Ice Cube 1969–

Ice Cube 1969–

Rap singer, songwriter, actor

At a Glance…

N.W.A. Shook Rap World

Solo Success

Attacked as Racist

Widened Appeal on Tour

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

Not Your Average Rap Artist

Selected work

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 Havelock 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.

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 like 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, I 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

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; married, Kimberly Jackson, 1993; children, Darryl, O’Shea Jr., Kareema. Education: Phoenix Institute of Technology, graduated, 1988.

Career: Rap singer, producer, actor. Member of and writer for rap group N.W.A., 1986-89; solo artist, 1989-; solo albums include: AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, 1990; Death Certificate, 1991; The Predator, 1992; Lethal Injection, 1993; War & Peace, Vol 1 (The War Disc), 1998; War & Peace, Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc), 2000; formed record production company, Street Knowledge, 1990; produced for rapper Yo Yo; formed record production company, Lynch Mob, 1992; directed music videos, 1993; films include: Boyz N’ the Hood, 1991; Trespass, 1993; CB4, 1993; Higher Learning, 1994; Friday, (also writer) 1995; Dangerous Ground, (also executive producer) 1997; Anaconda, 1997; Players Club, (also writer and director) 1998; I Got the Hook Up, 1998; Three Kings, 1999; Next Friday, (also writer) 2000; Shadow Man, 2000; Ghost of Mars, 2001; All About the Benjamins, 2001; formed movie production company, CubeVision.

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

had financed an independent record label—Ruthless Records—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, Ruthless released in 1988. N.W.A.’s first LP, Straight Outta 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. Indeed, 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.” 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.”

Widened Appeal on Tour

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 consistencies, 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.”

Bell Hooks, a 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. 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.”

Not Your Average Rap Artist

The more mature and sensible Cube also began to solidify the new direction in his professional life. The next few years would paint the rapper as more of a producer of movies than music. Cube made his film writing debut in 1995 with the release of the hugely successful movie Friday. The film featured F. Gary Gray in the director’s chair and comedian Chris Tucker in the co-star seat. The movie launched the big screen career for both Gray—who had done videos for Cube and Queen Latifah—and Tucker, who had experienced success with HBO’s Def Comedy Jam. With a budget of $2 million, Friday has since grossed more than $80 million dollars.

Cube acted as executive producer and star in his next movie, Dangerous Ground, and co-stared in horror flick Anaconda with Jennifer Lopez. And as he planned, his ever-changing position in Hollywood filmmaking was approaching a milestone. His next role would be as director, writer and actor in The Players Club. This directorial debut for Cube had a bigger budget than Friday —$5 million—and proved with opening week returns of more than $8 million, to be a financial success as well. The Players Club boasted the highest per-screen gross of the movies opening during the same weekend. Cube, now a rapper, writer, producer, actor and director, was also now a member of the small Hollywood Club of money-making film directors.

With the confidence that success was possible in the film world, Cube went back to his roots recording War & Peace, a two volume disc set that dropped Volume 1, in 1998. War & Peace, Vol. 1 (The War Disc) debuted with mild reviews. The rap artist, however, was still applauded for his impressive rhyme flow. He also tackled more movie roles, staring in Three Kings with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in 1999. War & Peace, Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) was released in 2000 and has sold close to 750,000 units. To promote the release, Cube joined the successful Up In Smoke Tour during the summerof 2000. Along with Cube, the tour featured Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Snoop Doggy Dogg.

Cube also revisited his early success with a follow up to Friday —Next Friday. His production company, Cube-Vision, produced the movie for New Line Cinema as part of production pact that had extended through 2002. The production pact folded after New Line turned down several projects recommended by Cube. He then began working on two films slated for release in 2001: Ghost of Mars and All About the Benjamins. Cube has placed great stock in advice his mentor, John Singleton, has offered. “He said if you can write a record, you can write a movie,” Cube explained in Jet. Following that advice, Cube has found great success as a filmmaker, as well as a musician.

Selected work

(With N.W.A.)

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

Straight Outta Compton, Priority, 1989.

(As solo artist)

AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, Priority, 1990.

Kill at Will, Priority, 1991.

Death Certificate, Priority, 1991.

The Predator, Priority, 1992.

Lethal Injection, Priority, 1993.

War & Peace, Vol. 1, (The War Disc), Priority, 1998.

War & Peace, Vol. 2, (The Peace Disc), Priority, 2000.

(films)

Boyz N’ the Hood, 1991.

Trespass, 1993.

CB4, 1993.

Higher Learning, 1994.

Friday, (also writer) 1995.

Dangerous Ground, (also executive producer) 1997.

Anaconda, 1997.

Players Club, (also writer and director) 1998.

I Got the Hook Up, 1998.

Three Kings, 1999.

Next Friday, (also writer) 2000.

Shadow Man, 2000.

Ghost of Mars, 2001.

All About the Benjamins, 2001.

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; May 12, 1995, pp. 43; April 17, 1998, pp. 48; October 8, 1999, pp. 22.

Hollywood Reporter, January, 2001.

Interview, December 1991, p. 89.

Jet, February 28, 2000, pp. 58.

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

Musician, March 1991, pp. 58-61.

Newsweek, December 2, 1991, p. 69; April 27, 1998, pp. 72.

Option, July 1992, p. 146.

Pulse!, August 1992, p. 65.

Reflex, November 10, 1992, p. 11.

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

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

Time, January 3, 1994, p. 85.

Variety, January 17, 2000, pp. 50.

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

—Simon Glickman and Leslie Rochelle