FULL SEND PODCAST - Ice Cube x Nelk Boys | Ep. 86

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Presented by Happy Dad Hard Seltzer. Find Happy Dad near you http://happydad.com/find (21+ only). Video is available on http://youtube.com/fullsendpodcast/videos. Follow Nelk Boys on Instagram http://instagram.com/nelkboys. Part of the Shots Podcast Network (shots.com). You can listen to the audio version of this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & anywhere you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday 10 a.m. podcast, bro. Get it in early. No, we appreciate you coming through, bro. You're fucking obviously a legend and appreciate you coming through. No problem. What's your like day-to-day like? How busy are you even just like today? I'm pretty busy today because I'm doing promos for the Ninja Turtles and shit.

I'm playing Superfly, the villain in the new Ninja Turtles animation. That's fucking awesome. what's it like being involved in that it's fun because i remember taking my my sons and my daughter to see the ninja turtles when they did the first movie and so you know i know it's been like several movies and shit so it's cool to to kind of see the evolution of it and like this one is directed by Seth Rogan so damn it's you know it's next level

is this your that's your first animated first voice over nah no I've done I've done a few um first one I did was uh damn what's that fucking movie called uh play uh

the candle maker Beauty and the Beast Nah nah nah nah nah no no it was uh It was kind of a Latin flavor. I didn't see that one. The name would come to me, man. What are you like doing better?

The animated or the real films? Both of them cool. You know, both of them dope. Animation is a lot easier. Yeah. And a lot less time consuming. Yeah. You know, you go in there maybe.

seven, eight times, and you do like three, four hours of voiceover pretty much. So you can get it done quick. Yeah. I feel like the animated movies are harder to get into nowadays compared to, like, the old ones, like Lion King, Finding Nemo, like there's just so many classics. Because your ass is older, that's why. Yeah. You got more responsibilities probably.

You know what I mean? But if you was a youngster, you know what I mean, you'd probably be able to get into. to it because less things on your mind, you know, when you're younger. Well, Seth Rogen did this one. It's probably, it's pretty funny, right? It's funny. You know, but I mean, it's PG. So it's not like, it's not like it's probably as crazy as he wanted to go.

Yeah. But it was that? It's, it's hella entertained. And I saw it yesterday. When does it come out? I saw it Saturday. It come out a little later to some, I think, around. August 4th, I think.

August 4th. We'll attend the premiere with you if you want. Come on with it. Let's do it. Come on with it, man. What's your favorite part of that industry to, like, work in? Like, what's your favorite role to play? I like writing.

You know, I like producing. Acting is fun. Directing as hard as hell. I like editing. really you edit too well I don't physically you know touch the keys yeah but I do

cut the you know flick and like make sure it's yeah it is make sure it's moving in the right way make sure it's entertaining make sure it don't have no dead spots

make sure it's good make sure we're using the best shots because sometimes you know the editor is not on the set so he might not remember all the shots. Yeah. So you have to say, you know, I mean, you can only use one. You shoot a thousand different angles, but you only can use one.

And you're on set, so you can remember, like, oh, this angle was like, I remember this one was fire for a certain reason. Yeah, you remember certain things that you say, that should be in the movie. And when you see the cut and it's not in the movie, you got to be like, yo, look for this shot because it's way better than the shot you're using. That's dope that you play, like, every role, like, that to me that's the best part of it that's the fun of it like i really watch them when they come out when they're done because you know we spend months getting them done getting it right

it's like a guy putting together a car or something you know put it together he may not drive it a lot because his his fun was putting it together And when you write, like, are you kind of just, like, coming up with, like, a concept and giving it to a script writer? Are you, like, actually writing, like, a script yourself? I write. Now, that's, I touched the keys on that. Yeah. So I actually write.

What do you use, like, that Celtics app or some shit? I use Final Draft. Is Celtics for, like, rookies? I don't know what Celtics is. Oh, shit. Okay. I'm on that. I got to switch to final draft.

Final draft, to me, is what I always been using. John Singleton, who, who discovered. me put me in my first movie boys in the hood um that's that's what we we worked out on because he he's the one who got me in the writing and not waiting you know a lot of actors are waiters but i'm a writer so i'll write what i want to be in and not wait for somebody to come up with it we we have this podcast but then we also have like a channel that we do more like sketch funny shit yeah so we write some shit too what's like the best way to get like a script to stand out to like a producer or something like that?

Hmm, you know, it's, to me is to try to have a personal conversation with them. You know, if you, if you know a producer, you want to kind of talk to him and let them know the concept that you're working on and see what kind of reaction you get. most most of the time you ain't going to have the opportunity to do that so

I think a script just got to be like a great meal or you know you got to have the right ingredients to write enough food enough different courses

to be you know a feast and so if you don't have that If your movie don't have to write ingredients, it probably won't land. And so that's kind of what I think about before writing a script or writing a movie. Does it have enough juicy shit that I want to see in it without even writing it, just thinking about it to even start writing? How long did it take you to write from start to end Friday?

To actually write it, it was probably three months because that was my first time writing. So, well, it wasn't my first time writing, but I was new at it. It took me about three months. And I was on touring Europe at the same time. So, you know, it was what I was doing in between touring. And I was writing it with DJ Poo, who was here in the state. So a lot of conversations, a lot of. back and forth um and to polish it up it took probably another month or a month and a half

to actually get it where it was good enough to to attempt to make a movie are you like surprised by that because it goes from like probably like a passion project and now it's like one of the most iconic movies of all time that's what we was hoping right i knew if i had a hood classic which I had one when I wrote Friday because I had boys in the hood. Yeah. But I felt like, you know, I needed to get some classics under my belt. And then my career would be long, you know. So we was out to make that like a neighborhood classic.

We didn't really care if the rest of the country got it or, you know, was in. to it we was like anybody who noted this kind of living anybody in any kind of neighborhood like this is going to get it and so sometimes when you focus just on you know your clientele so to speak everybody else join in yeah sometimes when you're trying to get everybody you're trying to get everybody you even miss your main audience yeah so always go for your main audience and let everybody else get in where they fit in. It's so crazy. Like, because everybody, even me, who can't relate to that at all, loves that movie.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, you can relate. Here's the movie. Here's why you can relate. Because here's what the movie is about. Very basic. It's the day the bully gets his ass kick. Like, so everybody loves that day.

Yeah, that's true. Everybody loves the day the bully finally gets. get it so that's what that movie's about and everybody can sit on their porch with their stupid friends and shit and clown the neighborhood you know so it's it's basic in its in its um structure what it's really about you know now it has a lot of ingredients of crazy shit yeah going on to tell that story so you know, that's why you can relate, even though you're not from that neighborhood. You can relate because you're from a neighborhood and you've done that before.

Like, you've sat around with your, you know, everybody got a stupid friend, crazy friend, or maybe you do stupid crazy friend, but everybody got one, you know, and, you know, they trip on them and don't be shit to do and you make up shit to do, you know, you get into shit because of that. So it's, uh, it's relatable in all those aspects, you know, the, the, the, the things that are happening might not be, you know, I don't know how many people getting, you know, a drive-by done on them for $200, but you never know. Was there a real life debo when you were going up? Yes. There's several of them.

Did you actually, did you actually ever take your one fight? no i never fought i never fought uh the dude we considered debo he was actually you know my brother had fought him my brother's older than me he had fought him before and so i guess he didn't want to really he didn't want no more of our family in that way fuck yeah yeah so i didn't have to deal with him like most people did what was it like one of my favorite movies that is like 21 drum street in that series what was it like working on that movie it was fun um it's a trip because i met john the hill we was at some kind of uh some kind of event where they were honoring uh quentin tarantino and uh we was bored and shit

so i walked out in the in the lobby and john the hill's out there he's out there he's see me he starts to rap it was a good day had you met him before or no never met him before he just walks up to you and just starts rapping yeah yeah he was he was hitting all the bars like he was doing it well yeah he was dope and and so he was like uh yo man nice to meet you boom boom boom he said uh he said i wrote something that you'll be perfect for and just like we were you doing 21 jump street i'm like 21 jump street so i remember this show yeah undercover cops on tv with uh what's a boy name uh damn i can't remember his name pirates of the caribbean or what johnny death johnny yeah johnny dep johnny he and he was on the tv show so

I was like, let me see it. And so when I read it, I was like, okay, this is like some real crazy shit. So I wanted to do it. And I just was like, if I do it, I just want to be the meanest captain that's ever been around. Like, I don't want to play around. I want to be the one. when you think of mean captain because I grew up watching them

yeah yeah you know from Beverly Hills cop you know to just all kind of TV shows you always got the mean black captain yelling so I'm like as long as I could be the meanness like I don't want to I don't want to mess around okay so here's my question for you because in the movie in the movie yeah he's Jonah sleeps with your daughter

yeah that's the second one All right, in 22. Yeah. How do you get into character for that? Like, what scenarios do you have to play through your head to get pissed off and be that mean guy? Easy. Just think about it for real. And, you know, what you want to do to John a Hill, that happened.

So it was very easy to get into it. Like, you saw what I did to that buffet. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that buffet, you know. One take. We did it in one take, so. Is there stuff that you get offered?

You probably do, just curious, but stuff that you get offered, when do you turn stuff down? All the time, you know, if it's stupid, or if I can't see myself playing that role, or the characters are a sucker. You know what I mean? I don't want to play that. I'm not, I'm not like that kind of actor. Is there a role that, like, a challenge that would challenge yourself that you really want to do one day? Not really. You know, I take it as it come.

You know what I'm saying? So I'm, you know, I want to do movies that people can watch over and over and over again. Yeah. That's my goal. It's not really to play this role or play that role. Because if you only watch it once and then you don't never watch it again, what difference do it make that I play this guy? Like, the movie got to be good.

when it come on you got to check it out you know what I'm saying if you see it on TV you got to stop I just watch it you know what I'm saying like that's that's to me the measure of a great movie not how much money you make not how many Oscars are get

but how many times can you watch it yeah that's a good way to look at it that's Friday and boys in the hood yep over and over and over again never get old how is like the industry changed like over the last like 10 years like it's kind of like there's not a there is movies and theaters and stuff like that but

has like the new model of like Netflix and Hulu and all that has that changed like the industry in any way or no I think it's changed I think it's changed things in some ways for the better for the audience the audience if it wasn't Netflix and these streamers have the stuff that y'all like that y'all see y'all wouldn't even get because they wouldn't do the numbers at the box office and so they wouldn't never get made like the box office started to get greedy you know it's like all or nothing so you got to either have a movie they make a billion dollars or or they don't even really want to talk to you so look at all the movies you miss out on if you always you just trying to get the billion dollar movie so that's what hollywood started to to just get

franchise um crazy so then you start missing those in between movies that that we end up loving more than those super big as billion dollar movies um you know you just start losing that so so either they want to do it super cheap or super expensive and you miss those mid-range movies that usually are the best like if you think of some of the most juicy movies that you like they were not blockbusters yeah they were just good-ass movies um so they had to stop making those so when you have Netflix and these other ones coming in they started to make those movies because it wasn't about box office. It was about getting people to subscribe. So a lot of movies that and TV that we would never see ends up getting made because of the goal is different

with the streamer than it is with the box office. Yeah, once it comes about the money, it all kind of changes too, right? Hollywood is always about the money. I mean, sometimes it's about the propaganda. but like the passion it seems like it's kind of how so what you mean how so like when is it about the propaganda every other movie damn there yeah it's always about the propaganda and some movies get made because of propaganda over profit and some movies get made because they know they're

going to make a profit is there any movies you could say but both movies are just as important to Hollywood profit and propaganda. Is there any movies you think that are just like propaganda? You don't have to, but if you want to. There's a lot of them. That's how they all, it seems like,

the movies that should be like, the title is like, the title could be Styrofoam Cup, but when you watch it, it's about the deep state taking over your life. It's like, wait a minute.

you know why is this called styrofoam cup you know it's called starphone cup so you don't look but it's made is it's made really to uh spread a message yeah i see a lot of people complaining about that recently like a lot of right wing people like they'll they'll bring back an old movie like little mermaid or something and then they'll make like sebastian the crab like gay or something which i always thought he was kind of like a fruit ball in the first movie anyway so I think that they're just, you know, I don't have a problem with that specifically, but you know what I mean? Well, I mean, he was always a little weird, Sebastian the Crab. Like, you could kind of tell in the first one.

I mean, I heard, I heard Snow White and the seven dwarves that the dwarves are really your mood swings when you're coming off of cocaine. Really? Yeah. And you have Snow White and you have grumpy and angry and sleeping. You hit all the flavors. All these things. That's what I. So, you know, movies have sometimes a sinister.

Steinie's like, holy fuck. A sinister. You know, adults make cartoons. So you got to be careful. A lot of those classics, I feel like, though, there's always those, like, deeper messages that people miss. Always. Even, like, with SpongeBob, I've heard a bunch of series.

SpongeBob came out, too, right? Came out where? He came out as, like, gay, too. I don't know. No, but it's, no, you did. No, but what I'm saying is, like, there's a lot of hidden messages in that show. Apparently, they're, like, way dirtier and raunchier. But, yeah.

I know, I don't know how deep you want to get into it. I used to see all these, like, YouTube videos. Like, Disney has all these, like, really weird, like, sexual things and stuff like that. Yeah, that's, that's a whole other level. Yeah, you know. But. All right. Let's talk about, you don't want to get you in trouble.

Talk about the big three. Big three. Yeah, big three is, uh, season six best season ever here it come all summer long starting june 25th we're in chicago but you know we're playing new york we plan boston is championship in london championship is in london uh playoffs is in dc we in memphis charlotte dallas i got an idea i think we can get John Morant to the big three. What do you think?

Hell yeah, come on, man. He's on his way there, bro. Hey, you know, we'll welcome him with open arms. What do you think? Like, how does that happen two times? Yeah, what's up with him? You know, I can't tell you what's, you know, up. You know, it's his business.

But at the end of the day, I think, you know, sometimes it's hard to, it's just as hard to take success as it is. failure and you know when you're very successful you go from being you know one of the one of the homies to the homie everybody want to talk about you know everybody dealing with you in a different way so a lot of people don't like that a lot of people really want to put the genie back in a bottle and they they want to just you know go back to their life how it was or or be treated from their family and friends how it was but them days are old you know he's a he's a star on his

way to be a superstar and he got to make the adjustment even if it's you know be becoming a little different with his family and friends because they're a little different with him Right. Yeah. The NBA Young Boy album just got him too fired up. And, like, I think there's something, right? That's what he was. I mean, who knows, you know.

Yeah, you know, I can't say because I wasn't there, but, you know, it looked like he's just having too much fun. What about with your league? Do you have, like, a personal relationship with a lot of the players or do you just kind of oversee? I'm cool. I mean, a little both. You know, I got to, you know, make sure I set the stage for him. and I got to be fair to all of them. And so, you know, I got a personal relationship with, you know, most of the league, you know,

but I still got to, you know, be fair to everybody so I can't let that cloud my judgment. And where did the passion for you come from to start the league with just loving basketball or? Sick of, you know, sports is bullshit in the summer. It's just whack. Yeah. Like, I don't like... It's just baseball. I mean, it's mid-season baseball is cool, but it's not like, you know, postseason.

Yeah. Then you have, you know, the NBA got their summer league. You know, that shit lasts about a game or two. You know, once you see the best player play or the player that got picked number one, you realize who he's playing against them, dudes, ain't going to be in the NBA. So you just tune out after a game or two. Yeah. Golf, tennis, you know, pickleball.

Should y'all play pickleball? No, I don't. Okay. Fuck no. And so, preseason football, you know, so, you know, only game in town is the big three. Yeah. The only thing that really is hard-nose competition, 10 weeks, so it's quick. You know, it's not like you got to watch 82 games or 160 games.

It's 10 games. And so it's the perfect time for the perfect game, for the perfect season. And so that's what we are. Who's a player that you've been, like, heavily trying to pursue to get to come and you just can't get him? Oh, you mean, well, I haven't been pursuing them to the point where I just want them to get in and they haven't got in. But, you know, we want Isaiah Thomas. We want Dwight Howard. We want our Paul Millsap.

We want Lou Williams, Boogie Cousins, Lamarcus Aldrich. You know, these are guys that just left the lead, and we want them. So, you know, come on, come to the big three, have some fun. You know, you still want a ball. Stop playing.

Do you got to compete with, like, the overseas, though, that are paying bags? Like, because Dwight's in, like, Taiwan or something, right? Yeah, you know, but they, the bag is okay for them overseas, but they want to play in front of hometown. Taiwan would be fuck soon. hometown crowd you know what i'm saying they want to play in front of everybody and um we on cbs

all summer long you know what they used to you know nobody's seeing them in taiwan yeah that's gonna get invaded soon probably too so he'll probably jet back here well yeah we let's not let's not hope that happened but but at the end of the day you never know the the the world is very volatile right now okay i got another guy if we can't get jobs Why don't we go get Dylan Brooks? Yeah, he can come play with us. You know, we like trash talking. See, he won't get texts.

Yeah. You know, the NBA is they need to cut that shit out. Like 10 people love for looking at each other crazy. You know, we, big three, you can dunk on somebody. You could talk about their mama. You can, you know what I mean? Stand over them. Whatever you think you want to do to elevate your game or to whatever.

You know, you could be yourself in the big three. And I think that's what people like about the league. We're not robots. We don't pay to see robots. You know, AI is taking over. You know, maybe David Stern won't, I mean, not David Stern. What's this dude? Yeah.

Maybe his ass wants some AI basketball players. And then he can keep him quiet and tell him what to do and turn them off and turn them on when we want to. We need to have these guys, Mike. up out there, bro. If they're really talking like that. We don't CBS, though. You know, I got to, we got a, we got to, you know, thread the needle a little bit. We already got them, you know, yelling all kind of fucks and shit.

You could put those clips on, like, social media, though, or some shit. Yeah, we do, you know. Like mic'd up clips? Yeah. That'd be funny. We do. You know, it's usually the guy that's losing. Don't want to wear a mic.

You know, the middle of the game, he thinks the mic is the reason why he loses. Oh, those guys are the worst. Tears the shit out. Yeah. it's this mic it's always something bro they tear off their sleeves something's not right about the jersey all that throw their headband in the crowd when they having a bad game it's like it's not the headband it's that bullshit jump shot bro what do you think you got to do to just grow this thing to be like just have your audience be bigger than it's ever been um well we're getting back to the

model you know for the last two years and even after you know the year we had a COVID year we had to shut down. And these last two years we've been kind of in a bubble because we was worried about COVID. Then we was worried about monkey pox and all kind of shit. So we was in a bubble the last two years. This model wasn't built for a bubble. It was built to go around the country. So getting back to the model of doing the excitement that we had going in, you know, 2018 and 2019, getting it back, you know, that's the key for this year. It's going to happen because, you know, we still got the best thing to watch in the summer. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. So you're kind of like the Dana White of, like, basketball, like, the way you're running it. Like, no fucks, like, kind of just doing what you think works, not being so, like, political and proper? I love it. So I think, you know, boxing. Boxing ignored the mixed martial art, UFC style. They dismissed it as, you know. Savage.

Yeah, nobody would ever turn on to that over boxing. And it was on the, you know, outside looking in now at this point, you know, UFC, I think, is a little more popular. So same thing might happen with the NBA, you know, right now. Now, the playoffs is great, but the regular season is boring, and they're dismissing what we're doing. You never know, you know. Yeah. You never know.

Are you still watching NBA in the Lakers right now that are run? Yeah, but not as intense as I used to. Why? Because I'm not a fan of the NBA is like I used to be. You just think it's changed that much? Yeah, I do. How so? I think it's leadership

I think they need new leadership At what level? Like the highest level Like the commissioner Yeah the commissioner Mr. Burns What would be your first change If you were the next commissioner

Or first thing you do Fire at himself No but if you were in his position To change the league Well I'm not worried about his league I'm worried about my league So I'm worried about the big three. He got his own problems.

And, you know, he'll deal with him accordingly or not. Yeah. Doesn't matter to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, even like the NHL commissioner, he's like soft as fuck too. It's just like a thing. I don't know why, but it's just weird.

They're lawyers. You know, they're not real sportsmen. They look weird as hell too. I'm not just a lawyer, just giving the job because I'm a lawyer. True? Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, we watch. I watch all the time, so I'm excited.

Appreciate it, man. June 25th, season 6. And where's game one in Chicago, you said? Chicago, yep. Fuck yeah. Yeah, man. Y'all should come out. Yeah, I'm down.

Wait, sorry, June. June 25th. June 25th. Yeah. Okay, so going back to, because we were talking about Boys in the Hood, your son was in, he played you, in Stratta Compton Yeah

You orchestrated that probably Or like how big of an accomplishment Or how proud of you to see that happen Dream come true in a lot of ways You know Once I knew we were actually going to make the movie for real Because it You know a movie had

Had actually You know Taking four years to really Get it all the way Ready So I just went to him because he had He had been on tour with me He had jumped on stage and performed

And I saw that he wasn't Shy when he came to the mic And to, you know, just being out there So I asked him, I'm like, yo, you know Look like we're going to do this NWA movie And guess what? He was like, what? I said, I want you to play.

like me. He was like, okay. I was like, damn. That's it. That was too easy. I said, man, you serious? He said, yeah, I do it. But he didn't seem like he was serious. So I said, okay, I got to see if he really want to do it because it's better for him to tell me no now or figure it out that it's not going to happen now than to put him through the process. So I started to to kind of run him through the ringer, you know, through, send him to a couple of acting coaches, one in L.A. He did that, and then I sent him to New York. He did that.

But I still didn't know how serious he was until he came to me and said, I'm supposed to go meet with the acting teacher today or whatever, coach. So I'm like, oh, okay, you're taking the initiative itself to do it. And so then I had to, you know, once I got him serious, then I had to go to Gary Gray, who directed the movie. He directed Friday. He directed, it was a good day video for me too. So I had to tell him. And he was mad when I told him.

I said, guess who I want to play me? He said who? I was like my son He was like Man Q What the fuck I thought he was making a real movie

I said man this is a real movie This is a real movie What you're talking about I said he can do it I say you're going to help him do it Just like John Singleton helped me on my first movie You're going to help him

It's gonna be right I say He'll audition everything If he's not the right dude, you find a better ice cube, we'll take the better one. So that made him feel a little better. So then I had to convince Universal because Universal, Donna Langley at Universal, she really had the last say. You know, she could have vetoed it. She could have said, no, let's find a trained actor.

and so she said let him do a screen test so he did a screen test with about four other fake-ass ice cubes and he was the best one so he got the job so I was right did it turn out like were you pretty happy with how it all turned out yeah did an amazing job not just him but everybody everybody in the movie did an amazing job and they they definitely took on the aura of of how we were when we was younger. Yeah, NW. Was there any, like, politics or was it tough to, like, get everyone to kind of sign off to get that going? Like, what was that like?

Yeah, it was hard. You know, we had to get Dre on board. He didn't want to make a movie about NWA. He thought we was going to. You know, most movies about groups or artists are bullshit. Right. It's only a few great ones. and thank God the last great one was Ray at the time

so I had I was like man we're going to do something on the level of Ray you know it's not going to be you know some bullshit real quick Jamie Fox does not get enough credit for his performance in Ray he killed it he Jamie Fox and you know I just want to say get well soon is one of the most talented people out here.

He's one of our most talented people. Yeah. You know, he can sing, he can do comedy. You know, he can pretty much do it all. Yeah. Yeah, we've had him on here before, and he was just going crazy on the, bat with all the impersonations and yeah he's so funny yeah he's one of our most talented people

how much did they come to you so they come to you dray snoop and while they're making the movie and getting your guys's opinions on things or what do you mean i produced them no i know but like with dray and snoop as well yeah i mean dray was right there but are there like disagreements on how things happened or yeah we worked all that out in the beginning you know it was about uh talking about what happened, getting everybody's viewpoint of what happened and figuring out how to make it, you know,

take 10 years and turn it into two hours. So it was, you know, some things were summaries more than boom, boom, boom. And some things were actual events. So it was a mixture of, you know, You still have to tell a story. You know what I mean? You can't just do a documentary.

Yeah. Yeah. How tense was like that time compared to like what's going on now? Would you say it's like more tense now or back then? I don't know. You know, it all feels the same sometimes. Like big crowds at hip hop events. you know they pretty much feel the same so um book club on monday

gym on tuesday date night on wednesday out on the town on thursday quiet night in on friday it's good to have a routine and it's good for your eyes too because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexavers.caver's.cai to book your next eye exam, eye exams provided by independent optometrists. Not more intense than, you know, when we was doing it with NWA, but not less either. You know, there's always a threat. You know, if you anywhere and somebody could have a gun on them, it's just my way.

more tense like we can be in here if you knew somebody had a gun on them you would you would be tense without even tensing up so you know it's the same thing is there a point when you changed because obviously in the movie and you know you come from south central la yeah do you still have that same mentality that you grew up with i think i do no I love how I grew up. I love how I grew up. Once you get money in Hollywood, does things change? Like, was it hard for you to do?

Are we there yet? Because it was so, like... No, you know, it's acting. It's an acting gig. You know, it's a character. And I did it for a purpose. I knew that my audience had kids. And I wanted to...

I wanted their kids to relate to me and not their parents to have to say ice cube man he used to be the ooh you should have seen him when he was doing it like I don't want them stories I want the kids to run up be like yo I want to see the new ice cube movie yeah so um that's what are we are we there yet you know delivered um and and so you know that's why I did just Ninja Turtles um movie because that young audience

see kids are always going to come they're always going to have something to parents are always going to have something from the watch yeah and if they get familiar with you as they become a kid once they get of age

and then start hearing the music you're already cool you know what I'm saying so the music just take another take your career to another dimension so now you have another fan has grown up from this big to y'all big you know and and they keep coming because they keep watching already there yet now they're going to watch the ninja turtles now the kid come mom and daddy push already there yet in front of them so the movie

don't go nowhere but the kids keep coming and they keep growing into you know many little ice cube fans would there would there ever be a straight out of compton like two or like a kind of extension of the movie what happens after could be because it ended you know it's it's it'd be very difficult to to pull it together but it's not impossible would be the hardest part of it like putting it together just getting everyone on board and stuff again yeah getting the cast back together and everybody still was dedicated to

you know becoming those characters again yeah I'm saying so it's a physical dedication too I guess yeah with the movie so legendary like that too it's the stakes are high because you've got to crush the second one too right? Yeah yeah

did you feel that pressure when you were doing Friday with like next Friday Friday after the next did you always want to make the sequel like you know this has to be better was there pressure because Friday was such a hit no no no the key was not to even try to top the first one the key was to make

to make next Friday stand on its own as a movie whether you've seen Friday one or not yeah and then do the same thing with the third one to make it just a good movie whether you've seen the second one

or the first one so No matter which one you see, you're going to see a good movie that's not really leaning on the last movie. I'm sure you've talked about this. I just don't know. I'm curious. Was Chris Tucker not talked about being in Next Friday? Because I know it was Mike Abbs, but. Yeah, we wanted him.

You know, he turned it down. Really? Yeah, he turned it down. You'll hear a thousand different stories. But, yeah, we wanted to pay him $12 million to do that movie. and he turned it down he said it was for religious reasons he didn't want to he didn't want to cuss and he didn't want to smoke weed on camera bro i mean i'm going to tell you mike with mike apster a great job night next friday was hilarious but it's just he was so great in the first one

that's just wild yeah i mean but i'm glad he didn't do it because we wouldn't have mike yeah you know to me is funnier you know just as a pure comic yeah as a kind of switching up but as an oh gee what do you think about this new wave of rappers the new how the industry is kind of going now what do you like about it

what don't you like about it um I mean I like the beats I mean the artists are getting lost in auto tunes and you know now that you had an AI computer you know I think people don't want a computerized rapper no more

you know they want they want to hear your voice like I don't know any rappers by their voice no more I used to know all the rappers just hear their voice know who that is so I think they need to they need to figure out how to put that auto tools down and we need to hear what people sound like and if you know there there is good because I think AI is demonic I think AI is going to get a backlash from real people

real organic people and so I think artists need to go back to using their real voice and making sure people know this is authentic and not made from a computer what you're saying artists are like using AI

well I think autotunes sounds computer-like and I think it's all starting to sound artificial.

Is there any people that can use auto tune? Is there any people use autotune? Like T-Pain's got to have a pass on Autotune, right?

Well, T-Pain is an original. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't, I don't fault T-Pain. Like T-Pain's fire, yeah.

He's an original. Just like, just like Roger Troutman is an original. See, they can use it without any, you know, that's their style. Yeah.

But a lot of people, People took their style and ran with it, and now everybody uses it. And I think it's going to be a backlash because of AI. I think people are going to want things organic and not artificial. And it sounds artificial. I think AI is scaring a lot of artists too, right? Because the AI artists, I don't know if you're on TikTok or anything, but they're everywhere on TikTok. Like AI Drake's just snapping on TikTok.

Yeah, I think that's terrible. Have you heard the AI Drake song? Nope. I don't want to hear an AI Drake song. Me neither, but it's everywhere on the internet. Yeah, I don't want to hear that bullshit. There's an AI. You should sue whoever made it.

There's an AI Ice Cube coming for you, bro. Yep. And I'm going to sue the motherfucker who make it too. And the people end the platform that play it. It's like somebody. can't take you and it's like a sample yeah you know what I mean somebody can't take your original voice and manipulated without having to pay yeah it's crazy how it could do that yeah because they just record like a reference track and then the the computer just changes it to whoever's

voice yeah you know to me it's like sampling and you know if I still somebody baseline or sample, I ain't going to say still. But if I don't pay for it, that is stealing. Still somebody baseline, they can come after me. No matter how much I manipulated in the computer and changed the notes and whatever, they recognize it. And it's a sample.

They can come after me. So that's what the artist should do. Is there any artists? Who's like your favorite kind of new artists? Is there any? I don't know about like favorite. You know, there's nobody I'm not really, like, it's nobody I'm just breaking my neck to get their record. Yeah, because a lot of rap shit now, it's just like, you listen to it for a second,

and then it's just kind of like stale pretty quick, right? Yeah, don't have a long shelf life. Why? I think that's the passion or the art behind there. I just think it all sounds the same. It's all artificial, like, where people are getting tired of that artificial computerized sound. because of my what was the last

rap album you like actually bumped for a long time Steeney finally rich chief keve no no well I'm oh get rich or guy trying I still listen to all the time no I'm saying more recent shit

well I don't know yeah not what's more is mine do you bang the oldies like that all the time your old music sometimes I get into it yeah yeah how often do you ever like

just go to the studio just to like try and see you can put something together I'm making a music right now i got an album coming out called man down when's that coming out hopefully a little later this year that's dope obviously paying respects to the ogees but do you think it's tough now to compete with the newer guys not competing with nobody no no no i don't have no competition i got clientele oh yeah people that like ice cube shit that's who i serve everybody else getting in where they fit in

or get out love that I was at one of your shows with Snoop in Nashville yeah what's your

like relationship with Snoop now very cool you know we're in the same group together you know

I mean Mount Westmore so nothing but love you know it's always been like that what do you think

about him buying death throw records I think it's dope you know he he started off

on death row he got a lot of history and, you know, I think it should be in control of him over who had this shit, Milton Bradley, or one of them toy companies or some shit had it, and so I think it should be in control of the people who made them music. How about Dr. Dre? Are you guys still cool?

Yeah, he just texts me this weekend. he went down LaBreya and saw a pitcher NWA and took it and texted to me. And, you know, so we, we hitting each other up all the time. You're working on music right now, him to Snoop. So looking forward to hearing what that sound like. That's dope. Do you have any other passion projects that you haven't gotten to do yet that you have to accomplish? You know, at this point, it's really about, you know, making sure the big three is successful.

And, you know, once I'm happy with that, as far as I'm happy with the progress and that the league can stand on its own two feet, then I'll look for other passion projects. But, you know, this is probably the biggest project I got going and it's been a seven-year run. So, you know, I expect it to at least be a 10-year run, and then we'll see what's next. I mean, it seems like everything you've done that we've seen has been pretty fucking successful, right? I hope so. And, I mean, not everything. I think, you know, it's really about quality. You know, entertainment is fickle.

So you never know if your best work is even going to get accepted. or your, your worst work could, could be loved more than anything. So I don't think you can really worry about that. I think you just do your best and give people quality. And whoever come across it, run across it, you know, hopefully they like it, and it's not a waste of a time and money. And that's really all you could do. what do you think is some of the best advice you've ever gotten just in the industry or from a mentor that you've had

to be an original you know be authentic and let the chips fall where they may um you know don't worry about pleasing people just be yourself and let the chips fall where they may that's pretty Joe. Yeah. One more thing I wanted to ask about was like in the 2020 when you kind of supported Trump and stuff like that. What did you think about like, because you're Hollywood, you know, there's a lot of like propaganda and stuff like that.

What was that like getting flak for that? I mean, I never supported Trump or Biden. I never asked to speak to the Republicans or the Democrats. I created a document called the contract with Black America that spelled out a lot of different issues that we believe were the reason why it was so much unrest after George Floyd was killed. And I released the document and everybody wanted to talk to me. The Republicans asked to talk to me and the Democrats.

I went to talk to both of them about the contract. The Republicans asked could they implement some things from the contract into their proposal? And I said the document was open for anybody to use in any way they desired. So if they just wanted to use it as educational purposes, they could. They wanted to add more, you know, paragraphs or more ideas to it. They could. They wanted to use it to change, get a law change. They could.

So I didn't mind them using it. I met with the Democrats. The Democrats said, we like 90% of what's in there. And we'll talk to you after the election about it. and I said okay and I felt like after that everybody started to pile on and say that I was for Trump and I was for this and I was for that it's not true yeah I didn't see the issue with it because it's like I mean it's just cool that you're trying to to make a difference right you got to like start somewhere I'm an advocate for social justice forever yeah i mean whoever's in power you have to you have to talk to the people in power you can't you know even enemies talk like russia is fighting ukraine you know these people get on the phone and talk to each other so just because you might not agree or you can be you know so-called

hate or mad or whatever but you have to dialogue if not you know what's the next step fighting if you don't talk you think there's like a stigma amongst like the african-american community to like republicans and stuff like that i don't know what's going on in the african-american community when it comes to that you know i mean like black people have supported Democrats, you know, overwhelmingly for 50, 60 years and nothing that's changed. So something's got to change. Yeah, as an outsider, like, it seems like you can only, like, think one way. And you kind of get, like, I see, like, people getting criticized for, like, having their own opinions and stuff like that.

Yeah, that's pretty much how things have kind of. fell out you know it's like you got you got one or two ways to do things or you know if you're not in lockstep with everybody else then they think you're against them yeah yeah would you do anything in 24 anything like what just like be involved in any way or i doubt it you know my thing I did what I set out to do is put out the contract of black America and it's still a document that anybody can use at any time where did all that passion just for like activism and stuff was there a certain moment in your life where you knew you had to be this guy um yeah when you got the mic you got to use it that's all I know when you got the bike you got to use it but growing

up and stuff you just became very passionate about it because it's also big in the movie when you grow up you know you grow up black in america i don't i don't see how you can grow it without being passionate about you know rights and getting you know getting your rights and getting things done the way they should be done cool all right well dude you're i think this is awesome bro we don't hold you too long wait you the man big three June 26th 25th 20th And when does it air on, like, TV? Same day. June 25th, we're on CBS.

Is it every certain day the week? Every Saturday or Sunday. Every Saturday, Sunday, what time? You know, the time's very, you know, sometimes it's 1 o'clock Eastern. Sometimes it's 3 p.m. Eastern. All right, well, we'll be tuning into that. June 20th. Dylan Brooks, John Morant.

We'll see you there. Let's go. Come on with it. All right, guys. We appreciate you, bro. Thank you.