July 29, 2021 • 26 mins
From founding member of the notorious rap group N.W.A. to blockbuster movie star, Ice Cube has had a legendary career, but his early days were full of tragedy and struggles. Finding refuge in music, Ice Cube and his neighborhood friends formed N.W.A. to speak out about the harsh reality of growing up in Compton. Years and many hits later, Ice Cube defied all odds and embarked on a solo career, becoming a major player in Hollywood as an actor, writer, producer, and family man. Snoop Dogg, DJ Yella, and Ice Cube himself discuss his journey to becoming a modern-day Renaissance man in this episode of Behind the Music.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
His raps. Original gangster with an upbringing steep in the
rage of inner city struggles. Born in south central Los Angeles,
ice Cube's childhood was marred by tragedy. He joined forces
with Compton's Easy E and Doctor Dre in the hip
hop group n w A, which sparked a musical revolution.
(00:26):
The group gave a voice to the streets, shining a
light on the hustle, the frustration, and the struggle. His
blunt force raps made him a marked man. Ice Cube
then became a major player in Hollywood as an actor, writer,
and producer. But Cube's most important role has been as
a dedicated husband and father. Now Ice Cube reveals his
(00:51):
rhyme and reason. Beyond the attitude, this is Ice Cube
behind the music. At the age of forty two, Cube
still commands the stage with a scowl and raps with
(01:13):
his legendary ferocity. But these days, his two sons, dough
Boy and o MG, joined him on stage. I never
thought they'd be rocking with me. Always pitched them a little,
you know what I'm saying. You never pitched them when
they bigger than you and they got skills. You know
what I'm saying. As soon as you hear that music,
(01:34):
but you're O MG, you're a rapper. Now, this isn't Dad,
this is ice Cube. You gotta rocket. And when the
spotlights off, the godfather of gangster raps skips the after
party and heads right home with his family. Probably somebody
somewhere in the club mad at me because I'm at
home with my family. But for the most part, I'm
(01:54):
gonna do what I wanna do. I ain't living for
nobody but myself and my family. Ice Cube has always
been a family man. Born O'Shea Jackson in nineteen sixty nine,
he grew up in south central Los Angeles, the youngest
of four children. What's up on me? Let me see
(02:14):
what you're working with here. Let me get one of
your squeeze pop. We used to be a lot of
kids on the block. All the kids that moved away.
I guess we grew up. We was kids. This is
the house I grew up there, got a nice fresh
paint job. Cube's father was a groundskeeper and his mother
was a custodian, and they raised him with solid working
class values. O. She always was a good person, and
(02:38):
uh funny, he was a good kid. You know. I
never did have any problem riding by me having my
father there, He taught me how to be a man.
He taught me how to be a leader and not
a follower. To a young O'Shea, south Central seemed like
any other Los Angeles neighborhood. I thought we was rich,
you know what I mean, because the neighborhood, at first glance,
(03:00):
it looks like a pristine place to be. It seemed
pretty quiet around here, but just freaks come out of
night in one twelve year old O'Shea was exposed to
the reality of his hood for the first time when
his half sister Beverly was murdered just a few blocks away.
She was twenty two years old. Her husband was depressed
(03:22):
and just came back one day and barricaded herself in
the back room with her. Then they heard gunshots. We
got up to the house and they told us Beverly
dog and we all started crying. And I'll never forget
that day. She loved she was crazy about O shot.
That's when I knew that the world that I was
(03:43):
living in was a dangerous place. I started hardening myself
to that by that age, you know, especially when it
hits so close to harm in the mid nineteen eighties,
the crack epidemic began to ravage South Central, turning his
once quiet neighborhood into a war zone, and to the
local residents, the police were only aggravating the misery. But
(04:07):
while others fell into gangs in crime, O'Shea plotted a
more positive exit strategy. I always got off on being
constructive and not destructive. Hip hop seemed like a way out.
During his sophomore year of high school, he began writing raps,
and he started referring to himself as Ice Cube, a
(04:30):
nickname his brother had given him because he was so
cool with the ladies. My name is Ice Cube, and
I want you to know I'm not run DMC or
Curtis Blow. That was the first line. I have a
ro that right there, you know. It was to jump
off in. Cube teamed up with his neighbor Sir Jenks,
forming a group called c I A. That was Jink's
(04:53):
house right there. Mused to have been at garage right
there getting down. Cube is a writer that can become
a chameleon, so he was able to take everybody's story
and implement it in a Rhan was really about hardy
rapping at that time. Jewild want to wrap about stuff
that was fly, you know what I mean? That was
(05:14):
the style. QUB caught his first big break when Jinx
introduced him to his cousin Andre Young, who was a
hot local DJ known as Dr Dre at a barbecue
in this house right here, I met Dre for the
first time. Back there, he heard me Ryn and the
rest is uh not only history, but it's the future.
(05:35):
In six Stray introduced Cube to his childhood friend Eric
Eazy E Wright. He was a former crack dealer who
wanted to become a music manager. Easy. You know, I
looked up to him in a lot of ways because
he was progressively trying to figure out how to make
it and how to better his situation. Impressed by his writing,
(05:58):
Easy asked you to write a song for a group
of New York rappers he was managing, called HBO, and
brought it back to Dre and everybody and they all
was in there. I want I wrapped it to him
and HBO was like, came wrapped that. He talked about
six folk cheves ganking people were from Queens. We don't
(06:18):
know about this. Dr Dre turned to Easy, who had
never rapped before, and asked him to try recording it,
and when he learned the rhyme, Easy was born, and
then Q was introduced as a rider. Boys in the
Hood became a big local hit, injecting a fresh perspective
into hip hop and almost singlehandedly creating the genre of
(06:39):
gangster rap. When I first heard Boys in the Hood,
I was like somebody speaking for us. That was something.
I was like, WHOA, we got something here, l A.
Games wasn't the topic that you heard a lot about
in the late eighties, but they brought that to the forefront.
We started looking at this as our niche We had
the hottest record on the street and he wanted more.
(07:01):
By M c ran and DJ Yella had joined Dre
Easy and Cube, forming a group of local hip hop
all stars. They chose a name designed to stir controversy.
In n Eighteen year old Ice Cube was a member
of n W A, an all star group led by
a Compton drug dealer turned rapper named Eazy Easy had
(07:24):
formed Ruthless Records with veteran manager Jerry Heller, who believed
he had found the next big thing after hearing their demos.
I just thought the power of it was something that
was a lot different than anything I had heard before.
I felt like he was his wide dude that was
pretending to love us. If you wanted to put a
picture of shady management, here's here's the picture. Despite his
(07:49):
misgivings about their management, Ice Cube headed into the studio
with n w A in March of Night, where they
spent six weeks at eight thousand dollars Records Straight out
of Compton, released by Priority Records in August, the album
changed the face of hip hop. Here was a group
that was rapping about stuff that we all knew, and
(08:11):
we were live it. Ice c brought that voice of crushing,
you know, of that anger. Everybody else was making this
popcorn music and we just came from the streets of
people just like Wow. When you think of of n
w A, you just think of the truth. But at
the time, mainstream America couldn't handle the truth. First, their
(08:33):
video was banned from MTV due to what the network
called violent content, and the controversy was only beginning. The
album's most volatile track, written by Ice Cue, was a
searing indictment of police brutality in the inner city. When
the police came out, that was how we felt people
were getting killed by the police, that were getting beat
(08:54):
by the police. That was there were and there were
no There were no repercussions. The song sparked an outcry
from conservative critics. The FBI took an extreme measure, sending
a letter to Priority Records accusing n w A of
encouraging violence against law enforcement, and then everything just exploded
from there with little radio airplay or video exposure. Straight
(09:19):
out of Compton went gold in four weeks, eventually selling
three million copies. By the summer of nine, ice Cube
and n w A had become unlikely pop stars. MTV
was forced to jump on the bandwagon. N w A
launched a national tour and the road became a paradise
(09:39):
of partying and women. This is everything gunst weed women.
But while the other band members were getting wild, ice
Cube found himself turning into a one woman man. That summer,
he met Kimberly Woodruffe and the two soon began dating.
It was just kind of like looking for each of
(10:00):
all this time. He felt like, oh, hey, this is
someone who has my back, you know, and she's gonna
always have my back. Cube would need the support as
he entered into a financial dispute with n w A
and manager Jerry Heller. By mid eighty nine, Cube claimed
he had received only thirty two dollars and royalties. You
just didn't feel that he was getting a fair sheriff
(10:21):
for what he was contributing to the success of those records.
At a crossroads, Cube turned to the one person he
could trust. I didn't know if I was gonna leave
while I was gonna stay and camp. She was like,
believing yourself and your ability, and we'll roll whatever happened
after that. In late nine, Ice Cube decided to leave
(10:44):
n w A and go solo. The breakup led to
bitterness at last. I've seen him him for years. I
just realized there's no way to keep this friendship together
if the business went so sour. Coming Up, Cube becomes
America's most wanted and then Ice Cube's movie career nearly
(11:06):
ends before it begins when Behind the Music continues. In nine,
ice Cube walked away from n w A at the
height of their success over a financial dispute. I think
we all thought, Okay, he's done. Everyone was telling him,
you left the biggest group ever. You made a mistake,
(11:29):
your fool. Cube had to prove he could stand on
his own, so he recruited Public Enemy producers the Bomb
Squad as co conspirators, and he flew to New York
in late eighty nine to record his solo debut. He
had a lot to prove. You had a lot of baggage.
You need a lot of pressure. He came to the
to the House spot with eight composition books full of
(11:50):
rhymes and lyrics and songs and ideas. It was this
was incredible. I've never seen anybody so committed. I mean
he came into my still yo and slept on the
floor for three days. I wanted to not just wrap
a rap about stuff that was real. Released on May sixteenth,
(12:11):
America's Most Wanted was a funky dispatch from the front
lines of the inner city, filled with dark humor and
brutal honesty. It's sure on a Delta, Redd Cube, It's playful,
it's funny, it's dangerous. This record was the Street's favorite record.
The first single shot to the top of the rap charts,
(12:33):
and the album went platinum in three months, but cubes
explicit r rated lyrics enraged women's groups. Cube was unapologetic,
claiming he was just keeping it real. Some women want
to act like bitches and holes. They got to be
putting that category. What else is gonna call? While Cube
was under fire from women's groups, privately, he was dedicated
(12:54):
to his girlfriend Kim Woodruff, whom he had been dating
for two years. She's just perfect woman, friend, confin I
partner Cuban. Kim got engaged in and she gave birth
to the first son, O Sha Jr. In February of one.
When you have a baby, you have to make sure
(13:16):
they have a chance to be successful. That's your child,
and Q took that responsibility all too seriously, especially when
it came to financial dealings with his label Priority Records.
My son was five days old and I was expecting
and advanced I could buy a new house. My family
and I got a book excuse on why it wasn't
(13:38):
coming down the pipe. That was kind of a misunderstanding
we had and we didn't quite communicate as well as
we should have. So Cube let his baseball bat do
the talking. I went up there with a bat and
just torked office. There was a lot of glass everywhere.
I had a field of homes with me and it
was just ugly. Had a lone and Banton was bent.
When I left. He did me a huge favor, basically
(14:00):
destroying the television and forced me to get a new TV,
which he'd been bugging me to do for years. Cube
got the advance, and a few weeks later he got
some more good news. A first time director named John
Singleton wanted to cast him in his movie Boys in
the Hood, which was inspired by Cube seminoles street at them,
(14:22):
He's like, yeah, you perfect for it. I'm thinking, like,
you know, I'm totally unqualified for this, bro. And when
it came time for his audition, Cube's acting career nearly
ended before it started. My manager said, yeo, these pages
came in, read tomorrow, all right. Took the page, just
phold him up, put in my back pocket, never looked
(14:44):
at him, sat down, he read and everything, and it's
like he sucked. And I said, you didn't read this?
Did He said not, and read I've been touring and
I said, man, you gotta go read this. Just go
read the script and come back. So when I read it,
I'm like, oh, they're about to do a movie about
how we grew up. How perfect for this? And so
(15:05):
he came in and he he started doing this thing.
He was doll Boy. I was just like, whoa, It's
gonna be a good movie. Released in July, Boys in
the Hood became a cinematic landmark and turned ice Cube
into a movie star. The ease in which he kind
of exhibited movie star charisma and helped the screen like
(15:25):
aware of you been like you know you should have
been acting for for years. It was a great experience, man,
and I just wanted to do more movies. It's hard
to match a classic like Boys in the Hood, but
you know, we're gonna keep trying. In ice Cube was
at the top of the rap game. His solo debut
had gone platinum, but as a new father, he was
(15:46):
searching for a deeper meaning in life. He began to
look into the Nation of his lab, a spiritual movement
that aspires to improve the social and economic conditions of
minorities in America. This was a whole different approach. Were
in it together, we got to get out of it together.
You have to try to leave the right way. That
(16:06):
term me on. Though he never joined the Nation of Islam,
Cube did eventually become a Muslim, and he applied a new,
more political perspective to his second solo album, death Certificate,
which focused on the plight of the inner city. I
became a person who thirsts knowledge and and tried to
(16:27):
seek it out, and I realized some of these things
should be said in the music. Cube's lyrical point of
view became more attuned to social issues and political injustice.
Que kind of started making the transition from being gangster
rapper to gangster politician. He turned around from being you know,
(16:47):
the cat, but that was always with the gangster coming
out saying, Yo, let's look at how we're living right now.
Los Angeles was a powder keg of emotion when Death
Certificate was released in October. The Rodney King beating was
still an open wound and racial tensions were rising. On
April twenty nine, the four police officers charged and the
(17:09):
Rodney King beating were acquitted. Los Angeles erupted into three
days of violent rioting, causing a billion dollars in damage
and fifty five deaths. These cops beat this man on camera.
You're telling us that they're justified. That's what made the
rise jump off. He looked like a prophet after Rods.
He told you it was coming. Every major news organization
(17:32):
was banging down the door trying to ask, how did
you know I didn't have nothing nice to say? You
know I didn't have it. Can we all get along? Speech?
At that time, I was pretty much witty. Burned by
the criticism of his hardcore rhymes, ice Cube decided to
tone down the rhetoric on his next release, Two Is
(17:53):
the Predator. It was a good day. It was a
remark couple of shift for ice Cube. The single found
its way onto mainstream radio and became his highest charting
pop hit. I had people on my camp saying, you
can't do that record. You do hardcore, gangster rap. That
record is talking about a good day. Said, well, you
(18:16):
know that happens too. You know, neighborhood ain't a war zone.
The song also reflected the good vibes in Cube's personal life.
When you live in this so called American trained I
didn't want to celebrate a little bit and say, hey,
you know, just what's all about in He married fiance
Kim Woodruff, the mother of his young son. She's the
(18:37):
perfect person for him because she balances him out so
very wise, woman, very kind. If it really wasn't for her,
I don't know if I'll be sitting here today as
the man I am. As Cube settled into marriage and fatherhood,
he was hoping to put an end to his beef
with n w A. An opportunity arose in when he
(18:58):
ran into Easy And in New York club. We talked
for hours and it was time about putting the group
back together. Club end up closing and we both stranded.
Calves wasn't picking us up, and he started walking and
I was the last time I've seen him. A line.
Four months later, Eric Easy E Wright died due to
complications from AIDS. He was thirty one years old. Cube
(19:21):
chose not to attend the public funeral. He says he
did not want to say goodbye to Easy that way.
I feel good that I didn't see him laid up
in the hospital and I see him laid up in
the casket. I liked the vision to him walking away,
you know what I mean, with the New York City backdrop.
That to me is a better goodbye than seeing him
(19:43):
laid up. Coming up, ice Cube becomes a major Hollywood
mogul when behind the music continues. By the age of
twenty five, Ice Cube to achieved massive success as an
actor and rapper. He had released three platinum albums and
(20:06):
appeared in a string of hit movies, including John Singleton's
Boys in the Hood. I got bit by the bug
and John was like, it's gonna be hard for you
to find something like Boys in the Hood unless you
probably right it yourself. I'm like, whoa what? He would
ask me, how do you write a script? And I
was like, man, you know you write songs, you can
write a script. Two Boys in the Hood script saw
(20:26):
the format and just started trying to write a script
in Cube crafted a comedic screenplay about a group of
friends in South Central and pitched it to New Line Cinema. Immediately,
you kind of you wrote your eyes gone. Another actor
is writing a script, and then the guy just came
in and just told the great story. Released in April
of Friday, starring Cube and Chris Tucker, became a monster
(20:50):
hit and established the Snarling Rappers comedic skills. I remember
reading the script. I'm like, oh my god, this is
so funny, this is so silly, this is so real.
People saw it Boys in the Hood, people saw South
Central and all these things. I was just showing that
It's like, damn, y'all act like we lived in the
pit of hell. You know what I'm saying. And it
wasn't like that. We cried, but we laughed. Morning with
(21:13):
the Cry made for just three million dollars Friday gross
ten times that suddenly Ice Cube was a legitimate Hollywood player.
That's when Hollywood said, he is someone who can act.
He can you know right, he can do all of this.
Cube used his cloud wisely. He made his directorial debut
(21:34):
in The Players Club, starting the critically acclaimed Three Kings,
and then founded his own production company called Cube Vision.
The company scored with the Friday sequels and the smash
hit Barbershop tried to show a cannon look at you know,
I had a little crack in the world that people
don't usually get a chance to see where so much
action happens there. He is a very clever on the
(21:57):
choices of the movies he makes. There's very few people
to do that in Hollywood. Actually hold the reins and
control what it is that you're doing. As he fast
tracked his way through the movie business, Cube was still
making time for his first love music. On two thousand's
War and Peace Volume two, he reunited with his n
(22:18):
w A bandmates Dr Dre and mc wren on the
track Hello. The reformed n w A headlined the up
in Smoke tour with Snoop Dogg filling in for Easy.
There was talk of recording a new album, but ultimately
they decided there could be no n w A without Easy.
I think we all collectively decided to put it to
(22:38):
bed Dad without Easy. Nobody will really accept this as
n w A. Over the span of two decades, Ice
Cube has gone from inner city rebel to Hollywood player,
but Cube's most enduring role has been as the father
of his four kids, o MG, dough Boy, Karema and Sharif.
(23:01):
I think I am firm but fair. You know, I'm
gonna always give fatherly advice from somebody who grew up
in South Central, you know, and it didn't necessarily have
a lot to an empire. He's the best person to
have raised you. In two thousand five, Cube channeled his
experience as a dad into his most surprising career move yet.
(23:24):
He produced and starred in the family friendly blockbuster Are
We There Yet? These are more like Little Rougher than
Are We There Yet? It doesn't go for it as
much a BS. And the controversy was the fact that
I did a movie for kids like I can't do
a damn movie for some little badass kids. With a
(23:45):
successful sequel let us spin off series on TV, ice
Cube is now being introduced to an entirely new generation
of fans. Ice Cube transformed for him. I mean, the
toughest gains the rapper to you know, kind friendly. He
could do a jello conversion right now. What was sure
of Cube did it on his own. He did everything
by himself because he knew that his instincts were better
(24:08):
than anybody else's. I think I've been able to balance
artists and entertainer and still get the people what I want,
but be myself. Cube's now giving his kids a leg
up in the business. His older son's dough Boy and
OMG joined him on his new record and perform with
him on tour. They've been around music all day life,
(24:28):
and what I love about them is they go and
do their own music. They don't just wait for me,
and they're good. They're damn good man. He told us
one night, you don't know how happy I am to
be up here with you too, So you know it
means a lot to him. But after more than two
decades in the game, Ice Cube insists he's just getting
warmed up. He tells us there's no reason for him
(24:51):
to retire as long as he has a tongue in
his mouth, as long as I can still speak my
you know my thoughts. Why stop? And they're gonna stop?
With Cube, it don't stop. I'm let now know I
know him better than it ain't gonna stop. He loved
being up close and personal with the fans, and it
is what it is. I got a lot to do.
I'm barely halfway through my career, barely. My to do
(25:13):
list is always to get better at everything. I could
be a better father, husband, brother, son, rapper, actor, producer, writer.
You know, if I do that, everything hopefully take care
of itself. Ice Cube has continued to push the boundaries
(25:34):
of hip hop and his own creativity, collaborating with everyone
from David Bowie to Paul Oakenford. Ice Cube defied all
odds and became a major player in Hollywood as an actor, writer,
and producer, both in action and comedy movies. Ice Cube
started opposite George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in Three Kings
(25:55):
and replaced Vin Diesel in the Triple X franchise in
Triple X, State of the Union. He's also starred in
numerous comedy franchises, including Barbershope, Jump Street, and Right Along.
Ice Cube has even branched out into the sports ward
co founding the Big Three Basketball League. In From the
(26:17):
voice of the streets to the star of the screen,
ice Cube has continued to push himself and grow, always
getting better. Listen to Behind the Music on the i
R Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your
favorite podcasts, and for more stories behind some of the
(26:38):
biggest names in music, you can watch Behind the Music
exclusively on Paramount Plus
His raps. Original gangster with an upbringing steep in the
rage of inner city struggles. Born in south central Los Angeles,
ice Cube's childhood was marred by tragedy. He joined forces
with Compton's Easy E and Doctor Dre in the hip
hop group n w A, which sparked a musical revolution.
(00:26):
The group gave a voice to the streets, shining a
light on the hustle, the frustration, and the struggle. His
blunt force raps made him a marked man. Ice Cube
then became a major player in Hollywood as an actor, writer,
and producer. But Cube's most important role has been as
a dedicated husband and father. Now Ice Cube reveals his
(00:51):
rhyme and reason. Beyond the attitude, this is Ice Cube
behind the music. At the age of forty two, Cube
still commands the stage with a scowl and raps with
(01:13):
his legendary ferocity. But these days, his two sons, dough
Boy and o MG, joined him on stage. I never
thought they'd be rocking with me. Always pitched them a little,
you know what I'm saying. You never pitched them when
they bigger than you and they got skills. You know
what I'm saying. As soon as you hear that music,
(01:34):
but you're O MG, you're a rapper. Now, this isn't Dad,
this is ice Cube. You gotta rocket. And when the
spotlights off, the godfather of gangster raps skips the after
party and heads right home with his family. Probably somebody
somewhere in the club mad at me because I'm at
home with my family. But for the most part, I'm
(01:54):
gonna do what I wanna do. I ain't living for
nobody but myself and my family. Ice Cube has always
been a family man. Born O'Shea Jackson in nineteen sixty nine,
he grew up in south central Los Angeles, the youngest
of four children. What's up on me? Let me see
(02:14):
what you're working with here. Let me get one of
your squeeze pop. We used to be a lot of
kids on the block. All the kids that moved away.
I guess we grew up. We was kids. This is
the house I grew up there, got a nice fresh
paint job. Cube's father was a groundskeeper and his mother
was a custodian, and they raised him with solid working
class values. O. She always was a good person, and
(02:38):
uh funny, he was a good kid. You know. I
never did have any problem riding by me having my
father there, He taught me how to be a man.
He taught me how to be a leader and not
a follower. To a young O'Shea, south Central seemed like
any other Los Angeles neighborhood. I thought we was rich,
you know what I mean, because the neighborhood, at first glance,
(03:00):
it looks like a pristine place to be. It seemed
pretty quiet around here, but just freaks come out of
night in one twelve year old O'Shea was exposed to
the reality of his hood for the first time when
his half sister Beverly was murdered just a few blocks away.
She was twenty two years old. Her husband was depressed
(03:22):
and just came back one day and barricaded herself in
the back room with her. Then they heard gunshots. We
got up to the house and they told us Beverly
dog and we all started crying. And I'll never forget
that day. She loved she was crazy about O shot.
That's when I knew that the world that I was
(03:43):
living in was a dangerous place. I started hardening myself
to that by that age, you know, especially when it
hits so close to harm in the mid nineteen eighties,
the crack epidemic began to ravage South Central, turning his
once quiet neighborhood into a war zone, and to the
local residents, the police were only aggravating the misery. But
(04:07):
while others fell into gangs in crime, O'Shea plotted a
more positive exit strategy. I always got off on being
constructive and not destructive. Hip hop seemed like a way out.
During his sophomore year of high school, he began writing raps,
and he started referring to himself as Ice Cube, a
(04:30):
nickname his brother had given him because he was so
cool with the ladies. My name is Ice Cube, and
I want you to know I'm not run DMC or
Curtis Blow. That was the first line. I have a
ro that right there, you know. It was to jump
off in. Cube teamed up with his neighbor Sir Jenks,
forming a group called c I A. That was Jink's
(04:53):
house right there. Mused to have been at garage right
there getting down. Cube is a writer that can become
a chameleon, so he was able to take everybody's story
and implement it in a Rhan was really about hardy
rapping at that time. Jewild want to wrap about stuff
that was fly, you know what I mean? That was
(05:14):
the style. QUB caught his first big break when Jinx
introduced him to his cousin Andre Young, who was a
hot local DJ known as Dr Dre at a barbecue
in this house right here, I met Dre for the
first time. Back there, he heard me Ryn and the
rest is uh not only history, but it's the future.
(05:35):
In six Stray introduced Cube to his childhood friend Eric
Eazy E Wright. He was a former crack dealer who
wanted to become a music manager. Easy. You know, I
looked up to him in a lot of ways because
he was progressively trying to figure out how to make
it and how to better his situation. Impressed by his writing,
(05:58):
Easy asked you to write a song for a group
of New York rappers he was managing, called HBO, and
brought it back to Dre and everybody and they all
was in there. I want I wrapped it to him
and HBO was like, came wrapped that. He talked about
six folk cheves ganking people were from Queens. We don't
(06:18):
know about this. Dr Dre turned to Easy, who had
never rapped before, and asked him to try recording it,
and when he learned the rhyme, Easy was born, and
then Q was introduced as a rider. Boys in the
Hood became a big local hit, injecting a fresh perspective
into hip hop and almost singlehandedly creating the genre of
(06:39):
gangster rap. When I first heard Boys in the Hood,
I was like somebody speaking for us. That was something.
I was like, WHOA, we got something here, l A.
Games wasn't the topic that you heard a lot about
in the late eighties, but they brought that to the forefront.
We started looking at this as our niche We had
the hottest record on the street and he wanted more.
(07:01):
By M c ran and DJ Yella had joined Dre
Easy and Cube, forming a group of local hip hop
all stars. They chose a name designed to stir controversy.
In n Eighteen year old Ice Cube was a member
of n W A, an all star group led by
a Compton drug dealer turned rapper named Eazy Easy had
(07:24):
formed Ruthless Records with veteran manager Jerry Heller, who believed
he had found the next big thing after hearing their demos.
I just thought the power of it was something that
was a lot different than anything I had heard before.
I felt like he was his wide dude that was
pretending to love us. If you wanted to put a
picture of shady management, here's here's the picture. Despite his
(07:49):
misgivings about their management, Ice Cube headed into the studio
with n w A in March of Night, where they
spent six weeks at eight thousand dollars Records Straight out
of Compton, released by Priority Records in August, the album
changed the face of hip hop. Here was a group
that was rapping about stuff that we all knew, and
(08:11):
we were live it. Ice c brought that voice of crushing,
you know, of that anger. Everybody else was making this
popcorn music and we just came from the streets of
people just like Wow. When you think of of n
w A, you just think of the truth. But at
the time, mainstream America couldn't handle the truth. First, their
(08:33):
video was banned from MTV due to what the network
called violent content, and the controversy was only beginning. The
album's most volatile track, written by Ice Cue, was a
searing indictment of police brutality in the inner city. When
the police came out, that was how we felt people
were getting killed by the police, that were getting beat
(08:54):
by the police. That was there were and there were
no There were no repercussions. The song sparked an outcry
from conservative critics. The FBI took an extreme measure, sending
a letter to Priority Records accusing n w A of
encouraging violence against law enforcement, and then everything just exploded
from there with little radio airplay or video exposure. Straight
(09:19):
out of Compton went gold in four weeks, eventually selling
three million copies. By the summer of nine, ice Cube
and n w A had become unlikely pop stars. MTV
was forced to jump on the bandwagon. N w A
launched a national tour and the road became a paradise
(09:39):
of partying and women. This is everything gunst weed women.
But while the other band members were getting wild, ice
Cube found himself turning into a one woman man. That summer,
he met Kimberly Woodruffe and the two soon began dating.
It was just kind of like looking for each of
(10:00):
all this time. He felt like, oh, hey, this is
someone who has my back, you know, and she's gonna
always have my back. Cube would need the support as
he entered into a financial dispute with n w A
and manager Jerry Heller. By mid eighty nine, Cube claimed
he had received only thirty two dollars and royalties. You
just didn't feel that he was getting a fair sheriff
(10:21):
for what he was contributing to the success of those records.
At a crossroads, Cube turned to the one person he
could trust. I didn't know if I was gonna leave
while I was gonna stay and camp. She was like,
believing yourself and your ability, and we'll roll whatever happened
after that. In late nine, Ice Cube decided to leave
(10:44):
n w A and go solo. The breakup led to
bitterness at last. I've seen him him for years. I
just realized there's no way to keep this friendship together
if the business went so sour. Coming Up, Cube becomes
America's most wanted and then Ice Cube's movie career nearly
(11:06):
ends before it begins when Behind the Music continues. In nine,
ice Cube walked away from n w A at the
height of their success over a financial dispute. I think
we all thought, Okay, he's done. Everyone was telling him,
you left the biggest group ever. You made a mistake,
(11:29):
your fool. Cube had to prove he could stand on
his own, so he recruited Public Enemy producers the Bomb
Squad as co conspirators, and he flew to New York
in late eighty nine to record his solo debut. He
had a lot to prove. You had a lot of baggage.
You need a lot of pressure. He came to the
to the House spot with eight composition books full of
(11:50):
rhymes and lyrics and songs and ideas. It was this
was incredible. I've never seen anybody so committed. I mean
he came into my still yo and slept on the
floor for three days. I wanted to not just wrap
a rap about stuff that was real. Released on May sixteenth,
(12:11):
America's Most Wanted was a funky dispatch from the front
lines of the inner city, filled with dark humor and
brutal honesty. It's sure on a Delta, Redd Cube, It's playful,
it's funny, it's dangerous. This record was the Street's favorite record.
The first single shot to the top of the rap charts,
(12:33):
and the album went platinum in three months, but cubes
explicit r rated lyrics enraged women's groups. Cube was unapologetic,
claiming he was just keeping it real. Some women want
to act like bitches and holes. They got to be
putting that category. What else is gonna call? While Cube
was under fire from women's groups, privately, he was dedicated
(12:54):
to his girlfriend Kim Woodruff, whom he had been dating
for two years. She's just perfect woman, friend, confin I
partner Cuban. Kim got engaged in and she gave birth
to the first son, O Sha Jr. In February of one.
When you have a baby, you have to make sure
(13:16):
they have a chance to be successful. That's your child,
and Q took that responsibility all too seriously, especially when
it came to financial dealings with his label Priority Records.
My son was five days old and I was expecting
and advanced I could buy a new house. My family
and I got a book excuse on why it wasn't
(13:38):
coming down the pipe. That was kind of a misunderstanding
we had and we didn't quite communicate as well as
we should have. So Cube let his baseball bat do
the talking. I went up there with a bat and
just torked office. There was a lot of glass everywhere.
I had a field of homes with me and it
was just ugly. Had a lone and Banton was bent.
When I left. He did me a huge favor, basically
(14:00):
destroying the television and forced me to get a new TV,
which he'd been bugging me to do for years. Cube
got the advance, and a few weeks later he got
some more good news. A first time director named John
Singleton wanted to cast him in his movie Boys in
the Hood, which was inspired by Cube seminoles street at them,
(14:22):
He's like, yeah, you perfect for it. I'm thinking, like,
you know, I'm totally unqualified for this, bro. And when
it came time for his audition, Cube's acting career nearly
ended before it started. My manager said, yeo, these pages
came in, read tomorrow, all right. Took the page, just
phold him up, put in my back pocket, never looked
(14:44):
at him, sat down, he read and everything, and it's
like he sucked. And I said, you didn't read this?
Did He said not, and read I've been touring and
I said, man, you gotta go read this. Just go
read the script and come back. So when I read it,
I'm like, oh, they're about to do a movie about
how we grew up. How perfect for this? And so
(15:05):
he came in and he he started doing this thing.
He was doll Boy. I was just like, whoa, It's
gonna be a good movie. Released in July, Boys in
the Hood became a cinematic landmark and turned ice Cube
into a movie star. The ease in which he kind
of exhibited movie star charisma and helped the screen like
(15:25):
aware of you been like you know you should have
been acting for for years. It was a great experience, man,
and I just wanted to do more movies. It's hard
to match a classic like Boys in the Hood, but
you know, we're gonna keep trying. In ice Cube was
at the top of the rap game. His solo debut
had gone platinum, but as a new father, he was
(15:46):
searching for a deeper meaning in life. He began to
look into the Nation of his lab, a spiritual movement
that aspires to improve the social and economic conditions of
minorities in America. This was a whole different approach. Were
in it together, we got to get out of it together.
You have to try to leave the right way. That
(16:06):
term me on. Though he never joined the Nation of Islam,
Cube did eventually become a Muslim, and he applied a new,
more political perspective to his second solo album, death Certificate,
which focused on the plight of the inner city. I
became a person who thirsts knowledge and and tried to
(16:27):
seek it out, and I realized some of these things
should be said in the music. Cube's lyrical point of
view became more attuned to social issues and political injustice.
Que kind of started making the transition from being gangster
rapper to gangster politician. He turned around from being you know,
(16:47):
the cat, but that was always with the gangster coming
out saying, Yo, let's look at how we're living right now.
Los Angeles was a powder keg of emotion when Death
Certificate was released in October. The Rodney King beating was
still an open wound and racial tensions were rising. On
April twenty nine, the four police officers charged and the
(17:09):
Rodney King beating were acquitted. Los Angeles erupted into three
days of violent rioting, causing a billion dollars in damage
and fifty five deaths. These cops beat this man on camera.
You're telling us that they're justified. That's what made the
rise jump off. He looked like a prophet after Rods.
He told you it was coming. Every major news organization
(17:32):
was banging down the door trying to ask, how did
you know I didn't have nothing nice to say? You
know I didn't have it. Can we all get along? Speech?
At that time, I was pretty much witty. Burned by
the criticism of his hardcore rhymes, ice Cube decided to
tone down the rhetoric on his next release, Two Is
(17:53):
the Predator. It was a good day. It was a
remark couple of shift for ice Cube. The single found
its way onto mainstream radio and became his highest charting
pop hit. I had people on my camp saying, you
can't do that record. You do hardcore, gangster rap. That
record is talking about a good day. Said, well, you
(18:16):
know that happens too. You know, neighborhood ain't a war zone.
The song also reflected the good vibes in Cube's personal life.
When you live in this so called American trained I
didn't want to celebrate a little bit and say, hey,
you know, just what's all about in He married fiance
Kim Woodruff, the mother of his young son. She's the
(18:37):
perfect person for him because she balances him out so
very wise, woman, very kind. If it really wasn't for her,
I don't know if I'll be sitting here today as
the man I am. As Cube settled into marriage and fatherhood,
he was hoping to put an end to his beef
with n w A. An opportunity arose in when he
(18:58):
ran into Easy And in New York club. We talked
for hours and it was time about putting the group
back together. Club end up closing and we both stranded.
Calves wasn't picking us up, and he started walking and
I was the last time I've seen him. A line.
Four months later, Eric Easy E Wright died due to
complications from AIDS. He was thirty one years old. Cube
(19:21):
chose not to attend the public funeral. He says he
did not want to say goodbye to Easy that way.
I feel good that I didn't see him laid up
in the hospital and I see him laid up in
the casket. I liked the vision to him walking away,
you know what I mean, with the New York City backdrop.
That to me is a better goodbye than seeing him
(19:43):
laid up. Coming up, ice Cube becomes a major Hollywood
mogul when behind the music continues. By the age of
twenty five, Ice Cube to achieved massive success as an
actor and rapper. He had released three platinum albums and
(20:06):
appeared in a string of hit movies, including John Singleton's
Boys in the Hood. I got bit by the bug
and John was like, it's gonna be hard for you
to find something like Boys in the Hood unless you
probably right it yourself. I'm like, whoa what? He would
ask me, how do you write a script? And I
was like, man, you know you write songs, you can
write a script. Two Boys in the Hood script saw
(20:26):
the format and just started trying to write a script
in Cube crafted a comedic screenplay about a group of
friends in South Central and pitched it to New Line Cinema. Immediately,
you kind of you wrote your eyes gone. Another actor
is writing a script, and then the guy just came
in and just told the great story. Released in April
of Friday, starring Cube and Chris Tucker, became a monster
(20:50):
hit and established the Snarling Rappers comedic skills. I remember
reading the script. I'm like, oh my god, this is
so funny, this is so silly, this is so real.
People saw it Boys in the Hood, people saw South
Central and all these things. I was just showing that
It's like, damn, y'all act like we lived in the
pit of hell. You know what I'm saying. And it
wasn't like that. We cried, but we laughed. Morning with
(21:13):
the Cry made for just three million dollars Friday gross
ten times that suddenly Ice Cube was a legitimate Hollywood player.
That's when Hollywood said, he is someone who can act.
He can you know right, he can do all of this.
Cube used his cloud wisely. He made his directorial debut
(21:34):
in The Players Club, starting the critically acclaimed Three Kings,
and then founded his own production company called Cube Vision.
The company scored with the Friday sequels and the smash
hit Barbershop tried to show a cannon look at you know,
I had a little crack in the world that people
don't usually get a chance to see where so much
action happens there. He is a very clever on the
(21:57):
choices of the movies he makes. There's very few people
to do that in Hollywood. Actually hold the reins and
control what it is that you're doing. As he fast
tracked his way through the movie business, Cube was still
making time for his first love music. On two thousand's
War and Peace Volume two, he reunited with his n
(22:18):
w A bandmates Dr Dre and mc wren on the
track Hello. The reformed n w A headlined the up
in Smoke tour with Snoop Dogg filling in for Easy.
There was talk of recording a new album, but ultimately
they decided there could be no n w A without Easy.
I think we all collectively decided to put it to
(22:38):
bed Dad without Easy. Nobody will really accept this as
n w A. Over the span of two decades, Ice
Cube has gone from inner city rebel to Hollywood player,
but Cube's most enduring role has been as the father
of his four kids, o MG, dough Boy, Karema and Sharif.
(23:01):
I think I am firm but fair. You know, I'm
gonna always give fatherly advice from somebody who grew up
in South Central, you know, and it didn't necessarily have
a lot to an empire. He's the best person to
have raised you. In two thousand five, Cube channeled his
experience as a dad into his most surprising career move yet.
(23:24):
He produced and starred in the family friendly blockbuster Are
We There Yet? These are more like Little Rougher than
Are We There Yet? It doesn't go for it as
much a BS. And the controversy was the fact that
I did a movie for kids like I can't do
a damn movie for some little badass kids. With a
(23:45):
successful sequel let us spin off series on TV, ice
Cube is now being introduced to an entirely new generation
of fans. Ice Cube transformed for him. I mean, the
toughest gains the rapper to you know, kind friendly. He
could do a jello conversion right now. What was sure
of Cube did it on his own. He did everything
by himself because he knew that his instincts were better
(24:08):
than anybody else's. I think I've been able to balance
artists and entertainer and still get the people what I want,
but be myself. Cube's now giving his kids a leg
up in the business. His older son's dough Boy and
OMG joined him on his new record and perform with
him on tour. They've been around music all day life,
(24:28):
and what I love about them is they go and
do their own music. They don't just wait for me,
and they're good. They're damn good man. He told us
one night, you don't know how happy I am to
be up here with you too, So you know it
means a lot to him. But after more than two
decades in the game, Ice Cube insists he's just getting
warmed up. He tells us there's no reason for him
(24:51):
to retire as long as he has a tongue in
his mouth, as long as I can still speak my
you know my thoughts. Why stop? And they're gonna stop?
With Cube, it don't stop. I'm let now know I
know him better than it ain't gonna stop. He loved
being up close and personal with the fans, and it
is what it is. I got a lot to do.
I'm barely halfway through my career, barely. My to do
(25:13):
list is always to get better at everything. I could
be a better father, husband, brother, son, rapper, actor, producer, writer.
You know, if I do that, everything hopefully take care
of itself. Ice Cube has continued to push the boundaries
(25:34):
of hip hop and his own creativity, collaborating with everyone
from David Bowie to Paul Oakenford. Ice Cube defied all
odds and became a major player in Hollywood as an actor, writer,
and producer, both in action and comedy movies. Ice Cube
started opposite George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in Three Kings
(25:55):
and replaced Vin Diesel in the Triple X franchise in
Triple X, State of the Union. He's also starred in
numerous comedy franchises, including Barbershope, Jump Street, and Right Along.
Ice Cube has even branched out into the sports ward
co founding the Big Three Basketball League. In From the
(26:17):
voice of the streets to the star of the screen,
ice Cube has continued to push himself and grow, always
getting better. Listen to Behind the Music on the i
R Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your
favorite podcasts, and for more stories behind some of the
(26:38):
biggest names in music, you can watch Behind the Music
exclusively on Paramount Plus
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