Ice Cube 1969(?)–

Ice Cube 1969(?)–

Rap singer, songwriter, performing artist

At a Glance…

N.W.A. Shook Rap World

Solo Success

Attacked as Racist

End of N.W.A.; Continued Solo Success

Selected discography

Sources

“With an eye that magnifies brutal characters and violent situations, Ice Cube exposes a world that seems on the brink of exploding in the ear of the listener,” wrote Have-lock Nelson and Michael Gonzales in their book Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture. A native of South Central Los Angeles who recorded with the notorious group N.W.A. before going solo, Ice Cube has often been a lightning rod for controversy; his N.W.A. song “F—tha Police” and solo raps like “Black Korea” have elicited angry denunciations, threats, and protests. Yet Cube has argued repeatedly that his lyrics simply hold a mirror up to the reality of inner-city life. In the meantime, his records have gone platinum, his participation in the 1992 Lollapalooza festival gained him an avid following among young white rock fans, and his appearances in films and cultivation of other acts have opened up new career avenues. He has also demonstrated an evolving view of race issues. Being black, Cube insisted to interviewer bell hooks in Spin, “you gotta damn near fight your body to love yourself.”

Ice Cube was born O’Shea Jackson in 1969—four years after the Watts Riots shook the foundations of Los Angeles and placed the race relations crisis in focus for the nation. His mother Doris, who, like O’Shea’s father, Hosea, hailed from the southern United States, named her son after her favorite football player, O. J. Simpson. A better-than-average student, he attended Hawthorne Christian School where he dabbled in sports. Like many of his friends, O’Shea committed a few petty crimes but was not involved in heavy gang violence. While funk and soul dominated inner-city radio during his youth, nothing caught O’Shea’s ear quite the new sounds of rap that arrived toward the end of the 1970s. “When I first heard [the Sugarhill Gang’s] ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ I couldn’t stop rewinding it,” he told Art Form. “It did nothing but grab me. By the age of 14,1 was writing my own raps, and seeing [influential “gansta” rapper] Ice-T in concert for the first time.”

O’Shea—who now called himself Ice Cube—was also hanging around with his friend Jinx, who shared his passion for rap. After hearing Cube’s first rap—written during typing class—Jinx agreed to make a tape with him. Cube admitted to Rolling Stone that this early effort was “pathetic. The beat was going, and I was over in the left corner. The lyrics, they were cool, but they wasn’t no exciting type of mind-boggling shit. I was only 15, you know.” In 1986 Jinx’s cousin, Dr. Dre, hooked Cube up with Eric “Eazy E” Wright, who had financed an independent record label—Ruthless Records—

At a Glance…

Born O’Shea Jackson, c. 1969, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Hosea (a machinist and groundskeeper) and Doris (a hospital clerk) Jackson. Education: Phoenix Institute of Technology, graduated, 1988.

Member of musical group N.W.A., 1986-89; released debut solo album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, 1990; formed Street Knowledge (record production company), Los Angeles, 1990; produced Make Way for the Motherlode LP for rapper Yo Yo, 1990; executive producer, Yo-Yo’s Black Pearl LP, 1992; directed music videos, 1993—, Acted \n films Boyz N’ the Hood, 1991, Trespass, 1993, and Higher Learning, 1994.

Addresses; Record company —Priority Records, 6430 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028. Production company —street Knowledge Productions, 6809 Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043.

with proceeds from his drug dealing. Eazy asked Cube to write material for a New York-based group called HBO, which had signed with Ruthless.

N.W.A. Shook Rap World

Cube collaborated with Dr. Dre on a track called “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” an uncompromising tune about life on the streets of Compton. HBO didn’t want the song, so Eazy recorded the song himself in 1986. Then he, Cube, and Dr. Dre became Niggas With Attitude, or N.W.A. The group’s records—many written and rapped by Cube—garnered them a following, and they seemed embarked on a lucrative career. But Cube’s mother insisted that he get an education, so at age 18, he headed off for the Phoenix Institute of Technology. After a year-long drafting course, Cube returned to Los Angeles and started up with the group in earnest.

Cube wrote material for Eazy’s solo effort, Eazy-Duz-It, which Ruthless released in 1988. N.WA’s first LP, Straight Out ta Compton, appeared on the Priority label in 1989. Featuring the controversial single “F—tha Police,” which prompted a threatening letter to the record company from the FBI, the album went platinum in three months without the benefit of any radio airplay. Listening to the album, Nelson and Gonzales wrote in Bring the Noise, “is like sitting in the Theatre of Urban Mojo, staring at rapidly changing images of ghetto angst.” While the authors charge that the band received harsh criticism because it told the truth about young black men’s lives, they admit that the songs are an assault on the listener. Yet, they add, “in some way one cannot help but become attracted to the brutal images—it’s like staring at an auto accident.”

Solo Success

Despite N.W.A.’s massive success, Ice Cube got into a dispute with the group’s manager, Jerry Heller. After a 50-city tour and record grosses of over $3 million, Cube found he’d earned a mere $32,000. Following further negotiations he was compensated, but decided to leave the group. “N.W.A.’s still a strong group without Ice Cube,” the rapper remarked to Musician. “But Ice Cube is not as strong with N.W.A. as he is by himself.” He formed his own label, Street Knowledge, hiring new talent such as female rapper Yo-Yo. His first solo album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted —released on Priority in 1990—was quickly certified platinum. Produced in collaboration with Public Enemy’s Chuck D. and the Bomb Squad, the album convinced many that Cube was the real force behind N.W.A.’s hardest-hitting work, and that as a solo artist he would be a major force. Spin called it “a masterpiece.” Yo-Yo debuted on the track “It’s a Man’s World,” matching Cube’s well-known sexism with savvy responses; some listeners viewed her inclusion as a tempering of Cube’s alleged misogyny. Ice Cube also produced Yo-Yo’s 1990 album Make Way for the Motherlode and would serve as executive producer on her 1992 sophomore effort, Black Pearl. Still, Nelson and Gonzales declared that “the sexism found on [AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted] is counterproductive to the goals of the struggle” for black liberation.

In 1991 Priority released Cube’s Kill At Will, another highly successful record that earned strong reviews. Art Form praised the single “Dead Homiez” as “a harrowing and sorrowful tale of a funeral for a friend,” and also spoke highly of the song “The Product,” about which Cube remarked “It says a kid is just a product of his social background. Put him around lawyers, he’s gonna want to be a lawyer. Put him around gangbangers, he’s gonna want to be a gangbanger.” That same year, Cube made his acting debut in John Singleton’s hit movie Boyz N’ the Hood, playing the haunted, violent Doughboy to generally favorable reviews.

Attacked as Racist

With the release of Death Certificate, Ice Cube once again plunged into controversy. Apparently anti-Semitic references to Heller in “No Vaseline” and hostile words for Korean grocers in “Black Korea” triggered a wave of protests from organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; even Billboard condemned the record in an editorial. Cube’s apparent racism and misogyny sparked considerable comment, though he and some of his defenders noticed that critics were silent on the subject of black-on-black violence.

At the same time, however, Cube impressed many critics with his prowess as a rapper and observer of life on the streets: Entertainment Weekly called 1991’s Death Certificate “20 tracks of the most visceral music ever allowed in public,” awarding it an “A-” grade. Spin admired the record’s “big, slap-happy beats” but took Cube to task for what critic Dimitri Ehrlich deemed racist, sexist, and homophobic material. Side one—the “Death Side”—begins with the sound of a funeral; “the life side” commences with a birth. “The ‘death’ side is the condition we’re in now,” Cube explained to Ehrlich in Interview, adding that “There are more positive records on the ‘life’ side, because while the ‘death’ side shows you where we at, ‘life’ shows you where we going.”

Following Ice-T’s successful run on the first Lollapalooza traveling rock festival in 1991, Cube appeared on the bill for Lollapalooza 2 in 1992, sharing the stage with funk-rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Seattle-based grungemeisters Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam, among many others. Almost every rock act on the bill heaped praise on Cube, and the Chili Peppers went so far as to appear in a video for his 1992 album The Predator. Another, much more important event came between Death Certificate and The Predator, however: the Los Angeles riots in the spring of 1992. After a group of white police officers who were videotaped beating black motorist Rodney King were acquitted by an all-white jury, the city exploded in acts of random violence. Fans looked to Cube for a definitive statement on the riots.

The Predator earned an “A-” from Entertainment Weekly’s Greg Sandow, who observed that “what’s most striking here are songs—Ice Cube’s strongest, most cohesive work yet—about the perils of everyday South Central life.” Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times —who called Cube’s first and second LPs “two of the most compelling albums ever in rap”—found that despite its inconsistencies, the album’s best moments make it “essential listening.” Still, Hilburn criticized the rapper for “failing to deal more directly with the events of [the riots].” The album debuted at Number One on the Billboard pop and rhythm and blues charts simultaneously, the first album to do so since Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life in 1976.

On top of enhanced fame from his new hit record, Cube would soon become even better known thanks to another film role. This time he starred with Ice-T in the film Trespass, a crime thriller whose working title had been Looters but was changed in response to the 1992 riots. Meanwhile, Reflex magazine reported that Ice Cube had donated $25,000 to the Los Angeles-based Minority AIDS Project, and Option noted his donation of proceeds from a new single to post-riot relief efforts.

End of N.W.A.; Continued Solo Success

Just as The Predator was raiding the charts, Rolling Stone announced that N.W.A. had apparently disbanded. Ice Cube, however, appeared on top of his game. His 1993 release Lethal Injection was one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated albums. While some critics praised it, Kevin Powell of Vibe declared it “not the masterpiece it could have been.” Time, meanwhile, claimed that “Ice Cube’s raps about police brutality and white immorality enter the ear and expand in the brain like a Black Talon bullet; his lyrics are sometimes inexcusable, but his logic is often inescapable. Ignore his high-caliber insights at your peril.”

hooks, a black feminist theorist, explored Cube’s perceived misogyny and thoughts on attaining black self-love in an interview with the rapper published in Spin. “Black women have always been the backbone of the community,” he declared, “and it’s up to the black man to support the backbone.” He also insisted that “I do records for black kids, and white kids are basically eavesdropping. White kids need to hear what we got to say about them, and their forefathers, and uncles, and everybody that’s done us wrong.” Additionally, he admitted wanting to move into “straight political records” but didn’t want to change the content of his records too abruptly.

By 1994, Cube’s life had undergone some changes. Reported Vibe, “He’s happily married, a follower of the beliefs of the Nation of Islam, and the father of a little namesake (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), with a baby girl on the way. Fans and detractors alike will tell you that Cube seems a lot less angry these days.” He starred in Singleton’s feature Higher Learning, directed some music videos, and announced plans to eventually move into feature film direction. “I don’t want to do nothing weak,” Cube insisted. “I want to make sure I win.” Although the scourge of white America appeared to have gone mainstream, Lethal Injection had done little to rehabilitate Cube in the eyes of his critics; in interviews, Cube’s more conciliatory remarks were still tempered with flareups of the old fury. He also trumpeted the Nation of Islam’s demand for a separate black country. Yet the “new” Cube reflected a more pragmatic sensibility; as he insisted to Vibe, “I know that killing a nigga’ down the street ain’t going to solve none of my problems at all. And I don’t put that into my records, unless I’m explaining a situation. I ain’t stupid no more. And some people can’t deal with that.”

Selected discography

With N.W.A.

Boyz-n-the-Hood, Priority, 1986.

Straight Outta Compton (includes “F—tha Police”), Priority, 1989.

As solo artist

AmeriKKKa ’s Most Wanted (includes “It’s a Man’s World”), Priority, 1990.

Kill at Will (includes “Dead Homiez” and “The Product”), Priority, 1991.

Death Certificate (includes “Black Korea” and “No Vaseline”), Priority, 1991.

The Predator, Priority, 1992.

Lethal Injection, Priority, 1993.

Sources

Books

Nelson, Havelock, and Michael Gonzales, Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture, Harmony Books, 1991, pp. 87-89.

Periodicals

Art Form, 1992, pp. 42-49.

Daily Variety, November 23, 1992, p. 6.

Entertainment Weekly, November 15, 1991, pp. 90-91;

November 20, 1992, p. 88.

Interview, December 1991, p. 89.

Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1992, p. 64.

Musician, March 1991, pp. 58-61.

Newsweek, December 2, 1991, p. 69.

Option, July 1992, p. 146.

Pulse!, August 1992, p. 65.

Reflex, November 10, 1992, p. 11.

Roiling Stone, October 4, 1990, pp. 78-86, 166.

Spin, January 1992; March 1992, pp. 33-37; April 1993.

Time, January 3, 1994, p. 85.

Vibe, February 1994; March 1994, pp. 41-46.

—Simon Glickman