The Joe Rogan Experience - #2004 - Ice Cube

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Ice Cube is a rapper, songwriter, actor, filmmaker, and founder of the 3-on-3, half-court basketball league BIG3. www.icecube.com www.big3.com 

the Joe Rogan experience that's what you was doing you just wanted to go smoke weed Joe and shit I couldn't keep up with Snoop Snoop just keeps going Snoop he got a fucking professional bud roller. I think he's paying 40 grand a year or some shit.

Really? I don't know how much, but I know it's a dude who's eight hours a day. He just bringing Snoop like 100 blunts in a bag. Here you go, Snoop. He's the one dude that's exempt anywhere he goes. No one's going to fuck with Snoop with weed. He smoked weed at the White House. Did he really?

Yeah. He went in the bathroom and got down. I said, oh, man. I said, yeah. He blaze anywhere. Church, swimming pools. He inside the pool blazing. Underwater.

He's got a card. You can just let him slide. Yeah. Yeah. He's Snoop. You know, what you going to say? What are you going to say? What you going to say, man?

Everybody loves Snoop. Same thing with Chappelle. When we go out with Dave, Dave just fire up at a restaurant. Hey, man, you know. Got to let him know you in the house. Nobody says that either. Yeah, man, you know. Gotta let them know you're in the house. Nobody says that either. Yeah, what they gonna say? I mean, who wants to be part of his next comedy special?

The person that told Dave Chappelle you can't blaze in Ruth Chris. Nah, sorry. Nah, nah, nah. Well, hey, man, thank you very much for being here I really appreciate it You want some coffee? No, thanks for having me

You know, I probably had too much coffee Yeah, today, you know what I mean? I probably had about two cups already So I should be cold till this afternoon So I saw this video where you said you're doing just a podcast tour Yeah I'm gonna hit everybody, you know Everybody that wanna talk to me You know. I'm going to hit everybody. You know, everybody want to talk to me.

You know what I'm saying? I just want to be able to get the message out to the people, talk to the people. You know, I've been trying to push

my league and mainstream sports media have really, you know, basically ignored what we're doing for the last six years. Why do you think that is?

I think they're nervous about the NBA. They're nervous about their relationship with the NBA could be damaged if they promote the big three. I would think it would help everybody. Yeah. I mean, it's basketball in the summer you know they got the wnba but we really don't play at the same time you know they got the games we got our games um i and you know what's what's crazy is we got their you know former hall of Famers as a part of this league. And they wanted to be a part of this league.

So it's not like we hijacking them or we kidnapping them. They want to be a part of this league. They want it to be successful. And they want to make money in the summer. So I don't know what the NBA is thinking about trying to deprive Dr. J and Rick Barry and Iceman George Gervin a little check in the summer like what's the problem yeah it doesn't seem like it would compete at all it seems like it would enhance it would make it's when you have more basketball for basketball fans, they have a season.

When it's over, it's over. The fact that there's more basketball seems to me, but I'm a person that's like, I feel like there's enough pie for everybody with everything. I feel like that with fighting, with MMA. When there's a new organization comes out, I'm like, good, good. Give people more opportunity to make money. Without a doubt. It's about who do it the best.

We're not trying to compete in any way shape or form with the nba um we're very complimentary so i don't understand why they would you know do some of the things that's being done behind the scenes um that oh they're like encouraging people to not do it encouraging people to not sponsor us i mean like really yeah i mean encouraging networks not to play us really yeah um those things um we've been able to survive but you know at a point, it's just redundant and ridiculous, and we got to fight back some way, shape, or form. It just, in my mind, it seems silly. It seems like it would only enhance.

But that's what happens when you get big corporations, man. Yeah, and you know what, Joe? It's not the players. It's not the owners. It's not GMs or scouts because they, you know, name a big owner. He probably loves the league. And we've heard from a lot of them that they love the league. They would love to invest. And the players love the league. They come to the games. They play in the league when they're done with with the NBA.

play in the league when they're done with the NBA. GMs, scouts come sit next to me on the front row and be like, oh, man, you know. And they even pull some of our guys, put them in the G League. A couple of our guys made it all the way back to the NBA, you know, 10-day contracts, things like that. So it's not the culture of the NBA. It's just the suits. It's the corporate people. You know what I mean?

It's the brass. It's the top guys that are scared of what we got. Just scared of competition in general always. Well, they think they own basketball. They think, like, we own basketball. Isn't that crazy? But it's nuts. It's fucking nuts.

Because I don't hear kids running out saying, Mom, I'm about to go play NBA. Right. No, they say, Mom, I'm about to go play basketball with my friends. Yeah. So basketball doesn't have an owner. And they are, I think, intimidated that we have changed the game. And we haven't changed it just to change it.

We've changed it for the better, and we've changed it within our own version of the sport. So we're not trying to change five on five. version of the sport so we're not trying to change five on five we're just trying to introduce three on three and elevate it to the professional level which we have i only think that would be a good thing those suits are silly it is a good thing man they are silly that's why i'm here man you know it's like it's time for these you know suits to get out the way and you know let the relationship flourish if it's gonna flourish and even if it don't look we're doing fine when our sixth season our ratings are growing you know we did you know 500,000 people on CBS this Sunday that's awesome it's Where'd this idea come from? Me and my guy Jeff, you know, we've been working together for over 25 years.

Like, everything in the last 25 years, we kind of been, you know, cooking it up. So, you know, we see Kobe score 60 points in his last game. Now, this idea had been brewing in me, but it was like, you know, it's sports. I'm an entertainment guy. You know, I'm in rap. I'm in, you know, music and movies and television and that. So it had just been sitting there, and this dude hit 60 points in his last game, and then there's nowhere else you can see him play.

He's done. Bye. Wave going to tunnel. And we're like, that sucks. It sucks that we cannot ever see Kobe Bryant play in a professional basketball game again. There's got to be other guys that people want to see that still got it. They may not be able to play 82 games.

You know what I mean? They may not be able to play back-to-backs in three games in four nights. But half-court, three-on-three to 50, they're going to look like all-stars. And so that's where the idea started to germinate. That makes sense, too, that it's just the breakdown. As you get older, you just can't do as many games. That makes sense. Yeah.

I mean, they still can play. Like, if you put them out there one game, give it all you got against the 20-year-olds. They'll do great. But if you have them play the next day, you know, they just can't recover as fast as the 20-year-olds. So they look like they can't play, you know, the next day. So by having a week off you get to recover it's like football you know you get get a chance let your body recover heal so by the time that next weekend come around you're 100% ready good to go let's do it especially with the way guys train today where older guys can train today and you

know with the science of sports nutrition and yes science of recovery they're just so much but no worries there's so much better at it now maybe i've ever been before we changed our mind we got rid of this we heard you was on joe what can we do this is so stupid that's the thing with older fighters too they have a hard time getting through camps that's yes part it's like they can still fight, but getting through an eight-week camp is two a days, all the sparring. Yeah, too much. Yeah. I remember, I forgot the football player.

He played for the Giants, receiver, Plexico Burris. Plexico Burris, the coaches hated him because, well, I ain't going to say hated him, you know, I'm just exaggerating, but they didn't like the fact that he would not practice at all, come in the game on Sunday and score a touchdown. It's like it goes against everything that they preach. You have to practice, you have that they preach you have to practice you have to practice you have to practice then you are conditioned to score the touchdown but he he's like no i gotta

recover i gotta recover i gotta recover and then by sunday i can go out and score a touchdown and that goes against coach's philosophy but he knew his own body. Of course. And, you know, we all know our own body to a certain extent. Yeah. And I think you should always save an athlete from himself,

but you shouldn't push an athlete before he's ready to go. Yeah. Yeah, it's always different for different people too like some people recover quicker it's just you know as athletes get older in particular they get more and more wise to that more and more wise to like how their body works and what they need to do and

not need to do yeah you know the you know i heard one player say that, man, they don't pay me to play in the game. Like, I'll do that for free. 70,000, 15,000 fans, who wouldn't do that for free? They pay me to practice. They pay me to show up on time. They pay me to do all the stuff I don't want to do. And, you know, that makes sense. But sometimes you don't practice somebody just because you're paying them.

Yeah. Well, the difference between, like, you can never do this with football. When football players are done, they're kind of done. Because just the damage they take. Some, you know, I think it depends on the style. You know, I think you could do, you know, an interesting flag version of football. I think you could sell it if it was, you know,

thought about and really worked on to be, you know, pleasing to the fans. How would you do that? Like what would make, because people love touchdowns, but they also love tackles. They love people getting hit. Yeah. I mean, there's a few ways to do it. You know, you could do pads seven on seven and kind of, and kind of open the game up a little bit so it's not so many collisions coming from so many different angles.

Less people, more space, more skill set, not so brute, but a little bit of hitting. You could do it that way, too. Yeah, that could work. The flag one I would think would be kind of tough. It's tough because people look at flag as kind of like a side, you know, a byproduct of football, not real football. Almost like football for kids.

Yeah. But guys will go out and play two-hand touch all day. So maybe that's it. Who knows? Well, it's interesting when fighters figure out ways to do that too, like what Floyd is doing. What Floyd is doing is so interesting. He retires from fighting and he says,

I'll just start boxing people have no chance hey why not you know i mean exhibition like we saw that in what was rocky three or something yeah yeah yeah i mean he's like he started doing exhibitions with hulk hogan and you know exactly exactly and got caught i mean he got hurt, like, you know, dealing with that. So, I mean, I think people want to see Floyd fight. You know, some people want to see him lose. You know, I never wanted to see Floyd lose. And so he'll always have some interest, you know, even if he's fighting, you know.

What he did is just complete just complete genius yes first of all from just changing his style right he broke his hands a lot so when he was younger they called him pretty boy floyd yeah and then he changes his name to money and when he changes his name money turns heel yeah he became like this guy taught and everybody wanted to see him get beat and he's the most unhittable guy in the history of the sport. Yes, sir. He's right up there with Pernell Whitaker. Those are the two guys that I say are the most elusive guys past Willie Pepp in modern era.

Pernell Whitaker and Floyd. Floyd's even more impressive because he stands right in front of guys. He stands right in front of you and you can't hit him. Right in front of you. And you can't get a good one on him. You can't get shit on him. It's one of the most amazing skill sets. He's like one of those Minnesota Fats kind of pool players that know all the trick shots.

Yeah. You can't beat him. A guy that can play a hand hand or board game or ping pong. You just can't beat him, and he's that way in boxing. Yeah. He just knows all the tricks of the trade, and he's just better. He has way more information about where you should be, where he can hit you, and where he should be where you can't hit him.

He's got it all in his head. He knows what punch can be thrown at what time and what punch can't. And so he just, when he knows you can't throw a punch, that's where he is. And when he knows you can, that's where he ain't. My favorite fight, I've had a lot of favorite fights of his, but one of my favorites was the Canelo fight because it was just a master class. Yeah. Master class and just a young, incredibly promising champion.

A guy who's going to be an all-time great, but not yet. Not yet. You're not ready for that guy. You know, Floyd always catch him young. He catch him coming up. Yeah, he catch him young or old. Yeah, he catch him young or old. Yeah, you know.

And he tap you up and then he say thank you. Yeah. You know, next. He did a smart thing, too. He got him to cut down 152 pounds. Yeah. Got him a little lighter. Yeah.

A little smaller. A little more dehydrated. A little weaker. Yeah, a little weaker. And then just box him up. Yeah. But if you see what it did to Canelo's game, like you see Canelo when he fought Danny Jacobs later on,

he was moving like Floyd. Like, he mirrored that. You have to. Yeah. I mean, you're dealing with a master. And when you fight a master or you, you know, if I rapped against a master or if, you know, you spar against a master, you better take a few tricks of the trade with you. You know, that's the whole thing about respecting the game. Daniel Cormier always says you get the rub.

Like when someone fights for the title and you fight a world champion you feel what that's like okay and you either get way better or you kind of like realize I'll never beat that guy and never get that yeah there was like a lot of like during the Tyson era nobody got the rub you got in there and you were like fuck this I mean Tyson had you so many he he had so many psychological advantages. Everybody else, you know, give me the pretty robe. Put this satin on the robe. I need to look, I had to have flares coming from my tassels, you know, have to be right.

You know, I got to look pretty coming in there. Floyd coming in there gladiator style yeah mike had a towel over his head with a hole in it and and no socks on he ain't here for none of that he just here to whoop your ass it was the best and and you know and he he psychologically beat a lot of people before he even landed that fatal punch. Oh, yeah. Even after the Buster Douglas fight, that didn't even take it away from him. A lot of times when a guy gets knocked out, like their aura of invincibility goes away.

But with Mike, it was still there. Yeah, because people are always scared of the, you know, when you snap. Nobody want to deal with crazy. You know what I mean? when you snap nobody want to deal with crazy you know i mean everybody could deal with everything but you know everybody get out the way of crazy yeah yeah when mike was screaming i'll eat your children man yeah this is the walkout look he's just pushing everybody out the way nobody even want to give him a dap because they don't know if he going to knock them out on his way to the ring. Yeah, that's, I mean, this is some of the G-est shit ever.

You know what I mean? Like, just a towel, cut the towel in half, man. You know what I mean? I ain't got time for this shit. I'm ready to knock somebody the fuck out. It was a special time in boxing because it was a long time where the heavyweight champion, you know, Larry Holmes didn't get his due because he beat up Muhammad Ali. So everybody was always mad at Larry. Yeah.

And then when Mike Tyson came along, it was like all of a sudden there's like a real heavyweight champion where everybody wants to see him fight. Yeah. Yeah, you know, he was my first experience of a guy who was just, you know, the incredible Hulk. Like, going and knocking people out, you know, two or three rounds, it's over. You know, I grew up watching Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes and all the other fighters in between. You know, I wasn't really, you know, enough to appreciate joe frazier or nothing like that but um when tyson came around he was like oh this is what this is what you want in a fighter that's why he was a superhero yeah i was like this is what you want you want that attitude you know pretty fighters are okay but you want you want a

ferocious fighter yeah pretty fighters are fun to watch floyd's look as a person who appreciates what floyd can do the the way he expresses himself it's just it's genius it's genius boxing when you know a lot of people want to know who's the best ever. I feel like you go on who got hit the least, who won the most fights and who got hit the least. If you look at that, Floyd's at the top of the heap by far. Like no one's even close. Yeah. And count the money. Yeah. And count the money. Yeah. I got to say he, you know, he is the best. But when you want to see, like, a destruction, the Mike Tyson fights were a completely different kind of an event.

Yeah. You know, the thing is, is, you know, I think people would love Floyd if he, you know, had a little more pop on the punch, you know? I mean, he can hit you and get you and pop you and drop you and back you up and do all those good stuff and make you look bad. And I think, you know, he's just people, you know, fault him for not, you know, when he hit it, you know, it hurt. Yeah, well, he always had hand problems.

He had multiple hand breaks, which was very unfortunate. But that also probably contributed to how skillful he was because he couldn't get guys out with one shot. So he had to just always be in the right spot, piece you up, hit and not get hit. Just the way he did it standing in front of people, I don't think folks understand how hard that is to do. It's so crazy.

Yeah, it's almost like magic. It's almost like magic. You know how, like, you're standing there and you're saying, come on, come with your best shot, and you can't get it. You can't land it. How? Why? Why can't I land this shot?

You know what I mean? Everybody thinks they can, too. That's what's interesting. Yes. Especially in this whole promo tour he's doing where he's just running around doing these exhibitions. They all think, I could probably land a shot. No. He's 46.

Nah. They're talking about him fighting Pacquiao. About them doing it again. I'd watch that. Yeah. I mean, hell yeah. Fuck yeah.

I don't think, I don't think age should really keep you from checking out somebody you know who's a master. Yeah.

Like, Especially if he's fighting someone his age. Yeah. It's two masters going at it. And, you know, age is just a number. You know, it's really just a number.

It's not reality. Reality is how you feel. You know, it's a saying, if you didn't know how old you were, would you know how old you are? Some people would it's it's an indicator of how well your body's functioning it's a pretty good indicator though like if you said someone wants a fight and they're 60 you go 60 yeah 60 is too old yeah you know it's too old to see fast skills. But have you ever seen an old man fight? It's pretty interesting.

A couple of old dudes. I've seen on the internet a couple of old dudes get at it. It's fun. One round, get down. It's like we got the 60-year-olds with the one round, get down. We're going to go as long as they can before they fall out. You get fucked up as a 60-year-old, though, you don't recover. Yeah, that's true.

You get your ass kicked as a 60-year-old, you might be fucked for the rest of your life. Yeah. You're risking a lot. Yeah. Some people would do it, though, you know. I've seen some guys that are young that got fucked up that were never the same. You know, it's the roughest way to make a dollar in sports. The roughest. The roughest.

And UFC even take it to another notch because, you know, somebody can kick your mouth open. Kick your jaw open. Yeah. Knee you in the face, elbow you in the eye socket. Yeah. Or just, you know what I mean, you know, pull your shit out of socket. Yeah.

Yeah. It. Yeah. It's like. It's a rough game. It is. It's a rough game, you know. Tap out, baby. Tap out. Yeah.

It's just, but it's the most exciting thing to watch. Combat sports, to me, is just like, man, when you watch like a world title fight, there's very few things. Whether it's boxing or MMA. When Terrence Crawford's going to fight Earl Spence, that fight is going to be crazy. Yeah, man. That is a crazy moment where you got two undefeated champions in their prime, and no one knows what's going to happen. You're like, I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting.

Sometimes those fights, they're just too skilled. You know, have you ever seen guys that fight, they're too skilled, and they're just both missing because they can't hit each other because they both got the skills, you know. And they don't want to take too many chances and open up. Yeah, so hopefully it's not one of them. You know, hopefully it's one of those they take it personal from the first couple of rounds and keep it going. I can't imagine.

Terrence Crawford's never been in a boring fight ever, and neither has Earl Spence. I think they're going to go after each other. Well, they know how to tattoo their opponent, so I can imagine them just tattooing each other, you know, back and forth. Yeah, I'm interested to see how Ter other, you know, back and forth. Yeah, I'm interested to see how Terrence, what stance he uses too. Because he, in my opinion, he's the best switch hitter since Marvin Hagler. Nobody switches like Terrence. Yeah.

Terrence just, he's southpaw, then he's orthodox, and he's just as good from both sides. And you got to, like, do all this calculating in the middle of the fight and switch it up. Everything's coming from a different angle now yeah your brain is yeah it's not moving as fast as it should be that's such a big body can't move that fast if your brain is right you have to think and so much yeah yeah it should be instincts but yeah it's gonna be an amazing fight and you know i'm worried a little bit about ear about Earl. He's been in those car accidents. Was it one?

It was one. The Ferrari. That's a crazy car accident, dude. He could have died in that. 100%. If he didn't have a seatbelt, I mean, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but if he was wearing a seatbelt, he might be dead. If he was wearing one. Yeah, he got thrown from the Ferrari.

Oh, wow. He was in a convertible. Have you seen it? No, I haven't. I've seen the car. Have you seen the video? I haven't seen the video. Oh, shit. Watch this. This video haven't. I've seen the car. You've seen the video? I haven't seen the video. Oh, shit.

Watch this. This video is crazy. Here it goes. Wow. Yeah. So he got thrown out of the car, and that's how he survived. I didn't know it was like that. Yeah.

Jeez. Dude, 100% could have been dead. Yes. 100%. I mean, that was a terrible accident. It's hard to say that you 100% could have been dead. Yes. 100%. I mean, that was a terrible accident. It's hard to say that you 100% have been dead. I mean, he rolled like five, six, seven times. Look at that cart.

If he wasn't a master athlete, could he have survived that? And who knows what happened to him when he survived, right? Did he hit his head? Did he hit his neck? Is he okay? Is he 100%? Or is he always going to be a little fuck from that? There's another angle.

Wow. Jesus. Oh, my God. That's one of the most horrific ones I've seen. But he was okay. That's good. Thank God. Amazing.

Because a talent like that, to take that guy at a young age, it would be so horrible. Yes. Yes. It would be so horrible. Yes. Yes. It would be devastating. They give these dudes money, and you could just go buy one of those cars. It's kind of crazy. You could just go buy a 700-horsepower car.

You don't even know how to drive. Yeah. You just have money. Yeah, I know. I used to. It was a trip because I remember being at the studio, Echo Sound one time, and Tupac came. He pulled up in the Benz. It's like, oh, man, Pac, you got your Benz.

He's like, yep. I don't have my license, man. I hope I don't wreck it. Like, damn. Man, park that car, man. I don't know how to drive it. He's like, nah, man. I've been in New York, man, for so long.

Don't worry about driving. I like oh you know i think he did wreck it a few times you know i'm saying it was all said and done learning how to drive first car yeah it's benz you know it was like 500 what was the first thing you bought when you started making money oh man the first thing I bought. Like the first car. Oh, man, I bought a Honda Accord. I bought a Honda Accord, you know. They had just come out with a new model. It was about 20 Gs.

And I was like, you know, I'm sick of rolling around here. You know, at first I had like a sidekick, you know, I'm sick of rolling around here. You know, at first I had like a sidekick, you know, a Suzuki sidekick. Oh, no. Suzuki made cars. I remember those. Sidekick. And I was like, man, I need some luxury. You know what I mean? I'm starting to make money.

You know, let's go down here and get this Honda Accord. Kim, she's my wife, but she was my girlfriend at the time, so we went down there, placed on, I think it was La Cienega, they had a Honda spot, and I just went in there and bought a black Honda Accord. Cash. Wow. Yeah. That's a pretty reasonable car.

You didn't go crazy. I only had 20 Gs, so if I'd have had 40 out of both you know probably a BMW you know I mean three series or something so uh you know at the time it was the first cool thing I was able to buy and and not sweat it you know I mean like that's the key is to buy it and not sweat it right yeah if you buying it and you're it still, you like, damn. I remember, I remember one day, I remember Dre and Yella,

they got checks. I think they got checks for like $35,000. Next thing I seen them, they had both had vets, I think, Corvettes. And I was like, how much you pay?

31. How much you pay for yours? 33. I'm like, y'all broke now. So what? We look good. It's funny, but that's the temptation, you know?

Yeah. I mean, you know, you, man, you like, you only live once. And we know a lot of people that die young. And so it's kind of like get it while the getting is good. Yeah. It's also you're young. When you're young, when I first started making money, my manager thought I had a gambling problem.

He called me up. He said, are you having a gambling problem? Because he knew how much money I was burning through. I go, no, man, I'm eating lobster every night. I grew up poor. i'm like i'm eating steak and lobster i'm taking my friends out like i'm spending money yeah i mean that's what you do you know and it feels good yeah it feels good it feels good to finally be able to treat and and um not you know worry about what it's gonna look like or that's the big thing is the worry i remember

the first check i got i got a check from dis Disney for a development deal from Disney in, like, 1993. And when I got the check, it was like weight lifted off my shoulders. It was like, whew. Like, I could look at my bank account. I go, I got money in the bank account. Yeah. I can pay the bills. Like, I don't have to think about the bills right now.

And it was like I was lighter. Without a doubt. I mean, it does weigh on you when you can't, you know, when you don't know exactly where the money's going to come from. You know, the bill's here. You know when you got to pay it, but you really don't know exactly how it's all going to come together. You know, you hope the universe bless you with an

opportunity yeah and um and so to not have that worry it is a weight lifted off you know and i wish i wish more people could feel the weight lifted off but there's another thing the more you make the more you spend so sometimes the weight comes back comes back on you know i mean the weight comes back on and then you have employees and that's another weight that's a different weight that's like you think about other people's families and yes you're making money for them too yeah you know you really you know that's why i don't do nothing crazy you know i'm not into skydiving nothing like that you know i'm definitely not going down in no damn submarine yeah what the fuck titanic i don't do i don't take those crazy chances because you know i got generations depending on me. And so, you know, got to take that responsibility serious because you never know when others in my family bloodline or whatever are going to be able to have the opportunities that I have.

You know, even though my son, O'Shea Jr., you know, he's working constantly. He's in Spain right now. Yeah, he is. That's amazing that he's just carrying on. That's beautiful. It is. That must make you very proud. Man, it's like the best.

One guy asked me, you know, how does it feel seeing your son, you know, straight out of Compton and does so well? you know, straight out of Compton and does so well. I said, it's like winning the Super Bowl on a team and then your son comes and wins the Super Bowl for that same team. That's the feeling. I don't know if anybody has ever had that feeling, but it seems like that's how I feel. had that feeling but it seems like that's how i feel it's like i won with nwa and he won with nwa

that's amazing that's and what a perfect person to play i mean how who would be better to play you exactly it's perfect i mean before he you know decided to take the movie i was you know i would take him on tour with me and we would do we was doing that anyway he would jump on stage he would do dope man and you know i'm like oh that's my son you know and um i'm like man he he got that swagger up here. You know what I mean? Mommy of a young me. Okay. So when it was time to do the movie, when it was really a go, I went to him and I said, Hey, man, this NWA movie look like it's going to go. He was like, Cool, man. That's good. Good luck, man.

That's great. Hold on. Hold on. I said, I want you to play me. He was like, okay. And I'm like, wow,

that was too easy. You know what I mean? That was like, you know, that was, he was like, okay. And he just kept on walking.

I'm like, wait a minute. And then I said, I gotta see if he's serious. or he's just, you know, saying okay just to say okay. But it's a hell of a lot of work. So I started putting him through the ringer a little bit. You know, I was like, hey, man, we got an acting coach for you.

You know, L.A., you need to go down there on Thursday. You know, you need to be there at this time and that, boom it's like oh all right all right and he would go and i'm like okay he's starting to go but is he just going is he participating is he into it you know boom so i said i'm gonna try something else i sent him to new york to York to a guy for, you know, training, acting. I'm like, I'm gonna send him all the way to New York and see if he'll do that. Because that's when he'll bail. Be like, oh,

you know, I got something to do. So, he got on the plane, flew to New York, worked with this cat, flew back. Now now when he flew back i i was checking him out seeing what he was doing you know we was far from actually casting a movie at that time and then he was like uh he came up he was like i'm gonna go work with my coach today i'm like what so yeah me and my acting coach, we're going to get together. We're going to do a couple of things.

So I'm like, he's into it. He's into it. Yeah. So then I let him do that. So now I have to approach Gary Gray. Now, Gary Gray is the director of Straight Outta Compton. He also directed Friday, and he directed It Was a Good Day. You know, these are some of my biggest projects.

And when I told him, he was like, yeah, man, it's cool. He was just thinking about who he going to get to play here. I said, okay. Guess who I want to play Ice Cube? He's like, who? I said, my son. He was like, ah.

Cube. I said, what the fuck, man? I thought we was making a real movie, man. I said, we are making a real movie. What you talking about? I said, he's going to be great in it. He's going to be great. If he get the part

He'll have to audition and Universal sign off on him But you're gonna work with him just like John Singleton work with me You know I mean John put me in boys in the hood. I didn't act I wouldn't know actor. I was just a rapper and He saw something in me put me in the movie and he helped me through it and the rest is history and you're gonna do the same thing so make a long story short it's audition time screen test time now my son going there and he said he got pissed off because there's five other fucking ice cubes there to audition. He's like, these dudes think they're about to take this? He said, man, I felt like I had the family name on my back. I had to go in there and house this shit.

And he said, you know, when he left the screen test, Donna Langley from Universal called me. And it was like, your son was great. He was actually the best one. And we're going to sign off on it. Wow. Yeah. It's a cool, cool story. That's a great story.

It's a great story the way you made him do it, too. That's so smart. He worked harder than any of the other actors. Like two years of grinding. Because, you know, the coach's son always, he get it the worst. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And it was no different on this movie. Of course. I had to make sure that he won and he set up himself for a career in this game. That's amazing. That's amazing. Your career, like, one of the things that's so fascinating about your career is like there was never anyone like you before that did what you did.

You went from gangster rap to like family movies. Yeah. Like no one's ever done that. And then sports entertainment, like you, you branched out into so many things, but the, the key part of it that people need to understand today is when you guys came

out, when NWA came out, the whole world went, what the fuck? Yes. The whole world. I remember I was on, I was in Revere,

Massachusetts. I was on an elliptical machine at the gym and a friend of mine told me you gotta listen to this shit And I had a cassette walkman. Yeah, so I'm there with a cassette walkman on the elliptical shit elliptical machine Listen this straight out of Compton going. Holy shit Like this is why there was nothing like that before that and I remember like laughing while it was riding elliptical But these guys are how of their fucking minds. This is crazy. And then there was the Tipper Gore shit where Al Gore's wife was trying to censor rap music.

The PMRC, Parents Resources Against Music Council or something like that. That was the Democrats folks. That, that's the reason you have an advisory sticker on the record because that was the compromise. They were saying, you know, I sent my,

sent my daughter to the record store to buy a record. She came home with the fucking two live crew. I know this shit was gonna be like this you know so you know the compromise from the the record industry was we'll put a parental advisory sticker on the record to so if a parent was buying a record for christmas you know they parents was like i want too short you know i mean they go buy the too short record put it in and they like what the hell so we were the first group to put that sticker on our records we were the very first group because priority records designed that parental advisory sticker and uh

yep that sticker and it was it was actually it had to be stuck on the record like a sticker and they had to go through all our records in every record store and put the sticker on. So the next time we did artwork, we just planted it in the artwork. Wow. And then kids wouldn't buy your shit if it didn't have the sticker. It's like people was putting the sticker on clean records. That's hilarious. It's like a clean record, not one ounce of profanity on on it but they was putting the parental advisory because kids was looking at it was like we're sticking with no

that's the opposite effect it promotes it yes that's what exactly what happened it promoted it two live crew was the first band that got arrested though right when they're the first band that got arrested um on stage i believe yeah i'm not sure you know his rap got a long history you know i don't know if somebody you know tackled you know cool herc or somebody right but but uh that's the one that went you know nationwide news Nationwide news. And yeah, he got arrested. Yeah. Yeah, Luke fought for all of our freedom of speech, to be honest. If they would have took Luke down and the two live crew at the time and said that this music is too obscene and you can't sell stuff like this, everything would probably you know sterile right now you know yeah oh for sure it well that's the same thing with howard stern and radio yes you know they went after howard they they find them insane amounts of money for the howard stern show yes i remember and if he just folded and gave into that there probably no probably be no podcast. Or it would have taken a lot longer for people to figure this out.

Yeah. It's incredible when you stand up at the moment of truth, you know? Yeah. Like, it's important for us to stand up at the time that is going on and not back down and then try to regroup and yeah and then go at it you know it's it's really important it is for people to stand up for themselves but it's hard yes it's hard today more than ever because you get so much pressure people like especially during covid people ganged up on people people were doing the man's work for the man it's like yeah who the fuck are you trusting like why are you trusting these people that have been lying forever yeah

man it was wild during that time like it you know people um being bullied into doing things that they didn't want to do. A lot of them didn't want to do it. They did it because of their work or their, you know, their situations. Yeah, a lot of them are hurting right now yeah I know you know I know a guy that's you know been dealing with tinnitus since since he got it and so I you know this is just yeah I know quite a few people that got fucked up some of them pretty bad it's just it was just there was if you wanted to do it in a textbook way like if it was a conspiracy that's how i would do it i'd isolate people make them stay at home

take away their livelihood make them scared give them small checks you know and then give them this thing that you got to take to get back to normal want to get back to normal yeah go take that don't worry safe and effective safe and effective safe and effective and then you have all this pressure and everyone is yelling at you if you don't do it if you don't do it we're not going to get back to normal and everybody got scared and everybody just stepped in line it was strange it's strange yeah it was um You know, stepping in line sometimes is not the way to go. No, it's not always the way to go. You know, you're trying to prevent and trying to make things all smooth and easy and no issues and back to normal and all that. And the world might be back to normal, but are you normal?

Well, you got to be able to make informed decisions. Yes. And when you can't make an informed decision, you're being pressured anyway. It's like, but how long? And this is the thing that was driving me crazy. Before the election, when Donald Trump was president, all they were talking about is, I'm not going to take the shot. You're going to take a shot that Trump made?

Who's going to take that shot? Even Biden was saying it. Who's going to take it? Kamala Harris was saying it. They were all saying it. Don't take that. I would never take that. And then all of a sudden, Biden becomes president, and they're like, you got to take it.

Is this the same thing? This is the same thing. You know how long it takes to develop a vaccine? This is the same vaccine. Same one. You guys how long it takes to develop a vaccine? This is the same vaccine. Same one. You guys were just talking shit. And, you know, no matter who tried to give it to you at the end of the day, it wasn't ready. It's not ready. You know, six months to try to turn this thing into something effective.

That was totally, you know. Experimental. that was totally, you know. Experimental. Totally experimental. And everybody who took it was basically signing up to take an experimental drug. And I'm not anti-vax. I've been vaxed before.

Me too. I've had vaccines. Have had all of them. Everyone I was supposed to get exactly uh but those have been some been around 80 years something around yeah 50 40 um and i just wasn't comfortable after six months i was ready to take it the ufc allocated 150 vaccines i think for all their employees. And this was when we were doing shows during the lockdowns. So we'd go, there was a COVID bubble. You get tested, you get tested the day of the event. And I was there and they said, oh, we got the vaccines.

You want to take it? I said, yeah. So I called up the doctor. I said, hey man, can I take it? And they said, yeah, hold on. We'll set it up. I was going to take it like before the show. I thought it was just like a flu shot. Give me that it's normal right and they call me up and they say no we can't do it until monday uh we have to it has to be done at the clinic can you can you go on monday i said i can't i go but i'll be back for another event two weeks okay we'll do it then and during that time it got pulled during the time it got pulled for blood clots and two guys i knew had strokes two guys i know wow yeah wow and then i was like okay what is going and then my friend got it and got over it quick It got pulled for blood clots, and two guys I knew had strokes. Wow. Two guys I knew. Wow. Yeah. Wow.

And then I was like, okay, what is going on? And then my friend got it and got over it quick. And I was like, what's going on? My real estate lady had it, and she didn't even have any symptoms. She tested positive twice. And she's like, well, I got to isolate, but I feel fine. And I was like, well, what is this? Is this a death sentence, or is this like, how many people are asymptomatic?

And you find out like 65% of the people are asymptomatic like what the fuck is going on here Yeah And then I knew some people that got in got real real sick But they were fat or they were out of shape or they had other problems And then I knew a few friends were real healthy that got it They got wrecked because they didn't take it seriously and they kept working out. So there was a lot of confusion Yes, and you know, it was a lot of fear. But when I finally got it, and I got over quick,

and then they started attacking me for taking horse medication, I was like, what the fuck is going on? Shouldn't you be more interested in the fact that this deadly disease hit this 55-year-old dude, and he was better in three days? Isn't that more interesting? Like, why don't you ask what I took? Yeah. Like, why did I get better? Is it yeah i wasn't vaccinated yeah i wasn't vaccinated but i got over it quick so what's wrong with that in any other fucking rational sane world when there's a

disease and someone goes to a doctor and gets medication for that disease and gets better in three days you go oh well that's a way to get better from that disease Yes, not this is one singular thing that you have to do that I can't even do now because I already have antibodies like this is stupid. It's crazy. And you know, the thing is is when money is the driving force and You know, I don't know if they can even get money off of what you took You know, I mean, uh, it seems like something that's been around for a long time

That's just one of the things I took and and and there's no money in it. Well, no new money in it Yes, so real money in it. So that's really what it's all about. You know, it's not about if it worked or if it's effective It's about they can't make no money off of it and we got this new stuff that we can make billions so that's where the pressure comes from and that's why they pushing it that's why you have to think for yourself because money is driving these people to give you bad advice or give you the wrong advice or to hide, you know, solutions and cures and remedies from you. And, you know, you got to, once you peep that out, you have to take a step back and make sure that you're following the money to make sure it's not going to take you down. It's just so hard to do in the middle of a pandemic.

That's why it was so hard because everybody was just like locked in their house and scared, especially in California. The attitude in California was so much different than the attitude here. We came to Texas. I'm like, don't have a fucking mask on. This is crazy. They're just out normal yeah Cali they went crazy with it you know I was using the mask really to as a disguise so finally walked finally walked through here and nobody asked for a selfie you know I mean cool

so you know I kind of like I got the mask in my pocket for that too. You know what I mean? Pop it on, go to the airport. It's just a disguise now. Yeah. Well, finally you can wear a mask. Yeah. That's what I tripped off too. I was like, they letting all these people stand around in these stores, walking through these stores with their face covered.

Yeah. And banks. Yeah, exactly. When is a guy just going to pull out a pistol? And they were like, I don't know. They all had masks. We don't know who it was. It was a mask.

Who was that masked man? Well, it's happening so often in New York City. They made people take their masks down when they went into stores. They made that a rule so that the camera can get a shot of your face. Lord. It's so stupid. It's so stupid. I'm supposed to keep this on to protect everybody.

Well, and then they found out real early that it didn't even work. They knew early that those things were bullshit. But it was a thing that would get you to comply with. Yeah. And it's also, you did it so you didn't feel like an asshole. If everybody had a mask on, you didn't, you felt like an asshole. It's like, ah, I'll put a mask on. Yeah, and people were looking at you like, you're the one spreading all the COVID around here, huh?

Yeah, yeah. it was crazy um i knew a guy got sick wearing the mask like he had this cloth mask that he just felt it was the thing that was gonna protect him i'm like dude you're breathing in and like wash that thing yeah you know i'm saying you breathing that you i don't know what you you're breathing in and like wash that thing. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You're breathing that. I don't know what you're breathing. You're breathing in last week's, you know. Bad breath.

Yeah, fat burger. Like, dude, you know what I'm saying? Take that off your face. Yeah, you wouldn't want that on a wound. No. Right? A dirty ass rag over a cut. Yeah.

And you're breathing through it all day, every day. Getting right in your bloodstream yeah you're smoking weed through that thing man take it off yeah it was just weird this is a weird time i saw that you would you'd have to pass on a movie because they wanted you to get shot yeah you know they uh strangest thing you know say, you know, say we're doing a movie, we're doing a movie. Um, I'm like, okay. And then, um, all the producers in Hollywood decided that they don't want anybody on their movie set that haven't gotten a vaccine. And what year was this?

This is 2020. Okay, so it's in the middle of it. Yeah. I mean, we're coming out of it. I think it might be 21 when we know, okay, everything is going back to normal. But I believe the news came out during 2020. And so, you know, I never thought it was a producer's mandate. You know, I thought it was a studio mandate.

But I think the studios really wanted to have, you know, kind of a little out. So they put it on a producer. Like, this is not us. This is this production, that production, this production, that production. you know kind of a little out so they put it on a producer like this is not us this is this production that production this production that production i'm like but it's every production so you mean tell me every producer in hollywood has this mandate give me a break it has to come from the studio to hit every producer because every producer don't think the same like right every some producers you

know um had their own different opinions so anyway it was a studio mandate they put it on individual producers so producers talking to my people and they're like if he don't take it you know he can't be in the movie it's like he's not taking it it's not taking it it's like okay can't do the movie okay no problem now i didn't go out telling everybody what happened i didn't um um put the word out that i didn't even tell people that i wasn't vaccinated i didn't tell people not to go get vaccinated i didn't tell people that I'm not doing this movie because I don't want to be vaccinated. But somehow,

some way the news hit the, you know, I don't know if Hollywood reporter or somebody put it out that this is why cube is not doing the movie. And I thought it was chicken shit. I thought it was, you know, it's like what happened to the HIPAA laws, you know, or OSHA, one of them, I forgot, I think it's HIPAA,

you know, where you're not supposed to reveal a person's medical status. And here it is, they print in mine. And so I just thought it was bullshit. And it just kind of snowballed, you know. I'm like, what they want is for people to tell me I'm stupid. You know what I mean? They want people to tell me, you turning down $9 million, you stupid.

You know, I'll do anything for $9 million. How stupid can Q be? And I don't care about that. You know, it's like I didn't lose $9 million because I never had it. Like if you never have some shit, you can't lose it. Okay. You lose it when it's in your bank account. Then you look up and it's gone.

You know what I'm saying? But if you never had it, I didn't lose it. It just in your bank account then you look up and it's gone you know i'm saying but if you never had it i didn't lose it it just was never given to me and so you know they they try to you know put my business in the street put pressure on me everybody around me telling me how stupid i am so i can go get vaxxed and say, you know, please let me do the movie. You know, that was never going to happen. I don't care if it was 20 million. That was never going to happen. And if you got injured from that vaccine, you would have paid that 20 million to be healthy again.

Damn right. Damn right. Yeah. Damn right. There's a lot of people out there that wish they weren't forced into making that decision. And that's where the real lawsuits are going to come from. The real lawsuits, since you can't sue the vaccine companies, they're going to start suing these businesses,

and they're already lining up. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. It was a gigantic error. And they're, you know, they fired a lot of people. You know, I think they fired a lot of cops in New York. Yeah. And they had to hire them back

and give them back pay give them back pay but what about the ones that were injured that took the vax you know they gotta have some kind of repercussion because you know they just proved that

they just kind of told on themselves that we got this wrong and nobody wants to talk about it That's the crazy thing because all the nobody can yeah, you know, that's what I'm talking about the gatekeepers nobody can talk about it because Somebody above them told him no From this outlet that outlet You know the NBA and going back to that, you know, I'm just kind of putting it in perspective.

But the guys in the NBA used to talk about the big three. If you go back to year one, all the time. And then they just stop. And then I ask, you know, I ask my guy, you know, what happened, man? Why y'all stop? I asked my guy, you know, what happened, man? Why y'all stop? They told us we couldn't mention the big three anymore on air. So I'm like, that's chicken shit.

You know, that's that bullshit that I'm talking about. That, you know, I'm talking about what happened to me, but it obviously happens everywhere to all of us. You know what I mean? And we got to somehow, someway get these people out of our way or not support what they're doing and producing. doing and producing. You know, some of these mainstream outlets are really just an extension of these corporate conglomerates who want to, you know, kind of control our emotions, control our movement, control our spinning, control our personalities, control our mind. And, you know, what are we going to do about it, like, at the end of the day?

You know what I'm saying? Let it happen day after day until we're steamrolled and wore out and have no fight in us. Or are we going to stand up where we can, you know what I mean, and push back when we can. I know everybody can't in all situations. And don't feel bad when you can't but when you can and you know you can do it yes do it like when you have the leverage take it yeah take it like like ufc when you got the leverage you gotta go yeah use that yeah to your advantage you might not always have the leverage you might not always have the right timing but when you can

we gotta buck back you know if not we're just gonna continue to get steamrolled and not be heard and cancelled and all this kind of stupid stuff

we're just repeating patterns that have played out throughout history. Yes. When people get power, they want to have ultimate power. They want more power. Any obstructions they see to their goals, any things that people were doing that would get in the way, they want to silence that, stop that. They want to bust unions.

They want to do whatever the fuck they can to consolidate their power yeah and it's uh at a certain point it's just ridiculous yeah and um was not good for these are some of the most unhappy people in the world who is just concerned with more and more power and they're powerful you know whenever you saw a guy who was maxing out, you know, bench pressing or whatever, and blew out his shoulder. A bunch of times. It's like, you was maxed out the last time you maxed out.

Why are you trying to max out even more and more and more and more and then you blow out your shoulder some saying so at a certain point you got to know when you got enough for this and enough of that I think the money people though they never think that way because it's all about numbers like the whole thing is numbers it's not like look I put out a new album look I put out a new movie I'm creating a thing I'm putting together stuff for numbers it's not like look i put out a new album look i put out a new movie i'm creating a thing i'm putting together stuff for them it's always numbers it's all numbers it's just numbers and so you never feel satisfied and there's always a guy with a bigger jet there's always a guy with a bigger house there's always a guy with more of this more of that and yeah yeah and usually you And usually, you know, you can find happier people with way, way, way less.

Way, way less. Way less. Yeah, if your goal is happy, that is not the occupation you should be in. That's not. No. Yeah, those people are miserable. Yeah, and they're always chasing and they're never satisfied. You know, that to me is torturing itself.

Well, it's also stupid. And if you run a corporation, it's also stupid. And if you're running a corporation, it's actually your obligation. Your obligation to your shareholders to continue to make as much money as possible. So you're trapped in a system that obligates you to behave and think that way. And if you don't, you won't be competitive.

Yeah. It's a... It's an ugly game, you know. And I don't see where people are being thought about in these type situations, you know. It's all about, you know, capital don't care. Yeah. Capital has no emotions.

Capital only respects capital. Yeah, the only time it respects people's opinions is when people boycott shit and it works, like this Bud Light thing. Yeah. And now people are like, don't do that again. Yeah. Like, be careful because look what happened to Bud Light.

Well, who controls Bud Light? That's the question. Why would they make a dumb decision like that? Are they trying to ruin Bud Light? And why would they want to ruin Bud Light? And why would they want to ruin Bud Light? Are they trying to take down some of our most iconic American brands? And why would that help? I don't think they were trying to. I don't think they had any idea this was going to happen. It's this ESG thing that everybody has to dedicate a certain amount of their time to,

you know, woke stuff. Who mandates that? That's a good question. Where does the ESG money come from? Is that government? Where does that come from? And they have scores, and the ESG score of your corporation determines what you get.

And the problem is also you get these people that are coming out of college, like this lady who made the decision for Bud Light. You know, she's gone through the university system. She's in the corporate system. And she's a woman. And she thinks, you know, we have to be more inclusive. And that's all the language everyone's using today.

Yeah. So they don't know any real people. They don't know regular people. They have no idea that if you take a brand, Bud Light, which is known for blue-collar drinking people, they like to fucking watch football and drink Bud Light, and then all of a sudden you have this mentally ill person who's just an attention whore, and you make a big deal out of putting this person

365 days of womanhood, you put that on a Bud Light can, and they freak the fuck out. And then Kid Rock shoots a bunch of them, and then it's on. Once Kid Rock shoots your cans, you got fuck out. Yeah. And then Kid Rock shoots a bunch of them, and then it's on. Once Kid Rock shoots your cans, you got real problems. Yeah. I'm pretty sure you do.

Yeah, man. It's kind of like, I think you got to still ask why. You think there's like a conspiracy? Well, you know, who's getting hurt? Who's getting hurt in this whole thing? Is it the Bud Light? Anheuser-Busch? Brass?

Will their bonuses be affected? Will their checks and salaries be affected? You got this lower level person fired. And a bunch of middle class guys are paying the price because you got distribution centers, you know, guys that deliver the beer nobody want. And now they're out of a job. Now you're really attacking the middle class by by making a brand that's so big take a hit like that. It says here, the quickest destruction of a company in history. Bud Light sponsors Toronto Pride parade.

So, you know, it's... Oh, when was this? That was just the other day? Oh, that's so silly. They're leaning into it but meanwhile the gays are mad at them the pride people are mad at them because they didn't support dylan mulvaney so they they kicked it out of gay bars you don't win you know either way at the end of the day but um you know i think about the companies that own these companies the people

that own these companies and why people that own these companies, and why would they let a decision like that take the company down? I don't think they thought it was going to. I think this is a legitimate public outrage one where they just pushed too far and people went, fuck you. And it wasn't even like a real promotion. It was a thing they sent a can to this person, this Dylan Mulvaney person. But I don't think it went anywhere else. I think it was just like, here, this is for you, and you put it on social media.

They made some sort of a partnering deal, you know, and that was it. So why did Target do the same thing? Well, I think that's an ESG thing. That's an ESG thing, right? And Target lost billions of dollars too because people people are sick of this shit they're sick of social things like that that are controversial getting stuffed into your face and where you have to accept it yeah and people are like i don't want to accept it it's just like i'm just coming here for fucking toilet paper yeah i think you know people got to keep it in perspective as well too you know i don't think people grab a beer to be so i mean the to you know to learn

about the newest social event or the social situation going right grab a beer because you want a beer hang with your buddies or hang you know with people that enjoy beer and y'all shoot the shit and politics really shouldn't be in somebody's beer mug, you know. They just don't get it. They think it has to be in everything. Everybody, because of social media, everybody feels like they're fighting some sort of social battle with everything they do. And, you know, and this is one, this is another one. It's like forced compliance.

You have to, you're forced to comply with this. And, you know, it's fucking up women's sports in a huge way, in a huge way. And, you know, some organizations are pushing back against that and some people are pushing back against the organizations that are pushing back against it, which to me is insane. Like, if you care at all about biological women, you should be against that.

I mean, what if, like, LeBron said he wanted to play in the WNBA? I'm retiring from the NBA because I'm 49, and I'm going to play in the WNBA. Well, they wouldn't be able to stop it. If he just decided to say publicly, I identify as a woman, what are they going to do? They can't do anything. And then that would be the end.

Dave Chappelle has a bit about it. Yeah. LeBron scores 100 again tonight. Well, there was some fucking knucklehead that was getting an interview. They said, if Mike Tyson and I died and fought as a woman, should he be able to fight women? And they were like, well, the short answer is yes. Oh, Lord. It's so crazy.

Yeah. It's so crazy. And. It's so crazy. And there's also different specifications. It's like what you have to do and how long you have to take hormones before you can identify as a woman and compete as a woman. Like, just fucking stop. Who's going to check all that? Yeah. There's a reason why there's women's sports.

And there's a reason why there's men's sports. And you're not talking about who you are or what your truth is. Live your truth. I mean, Title IX just just got you know what just turned what 30 or yeah something like that you know i mean so protecting women's sports yeah yeah which is which is great because it forces schools and you know they make a lot of money you know teaching whatever they teaching them schools and they should carve out some for women to be able to play for their school. You know, that's great.

And so I don't understand. You know, sometimes things don't make crazy man sense. And when they don't make crazy man sense, I just back out. And stop thinking about it. Yeah, it's probably a good move because you're not going to solve it. I mean, people are, I think ultimately it gets solved where people just don't accept it anymore. And then hopefully it'll go, I mean, maybe they could just develop a transgender league where trans people play against trans people. That would be great.

Why not? But you can't pretend you're a biological female just because you wish you were like you can't pretend when it comes to women's sports you can't pretend when it comes to women's rights issues it's like that's not this is you don't want men dominating that because that's what it is it's men entering to women's spaces yeah and whether they Ultimately. They identify as a woman. That's great. But you physically. You're a biological male.

Yeah. Yeah. And you want to compete against them. You want to play rugby against women. Get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. That's crazy. No.

They want to dominate. They want to dominate. There's a lot of that. They want to dominate. They want to be winners. Yeah. Yeah. If all of a sudden.

You can be a woman. And a winner. And just fucking kick everybody's ass. Yeah. If all of a sudden you can be a woman and a winner and just fucking kick everybody's ass. Yeah. You know how you used to, like, play the kids in basketball? Like, they ate. You had this shack out there. You just shacked.

Yeah. It's the ultimate sandbagging, you know? It's like you know you have a giant advantage. Like, the one that drove me the craziest was the mma fighter yeah because that person became a woman for two years and then started competing as women and not telling them and saying it was a medical issue it's i don't have to disclose a medical condition like no no no no that's not what that is like if they if that person said that they were a woman and competed against women, that's deception.

That's a fucking lie. But if you said you're a biological male and the women still want to fight you, okay. All good. Yeah. You know, it's tricky, man. It's like a slippery slope. Yeah. You know, that really starts to get bizarre after a while, you know, because where does it where does it actually end at the end of the day?

You know. Yeah. What does somebody say? I don't I don't identify as black. I want to be another color. Yeah. Purple. I'm purple. What, you laughing at me? You can get purple. You laughing at me? I'm gonna cancel your ass. You laughing at me because I'm purple?

Yeah. That's basically. Yeah. Well, you know, you might as well, you know, I'm a chicken dinner. I'm macaroni and cheese i'm rice

i'm the rolls yeah you know i'm i'm a chicken dinner man yeah i identify as people identify as younger people just it's like the whole it is a slippery slope yeah because people can you know people always can be extreme with stuff like that. They're extreme with it. And they keep pushing boundaries. And they're pushing boundaries on age of consent now, which is crazy. You know, there's people that are also pushing back against calling people pedophiles. They're saying you should call them minor attracted persons.

Man, come on. It's insane. I mean, you're getting academics that, come on. It's insane. I mean, you're getting academics that are saying this. It's insane. Yeah, it is. It's borderline madness somewhere almost there. Yeah, well, it's the end of an empire. Yes.

There's this guy, Douglas Murray. He's this English-British intellectual, and he said that every time a civilization is close to collapsing they become obsessed with gender it happened with the ancient greeks the romans it's just like some weird thing that happens when everything is just going too good and life is too easy people get obsessed with the weirdest things and now we're obsessed with gender wow it's the beginning of the day to him yeah who knows I mean maybe we'll bounce back you know get a good

president in there you know turn sure. I wonder what would happen if Robert Kennedy Jr. got in there. Very interested to see what happens with that guy. Yeah. You know, he's,

you know, he seemed like a guy who at least is down the deep dive. Yeah. And talk real and, you know know really try to dissect what's really going on instead of just going with the herd um which would be easy for him to do and like go with the herd you know

he may be you know even ahead more or he may even be doing better you know when they pull thinking like 20% of people or something yeah he probably doing better I'd be doing better and you know instead of you know maybe he'll be one of the one of the guys And so by him going this route, it seems like he's on a more noble route. And we just check him out and see how he navigates some of this stuff. He's definitely on a more noble route. And it's definitely not something he planned to do initially. I mean, he was an environmental attorney. He was the guy that cleaned up the Hudson River. They would go after these corporations that were dumping toxic waste. And that was his thing. It was like mercury in the water and trying to hold the corporations accountable. And then these women started showing up every time he would speech,

give these speeches. And they said, we want you to look into mercury and vaccines. Yeah. And so this is 18 years ago. And so for 18 years, this guy's been saying all this stuff about environmental concerns. And that was what his whole thing was. And it wasn't until COVID came along. And then he wrote that book, The Real Anthony Fauci, detailing what it is that these people are actually doing and how they are engineering these viruses. And they give grants and it's it's dangerous gain-of-function research and then they give you one medication that you have to take and everybody gets on board with it and they're making fucking billions

of dollars yes and no one's talking about what he's saying and he's saying it in a well-informed way and he's expressing it to people like this is this is the playbook they always use and they just used it on everybody look he's dealing with the same people we probably all are dealing with and and it's really time for us to really um come up with a with a plan on how we're gonna deal with this because it's just going to continue to happen. Yeah. It's just going to continue to happen. You know, I don't have all the answers. But I think we need to collectively start to, you know, not just give a pass to people doing things like this.

And, you know, we've got major outlets that's not delivering the right message to the people not delivering the right message um basically steering them the way that you know these super rich people want us to go, and it's not cool. No, it's not. And I'm hoping people wake up enough to at least slow it down. Because these people are pushing in a very obvious and very specific direction. They want digital currency, centralized digital currency that they control, and they want to get everybody on a social credit score system. They'll probably connect it to some sort of a vaccine app. Or if you want to travel around, all they would need is another pandemic

to try to push that shit through. And they're already talking about that. It's very spooky. Because when you look into the history of this lab and them funding it and this getting out and the way they responded to it, the whole thing is so scary because it was effective. It was effective and very, very financially effective.

I mean, they made a lot of fucking money. And if they could do something similar again and then clamp down more on people, that's what scares me. This talk of centralized digital currency, that's what they have in China. If you fuck up in China and you get a bad social credit score because you

tweeted something they didn't like what now you can't buy a plane ticket now you can't buy a car now you can't get a loan now you can't do something you you step the fucking line and people self-censor they don't want to be a part of that now they got you yep they got you want you self-censor yeah got Got you where they want you. Yeah, we know that they were involved in Twitter. We know that the government was involved in silencing different voices. They stopped that Hunter Biden laptop story from getting out before the election. It's so obviously dirty shit.

I did a record called Everything's Corrupt. And it is when you really look around. It's like, where is the people that's doing the right thing? Yeah. You know, where they at? Have you thought about doing anything with politics? No, I would never. I would never do nothing with politics.

Does anybody try to pressure you? What you mean? Like, Cube, you should run for mayor. I tell them I'm already the mayor. The only thing I would do, I said, king me. The only thing I would accept is turn me into a king. President, politician, begging-ass politician. President, politician, begging-ass politician, powerless puppet.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. You know, I talked to one guy who actually spends the money that the government allocates. So, you know, Congress say this industry is going to get this many billions. It's up to him to say where that money goes. And I'm like, well,

how often do you talk to people at Congress? He said, never. He said, they can't even get me on the phone. I'm like, what? He said, these people can't even get me on the phone i'm like what it's like he said these people can't even get me on the phone man i don't listen to them you know i mean i just tell them where the money gotta go wow so he gets to decide you know he's part of the government that you know when they allocate the money it goes to these different agencies and departments and, and then they allocate where it goes.

Um, they can't spend any of it, so they can't take it, but they can spend it. And then they can develop relationships with the people that give them money. Yeah. So, um,

so, you know, the people in Congress are, to me, actually powerless. They're just theater at the end of the day. Well, they're theater who also gets the inside trade. Yeah. That's the beautiful thing. Exactly.

I mean, they know where that money's going. Yeah. You know what I mean? They might not be able to touch it, but they can be on the other end to make sure their investments are carved out and they make a pretty penny off of it. Well, not only that, they do it openly

in front of everybody. It's not illegal. And every time people call to ban it, like Nancy Pelosi's like, what? No, no. We're not going to do that. Why would we do that? Ladies are at $200 million. She makes $200 grand a year. No, we're not going to do that. Why would we do that? Yeah, exactly. Ladies are at $200 million.

She makes $200 grand a year. Yeah, right. She's better at stock trading than Warren Buffett and George Soros. Yeah. Why wouldn't she be? She know where all the body, I mean, she know where everything is going to hit. It's crazy. She know what's going to hit, when it's going to hit, and how much it's gonna hit for and unless that's illegal

Fuck you like like fuck your whole system exactly cuz you know It's easy to You know it's easy to corrupt these people You know I mean, it's our money. Did you ever think you would have to think about it so much though like I didn't think about this so much like 10-15 years ago um well I always had my kind of you know every since you know

people like Tipper Gore come after you you pay attention to where the shots are being fired you know so before then just a little you know I was sitting my pops would look at the news and yell at the screen you know so before then just a little you know i was sitting my pops would look at the news and yell at the screen you know i mean that's how that's how i know what was bullshit and what was real you know because and then you know i started doing my thing and then like the law, the FBI, you know, all these agencies started to come down on us.

Really scared the shit out of the record company because we could care less. We was like, today we got the FBI letter. What was the FBI letter? We got an FBI letter. They sent a letter to Priority Records saying one guy was like, I'm part of this department of the FBI, and we're very concerned with this record called Straight Outta Compton. You guys got a song on there called Fuck the Police, and we think this song could encourage people to go against law enforcement and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that.

And basically, you know, we'd like it if you guys took it off the shelf, you know what I'm saying, to that tip. So, you know, they call us up there, you know, they panicking. We don't know why they want us come they just like man you got to come here we got to talk to you get up there and it's like pull out this letter fbi and we're like it's like man do you know what this is this agent uh he sent me this letter and you know they was all like nervous and and we're looking like a letter that's all you get they're not gonna come in here and try to fuck with us like they're not gonna you know i mean arrest us cuff us rough us up none of that and we're like y'all scared over a fucking letter come back come back to south central with us you know i mean deal with the

sheriffs down there you know i mean they do way more than give you a letter so we felt that it was like you know easy was like we're gonna be big as fuck after this and but the guys at the record company this is the first time they ever dealt

with like pushback first time the government probably even knew they existed so they were freaked out and we uh we were like okay we was looking for them to raid our houses and shit like damn because we we not seen the bat around we not seen them run up in people houses on dope charges whatever you know especially in the late 80s, early 90s. That's like they got a kick out of just running up in people's houses and shit. So we were like looking for that to come in the next few weeks.

We was looking like, oh, they about to hit us. And it never happened. So we was like, what's the issue? What's the problem? So it was just that letter and's the problem so it was just that letter and that was it it's just that letter and then we made the letter public and they kind of just backed off and shit and then it became this big story of you know the fbi hates this group i think we was on the cover like one of those you know new york magazines and it was like the fbi hates this

group yeah look at this yeah the fbi hates this man wow yeah easy was right yeah he was that's the letter wow look at that a song recorded by the rep group NWA on their album entitled Straight Outta Compton encourages violence and disrespect for law enforcement officer and has been brought to my attention. I understand your company recorded and distributed this album, and I am writing to share my thoughts and concerns with you. Advocating violence and assault is wrong. And we in law enforcement community take the exception to such action. Violent crimes, a major problem in our country, reached an unprecedented high in 1988. 78 law enforcement officers were feloniously slain in the line of duty during 1988. Four more in 1987. Law enforcement officers dedicate their lives to protection of our citizens, and recordings such as the one from NWA are both discouraging

and degrading to these brave, dedicated officers. Music plays a significant role in society, and I'd want you to be aware of the FBI's position relative to this song and its message. I believe my reviews reflect the opinion of the entire law enforcement community. Huh. Yeah. Never met this dude? Nah.

Nah, never. Interesting. Yeah. 1988, it was a different world. And that was the first. That was the first moment of that where we had that like the government and politicians were concerned about rap music without a doubt and then it just No, they didn't come after me. But all these other different agencies were starting to hit us up and you know, they were going

they start going after ice-t, you know a little bit because he body count did a song called Cop Killer. And, yeah, you know, it was a time when we grew up real fast. We had to understand that, you know, this is bigger than hip-hop. And we got to stand up for what we know is true and right it's like we're not making shit up you know let's go down you know um i've seen guys tell cops you know i mean take off that gun take off that badge and we can knuckle it up in the streets and do it like men. And so, you know, we knew that sentiment was out there where people was really like, yo, if you're not going to, if you're going to act like a thug, you know what I'm saying, let's thug it out. You know what I'm saying? Are you going to act like an officer?

Then we'll, you know, we'll respect your authority. You see what I mean? Yeah. So it was a lot of cops that we respected that came through, and they would treat us like, you know, real humans, you know, not like, you know, suspects. You know what I mean? You don't want anybody to come through just treating you like a suspect.

You ain't out here doing nothing. These dudes, so we knew some dudes nobody To come through Just treating you Like a suspect You ain't out here Doing nothing These dudes So we knew some dudes That would come through And talk to us Tell us You know y'all need to Watch out Be careful

You know what I'm saying And you know Do anybody know Something that happened Around the corner And all these little stuff And we like Nah nah nah

But they was respectful And we respected Their authority Then there was others That would come through You know Look at you crazy, harass you. You know, we was kids on the bikes.

One day they came. We were like eight, nine years old, man. We on our bikes. Got our bikes laid down. We made a ramp. We all kicking on the grass, resting, looking at our bikes like they're fucking motorcycles and shit. You know? And, man, sheriffs hit the corner, came all up on the grass,

and get against the car, all that bullshit. And we're kids. They know we're kids sitting on bikes, man. What you think we did? You know what I'm saying? Like, rode on somebody's grass? I mean, what you think we out here doing? Yeah.

Yeah, so. What was it like when the album came out, like interacting with cops? Most of them was cool, actually. Most of them said they listened to the song. In the movie, we get ran out of Detroit. Like, they ran us off stage because we sung the song. A lot of undercover police, you know, throwing M-80s and shit on the stage. Yeah.

So we thought they were shooting at us. So we run off. They catch us. They round us up. And, you know, they, like, thought you was going to come to Detroit, right, talking that cop, I mean, that fuck the police shit and can't come through Detroit talking that. We should have run y'all to jail, you know what I mean? We should have locked y'all up and blah, blah, blah.

And we like listening, we listening. And he said, but if y'all got a couple of pictures, y'all got a couple of 8x10s, y'all sign it for my daughter. We ain't going to have no problems. So, you know, we was pissed, but we was like, man, Eazy was like, get them t-shirts, get them everything they need. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. And so, you know, we signed the shit, you know, reluctantly. But the concert's over.

Yeah, they turned the concert out. Yeah. I mean, they ran us off stage after three songs. And they got pictures. And then they got pictures, and they got autographs for their daughters, and they let us go. They just said, you can't come to Detroit with that bullshit. Wow.

So it was only Detroit that was the only place that fucked us up? Cincinnati, they ran us off. Really? Man, they would have us. Before every concert, a sergeant or a captain or somebody would come in with a city ordinance of what was obscene in their city, in their town, and what could be said on stage and what couldn't be said. And if you say any of this or do any of this, we will arrest you after your performance.

Wow. Like what words? I mean, fuck, motherfucker. Really? Oh, my God. It was like the 1950s again. Yeah, it was like on that tip. Wow.

This is 88, around that? Yeah, 88, 89. Wow. And we hit the 88? Around that? Yeah, 88, 89. Wow. And we hit the stage. We like, man. We would tell the audience. You know what these motherfuckers told us backstage?

They said we couldn't say fuck. We couldn't say shit. We couldn't say this. We couldn't say bitch. You know what I mean? And we're going to start this off with a bitch is a bitch. A bitch is a bitch. You know, so we would do our shows.

You know, sometimes they would just let us go. And then sometimes you would, like, after the show, you'd have to look and see the look and, like, the security in everybody's face. And you knew, okay, they on us. So many a times we come off stage, but then we, like, like people handing you jackets handing you different shirts and shit so you can put them on and walk through the backstage because now cops was like where where where they at you know we're those guys that was on stage and um in cincinnati i had to i saw him coming I saw him all like looking

around and I didn't have a chance to change my shit so they was looking for me and so I hit the exit I just I went outside I went outside the concert and it was people like flowing in and out and it was Q, what you doing out here? I said, man, they looking for me. He's like, I jumped in the car with them, like fans and shit. I just jumped in the car with them. They drove me across the bridge to Kansas City. I mean, Kentucky is right across from Cincinnati. We're sitting there waiting for anybody to drive up.

Nobody drove up. And they end up driving me back to the hotel. And then you got Easy and Dre. Where the fuck was you? Where'd you go, man? We all got citations. And we got to come back here. They want us to fly back here to go to court.

And they couldn't catch. They was looking for you. They couldn't catch you. I was like, man, I dip. I dip. And I'm going to dip again next show. You know what I'm saying? it was crazy um did you have to go back they had to go back to court yeah i had to go back to court and fight it and what

happened i don't remember because i ended up leaving the group and leaving the group so i don't really know what happened kind of after 89 with everybody you know wow what a wild time it's crazy crazy but fun like we were living the time of our lives because we never knew we was gonna be this popular throughout the country we thought the records that we did were just local you know we was gonna be you know hood stars you know i mean right there in our neighborhood, people was going to love us. But outside of Compton, South Central, Long Beach, Watts, we were like, you know, people, they not even going to know what we talking about. Right.

Little did we know that everybody was kind of going through the same things that we were going through. That's so wild. So what was it like when it blew up? I mean, that had to be for you to be a young guy in this, you know, hip hop just in general was relatively new. Yeah. And for it to blow up that big, that had to be a wild change of your life. It was, you know, because you think you're only going to be an underground artist. Before we sold our records, records like ours would be in the section with the Red Fox records and the Richard Pryor, the Eddie Murphy, the dirty, you know, you know, comedy, dirty comedy records.

That's where you would find these dirty hip hop records. And there was a few, you know, there's a dude named Blowfly. Blowfly would have songs called he had a song. He got one a song called Rap Dirty. He got one, a song called Rap Dirty. And like those kind of songs would be in this section that nobody went to unless you just wanted to laugh or something. So we thought our records would end up there in that bin. And it just blew up.

MTV banned our Straight Outta Compton video and that blew the group up because people wanted to know why did they do something that even MTV was scared to show. And so we went from thinking we were going to be in that little bin to they putting us

in the front of the record store and promoting that. You can get it straight out of Compton here. and so it just took us from you know that back of the store stuff to prime real estate how many records is straight out of Compton so um I don't know the exact end figure but even that while I was still in the group, it was like 2 million records, and then it was just growing. So by now, it's got to be up to at least four. Wow.

That had to be a fucking crazy experience to not think that that was ever going to happen, and then boom. It was. Most controversial band in America. We went from being straight locals to being everywhere. Matter of fact, I went to school after I was in the group. I was like, you know, I can't hang my hat on this. I'm not going to be able to live on dirty rap records.

You know what I'm saying? Can't play them on the radio. You know, only underground people are going to hear it. So I went off to a trade school, Phoenix, Arizona, called Phoenix Institute of Technology. Where'd you go to learn? Architectural drafting. Really? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah, I took drafting in school, and I dug it, and sent some pamphlet in the mail. You know, if you want more information, fill this out. A little postcard. I filled it out. A fucker showed up to my house, and he was in there talking to my mother and father. I'm like, what the hell?

You going to school. What? I got a show i got no you're going to school damn how long was that for a year wow yep yep fall up fall of 87 to the um fall of 88. Wow. So you got out of trade school, and then the album blows up. I mean, we got out of trade school, and then we was working on Easy's solo album. Easy Does It, his solo album, came out right before N.W.A. And that blew him up, and we were along for the ride. So when the N.W.A NWA record came and he was part

of the NWA group it just put a spotlight on the group and then the record was crazy so just took it to the next level. What was your earliest influences in hip hop? Curtis Blow, Run DMC

Sugar Hill Gang Rakim Big Daddy Kane Biz Marquis Salt and Pepper You know Like The Greats

All the greats Beastie Boys LL Cool J for sure you know we loved LL hello was the man always and so do you when was the first time you actually performed how old were you I was probably 15 it's a local thing yeah well you know we would do rap battles. So we would go up to people's school and find out. You know, everybody didn't rap like now everybody raps.

But back then it was like a niche group. So we had honed our skills. So we would go up to different high schools and hop the fence and nutrition and shit and like find a spot and battle you know what I mean so it was fun I was like it was like a

karate master looking for a spar you know we walking around it's like who go to that school who rap over there who over here it's like some dudes in my school, man, they can bust. Man, y'all should come up here. I was trying to set it up for Friday. Y'all come up here Friday, hit the fence.

We bust, and then y'all got to get out before the counselors come. You know what I'm saying? So we'd find ourselves going from different high schools. We would ditch our own school to go up to different schools and rap against people. But the first time I really hit the stage, we did this contest called the Best Rappers of the West Contest. And we entered our song.

Man, we made it all the way to the finals. They did the finals at the Olympic Auditorium in L.A. That's where they used to do all the old wrestling matches and fights. So they used to do roller derby there, too. Thunderbirds. And so we there, we performed. Dre came. Dre was in the world-class record crew, DJ crew.

So everybody there, our family, friends. And they messed up our tape. Our music was instrumental, but it was cassette. And when they hit it, it was in the wrong spot. They didn't rewind it. So it was off cue, and then they had to rewind it and then start over. The thrill was gone. We lost.

We lost. We came in second place. And so that was my first taste of, you know, hitting the stage. You knew that's what you wanted to do? I loved it. You know, I had a great time. Yeah, I did. And hanging with Dre more and more.

You know, he saw us that night. He knew we had got kind of robbed a little bit. And he was like, we'll let y'all perform at Dudo's, which is the club he DJ'd in Compton. It's right down Central Avenue. And we went down there. You know, it's a party, party i mean full of bloods it's like full of compton bloods pyro's all through this place this is right in their neighborhood and drea is like

y'all better be good y'all better be good man these do i don't know what they gonna do they might throw shit at you you know i want to fuck you up y'all better be good that's all he kept saying so we were like damn we gotta think of something clever we gotta be good we gotta be good so we started doing parody raps we take the hit song and do a dirty version of it roxanne roxanne was the hit song that was out, UTFO. And we made a song called Diane, Diane. And it was a dirty version of it. It went crazy. It went crazy.

So we knew like, oh, damn, this is a style. Like, we can do our own raps hardcore like this. We don't have to try to be, you know, fat boys. We don't have to try to be. Mainstream. Yeah, we can just give it to them raw how they want it. Talk about the neighborhood, you know. Yeah.

That's what we started doing. So that's interesting. So that sort of led to the way the band became doing that show yeah yeah and doing that show we see i wasn't in nwa i had my own group so we start working with easy and nwa is actually an all-star group it's it's easy kind of plucking different people from different groups putting them together and saying we're gonna make we're gonna huddle up and make these dirty records and then after we finish y'all can go back and make y'all clean little records that's kind of how nwa was formed wow yeah so they grabbed ray and yellow from wreck. So they grabbed Dre and Yella from Wrecking Crew.

They grabbed me. I was in a group called Stereo Crew. We changed our name to CIA. Criminals in action, but Lonzo made us call ourselves Crew in Action because he was like, nobody going to buy a record that say criminals. You know, so. So, and then you had Easy, you know what I mean? So we formed NWA.

Ren came later. When I went to school, that's when Ren came, MC Ren. So, yeah. And then what happened is we do the record, it blow up, and everybody say, tell their groups, hey, man, this shit is popping. Nowhere in the world we all going back to being nobody in our groups you know i mean we got to run with this and it just i'm still running with it you were always known for your lyrics you're a great writer like if you did you always have that ability? Did you write before you wrote lyrics?

Yeah. But, you know, what I did when I was young, you know, the teachers would always ask, like, well, okay, what'd you do over summer vacation? What'd you do? Write down what you guys do. So mine would be thorough, you know, I would be able to really explain everything that I did.

And they were really impressed. My teachers were impressed that I could remember all that and put it in a comprehensive form where they can read, you know, my whole summer really and so by getting those kind of you know extra credit for being good or you know teaching hanging your stuff up there you know you're like okay i can do this i can do this same with art you know and i actually they had me do a speech during my sixth grade graduation. Like, they asked me, would you go up there and address the graduation class? So, you know, the writing, that speech, these things, I knew, okay, I could put words together. And I could speak them in front of a crowd and it wasn't a nightmare so when it was time to rap and time to rhyme which was a couple years later when I turned 14

then I was able to put it together and feel like okay I know how to write and I know how to rap so jump in front of the crowd, get busy. That's amazing. That's so interesting that that's the genesis of your writing, because it makes sense. Because your writing was always so thorough and well thought out. And when you went solo, that was very evident. It was very evident. This is great fucking writing.

The lyrics back then, that's my favorite era yeah hip-hop is like early 90s late 80s early 90s like in the east coast like kumo d yeah yeah yeah prolific yeah and um set the bar you know those guys started to set the bar higher and higher and you know you had to keep up to even get attention so yeah you know those early pioneers of hip-hop even ll was you know amazing lyricist wordsmith you know the original rock the bells He's another guy that's done everything. Yeah. Movies, TV. I call him, you know, the hip-hop LeBron. You know, he's been doing this since he was 15 at the highest level and never came down. You know what I mean?

And still looks great. Yeah. Still, you know, looks like a superstar. Yeah. superstar yeah so it's cool you know to find you know to be friends with these guys that uh that i looked up to so much as a youngster that was a there was a weird time the the east coast versus west coast shit yeah very weird yeah it was um you know people equated to tupac and shit i mean and bad boy and Defro but it was actually bubbling before that it was to me an industry thing in a way like New York had the throne for so long and here go

well at least a decade or more and here comes these west coast rappers you know kind of taking attention away and so the the the industry people it started to bubble up with them that yo we're doing real hip-hop they're just doing gangster records you know and so so that started to kind of get into the artists, you know what I mean? That sentiment started to poison the artists. And an artist named Tim Dogg did a song called Fuck Compton, like, out of nowhere. We was like, damn, we like New York. Why y'all, you know why why he take a shot and nobody really rebutted him like you know they kind of let it slide and then more and more

artists start taking shots here and there and and then the thing with Bad Boy and Death Row it kind of just took it over the top it just made it because they were the hottest labels you had the hottest label on the east coast battling with the hottest label on the west coast

so that made that undercurrent of animosity that was growing blow all the way up and look like it was a feud. How did that ever get resolved? I think when Tupac got killed and then Biggie was murdered shortly after,

people realized this is a dead-end road. Like, people stopped listening, really, to East Coast and West Coast at that time, and that's how the immersion of the South came. You know, the South was there bubbling. They was doing their thing. They had groups that were making a dent, but at one point, all the hip hop fans were so fed up with the East Coast, West Coast beef that they said, you know, we're just going to pay attention to what the South is doing.

You guys got to heal your wounds and come back. And so that's the emergence of the South and you know all the groups that came out back then were you were you touring on the east coast yeah so what was it like when you were touring on the east coast in the middle of all that shit um i mean it was always love you know i mean some fans took sides but most most of it was you know stuff, and they were kind of caught in the middle. So I did a record called, you know, Bow Down with the West Side Connection, which we addressed a lot of the beef because we felt like most of the industry was in New York at the time. So we felt like if we didn't stand up for ourselves in some way, shape, or form, what

we accomplished the last decade would be erased and eroded and dismissed, discredited. And we wouldn't, we would be played out. You know what I mean? We wouldn't have longevity. So, you know, there was, you know, back and forth. But at the end of the day, you know, Tupac being killed, Biggie being killed was just a wake-up call for the whole industry. That's sad that that's how the wake-up call had to go. It's crazy.

Crazy. Yeah. I mean, I remember I was on news radio, on the set of news radio, when someone told me Tupac got killed. And I remember thinking, how is that possible? How is that real? Yeah. Yeah, I just, you know, it was a new day. It's like, oh, we're in a new era where celebrity means nothing.

You know, celebrity means nothing. Anybody can get it. Yeah. So it's damn near like we back where we started from, back in the hood, you know, trying not to get it. And here, you're a celebrity and you can still get it. How dangerous did that feel to you back then? You know, no more dangerous than it feels when any of people, you know, any person I know gets shot.

You know, it feels like, you know, damn, you know, this never ends. damn you know this never ends um i don't remember taking any more precaution than i usually would um but i knew people you know some dudes was getting bulletproof trucks and shit and bulletproof vans and all this stuff i I was like, nah, I ain't going to that extent. It's just a crazy time in music history, too, because there'd never been rock bands that were feuding with each other to the point where you were worried about people getting murdered.

No, not that I know of. Rock bands do feud. They usually don't do diss records either. Right, right. You know, they just feud or they have subliminal disses. It's never like that. The diss record thing was wild. That was really the first time artists ever went after each other like that.

Yeah. But, you know, it's like sparring. It's like battling. It's like, you know, it's like sparring. It's like battling. It's like, you know, it's part of the game. So it's welcomed in a way. You know, you spar, you practice, you know how to fight, and then somebody get in your face and challenge you. You're like, okay, this is what we do.

It's a rumble. You know what I'm saying? So it's like you grow up battling. You know, you got your raps. somebody get in your face and challenge you like okay this is what we do there's a rumble you know what i'm saying so it's like you grow up battling you know you got your raps you say your cocky shit you know i mean and somebody want to you know put it on wax and battle like we can battle on wax any day you know i'm saying so let's go for it when did it feel like for you all that shit sort of like went away like the feud stuff the every when did it seem like it was just back to just making music um for some reason i think um like 9-11 like that tragedy of 9-11 for some reason like it seemed like from then the feuding stopped and people kind of reassessed

and reorganized their thought process when it comes to that like they it was like that's when it seemed like a ceasefire just was the best thing to do because you know like the country went through a crazy shake-up yeah yeah and um it's a trip you know you had groups had groups like, you know, Rocking the Red, White, and Blue. And they was like into, you know, patriotism and really into, you know, uh-oh, you know, we got other forces out there that's trying to take down New York City. You know what I mean? We can't be hating on New York after that. Like, we all got to band together. That was the sentiment.

It's crazy that sometimes it takes something like that, like a national tragedy to wake people up to what's really important. Yeah, major shakeup. So how the fuck did you go from nwa your solo career and then movies and then family movies like was that was there like a resistance for that people like did you listen to his old you know i mean because people were taking their kids to see those movies and then those kids became ice cube fans and then they go into your old shit like wow yeah i mean it's a great um it's kind of like you know they're caught in the ice cube vortex in a way. You know what I'm saying? Because here's how it happened.

Like, I'm in the NWA. I go solo. I'm just trying to be the best rapper in the world. That's all I'm concerned about. And I meet this kid, John Singleton, who's an intern. I meet him at the Arsenio Hall show. He's an intern. I meet him at the Arsenio Hall show. He's an intern there. I'm there to talk to Arsenio to say, dude, you had two live crew on. Why don't you have NWA on? So never had that conversation

with Arsenio because John Singleton is talking my ear off. And he's like, I'm a junior at USC. and he's like, I'm a junior at USC. I'm going to put you in a movie. I'm like, dude, what? I'm not an actor. You know what I mean? I thought you had to go to Juilliard for 18 years to be an actor. So I'm like, what?

What you talking about, man? No. And then he pursued me two years, dude, two years. And then he finally said, yo, I got the movie you know we're gonna do it and and so that was boys in the hood so he discovered me that's how i got into movies and when we doing that movie he's saying when you gonna write a movie like what dude what are you talking about why you keep hitting me with this stuff that i don't do he said man you can write a song like that you can write a movie like that i'm like okay i go by a computer that same day and final draft which is a script writing and i start writing a script like don't know one thing about writing a script.

Just start writing one. And it was terrible, but he helped me. He just kept telling me, keep writing. Keep more pages. Just keep going until you finish it. And long story short, I end up a few years later writing Friday. Okay. Friday, 1995 comes out.

Big cult classic. So as the years go on, I got these little kids coming to me doing all these cuss lines from Friday. I'm like, what's your little ass doing watching Friday? You know, so I did another movie called Barbershop. Now, that's an R-rated comedy Friday. So I do Barbershop. It's good reaction. People love it.

It's PG-13. People love it. It's PG-13. So the movie is bigger because it appeals to a bigger audience. So I'm like, damn, we was able to work it at rated R. We were able to work it at PG-13. What if I did a PG movie? Because I still got little kids coming to me talking about, you got knocked the fuck out.

Seven. I need to do something for your little seven-year-old ass so you don't have to go watch Friday. You know what I mean? You should be watching Friday when you get about 11, 12, not seven. So I was like, you know, I was with revolution uh joe roth over at revolution and he was like yo we got this movie that adam sandler was gonna do but he can't do it will you take a look at it i said yeah i'll take a look at it and it was already are we there yet well there's a kid's movie you know he's like, yeah, that's okay. I think I can, you know, tailor make it where it fits me.

But, yeah, let's give it a try. And we do it. And, of course, everybody go ape shit. Like, Cube, you gangster. What you doing these kids movies for? What's wrong with you? What the hell's going on, man? You don't got some. All this stuff they was talking, right?

What the hell's going on, man? You don't got soft. All this stuff they was talking, right? So movie comes out and kids like lose their mind. They love the movie. So now this is the vortex, right? They come in. They love Are We There Yet?

Five, six, seven, eight. By the time they get 10 or 11 somebody done show them barbershop or maybe friday so they they they love me from are we there yet now they love me from friday and then somebody says listen to this and hands on my music when they get about 15 14 and they say i love this guy and i got fans all ages who love ice cube because they've been like walked up from are we there yet to barbershop to friday to my music which is a whole different animal i don't think there's anybody else like that that has that varied of a career um i don't know i haven't thought about it but it's pretty cool and dynamic you know i know i met your daughter she She's 27. Yeah. And first thing she was exposed to was, I'm not there yet. Yeah.

You know, she's a fan. You know what I'm saying? So that movie was a way to stay connected to the younger generation always without the parents saying, do you know who this is? Right. This is Ice Cube. He used to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now the kids know who i am before the parents even have to point it out yeah so it's been a great thing for my career as far as longevity and

gaining new fans without necessarily having to have a new hit record right right right well you have a giant library of content yes yeah yeah and it's it's cool because you know there's always gonna be kids always gonna be new kids it's always gonna be something for parents to try to shove in front of them to watch to take their time and are we there is a cool option you know i'm saying so and then we did are we there yet is a cool option. You know what I'm saying? And then we did Are We Done Yet? And people were asking me, when are you going to do the next one? And I'm like, y'all want a third one? Okay. Let's think about it.

Are you going to do a third one? We'll see. We got to talk to Joe and Revolution and get it right. When I found out that you wrote Friday, I was like, that's insane. That's incredible. Yeah, me and that's insane. That's incredible. Yeah, me and DJ Pooh. That's a funny fucking movie. Yeah, it is, you know. I mean,

DJ Pooh, he's one of those he's like one of those undercover geniuses that been involved in a lot of hip-hop. I mean, he helped L.L. do Going Back to Cali. You know what I mean like he's been around forever and we're all fans of poo you know i'm saying and poo um is funny he technical he he's the one who who got rock star to do the grand theft artist grand theft auto san andreas that whole you know

like take it from miami and put it in la you know i mean take it from the miami dope culture to the la gang culture so he's the one who's behind the scenes with stuff like that and he helped me write friday he produced uh it was a good day the song um so whenever we together it's just magic and uh we wrote friday because we were watching uh in living color uh and we loved hollywood shuffle by robert townsend and uh we was like let's write a let's write a movie about the neighborhood like And we loved Hollywood Shuffle by Robert Townsend. And we was like, let's write a movie about the neighborhood. Because everything that was coming out was depressing. It was colors, boys in the hood, menace to society, South Central.

It was like, yo, this is a hell zone. And we was like, did you remember it like that? Or don't we laugh around here all the time? Like, let's show how it really is for us around here. And so that's how Friday kind of germinated and became like, yo, we're going to show our version of how we have fun in South Central. And it's an all-time classic. Yeah. It's a movie that I get commented on more than any other.

Like, people quote it, love it. Yeah. The characters are iconic. People dress up. When you know you got a line like, you got knocked the fuck out, that gets repeated for decades. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I knew it was one of those lines because I had never heard it in a movie before when somebody got knocked out.

And I'm like, yeah, this is what he's going to say when he jump over him and look down on him. Like, you got knocked the fuck out. How many times have you seen that on a world star? Yeah. How many times have you seen that on a world star hip-hop now, though? All the time. It's just that everybody yells. Yeah.

If someone goes down, it's automatic. It's automatic. Yeah. You know, that's, as an artist, that's all you want is to have a couple classics that people remember you for, you know, when you're 80 in a cafe, you know, drinking coffee, somebody run up and be like, yo, Craig, what's up? You know what I mean? That's all you want. That's amazing. What do you, like, you could do whatever the fuck you want now.

What do you enjoy doing most? Creating, you know, on all levels. Like, that's what get my juices going is being in the lab, the creative process, whether it's music, movies, you know, TV, documentaries, TV, documentaries, or sports. It's being creative. It's being part of the mix. When I go on movies and I'm just an actor, I'll be like, damn, this is so boring. Just sitting around waiting to act. know yeah i like to be in the producers meetings i like to know what's going on what's on the set do we get that stunt is you

know we're gonna still do that stunt at three o'clock and i just need to be part of the mix to stay you know motivated and interested you know i mean But if I'm just a piece of the puzzle and kind of sitting off to the side waiting to be used like a tool like, it's not as cool for me. Understandable. Yeah. Why would it be? And you don't have to do that anymore. Yeah.

You know, so I want to be in the mix. You know, I want to be in the kitchen cooking it. I don't just want to sit down and eat it. No matter what it is. No matter what it is. If I'm going to be a part of it, I got to be in the kitchen cooking it. I don't just want to sit down and eat it. No matter what it is. No matter what it is. If I'm going to be a part of it, I got to be in the kitchen. I can't just play a part. Look, I've acted in movies.

I did 21 Jump Street. I did Three Kings, where I'm just an actor. And I'm fine with that. Don't think, okay, we can't hire Q because he just want to produce. But I like to produce, and I think I add a lot to the movies that I produce. And the movies I produce you can watch over and over and over again and never get tired. Yeah, no, you've had an amazing career.

So when you just decided, you kind of just do whatever you're interested in now, like whatever you've had an amazing career. So when you just decided, you just do, you kind of just do whatever you're interested in now, like whatever you feel like pursuing. Yeah. That's a beautiful freedom. It is. Because, you know, I'm not playing the game no more. Like, I don't play the radio game. Like, how many spins did I get on that song?

How many spins? I look at Ice Cube fans like clientele i just want to serve them give them what they like give them what they love and go back to the lab i'm not i'm not worried about charts and all these measuring sticks on if you're good or not or is your work good, you know, views or whatever. I'm into doing dope shit that I feel and giving it to the people that want it. That's beautiful. It's great for artists. It's a beautiful life.

It's pretty, I'm pretty blessed in that aspect because I know guys and I know people who are bigger than me on major labels and they're miserable because they're so scheduled and structured and they feel obligated because, you know, this and that going on and and i don't want to feel obligated when i'm making music to the people who's spending money i want to make the music i feel and if you like it spend money on it well you have a very wise philosophy on how to live your life because like just the way you just like talking about rich people there's a lot of rich people that are miserable as fuck you don't want to be rich you want to be happy yes you'd rather be less rich and more happy without a doubt um like whatever it is you know whatever it is man it's more important to be happy doing it yeah and i notice when you're happy doing things and when you when you love what you do and when you um put your all into it you know the money comes

when you focus on the money and you're doing things to get the money you're never happy doing it or rarely happy doing it and at the end of the day you wish you could have got more money so yeah i'm not even happy with what you would pay it also doesn't resonate with people the same way it resonates with people when you do what you love when you do what you love and it comes out especially when when you're talking about music yeah you do what you love people get it they feel it they feel it from the work yeah and if you're just doing it because you're hoping it's going to be successful, people feel that too. Yeah. Or just doing what you think is a hit. That's the worst thing an artist can do is to go try to make a hit.

You got to make a good song. Damn if it's a hit. A good song is a good song whether it's played a thousand times or once you know that's what you focus on making good music and whether it's a hit or not that's you know that's in the stars you know where do you think you got this wisdom to look at things so objectively and clearly? I think, you know, when I look at how I grew up, like my pops is an independent man, independent thinker. He's not part of any club or any organization or any fraternity or any gang or any. It's no man that can come and tell him what to do unless he's at work. So I like that.

And I saw him stand on his own two feet, you know, from he moved to L.A. when he was 19 years old from Louisiana. And so he's been a man that handled his business from day one. He's the foundation of how I view things. And living and being young, thrown into the fire, you know, it seemed like every time I look up, there's something that needs my focus and attention that's trying to take down what I've built. So I'm always paying attention, you know. I never go in something blind, and I try to understand all the angles before I make a decision. That's very fortunate you had a father like that.

I am. You know, I thank had a father like that. I am. You know, I thank him all the time for just hanging around. You know, the statistics are what they are. And

as men, we gotta, we gotta raise our kids. You know what I mean? We gotta be there. And as much as we can. and it makes a difference it makes a difference with the person that you're raising and the person that you're

sending out into the world you know you want to give you want to give your family stability and fathers can do a lot of and fathers can do a lot of that. They can do a lot of that. Yeah. It's got to feel great for you to see your son taking off like this. Yeah. Like, with the wisdom that you got from your father, that your son is obviously, he's acquired that as well. Mm-hmm.

He works hard. It's great, man. You know, all you want to do do is you want your kids to step up in the moment of truth you know i mean you want them to do what it takes at the time that it's mandatory or the you know the situation arise that they can step up even if it's taking out the trash. Like, you tell your kid, hey, you know, take out the trash. When I get back, I want this

done. And when you get back and it's done, you feel better as a parent. Yeah. You know what I mean? You feel like, okay, they stepped up when they needed to when I asked them to. And it makes you feel good that you you know got

people that that you're sending out in the world that are dependable and responsible and not trying to fuck over nobody yeah fuck yeah no that's that's one of the greatest accomplishments you can make as a human being you you made the world better by raising better people. Yep. Raise good people. And, you know, that's the number one job of a parent, I believe, is to raise a good person because the world don't need another asshole. Trust me. We don't need another one.

We got plenty. Yeah, we got plenty. We're all full. For sure. For sure. But it's also great that you set a standard with maybe people that don't even have a father figure, that you set a standard with your words, the way you talk about things and address things and think about things, and you're so thorough that you set a standard with other young kids that admire you, too, which is beautiful. That's good.

You know, that's great. And I'm blessed to be in a position to do that. young kids that admire you too which is beautiful that's good you know that's great you know and i'm i'm blessed to be in the position to do that um i want to do that you know if you you know i hope i'm a good example on you know i have fun with the music and the entertainment and this and that but you know i i want to be a solid person, you know what I mean? Say what I mean, mean what I say, and do what I say. And, you know, all you got is your balls and your word, man. That's it.

Tony Montana. That's all you got. That's all you got. Yeah. No, you've done it, and you've done it in an amazing way. You set a great standard Appreciate it, man You have to you know you you are a great Communicator, you know, I mean and that people need to hear

somebody with courage speak for the people when others are so scared to you know some of the things that that you said um today you know a lot of people would be scared to even bring that stuff up man well it's what you said if you can you should when you got the mic use it yeah and i can so i do yeah you got the mic use it someone has to, and I can, so I do. When you got the mic, use it. Someone has to. This is a wild-ass fucking time. It is, man.

And we need people to step up that we trust. We don't need no more people to let us down that we believe in. Absolutely. Well, listen, brother, I appreciate you very much. It was an honor to have you in here. I've been a Giant fan since the 80s, which is crazy. And I just appreciate everything you do, man. Appreciate you too, man.

You know, you're great at what you do. You got me into UFC. You going to watch next weekend? Yeah, I'm going to watch. Volkanovski, Jair Rodriguez, whoo! It's your passion for the sport, your knowledge of the sport, your breakdown,

your ability to go back and say, you know, the origin of this move and the origin of this move really got me into the game. So, you know, you're an excellent communicator and I appreciate you letting me on the show. So, you know, you're an excellent communicator,

and I appreciate you letting me on the show. My pleasure. It was an honor. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah. All right. Bye, everybody.