This week LA Weekly were able to sit down with Ice Cube to discuss a variety of topics.
Right now Cube is finalising his “Everything’s Corrupt” album as well as being part of the Coors Light MC talent competition, “Search for the Coldest.”
Already from his upcoming album we’ve brought you the title track for “Everything’s Corrupt” and most recently “Crowded.”
What to you makes for a dope young MC?
Confidence goes a long way. You gotta have your own style, your own flavor. You can’t come up there trying to be like your favorite MC, you got to be an original. Your music has to move people. People have to get on it, you know, right off the jump. That’s hard for established artists — for new artists it’s that much harder.
What are your favorite projects you’ve done?
Wow, you know, I never really thought about which ones is the best. I have a lot of milestones that I’m proud of when it comes to music, Amerikkka’s Most Wanted, I’m extremely proud of that. Just because of what I had to go through to get that music produced, that album produced. Friday is something I’m extremely proud of because it was the first time I tried to, you know, write a movie and produce a movie. And to have a movie that still gets that kind of response is pretty cool from my point of view.
In the documentary you talk a lot in the early days of NWA and gangsta rap. Why do you think L.A. and the West Coast remains so obsessed with that whole era?
I just think that, you know, this is a place where it originated from when it comes to talking about what’s going on in the streets. And by this being the original place, it has power. It has an aura to it. And I think the whole country is as fascinated with L.A. living as they are with something like the Sopranos, something where they want to know more but they don’t want to get no closer. It’s kinda that. That feel, you know. It’s a forbidden fruit in a lot of ways and you know, its still mysterious and dangerous. This is the land of surf and sun in a lot of ways so it’s a crazy contrast.
A few years back a big theme in your music was the persecution of gangster rap. Do you think that’s still going on? Or do you think it’s now mainstream enough?
Well I know I think it’s always something that gets blamed when you talk about the youth doing anything wrong, bad or illegal. I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat. So I think it’s always going to play that role because it’s easy, it’s an easy target, it’s easy to get caught up in the profanity and not really understand the real tone of these records and the real nature of these records. People get caught up, you say, fuck, bitch, and pussy, and people think you’re just the nastiest person on earth. No matter what you’re talking about. I think since the music is cloaked in that, it’s always going to be easy to say, I’m bad because of this. I was listening to that and that made me bad. He’s listening to that, he’s a bad person…Yeah, I don’t know, how many serial killers listen to classical music? They never blame classical music. [laughs] But let a young teenager do something, it’s got to be that rap music.
Do you and Dre still talk much?
Every now and then. We’re trying to put this NWA movie together. This is the real one. That other one that you heard about was bullshit. This is the official one. We’re taking it to the nooks and crannies, I think deeper than any other article or documentary on the group. These are the intimate conversations that helped forge NWA. To me I think its interesting to anybody who loves that era and I don’t know any other movie where you can mix gangster rap, the FBI, LA riots, HIV, and fucking uh, feuding with each other. This movie has everything from Darryl Gates and the battering ram.
Last question: I saw the 1989 NWA LA Weekly cover in your documentary. Do you remember anything about being interviewed by Jonathan Gold?
I remember that the guys were late. I was waiting on them to get there. I remember taking that picture [for the cover]. I remember we were clowning Eazy’s hair because he didn’t get his curl fresh, so his shit was looking a little shot out. We was talking about him the whole time. [laughs] ‘Cause his shit was shot out and we was about to take a picture. And um, you know, we couldn’t wait until it came out. We was like, damn we gonna be on the cover! That was one of the first covers we ever made.
