Ice Cube
When former N.W.A member Ice Cube is on the mic, there is a presence felt. A presence of rough, political, profane music that will keep your head bopping until you feel a snap. From Straight Outta Compton, to AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, to his current Laugh Now, Cry Later, Ice Cube is known for dropping solid album. Now acting in a streak of box office smashes including the “Friday” and “Barbershop” series to the “Are We There Yet” sequel, Ice Cube has proved to be a multi-faced entertainer bringing a little something for everyone. Check out this exclusive interview and some past quote by some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry reflecting on Ice Cube.
“To this day Ice Cube is one of the people I respect the most because he’s someone you can look to as a mentor. While I was working with him on Lethal Injection & Menace II Society, he was working on his own record that he wrote and oversaw, as well as his label acts, the Fridays, and whatever else all at the same time and made it look effortless. He handled the business personally. I’ll never forget the opportunity he gave me.”
QDIII on Ice Cube “Urban America Newspaper” December 2005; Vol. 5, 2nd Edition
“Ice Cube was probably the most prepared emcee that I’ve encountered because here is a guy that came from LA on a one way ticket, basically, and was determined not to leave until he had a record produced by us. He had all his rhymes with him. He had books and books of rhymes.”
Hank Shocklee on Ice Cube “Urban America Newspaper” October 2004; Vol. 3, 12th Edition
“I love Ice Cube. I think he’s underrated as a lyricist. I think those first three Ice Cube albums are the greatest. People say Biggie and all this stuff, Ice Cube’s lyrics I don’t know nobody that can touch that second Ice Cube album ever! That f*cking record is amazing man. Lyric for lyric, rhyme for rhyme, because there wasn’t a blueprint for that sh*t yet. When other brothers started writing, there was already a blueprint. It was done. Ice Cube was the first doing that sh*t. He’s a monster.”
DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill) on Ice Cube.
WHO?MAG: Can you talk about WC’s album you’re working on?
ICE CUBE: “Guilty by Affiliation”. It’s dope! It has The Game, myself, and Snoop on there. Just a hardcore West Coast album. Just doing what WC does best. On the production side, it’s an array of people. We got Hallway Productions, Mr. Porter, Nottz, and a couple of West Coast producers too.
WHO?MAG: What made you want to form your own independent label Lench Mob Recordings after leaving Capitol/Priority?
ICE CUBE: I was just tired of the game. Tired of the major label game. They don’t care about artists. They don’t care about fans. All they care about is numbers. All they care about is the charts and Soundscan. They don’t care that this fan likes this artist for this reason. I care about that. I care about my fan base. I was like “let’s take all this corporate stuff out the game”. Let me just do a record that I know Ice Cube fans will love and everybody else got to get in where they fit in. That’s kinda what I did. Doing it independently, I could do all those things that majors won’t do. The majors won’t go to the hood and to all those spots. They just want a big wide blanket campaign. They don’t want to do the dirty work. To sell records nowadays, you got to do the dirty work.
WHO?MAG: Do feel independent is the way to go?
ICE CUBE: For any artist that got their own money. For any artist that make their own records and got money to put ads and promote it; yeah! Ownership. These records are what you want to pass down to your kids. Like look you own this. You can always make money off this. If keep on going to majors and taking advances, they’re going own the lion’s share of that record.
WHO?MAG: Do you plan to work again with DJ Pooh and Sir Jinx?
ICE CUBE: I’m working with [Sir] Jinx now. Jinx is helping us out on this WC record. [DJ] Pooh, he’s more into the internet stuff. I don’t how much music he can do right now. I’m going to definitely work with [Sir] Jinx.
WHO?MAG: I interviewed in the past Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy’s producer) and QD3. They both spoke very highly of you. How did you hook up with them and how was your experience working with them?
ICE CUBE: Hank Shocklee was the chief producer for the Bomb Squad who produced Public Enemy back in the day. I knew Chuck [D] and I told him that I was leaving NWA and Dr. Dre wasn’t going to produce my solo record. Would the Bomb Squad do it? He was like “You got to meet Hank.” I talked to and Hank and told him the situation I was in. Hank was like “we want to do the whole album. We don’t want to do one or two songs. We want to do everything”. I was happy. Hank is like a mad scientist. He was the architect of a lot of that stuff you heard from Public Enemy back in the days. QD3 which is Quincy Jones son, he was trying to get his feet wet. He was trying to get his name out there as a producer. I just know the dude is talented. He’s done a lot of songs for me in the past. Hopefully we can work again in the future.