From Blackplanet.com and THX and Dr. Funkenstein aka T-Dee

Rap music is ego driven, it has a lot of bravado in it just because that is the nature of the music. But in movies you have to give more of yourself, not masking anything. It is about giving and being true to the character and letting everything else happen how it is going to happen.

Rap music is my love. If it keeps me from getting certain types of acting roles or keeps me from becoming what Hollywood might want me to become, that`s fine. I love doing both, but I don`t think I need to separate myself from rap music and what it`s all about. It has always gotten a bad rap. There have always been labels put on the music, like that it was violent and this, that, and the other. You know, but the world is violent.

I don`t want to play nobody that is just weak and means nothing to the movie. I don`t want to play those kinds of roles. I went into The Three Kings and nobody else was thinking about Black image but me. I had to go in there and be strong about what I felt that character should be and how it should reflect. With a movie like Barber Shop, imagery and the story surrounding that and showing what the barber shop means to the community was real important on the list of things to get across. So we put an extra emphasis on making sure that people were feeling the story and not just laughing at it.

With a movie like Friday it is straight for laughs!I don`t have no social commentary in there whatsoever. It is really all about the laughs and that is what we go for. What we do with the Friday movies is we take things that you would normally cry about, and make you laugh about them. We take stuff that in the neighborhood that you would normally be pissed off about - like someone breaking in your house at Christmas and stealing all your presents - and try to laugh about it for a change. The more and more movies I do the more control I have because each project is different. So I try to play characters that are just strong or silent and take it from there.

I want to do a big action movie after doing Barber Shop and Friday, just to show that I am not just in to doing these kinds of movies. I want to do movies that I would want to see. I like action, comedy and drama. With a movie like Players Club, I just thought that nobody would do this movie and do it half right. And even with the Players Club in some ways I had to lighten up the load because they wanted a comedy. It is easier to get a comedy made in Hollywood than a drama, especially Black movies. People would rather put up money to laugh than to cry, that is just what we are dealing with. But we are getting past that. I think movies like Barber Shop show that you can have a dramatic story within a comedy. I think it is just going to snowball so we can do more dramatic stuff.

I have a company, Cube Vision, and I just want it to get stronger, better, more creative. Take on other movies, such as drama and action movies. Just get better at what we do. That, to me, is the goal: to become better. Just to get bigger and better movies.

I want to keep doing music as long as it is exciting to me. Working with Dr. Dre just excites me to the fullest because my next record could be my best one. So that has got me turned all the way on as far as music. But you know, the rap game is a young man`s game. That is how I feel. It`s really their music. Kind of like the NFL.

I recognize opportunities and take them serious. That is the thing - be relentless, get some thick skin on you and always try to recognize your opportunities. I think that is what happens to a lot of artists; they get in positions where a lot of opportunities come right to their doorstep and they think if they don`t take them they`re going to pass them by. You got to recognize opportunity and not be scared to try it even if you fail. You can`t be scared to fail because everything is hard until you learn how to do it.

The first time I wrote a movie it took forever because I didn`t have just the little things you need to do before you even start writing. The first time you start writing you just want to jump in and you can kind of set yourself up for a lot of mistakes like that. Now I get an outline, I get all my characters and give them a history, I do all those things even before I start writing.

After Boyz `N` the Hood I got a lot of scripts, but none of them were as good as that. I told John Singleton my frustration that it didn`t look like I was ever going to be in another movie again because these scripts are weak. He said write your own! I was like, what? If you can write a record you can write a movie. Look at them scripts, man, you can write that. Just look and see what the formula is, if you need some help come on by. I went over there a couple of times and he just showed me the tricks of the trade. And from there I`ve been just doing it myself. Friday was the third script I wrote, that was the one that finally got made.

Now people come up to me all the time asking, `when`s the next one? when`s the next one?` But there are always reservations because you don`t want to mess up what you`ve done. It`s like Jordan coming back. You`re scared to mess up the legacy. But we`re in the entertainment business to give the audience what they want. We made the effort but not for the wrong reasons - justbecause we can make a lot of money. You know, all those kinds of movies the movie companies love to promote. We don`t want to think like that, we want to do good movies. So since we thought of the right story we came up with another one.

To tell a story in any kind of way takes acting skills. To do a record and to be able to put enough personality on that record to get people to respond to it takes a gift. If rappers take it and run with it then they can probably turn it into a career. But if they don`t, then it is just something they can do but never really water it and make it grow.

The music is a little different, because the music gets you into a flow and sometimes your flow will change the direction of your rhyme. It`s different because you`re dealing with rhythm your dealing with rhyming words and it`s not just you sitting and telling a story. Because my telling a story will come out totally different than my trying to rap you a story. They are just two different animals in a way.

Right now I`m working on movies, next month I`m going to do music. I`m doing my album with Dr. Dre, so movies are going to be forgotten about for a while. I`m signing with his company Aftermath, he is going to produce the next record. I don`t even want to think about movies no more until the album is done with.

I`m just Cube, man, you know what I mean? I`m just me. I just do what I do and some people love it and some people don`t. I`m cool with that, I ain`t really tripping. I don`t like to pigeonhole myself into anything, I love to do it all and just put everything in perspective.

Thanks. An interesting read.

They'll probably make extra tracks, then pimp them to us as an nwa album.  Bah humbug.