Ice Cube Interview about Movies & Commercialized Rap

[Nat Turner-reincarnated]

Taking 'Em To Church


The short trip from South Central L.A to Hollywood has been a smooth ride for the 38-year old Ice Cube. After making his mark as a greasy- talking rapper in the quintessential anti-establishment supergroup N.W.A, and further solidifying his legacy in rap history with the Westside Connection, Cube's hustle has hit the big screen. Finding his niche in family-friendly comedies has been the secret to his success as of recent, but make no mistake, O'Shea Jackson hasn't gone pincushion on us. As he gets ready to debut his recent film First Sunday alongside Katt Williams and Tracy Morgan, we caught up with Cube to talk about the movie, gangster vs. comic book rap, the difference between real and fake and his disdain for Dubya.
By Joe La Puma

Complex: The majority of "First Sunday" takes place in the church, are you a religious dude?
Ice Cube: I'm spiritual; I'm not really religious. Spiritual means you believe in God, you trust and love God, but you're not really into the rituals of religion and doing all the things religion has a person do to prove your love for God.

C: How would you recommend going about paying back a 17 thousand dollar debt in real life?
Ice Cube: How would I do it? At this point I'll just write a check, but for others, I say don't rob a church, because it's not going to turn out like a movie. But I mean, sell something; you got a car, you got to sling it. You got to sell something, that's when the brain gets to clicking, you have to prove that you're worth it. You got to figure out who's going to pay you to do what you need to do to get money. You have to hustle.

C: Do you feel like you still need to use comedies like "Are We There Yet" and "First Sunday" as stepping-stone films to prove yourself in order to land more serious roles?
Ice Cube: I don't think I need to do these to get those more serious roles. What happens is, I do these so good, and people want more. When I go do a new deal with a new company, the first thing they say is to give them what we do best. I'm the guy who can deliver different kinds of movies, and that's what people want. But I'm always looking to do other things- the XXXs of the world or a movie like Three Kings. I got this movie I'm doing right now called The Comeback, a drama.



C: How would say your movie opportunities have changed over the last 15 years?
Ice Cube: I mean you get more things offered; But it really comes down to relationships in this business. When it's time to do a movie, guys are going to think about people that they've worked with before. You have to go and make relationships with people you want to make movies with and I don't think that's going to change, no matter how big you get or how many movies you do. I think I've gotten more offers because I've been successful.

C: Do you feel like your movies get pigeonholed as black films?
Ice Cube: I hope so; I'm black [laughs]. All races enjoy my movies, if they take the time to check 'em out. But, you know there's nothing I could do to stop that part. I'm not going to try to be whiter in my movies for people not to consider them black movies. That doesn't make sense.

C: Do you think putting out "black movies" affects movie and DVD sales?
Ice Cube: No, because I think people find good movies and they leave bad movies on the shelf. I think DVDs allow people who normally wouldn't go to the theatre to see a movie, watch the film, and enjoy it. People might feel funny about going into a young black movie, if they're a senior citizen, but they may say "I want to see that movie, but I'll just get it when it comes out on DVD."

C: So are you and Chris Tucker cool?
Ice Cube: Yeah, he just came to my suite a couple days ago for the Laker game. He came up there, hung out for a while. We talk about working together, but I don't know if he's ready for a Friday. He does want us to do a movie together, so to me that's the first step.

C: Why do you think he's been so reluctant to do Friday again?
Ice Cube: I don't know if he had a good time making Friday. He didn't make a whole lot of money from that movie because it was his first movie. So I don't know if the overall experience was good for him. He never told me this, but it's the only reason why I would say that he didn't want to come back to it. But shit, he's Chris Tucker now! He's going get paid top dollar, and he going have a ball if he do another one.

C: He's in a different space now?
Ice Cube: Before he was a comedian trying to get seen and get known, so he might have looked at it as "that was my worst movie experience," but that was only because he was a new actor. We always get treated like rookies. It happens. I got treated like one in Boyz N Da Hood. But when you prove your worth in Hollywood, the treatment is better. That's my speculation on it. He's never told me any of this.

C: On your last album you kind of poked fun at kids coming out of pocket and acting hard in the rap game, do you think things have gotten worse since then?
Ice Cube: I feel like you got a different kind of rap. You got real serious rap and you got comic-book rap. And, you know most of them dudes just fall in the comic-book section of this whole thing.



C: What do you mean by that?
Ice Cube: You have people that are way over the top with it, and fake with it no matter what they do, and you got people that are real with it. I'm not saying that gangster rap is real, and ring-tone rap ain't, because both rap is real. I don't want you to be fake and just trying to do anything you need to to get over. Those are the rappers I don't like the ones that do anything to get over. They got to be popcorn they'll be popcorn, they got to be hard they'll be hard. That's fake. My style ain't never change.

C: What do you say to a dude like Bow Wow who's trying real hard to shatter his boyish image and become more gangster?
Ice Cube: Be yourself. You know that's the best advice. People could get in your head, tell you who you should be and what you need to be; nobody should be a part of that, just be yourself and everything will turn out how it's supposed to.

C: You said your new album would be more political than usual, what was the reasoning for heading in that direction?
Ice Cube: I just hate the commercialized game, I hate being worried about what the program director's thinking. All that kind of stuff doesn't make any difference. What makes the difference is what the fans think, what the intelligent hardcore, mature Hip-Hop fan wants to hear. Get it to them and let's make music. I'm at a point where I'm not just grinding at this record, like "Yo, I got to eat off this," so I could have more fun with it, and do what I feel and not do it for other reasons. When you're on the record label, they are worried about that kind of stuff. You know, like where's the single? Where's the single? You just want to give them a single kick in the ass, and tell them to get the fuck out of the studio [laughs]. I'm just going back to the essence, doing it from the heart, doing it from the gut, and being happy with the results.

C: On your last album you went kind of hard at George W. Bush, what caused you the frustration?
Ice Cube: He doesn't give a fuck about anybody. That's my main frustration. He cares about making his families rich and his friends. That's how his daddy is, and that's how he is. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. They don't care about nobody, they just want to be rich, and use their position to get richer. They know they have four or eight years to snatch and grab all they can and they did. And people are going to say "worst president ever," and he'll say "who gives a shit? I'm rich."



C: Who do you think is the most Hip-Hop-friendly candidate for 08?
Ice Cube: I haven't see any of them embrace Hip-Hop. If they were smart they'd embrace it, but if they want to keep shit they way it is, they'll probably stay away. I think the government treats Hip-Hop as a threat to their ultimate plan whatever it may be. I think they're doing more things behind the scenes that we don't see, to kill music.

C: In NWA, you guys said what you wanted to say and you never held back-how different is it today?
Ice Cube: I don't know if it's different. I don't know if rappers are holding back. I think the rappers are going with the audience. At some point mainstream media decided to promote hardcore gangster rap to the masses on a big level, and you can't blame the rappers for that, it was something that [the media] did in the mid '90s. Now they want to blame us for them taking it and blowing it up. The Viacoms and all these people in the world got to take the blame too. They ain't no innocent bystanders in this shit either. So if it got out of control or whatever, it ain't just because of the artist.

C: Interesting...
Ice Cube: What it is is that they kind of pushed escapism rap, and they pushed the political rap to the back. Political rap is more of a threat than shake-ya-ass, titties, get drunk, take an X pill, whatever the hell type of music-so that's what they wanted people to be focused on. They didn't like things were said in the early '90s, late '80s,that have been lost until now. In the late '90s there was no market for this kind of rap. Now through YouTube and people getting their own information through the computer and things like that, people are getting what they really want and they're not being programmed. This kind of music that's coming back is real. There was a wave to stomp it out. But it never went all the way out.

[Dodgers#1]

propz homie good read

[cStyle]

propz homie good read

[Lunatic]

good shit

[Nima - Dubcnn.com]

That was a good interview.

[SamDogg]

that was a good read, man i hope that they do make a next friday movie.

[Lazar]

Already been posted http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=164727.0   

[Nat Turner-reincarnated]

Already been posted http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=164727.0   

mine is better it has pictures 

[funkkid]

real good

[Lunatic]

who gon see 1st sunday? ima go for sure

2nite hopefully

[Lazar]

Already been posted http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=164727.0   

mine is better it has pictures 

Lol, alright 

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Nice interview. Ice Cube is still keeping it real.

[Nat Turner-reincarnated]

Already been posted http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=164727.0   

mine is better it has pictures 

Lol, alright 

lol thats peace, my fault next i'll search closely before posting hotep!

[Lazar]

Already been posted http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=164727.0   

mine is better it has pictures 

Lol, alright 

lol thats peace, my fault next i'll search closely before posting hotep!

Yep, itīs all love