to go to the prom with my girlfriend at the time.
And we broke up maybe a week, 10 days before the prom.
So I, I asked somebody else to go and my mother was not having
it. She said that girl bought her
dress, she was ready, she and you taking her.
And so, you know, I had to go to the prom with my ex-girlfriend,
you know, which wasn't fun. I mean, it was fun for me
because, you know, I kind of got up and just kind of hung out
with my buddies. But it just was not a cool fun
event. But I understood, you know,
money was spent, you know, I had invited her.
But but damn, you know what I mean?
It's like she your ex now, you know what I'm saying?
That's the last person you want to go to.
We was cool, you know, I don't think we talked to each other
ever again after that day. So you're, I believe your mom
was a custodian, your dad was a groundskeeper for UCLA.
How would you best explain the role that they played in your
life? Everything, you know, they, they
helped build the man, you see, you know, show me that it was
all of our hard work. And, you know, I'm, I'm grateful
to them, you know, stand together, you know, through my
childhood and teenage years. And so, you know, I'm just
grateful that they're still around.
I can still call them and, you know, tell them how much I love
them and, you know, hopefully make their life fun at this, you
know, time where they can, you know, travel and, you know, do
nice things, have nice things. And you know, to be a be a part
of that to make sure that you know, their life is is is as
good as they made mind growing up.
You said when you were young your dad was strict.
How so? Well, you know, I was worried
about him more than anybody in the street, really.
We grew up in grew up in a, you know, pretty tough neighborhood,
but nobody was tougher than my father's.
So I never worried about any guy on the street or on the block.
I never felt or felt the peer pressure that that I guess some
of the guys feel because I knew, you know, I had backup between
my pops and my brother. I knew that we can handle any
situation that came our way. And so it was a sense of
security to have him there and to, you know, make sure that,
you know, I was standing on the right path.
I, I read there was a like a pivotal moment for you when you
were like 1415 years old that he grabs you but like runs you up
against the wall. What was it about that moment
that impacted you so much? Well, you know, he never ran me
up against the wall. You know, he just always told me
what it is to be a man and what it is to be responsible.
When we was young, of course, we got spankings here and there,
but at a certain age it was all about communication and nothing
physical. And that's how I communicate
with my kids and my sons. Nothing physical.
You know, we're going to communicate and.
That's why you say he was like the biggest influence in your
life. Yeah, you know, taught me how to
be a man. What?
What being a man is all about, how to take care of your family,
being present and not, you know, being a, a street runner, you
know, so, you know, I, I, I'm just thankful that he's still in
my life and still, you know, he in the same house we grew up in.
So it's a beautiful thing. Your grandma for a while worked
in a Bel Air mansion. You would occasionally go to
pick her up. What do you remember seeing?
Just seeing a big house and, you know, I was just happy to see my
grandmother walk out of there and get in the car.
You know, that was a beautiful thing for me to be able to, to
go and, and see that, you know, I remember when I was young, I,
I ran and I jumped in in their pool when I was little.
My uncle scooped me up, but I was so excited to see that pool.
I just ran in and jumped in with my clothes on.
At some point in your school, and your mom makes a decision to
have you go to a different school, I think 25 miles away in
San Fernando Valley, wanted you to kind of, you know, stay out
of trouble. And this school, from what I
understand, was kind of your first big exposure to
socioeconomic disparities. What do you remember noticing?
Just that it was a different, different kind of pressure in
these schools. You know, that was, you know,
San Fernando Valley, you know, where I come from, there's, you
know, neighborhood St. stuff. But, you know, I just saw a
different life. And then, well, you know, they
wasn't really worried about the things we were worried about.
You know, a lot of them was worried about, you know, was
they going to summer camp this year or did they have to stay
home? Was they going to be able to get
a nose job or not? And, you know, these kind of
things that were foreign to to me And, and, but you know, what
was cool, it was a different experience.
It was, you know, just seeing basically how the other side
lives and, and understanding that, you know, there's a
disparity between, you know, how people live in in the valley,
San Fernando Valley and how people live South Central Los
Angeles. You know, it wasn't to me, you
know, less love or more love or any of that.
It was just a a economic disparity that that trickled
down into a lot of different areas, you know?
From what I understand, there were some teachers at that
school that did not like the idea of black students being
there. What would they do?
You know, just be a little snippy, try to, you know, kind
of push their philosophies into the to the class and into the
program. But you know, those teachers are
easy to spot. You know, we knew what teacher
was, was cool with it with us and what teachers, you know,
could care less so. But but you find that in every
school, you know, that's not just, you know, Valley school
compared to the LA school, you know, you find, you know, it's
good teachers everywhere. It's teachers that suck
everywhere. So, you know, I, I, I don't
think that's anything different than any other school.
So you said like when you became a teenager, programs in the
neighborhood started to dwindle. What impact did you see that
have? Well, you know, guys who would,
you know, play a sport year round.
You know, from Little League baseball to Power Warner
football to, you know, basketball.
You know, certain programs were leaving the neighborhood.
I remember, you know, Holly Park, which is a place that it's
our neighborhood park and they used to have baseball there.
You know, my brother grew up my me and my friends.
I didn't play. I wasn't a baseball guy, but my
buddy played. I used to go up there and watch
him play. And then, you know, it seemed
like all the programs kind of dried up and then the park just
became a hangout where, you know, people just hang out and,
and, and it was no more Little League baseball and those
things. And, and so it definitely, it
definitely hurt the morale of the neighborhood.
You know, kids had less to do, and I don't mind is the devil's
workshop. Well, yeah, because you said
8080% of the neighborhood was fine, 20% was the hell, you
know, cocaine began saturating the neighborhood, a lot of
killings, families being torn up.
When all all that was going on, were you able to kind of, you
know, stay focused? Just, you know, make up your
mind what you're going to be about.
You know, you got to know who you are and stand on it.
So sometimes it's running with everybody and running with the
crap. Sometimes it's standing alone on
your own 2 feet and daring anybody to make you change your
mind or change your position. So I just think you make up your
mind on what you're going to be about and you.
But even at that young age, like, how do you have the
confidence to to do that then? You know you had to, you know,
it's, it's you got to figure out who you are.
On our neighborhood, it was a lot of boys.
So it was a pecking order in a way.
You know you you fight with the dudes little older than you and
see how high you can go up was about being who you are and not
and I guess being who you think you should be but actually being
who you are. And explain why you don't flee
in those situations. Nowhere to go, you know, people
know you live right there where you can, you can go in the
house, but they might be waiting for you when you walk out.
So you got to deal with your issues and you got to, you know,
you can't, you can't, you can't really, you know, show weakness
in those in those times. You got to show what you about
you know when the time comes. When when you were 12, your half
sister was murdered by her husband, How did that impact
you? Well, you know, it made me
realize how how cruel the world could be.
It made me realize that, you know, something as precious as
your life can be taken away by somebody, you know, You know,
that was her husband. So, you know, you have to really
watch yourself out here and take care of yourself and and make
sure nobody do that to you. And you said it changed your
outlook on the world. In.
What way? It just made me realize, you
know, life is not a joke. You know, it's precious.
And, you know, it just made me a more serious person and not, you
know, it it, it robs you a little your childhood, you know,
even though I was going into puberty anyway and, you know,
becoming a teenager, you know it, You know, it took away a
little bit of, you know, what it is to be a kid, you know.
I was listening or watching the other day, the interview did
with Dan Rather, which I thought was great.
And you talked about how there was a moment in your upbringing
where somebody tricked your mom into giving them money.
Take me through what happened and how you kind of lucked out
by the the person not being there.
Somebody I knew and went to school with, who we knew was
heavy on drugs, had went around to my house and gave my mother
some cockamamie story. So she gave him $20.
And I was so mad. You, you violated me and my
family because we, you know, you knew you weren't going to ever
get that $20 back. So me and my friends was going
around around the corner to, to kill him and he wasn't home.
So thank God, you know, thank God he wasn't home because we
were young and we was mad and we had a weapon and it was going to
happen. So it would have been stupid and
I wouldn't be sitting here if it did happen.
Have you ever reflected on that? Like how different the kind of
narrative of life would be. Yeah, I do.
And like I said, I'm glad he wasn't there because you know,
nobody should die over $20. That I want to transition
completely to kind of early inspiration in your, you know,
music career first from you know what, I understand your parents
were really supportive early on of you pursuing music.
How so? Well, you know, anything that
keep me off the streets, you know?
So sports, hanging out with friends.
You know, when I started hanging out with Doctor Dre, they were
supportive. You know, we were, he's just
carry crates for him, you know what I mean?
At the clubs or in the little dances he would DJ at.
And so it was positive. And and then she heard the music
and then had a little, you know, talk with me about that.
What'd she say? Well, I guess her friends played
her the music and you know, my, my, my mother got church friends
so they, I guess they, you know, put the church sweat down on her
about the lyrics. What did she say to you?
She just said, you know, I love that you making records and you
doing that, but why do you have to to, you know, use that
profanity? I said I wanted to be real.
You know, I mean, we got to got to be real and nobody going to
listen to us. And so she accepted that answer
and then, you know, I showed her a royalty check one time.
You know, it's like, keep making those records, you know what I
mean? And it's cool, you know, 'cause
she knew that this was actually a, a viable life in a, in a
business and not just, you know, rapping on the corner.
So. What do you remember from M sing
for Dre when he was DJ ING? That he was extremely picky.
You know how so? I mean, he wanted to know
everything you was going on rhyme before you did it.
He was going to give you suggestions on what you should
change. You know, he was going to just
produce the show. It's like, dude, this our show,
we're we're presenting this to you.
It's like no change that. Oh, we got to do that over you
shouldn't do this part. It's cool because he made us
think a little deeper about what we were doing.
You know, when you write something, you think everything
you write is great. So to be able to bounce it off
somebody who tell you what you need to know, it's cool, you
know? What role would you say he's
played in your life? You know, he's just a great far
as entertainment. He's a great, you know, example
of of, you know, somebody who who's a perfectionist.
You know, he won't, he won't release anything until you know,
he's personally satisfied with it.
And I think that's great. Some people, you know, think
that, you know, he throw away a lot of good records because he's
a perfectionist. But you know, I think the public
should appreciate it that he won't give up nothing until it's
ready and try to sell you anything just because it got his
name on it. So, you know, I learned that
that you must perfect everything and try to before you give it to
the public. How did 1985's Crush groove
impact you? Crush Groove was an amazing
movie with all my heroes in it. Guys, I never thought I would
get a chance to see on the big screen, you know, getting into
hip hop in 8280180283 now 84 I'm I'm, I'm sophisticated I, I'm AB
boy. I know you know everything about
hip hop. I know everybody that's out
who's doing it, who's not. So to see a movie with all my
heroes up on the screen doing a good job, you know, and we had
movies before, but they were kind of hit and miss.
You know, crush groove was a movie that kind of knocked
everything out the park. They was it was just the best
movie for for me and and it kind of showed me like, yo, this hip
hop is limitless. You could take it anywhere like
where, you know, got guys up on the movie screen who would just
in, in clubs and in parks and on the street.
You know, now they're doing movies.
Tell about. Kyo Oh, he's a street dude I
went to school with. He's actually a cool dude now
that's driving trucks. He he owns a he owns a, a, a few
trucks. So shout out to kiddo.
He we were in typing class together because we didn't, we
didn't get our electives in time.
So we didn't, we didn't get the cool classes.
We ended up in in typing. I don't even know if kids know
what that is right now, but. And this is George Washington.
No, this is no, this is that Taff, William Howard Taff.
So we ain't we in class? And he's like, you ever write a
rap before? And I'm like, no, never say, OK,
we're going to try it. You, you write one, I'll write
1, whichever 1's the best, you know what I mean?
We're going to see, you know, we'll we'll we'll rap it to each
other. So, you know, he's the first
person that kind of made me even think about right now being a
part of hip hop like that. It just sparked off create
creativity that never never turned off from.
That I I think it was 9th grade. How well do you remember the
first time you rapped? Trust me, that rap right there
didn't get me in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I tell you
that. So you know it was OK.
I think my name is Ice Cube. I want you to know I'm not
running DMC or Curtis Bloke. That's my first line.
Yeah. How true is it that you have the
piece of paper that you wrote the lyrics on still at your
mom's house? No, it's at my house.
You know, me and my wife was going through a bunch of bunch
of my own notebooks and, and, and I was able to pull that up
and see it and saw a lot of different, you know, songs over
the years that that's in my notebooks.
I had a note one time. Hey, hey, mom, I'm going to the
magic mountain with Doc, with Dre.
Don't tell nobody where I went if they call, you know what I
mean? So that note was was in there
with the rhymes and stuff. So it's cool to look back and
see, you know, you know, history.
In terms of your lyrics, the third is what you've been
through, a third's what you've seen, and the third's what
you've heard about. Explain the process for kind of
collaborating all of that. Well, you know, it's, it's
really about, you know, the art of, of the music too.
You know, you have to, you know, be clever.
You definitely got to rhyme, be ironic and, and have metaphors
for things. So, you know, you add those
ingredients with experience and then you see, you know, what
needs to be said sometimes. And so usually I'll write down,
you know, 1000 different titles of what a song could be about.
Oh, will you? Yeah, and.
And how long does that take? Come up with 1015 in the day.
Never know, you know, and I'll have a, a, you know, book full
of titles on what I want to rap about.
And you know, sometimes you get music, title music, and it all
starts to come out. You used to set their schedule
like specific times for writing, only to realize that doesn't
work for you at. All right, you can't be a, I'm a
I'm a Write every day. And I believe, you know, if
you're writing a script or something, you got to have that
discipline to try to, you know, get through pages, you know, but
when it come to music, it's a feeling, it's a vibe.
And I think you got to, it's like a wave.
If you're a surfer, you got to, you got to catch the right wave,
you got to catch the right vibe, and you can finish a a a great
song pretty fast if you do it when you vibing.
Then if you force yourself to write because it's 5:00 and it's
time to write. And describe that period in
between writing in like the oddest time you've ever started
writing. I can write it 2 in the morning,
3:00 in the morning and then, you know, it's really when you
feel it. I could be laying in bed and get
up and, and, and, you know, feel the idea and try to work it out
or, or, you know, to me, I think you just, you know, got to know
that it's inspiration. And sometimes, you know, your
ancestors are talking to you sometimes.
So you got to wait to listen. And it could be anything that
kind of creates that spark that. Yeah, you know, I anything I
think that could be interesting in a in music form.
You know, I think it has to, you know, meet certain criteria to
be even considered to be a song. So long as the idea can can meet
those benchmarks that I set, then I could write a song about.
It and when you were in New York or early in your career, I think
it was Chuck D had you guys in studio from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
How smart was that? I mean, that's not how I usually
work. You know, I'm AI like to hit the
studio in the morning and, you know, be out of there before the
sun go down. I just feel like, you know,
you're fresh, you're ready to go.
But, you know, we adapted. Did he do it to keep you guys
out of like trouble or from, you know?
I don't know, maybe I don't know, but he didn't have to
worry about me when it when it came to that.
I'm all business when it comes to making music and especially
consuming time of producers who are great.
You know, I don't want to waste their time.
I want them to focus on on the on the, the project and and you
know, we could just keep enhancing the project.
What did you want to do with architecture drafting and why
pursue it? I picked up drafting in in high
school and I, you know, I was great at it.
I enjoyed learning how, you know, a building like this is
put together and what it takes to hold this building up and how
thick the walls are, how thick the, the, the foundation is.
So I learned a lot about building, what it takes to build
something from the ground up. You know, even a skyscraper
takes planning. It takes blueprints.
So when I didn't know if we were going to be famous as rappers or
not, I knew that I had to figure out my future and what was I
going to do with my life. And so I wanted to pursue
architectural drafting and I went to school for a year in
Phoenix, AZ after high school, right in the height of N.W.A.
And so it was tough to to see, you know, the group start to
soar. And I was doing homework and
studying. And then that might be an
understatement though, right? I understand that was like the
worst year of your life. I mean, I wouldn't say it's the
worst year of my life, but it was, it was stressful because I
was broke. They was making money.
Like $10,000 a show. I mean, you know, it was more
money than than I had ever seen at the time.
So I wanted to do that. You know, they were living a
dream. And I was, you know, going that
school in Arizona, you know what I'm saying?
So. You remember what you're
thinking at the time. How long before September of 88
where I can graduate and, you know, kind of have this in my
back pocket in case it don't work out.
But it was it was cool to to go through that.
I grew up a lot just as a person being on my own, 18 years old in
the city and state that I had never even thought twice about.
So it was just cool to to test myself and see if I I could
survive on my own. So it's a few days after your
son's birth. Priority records a baseball bat.
JD Shorty set the scene and take me through what happens.
You know, I was pretty upset with Priority Records at the
time because I was promised an advancement on my new record to
buy a house for my family. And I had sold, you know,
platinum on one album and the second record was gold on his
way to platinum. So.
And it wasn't a lot of money. It wasn't like even, you know,
10 for what he really was, you know, supposed to pay so.
But you but you should have been doing really well based on you.
You, you know how you're. Advancing me my own money back
man. Let's tell.
Let's sell the real. SO anyway, he promised.
Yeah. And then when it was time to
actually do it, I went through escrow.
You know, the house is ready. You know, all we got to do is
make the deposit. And then he, he got amnesia on
me. And I just was like, I want to
come refresh your memory. I want to come refresh your
memory on what you told me and what I acted on.
And I wouldn't have never put a house in escrow if I didn't have
the money. So, you know, it's something
that I don't advise anybody to do.
And I'm pretty sure, you know, we, we probably could have got
to the right conclusion without it.
I was really tired of being lied to by people I didn't know
really that good, you know, between, you know, Jerry Heller
and, you know, I didn't really know him that good.
And he was lying to me. So I just wasn't going to take
it from Brian Turner. So and it got the desired.
Yeah, You know, it's like his partner, a guy named Mark
Cerami, who ran out and just basically said, kid, will you?
You should have told me this, but can you come talk to me or
call me and so we could figure this out.
And I called him the next day and he said man, no problem.
Sent the money, we got the house and we actually are living
happily ever after. So kind of your your early days
with the N.W.A but believe it's Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.
Cops stop the show. What happens and why?
We were on tour and every night we would have law enforcement
threaten us if we broke any of the ordinances that they had,
you know, for stage performances.
So, you know, they basically told us we couldn't do anything
but play a banjo basically. You know, usually everything is
good. Even though we, we, we're doing
certain profanity and stuff they say you can't do, we're doing
it. Everybody's happy, no fuss.
When we get to Detroit, though, the song, the police had got
bigger, so they were mad by the time we got there.
But then we also got mad too, at the promoter because he wanted
us to perform basically get the hell out of there 'cause I guess
the cops sweated him so much. So he was making us perform
early, before the building was all the way full.
So we were pretty mad about that.
And so we said, you know, tonight's the night, we're going
to do the song and and we started to do it.
And a lot of undercover officers that were in the crowd started
to jump on stage. They threw cherry bombs or M
80s. We thought it was gunshots, you
know, So because we had got, you know, easy was getting death
threats on the road. So we hear that kind of stuff.
You know, we, we was out of there.
We was out. Yes.
And then I think at least for a while, cops weren't providing
security for the the shows. And then what was your reaction
when you first heard about the FBI letter?
You know, we were young and pretty naive to, you know, the
FB is reason for giving a damn about us.
You know, we were worried about the LAPD Compton sheriff.
We were like, you know, the feds go after dope dealers, not
rappers, you know what I'm saying?
So we didn't really think much of it.
Now our record company was freaking out.
Our manager Jerry Heller was freaking out and and we were
laughing because you know, we were like a letter like this it
you know, no handcuffs, no Billy clubs, no, you know, being
arrested and harassed. You know, it's like boring us
like y'all scared over a letter. You know, we've seen batter Rams
go through people house police pulled him out.
So we we didn't really care about the magnitude because we
was just happy to be, you know, superstars in hip hop.
You know, we was happy that the world knew who we were coming
from the West Coast. And we just, I guess, too naive
to to really even be concerned about the FBI.
What was the net result of it? I don't know what they did, you
know? I probably tapped our phone.
You know, one of these guys might be an agent.
I don't know, they said. Well, they still follow them,
you know, I don't know. There was a 2005 Washington Post
article that said in the late 80s and early 90s he was
considered by some to be anti-Semitic, anti Asian, anti
woman, and well, just plain anti.
Your thoughts on that? It's ridiculous.
You know? When you listen to my records, I
talk about everybody, you know? Nobody gets a free pass, you
know, I'm probably anti stupid, anti corrupt, anti criminal,
anti racist, you know, I call it like I see it.
I call everybody out. Nobody's exempt.
And I called myself out, you know, so I feel like that's what
make the world go round, you know, observing and being able
to put it in music. Some people get offended, you
know, I, I don't pull punches because I don't think that's
what I'm here to do. I, I started off with this style
of music to be able to tell it like it is and let the chips
fall where they may. And some people are, you know,
they, you know, they, they put their own narrative to it and,
you know, try to make it true. But just look at my example,
look at how I live my life, look at the people around me, the
people I have involved in my life, and you'll see what the
man is all about. And admittedly, you're talking
to somebody who has a novice knowledge of best of the
industry, but the the lyrics aren't intended to be taken
literally either. No, I mean, you know, it's, it's
music, it's everybody. You know, some of the worst
things that ever happened to music was the music video.
Because what well, before a song, everybody had different
videos in their head on what the song meant to them and it was
usually emotionally attached to them.
And everybody was able to, to experience the music, you know,
relative to them and who they are.
So now somebody's showing you what to think, showing you, you
know, what it's supposed to be and taking away your
participation in it, your creative mind.
So, you know, I, I think, you know, people got to look at it
as art. And art is, is subjective.
It's in the eye, the beholder. And you throw a piece of art up
and you walk away and you don't everybody else.
It's up to them to dissect it and experience it and break it
down and say what it is. And just because they say what
it is, that don't mean that's what it is.
And just because they can't see what it is, that doesn't mean
it's nothing there. So that's how I feel with music,
you know, once I do it and let it go, people take their own
interpretation on what it means to them.
How did you view the police growing up?
As a occupying force because that's their posture, that's how
they see themselves and that's how they come into the
neighborhood. That's how they treat the people
with disrespect, lesser than here to as prey and not, you
know, as citizens. So, you know, it's a shame that
your zip code determines on how you're treated, but it's really
that systematic because you go to another zip code and the
police treat the people a whole different type of way.
So kids grow up loving the police.
Kids grow up wanting to be police.
Kids grow up, you know, playing cops and robbers, you know, And
so that's eroded as they see, you know, more and more
disrespect. As they get older, that attitude
changes. And it's not because they turn
from good guys into bad guys. It's something they see.
It's something they witness that turns that feeling and it's
real. And I think the cops like it.
I think they get off on it. I think that's, you know, Badger
honor that, you know that they're the biggest gang in the
neighborhood. And you still feel that's the
case even today. Yeah, without a doubt.
How often were you search without 'cause even when you
were like 9-10 years old? Not too often, it only has to
happen once to to leave a stain and.
What was that time for you? Oh, just hanging out on the
bikes. You know, youngster, we had just
finished jumping off the curb. Or, you know, we had our eight
or nine of us where our bikes laid down.
We're on the grass, you know, and the sheriff's Linux sheriffs
swoop up and basically get us on the car and search us and you
know, talk it to us and be dis disrespectful and basically like
you know, I know y'all going to grow up and and become you know
bangers and and we'll be here to get y'all when y'all do.
And you know we little but we still know how to say you, you
know what I'm saying? So that's what we said.
You know y'all man, we kids, man, we were we on the bikes, we
having fun. You know, we talked about it for
a minute, but we went back to plan.
You know, we didn't, we didn't let it spoil our day, put it
that way. You were once called in an
article, the world's most celebrated angry black man, and
you later said, I've got more understanding about things now,
so I'm not so angry about why things are the way they are.
Explain that. Well, for one, that's somebody
else's title of me. I'm not the world's most
angriest anything, but, yeah, when you understand the world
and you understand things, getting angry is not necessary.
You know, it's really about figuring out what you're going
to do about it. So that's really what it's all
about, you know, figuring out what you up against and what
you're going to do about it. You know, sometimes it makes you
mad, but the more you understand, the less it makes
you mad. The more you understand, I think
the more you have to make a decision.
Getting mad does little you know, making a decision.
Changing how you do things is your way to combat whatever you
see in the world that makes you mad or angry.
Explain the key pieces of the Contract with Black America.
The key pieces is, you know, really talking about, you know,
economic opportunities. I think we need to shift the
focus a little bit from civil rights to economic empowerment
and and inclusion because we live in a capitalist system.
Capital is king in America, not civil rights.
Civil rights takes a back seat to capital in America.
It's not, it's not the system I, you know, invented.
It's the system we're under and that we live in.
So, you know, we've done things on civil rights and there's a
lot of momentum in that direction.
And I just think it needs to be just as much momentum when it
comes to economic empowerment because everybody know when you
got money, people treat you better.
So, you know, it's it's really time for us to focus on making
sure that collectively we have money and then I think we'll be
treated better. And why do you believe it's an 8
to 10 year journey? It's.
Probably more than that. That's when that's when, you
know, I think it's 8 to 10 years.
Once some of these decisions are made, you know, by, you know,
government, the private sector, we have to get people to
understand why it has to be done before we can get on a, you
know, time clock. People still don't believe it's
necessary. It's a pyramid system, but if
the bottom crumbles, the top of that pyramid is going to come
tumbling down, so the bottom is crumbling.
You said the Biden administration agreed with 85%
of what you had in there. What didn't they agree with?
I guess 85% because they didn't. I still haven't spoken to them
about it. So, you know, they haven't done
anything to act on it. You know, I've had a one or two,
one conversation with an assistant to the president, but
no talk with the president and you know, no, no other
movements. So we're still working though
we're still, like I said, working behind the scenes.
We have, you know, hopefully a major announcement to make soon.
And, you know, we're going to go to the private companies and see
if they are willing to change some of their practices to move
the needle and help, you know, all of us prosper in this
country. But government action can
accelerate everything in. Some ways, I think, I think in
some ways the government can only do so much resource
perspective, you know, hopefully we can get companies to to do
the right thing through, through whatever kind of pressure we can
apply, you know? How How did you view the heat
that you took for engaging with the Trump administration?
I just think people didn't understand, you know, exactly
where, where I was coming from. And people are really used to
seeing, you know, Black people just go on one side to the
Democratic Party. And, you know, we've been doing
that for a long time as a people, and we haven't really
gained as much as I believe we should.
And I believe it's important to engage with both sides and not
just one side because if the one side you're engaging with
doesn't respond, there's nowhere to turn.
So I think by engaging with both sides, you put everybody on
notice that whoever's going to do the most for the people is
who we should roll with, even if it if it goes against what you
know, the majority of the country wants.
Right. And and there was no telling who
was going to win the election. And it seemed like what a lot of
the stories failed to point out was the the fact that you
weren't saying you agreed with some or all of what the
president was saying. You just wouldn't make sense to
have a seat at the table to progress to what you were trying
to get done. Yeah, we were.
We were down to talk to to both sides and only one side was
really ready to talk and see if something could be created.
And, you know, I have no regrets because it's necessary for
people to understand that we have to do something different
to change, to change the outcome.
Warner Brothers, your manager Jeff told me the Friday film was
kind of the last straw, and he brought up that that Wall Street
Journal article left out a lot of the key pieces of
information. Like what?
We felt like, you know, they were pressured by Warner
Brothers and their lawyers to to soften the blow.
You know, the. The writer caught Warner
Brothers in a series of lies. But the truth of the matter is,
you know, that company claims to understand the business that I'm
in, but they continue to ignore, dismiss or actually sell away
the projects that I'm a part of. So, you know, this has been
going on for over 20 years and I don't want projects over there.
I want to take my projects to other places who are willing to
do to do the movies and, you know, understands my brand.
We've had a great time at places like Universal.
And so, you know, Warner Brothers is just terrible for me
as a actor, producer, director. Your manager, Jeff said Warner
Brothers is horrible to black creators.
How so? I mean, they have a list of, of
complaints and lawsuits and settlements behind the scenes.
And if you look at the movies they've produced, I mean, you
can count the, you can use your probably your ears to count the
black movies they've produced, you know, in the last five years
that that made any noise. They've given away some of my
biggest movies like Ride Along. They didn't see me and Kevin
Hart as being a A star in bona fide box office.
So Universal put that movie out. And didn't the chief Toby think
Kevin Hart would never be a A star?
Yeah, this is what I heard is that he said to, you know, not
only my manager but to to the guy that was producing with me
that, you know, 2 black leads are not going to not going to
sell overseas. And wasn't it also said that a
black family couldn't be the center?
Oh, yeah, That was that was years ago.
You know, it was a movie that was up.
You know, at the time it was just right for me to play the,
the father figure of the family and they, they just didn't want
all black family, you know, they, they, they want me to play
some FBI agent and have a white family, which is, you know,
that's something that is their prerogative.
That's not even a movie I'm producing.
But you know, I've hit movies that's sitting there waiting to
be made and they won't do it. So to me, it's just better to
part ways. They wouldn't make straight out
of Compton. They said nobody would be
interested in a rap movie. And that's it's way more than a
rap movie. That's a movie about friends.
It's about breakup to makeup. It's about rags to riches.
It's David versus Goliath. It's, you know, it's 1000
different stories that we all can relate to.
It's not a rap movie, and just by them saying that is
insulting. So, you know, they've proven
that they don't know what they're doing when it comes to
Ice Cube. And do you think that's a
systemic problem in Warner Brothers or just a a couple
people in senior leadership? Warner Brothers look at their
track record when it comes to representing black people on the
screen. Now you could take this back to
the 1800s. What changes would you like to
see made at the studio? A life for them to give me my my
IP back and I can go make my movies, they can get their fee
and they can go live happily ever after.
Straight Outta Compton, you, you brought it up and they want to
kind of connect this to family. You said your son playing you in
that movie was arguably your proudest achievement.
This man driving. Your wife?
Yo, Drake, what up? I got something to say.
How so? I'm very proud of the fact that,
you know, my own family was able to be a part of that movie.
My son was able to play me in that movie.
I think it's a, it's a feather in me and my wife Kim's Cap.
You know, it's like we got great kids, you know, all of our kids,
you know, not just O'Shea Junior, but Darrell and Karima
and Sharif. You know, we just got great
kids. So we're happy for Shay.
You know, right now he's on the set of Star Wars, so he's taking
the career and running with it. So we're proud of him and, you
know, definitely going to have a long, long career in this
business. And I think when Straight Outta
Compton was filming for part of it, you were filming right along
too. And you and your son would have,
I, I think daily or pretty regular conversations talking
about the the scenes that were going to be filmed that day.
Take me through what those discussions would entail.
Well, that was with my oldest son, Darryl.
He, he helped me produce the film.
He was my eyes and ears when I was shooting right along for the
first thing, for the first three weeks of filming, I was out of
town. So, you know, it's just me and
him on FaceTime and, and, you know, showing me uniforms, just
keeping me up on up on everybody's movement, what
needed to be done, any issues on the set.
And it was just great to have, you know, both of my sons
working so hard to get this movie done.
And how do you think those conversations helped?
I think you know, with with my son O'Shea, setting him up and
letting him know with each scene, not you know, how to act,
but this is how I felt about Dre in this scene.
This is how I felt about Easy. This is how I felt about Lonzo.
So he went in with the right spirit and the right tone, and I
think that helped him a lot. You know from scene to scene
knowing you know what, what what I was really thinking and.
You were kind of scared for him. Oh yeah.
You know, it's, it's not easy to to take this kind of job playing
your father and, and, and, you know, people, you know, we're
going to think that he was just given the job, that he's not a
great actor. And you went to great lengths to
make sure everybody knew that was not the case.
Yeah, 'cause he worked hard, you know, he worked over 2 years
different acting coaches, Los Angeles, New York and he got
into it. You know, he would go to these
workshops and do do all the work.
It, it was necessary to, to do a great job and I couldn't give
him the job. You know, I couldn't just say
you're Ice Cube. You know, I, I had to 1st.
I had to get Gary Gray to sign off.
And Gary, you know, first thing he looked at me and said, man,
man, I thought we was making a real movie.
I said, look, look, we are making a real movie.
You going to do for me with John Singleton?
I mean, yeah, you're going to do for my son what John Singleton
did for me. You know what I mean?
You're going to make sure that you know we do a great job and
you know that's what you're going to do and he's going to be
great and you can't find anybody better and you can have an
audition if you want to. So he had an audition he brought
in. There's 5 or 6 different ice
cubes and none of them, none of them could out beat my son and
and then the studio signed off on him.
So it was totally legit and I'm happy.
Fox Hills Mall 1989 Who do you see there for the first time?
Oh, my wife, Kim, Yeah, I saw her coming down the escalator
and I was down with my other friend T-bone and man when I saw
it. This has never went through my
head with another person in life, but when I saw her
something automatically went through my head and said either
that could be your woman or that should be your woman.
Really. Yeah, and I'd never seen her
before in my life. And, you know, we was watching
her and, and I had a chance to meet her a little later on, you
know, probably about 30 minutes or 40 minutes.
We end up in the same store and man, she, she, she didn't want
me. She turned me down.
She she was with somebody else and.
You remember what she was under thinking.
Nah, Nah, Nah. I think my man T-bone did a lot
of the talking, but I just knew that you know, this, this wasn't
going to happen. So I ended up seeing her, I
think 5-6 months later and we remembered each other.
Yeah. And we ain't been.
We ain't been apart since since about August 5th, 1989.
You'd one of the more unique proposal stories that I I'd read
involved getting a car. Yeah, yeah.
You know, I wanted to propose to her, but it was also close to
her birthday. I want to get her bought her a
BMW and pulled it in there and and and had I had the ring
sitting on the seat. So she came out for the car and
I was 1, you know, moment of joy.
But when she saw the ring, it just went to another level.
So I was just, you know, I was happy that that, you know, she
said yes and that we was going to start a life together.
And, you know, I always felt like I wouldn't be nowhere near
as successful as I am without her.
Even, you know, she helped me come to this decision to leave
N.W.A. You know, she was the one I
would confide into when I was having issues with the group.
And so, you know, she's been by my side, you know, for, you
know, nice, nice bit of time. And I'm paraphrasing here, but
your manager, Jeff, said that you two were one of only two
couples that he knows of that have been married as long as you
guys have that are still that in love.
He said it's inspiring for him. And kind of like, you know, he
recently went down the same path.
But what do you think makes it work?
Respect. I think, you know, we respect
each other, we listen to each other and you know, we down for
each other, meaning that, you know, we know we're family no
matter what and we'll do anything to make sure nothing
comes between our our union. And so I feel lucky.
I wouldn't be here, man. You know, I would have.
I'd have messed this up a long time ago without Kim.
How happy are you that the two of you met before you actually
made it? With her, it doesn't make a
difference, you know, before I made it, after I made it, you
know, she's never changed. She's she's not a different
person. She's still, you know,
entertainment doesn't impress her.
You know what I'm saying? The entertainment business is
not what makes this lady tick. She's, you know, on a whole
nother level. You know, we still got to catch
up. Before you found success, tell
about a time you've found smart ways to save money or to make it
financially. Before I found success, I was
broke. I didn't know how to save money,
you know, to be honest, I just knew that you know, money is a
tool and that you can't be too reckless with it or too precious
with it. You have to use it to advance
the things you want to do in life.
Sometimes I would go for broke, you know, if it was something I
needed to advance my self or career, but it was always for a
positive cause. And thank God, God was always,
you know, replenishing me in some way, shape or form.
And at the end of the day, it's really making sure that you
understand that money's a tool. Being Scrooge Mcduck with a, you
know, sitting on all this money without, you know, moving it or
making it work for you, it's not the answer.
And spending it all in one place is not the answer either, so.
How about best and worst financial decision?
Best financial decision I ever made.
Not signing with N.W.A. Not signing that contract.
Worst financial decision I made? Probably not buying a little
Bitcoin. Your manager, Jeff said one of
your best qualities is you don't panic.
How much would you agree with that?
Yeah, I'm not a panic person. You know, I believe, and I
learned this riding a motorcycle.
If you know you're going to wreck, it's up to you to slow
that motorcycle down, as slow as you can get it before you hit.
So don't panic, slow it down. You might not hit.
You know, if you panic and jump off, you're definitely going to
hit. So I'm always about you're not
hit till you hit. You're not, you're not out of it
till they count you out. And it's not over till, you
know, the fat ladies sing or somebody stuff something in her
mouth which she Can't Sing. But you know, it's really all
about seeing what's going to happen man and and rolling till
the wheels fall off to me. And lastly, why do you think
your dreams have been able to come true?
You know, having the vision, the dream and having the passion to
see it out, understanding what it takes, knowing what I know,
know what I don't know, and doing what it takes.
You know, I think that's the answer for a lot of things.
You got to do what it takes or you can't expect to be
successful. So I try to cover all them and
them and bases and and check all those boxes.
Thank you very much all. Right man.
No problem man. Good to see you.
Thanks for listening to my chat with Ice Cube.
Head to youtube.com/graham Bensinger to watch him make an
unbelievable 4 point shot at Big Three Media day.
This was the first take he did it.
It was from somewhere between the three-point line and half
Court. Turns his hat around backwards
and is calm, cool and collected in the only way.
You would expect from cube. Check out the video if you get a
chance, give us a rating and review.
Thanks again for listening.