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Everybody Who Comes From The Gangster Life - They Want What That Man In The Suburbs Wants. Nice Family. Nice House. Nice Cars. Bills Paid. Kids In School. Food On The Table. Nothing More.

-Ice Cube

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Everybody Who Comes From

Ice Cube

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Everybody Who Comes From The Gangster Life - They Want What That Man In The Suburbs Wants. Nice Family. Nice House. Nice Cars. Bills Paid. Kids In School. Food On The Table. Nothing More.

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Everybody Thinks The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side. If You Talk To Most Artists, They Think They Can Play Something, You Know, "if I Had Stayed Playing Football In High School, If I Had Been Doing Basketball..." Everybody's Got Their Fantasies And Thinks The Grass Is Greener. It's Not. It's Not.

My Movies Work Because Not Many People In Hollywood Are Like Me.

Don't Get A Movie Confused With Real Life. I'm A Well-rounded Human Being Like Everyone Else.

When My Nine Goes Buck, It Will Bust Your Head Like A Watermelon Dropping 12 Stories Up.

Whatever Happened In The Neighborhood. That's What I Was Rapping About. And That Sparked People's Interest. And That's What Kind Of Put Me On That Path.

I Think Everybody Likes A Person That Stands Up For Themselves. Nobody Likes A Punk Or A Coward.

The '80s Was Wild Compared To My Real Small Childhood, Which Was Late '70s.

You Like A Woman, She's Got Kids, It's A Package. You Can't Just Go In One-sided.

I Grew Up In The Seventies And Disco Was Big. That Influenced Me The Most.

I Won't Lay Down My Principles For Any Kind Of Recognition Or Any Kind Of Position Or Trying To Be More Famous. It's Just Not In Me. I'd Rather Be A Man. And Then To Have All This Crazy Stuff On My Conscience.

"are We There Yet?" Was The Perfect Title, Because It's Such A Common Saying. And Having Made The Movie With The Same Name Kinda Locks It All In.

When You're Spending Your Money For A Nice Outing, You Want To Go Have A Good Time. And I Always Thought Comedies, Laughing, Was Something That Was Made For Entertainment On That Level. And Records And Maybe Tv And Stuff Like That Is Really Made To Be Heavy.

I Always Say The Movie Came Out Good If They Want Another One. That Always Tells Me That People Really Liked The Movie.

I Hope Everything Works In Our Favor. The Show Is Cool. It’s Family Fare. We Ain’t Aiming At The Cheap Seats. Instead, We’re Making Something With A Broad Appeal That People Of Any Color Or Creed And From All Walks Of Life Can Enjoy And Maybe Learn Something From.

The Best Thing To Do Is To Write About What You Know, And If You Write About What You Know You Can Always Pull Those Nice Little Tidbits That Hook People, That Shows That You Know About This World And Can Bring People Into A World That They May Not Know Nothing About.

Nobody I Know Got Killed In South Central La. Today Was A Good Day.

When I Was In N.w.a. And Didn't Get Paid All The Money I Was Owed, That's When The Business Side Of Showbiz Hit Me.

If I Only Had 24 Hours To Live, I Would Spend The Time Telling Everybody I Love That I Love Them.

Ice Cube Is The Piece Of Me That I Give Away To The Public.

If You Really Think Back To The Culture Or Just Black America Before Rap Music Took Off, New York Could Have Been Paris.

I Knew A Dude Whose Entire Check Was Going To His Car. He Didn't Care. This Is Back When The Mustang 5.0 Came Out In, Like, '82. Between Paying The Note And Insurance, I Think He Had Like $40 Left. A Lot Of People Knew People Because Of Their Car, And Not Them.

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

I Wish The World Would Become What God Wanted It To Be In The First Place, Before We Tampered With It.

I Make A Mean Cup Of Coffee, If You Give Me The Right Ingredients.

The Hardest Period For A Writer Is The Period In-between Writing. That's When You Can Go Crazy If You Don't Allow The Creative Juices To Flow.

Creative Juices

I Go Light On Breakfast. Sometimes It's A Yogurt, But A Lot Of Times It's Leftovers From One Of My Wife's Dinners.

We'll Burn Your Store Right Down To A Crisp.

There's Rumors In The Twittersphere. If I Find Out That Any Of My Officer Is Giving Out Drug And Alcohol I Send Their Ass To Prison With A Snorkel Duct-taped To Their Mouth And Me S***ing Down That Snorkel

Once You Figure Out What Your Own Thing Is It's All About Trying To Develop Shows, Programs That Can, I Guess, Enhance What You Already Have And What You Can Add To Hollywood.

I Have A Really Beautiful Life Right Now, So There Is No Reason To Be Hostile. I'm A Husband, A Father And A Man Who Tries To Do The Right Thing In Life And In My Work.

I Don't Think People Should Try To Force Their Will On Their Family.

I Think, To Me, Reality Is Better Than Being Fake.

You Wanna Be Remembered For Making An Impact And Changing Things. I Guess For The Good Or For The Bad, It Don't Matter. But I Guess You Just Wanna Be Remembered When It's All Said And Done.

If You Really Look At My Lyrics, Nobody's Exempt. Nobody's Exempt From Observation, Criticism Or What I Think Is Correction.

People Associate Clothes With Actual Behavior, And It's Kind Of Crazy. If You Get Shot In Some Levi's You Don't Go After Levi's. It's Not The Clothes. It's Always The People.

I Think You Have To Find How The Machine Can Work For You. That's What I Mean By "attaching Yourself To The Machine," 'cause The Machine Is Going To Be There, And You Can Rage Against The Machine, Which Is Cool, But There's Ways That You Can Benefit Off The Machine If You're Savvy Enough And You're Sharp Enough, Smart Enough. We All Got To Live And Eat.

Sports Without Music Is Just A Game. Music Makes It Entertaining.

The Police Don't Look At You As Long When They Drive Past. Sometimes They Don't Look At You At All. In South Central, You've Got Them Looking And Lurking. I Think It's Basic Harassment. It's Part Of Their Tactics To Have Everybody Nervous Of Them. In The Valley, At Least I Don't Feel It The Same Way.

I Love Makin' Music, So Whether I'ma Make Money At It Or Not, I'ma Still Do It. The Thing Is, I've Gotten To A Point Where I Don't Have To Use Music To Make A Livin', So I Can Do It For Fun Like I Used To When I Was Young.

I Think People, If You Really Want To Be Happy, You Have To Find God Yourself, And You're Going To Have To Have A Personal, One-on-one Relationship And Not Look To Get Through These Traditions Or These Rituals And All This Crazy Stuff When You Could Talk To Him Right Here, Right Now, Anytime, Anywhere, Any Place, From Any Position. And That's The Kind Of Relationship You Want, Not A Standard.

The Thing Is With Hip-hop, It Has Its Waves And The Waves Crash Against The Beach And The New Waves Come In. So To Stay Relevant You Have To Roll With That.

A Lot Of Movies Will Deliver On The Promotion But When You Go See Them, Everything You Laughed At Was In The Trailer.

Most Of The Problems That We Have Are Brought On By The Government And Not By Music. Music Is A Mirror Of What We're Going Through, Not The Cause Of What We're Going Through.

Embrace What Makes Up You. Some Stereotypes Are True - I Love Chicken, But That's A Stereotype, I Love F**king Basketball, But That's A Stereotype, Too. But Who Cares? Embrace It. Be Who You Are, And Don't Be Ashamed Of What That Is.

I'm Interested In How Things Are Put Together, And That's More Interesting To Me Than Just Regular Shows, Even Though I Like The Walking Dead.

I Know My Flavor's Going To Work Because I Just Know There's Not A Lot Of Guys Like Me Around. So You Got To Figure Out What's That About You.

I Think That My "let's Get It Done! Let's Have Fun! Let's Make A Great Movie!" Attitude Helped. I Rarely Have Problems On My Movies With Egos And Attitudes.

Do I Gotta Go Sell Me A Whole Lotta Crack For Decent Shelter And Clothes On My Back?

Unanswered Questions

You Never Get Tired Of Seeing Yourself On Tv. It's Always Extra Cool... Always A Treat.

I Always Said That What I Do Is Street Knowledge, You Let The Street Know What The Politicians Of Today Are Doing, And If The Politicians Are Listening, Let Them Know What The Streets Think.

I Never Was In The Nation Of Islam... I Mean, What I Call Myself Is A Natural Muslim, 'cause It's Just Me And God.

There's Not Enough Ice Cubes Out There. There's Not Enough Ice Cubes Getting A Chance To Do Their Thing.

I Still Enjoy Doing Music. I'm Not Going To Stop Doing It, And Doing It The Way That I Feel It Should Be Done.

As A Husband, I'm A True Partner. I Don't Believe One Person Should Have Dominance Over Another.

The Real Is Always Presented. That Hardcore Record Or Movie Is Not Needed In The Hood, Because It's Already There. You Can See It With Your Own Eyes.

America Eats Its Youth Like Reptiles...educat E Yourself Before They Dumb You Down.

Everybody Who Comes From The Gangster Life - They Want What That Man In The Suburbs Wants. Nice Family. Nice House. Nice Cars. Bills Paid. Kids In School. Food On The Table. Nothing More.

Snoop Dog Is The Phil Jackson Of Youth Football Coaches. He Ain't Going To Accept Nothing But A Winner.

When I Was Six, God Was A White Man With A Big Beard Riding On A White Cloud. That's The Image Television Pumps.

Sometimes Guys Just Want The Girl And Want To Drop The Kids Off Anywhere They Can. Guys Its A Package. You Like A Woman, Shes Got Kids, Its A Package. You Cant Just Go In One-sided. Its Pretty Cool.

You Always Want Your Kids To Step Up At The Moment Of Truth.

I Would Love To Meet Bob Marley. I Mean, He's Passed, But That's Somebody That I Would've Loved To Meet.

Create Your Own Path, Hone Your Talent, Be Ready To Show Your Talent, And Don't Doubt Yourself.

Get A Grip, Oreo, And Be True To The Game.

For My Birthday, Buy Me A Politician!

Even Though I Have A Nice House, Nice Family, The Rest Of My Generation Is Still In South Central L.a. My Cousins, My Brothers, My Sisters, They Don't Wanna Move Out. They Don't Want To And They Don't Have The Means To Sustain It. That's Where My Heart Is And That's What I Think About All The Time.

You The Devil In Drag. You Can Burn Your Cross, Well, I'll Burn Your Flag.

The Devil Made You A Slave. Your Waitin' For The Devil To Come From The Ground. Take A Look Around. Just Look At The Cross That The Priest Is Holdin'. A Beast, In Sheep's Clothin'. You Are The Prince Of Darkness. Hell Born, Demonic.

When I Was In N.w.a. And Didn't Get Paid All The Money I Was Owed, That's When The Business Side Of Showbiz Hit Me. I Thought, "half Of This Is Workin'. I'm Famous, But Now I Need To Be Famous With Some Money." That Got My Brain Started At Trying To Figure Out The Business End. And Once I Figured Out The Business Side, I Next Came To Understand That Success Really Comes Down To The Product, Not To Me, My Personality, Or What Club I'm Seen Going Into Or Coming Out Of. None Of That Matters.

The Biggest Change In The Government's Behavior Has Been Because Of Tv And Its Ability To Show To The World What Has Happened In This Community... That's The Biggest Change. But Without Tv... The Separation Between The Government And The People Would Be Much Worse Than It Is.

Some People Have A Taboo About Doing Advertising In The States. You Know, Where They Kind Of Make Their Bread And Butter. But To Me, That's Crazy.

My Son, O'shea. He Looks Like Me, And He Can Rhyme.

I Definitely Know The Minister Honorable Louis Farrakhan. But I Don't Really Believe In Organized Religion Like That. I Don't Know What It Does For People In The Long Run.

It's Always Been Jewelry, Clothes, Appearance. Those Are Things That Compete With The Car. But The Car Is The Ultimate. Get That Car Right And It Doesn't Matter What You Got On Or What You Wear Once You Step Out Of That Car.

Nowadays, You Can Be Yourself. You Don't Have To Put On Façade. You Can Be Who You Are And Still Be Just As Successful As The Ones Who Put On The Fake Façade. You Know, It's Like Reality Is Just As Important As Fiction.

I'm Just An Entertainer, Man. I Don't Like To Pigeonhole Myself To Anything. I Love To Do It All.

I've Never Really Taken Myself Too Serious. That's Everybody Else, Listening To The Music Or Whatever. I've Always Said What I've Felt, Said What I Thought Was Right, But I've Always Had A Comedic Bone.

You Really Have To Challenge Yourself To Come Out Of Those Parameters That They Put You In, Even If That's Your Job.

Challenge Yourself

I Think Hip-hop Has Changed. When I First Came Out, Hip-hop Was More Of A Kind Of Way To Learn About New Places, New Things. What Are Kids Doing On The East Coast, What Are Kids Doing Here. Then It Left That And Is Like A Party Mode. I Think It's Going Back To People Wanting To Get Messages And Wanting To Learn Things From The Music.

I Always Was Like, "yo, I'm Here, I Might As Well Get What I Could Take."

The '80s Was Brand New. It Was Aids. It Was Gangbanging. It Was Starting To Become Big Dope-dealing, And Crack Was Starting To Flood The Neighborhoods. And Then You Had Hip Hop, Which Was Something New, Other Than What We Were Doing, Which Was Sports, Playing Football, Basketball, Baseball. And I Was Excited.

Rap Is Always Evolving. It's Easy For The Old School To Hate The New School, But It's A Music That Got A Little Stifled I Think, By The Internet A Little Bit.

I Like Obama, But I Understand That His Hands Are Tied, The Way Congress Is Reacting. It's Just Partisan Politics Everywhere, And Don't Know How We Going To Get Things Done In The Future Without Compromising A Little Bit.

Anything That Got To Do With A Pig, I Ain't Eatin'.

Keep Everybody Out Your Business, That's How You Do It. And I Mean Everybody. It Ain't About Having A Relationship Outside Of The House. It's About Having A Relationship Within Each Other. When Something Go Down Don't Be Calling Your Sister Or Your Mother; I'm Not Gonna Be Calling My Brother Or Uncles. We're Gonna Work It Out.

A Bird In The Hand Is Worth More Than A Bush.

Rapping Is Talking And Communicating, And That's Always Good.

My Worst Ever Car Was A Green Datsun B210, Back When They Called It 'datsun' - Now It's 'nissan.' Very Unsexy, Unattractive. Girls Hated The Car. I Was Embarrassed To Even Be In It But It Was My Transportation.

I Believe Our Society Has Fell Into A Pyramid System Where There's People Relegated To The Bottom Of That Pyramid And There's People That Feel Like They're Entitled To The Top Of That Pyramid.

It's Always Great When You're Able To Give Fans What They Expect And Even A Little More.

Can't Step From One Movie Set To The Next. Only Samuel L. Jackson Can Do That. All Us Mere Mortals Can't Do That!

Cool People Still Have A Hard Time Showing What They Got In Hollywood.

If You Love What You Do, And You Believe In Your Talent, There's Nothing Better Than Breaking Through. There's No Better Feeling Than Breaking Through.

[make A Sitcom] Was Really The Idea Of Executive Producer Joe Roth Who Owned The Property Over At Revolution Studios And Said He Was Thinking About Taking It To Tv. And After He Said That He Already Had [writer/director] Ali Leroi On Board, And That He Was Going After Terry Crews, To Me It Was A No-brainer. I Said, "let's Put This Together!"

As Far As Producing, Once We Started Shooting, I Soon Realized Where The Critical Decisions About The Movies Were Really Being Made, And It Wasn't On The Set. They Were Being Made In The Production Meetings. That's Where Producing A Movie Happens. And That's Where I Wanted To Be. I Didn't Just Want To Be A Piece, A Pawn Being Played. I Wanted To Take Part In The Creative Process, And That's How I Sort Of Got Introduced To The Idea.

Critical Decisions

You Become A Writer On A Television Show, And You See Yourself Doing Bigger And Better Things, You Don't Wait Till They Tell You, "here's The Way To Do Bigger And Better Things," You Start Writing. You Start Writing That Material That You Might Be Doing Off To The Side. Nobody's Going To Be Paying You For That, But It Could Turn Into Something Big.

Bigger And Better Things

People Wanted To Have Fun More Than They Wanted To Learn From Their Music, And That's Where The Shift Started To Happen.

I've Done Movies For Certain Reasons; I Did 'anaconda' Because The Black Man Lives. Simple. The Black Man Isn't Dead In The First Three Pages, Like Jurassic Park. It's Like, 'the Black Man Kills The Snake With A Latino Girl? Damn! I Got To Do This.'

When People See The Cubevision Logo, They Should Know It's Something Good, Something Worth Checking Out.

I Am Only 33, I've Got A Lot To Do. This Is The First Half Of My Career. I'm Looking Forward To The Future And I'm Proud About The Past.

That's Always Been My Approach, To Expose What's Going On And What's Not Being Said. I Could Go The Selfish Route, And Probably Make A Whole Lot More Money, But That's Not What It's About, It's About Speaking For People Who Can't Speak For Themselves.

I Been All Around The World And I Haven't Found A City That I'd Rather Be From Or Rather Come Back To Than Los Angeles.

I'm Trying To Cut Down A Little On Eating, On Sodium, Keep My Blood Pressure Down, Which Is Tough. Because I Love Food! I Do, But It's Unfair How Everything That's Bad For You Tastes So Good, And All The Good Stuff, Veggies And Green Things, Doesn't Match Up.

Music Is Where I Have The Most Creative Freedom, But I Love Producing. To Me, That's Kind Of Where All The Action Is. You Get A Chance To Have Your Hands In Every Aspect Of A Film. From Picking A Director, Sometimes Picking A Writer, To The Actors, The Wardrobe, Set Design, Editing, Music, And Marketing.

I Won't Do Anything For Money. I Won't Compromise My Manhood.

I Usually Don't Mind Movies That People Think Go Overboard Because That's What Art Is All About. Art Is About Pushing Us And Making Us Examine Ourselves.

To Be The Cream Of The Crop Is No Easy Feat. It's A Big Deal.

South Central Is Just Who I Am.

I Was Given The Name By My Brother When I Was About Eleven Or Twelve Years Old. He Was Older Than Me, And Around That Age I Was Starting To Get Into Girls, And When They Would Call The House For Him, And When He Was Not There, I Would Try To Talk To Them. I Was Trying To Be The Man And Trying To Get Them To Come And See Me, Not Worrying About Him. When He Found Out... He Started Calling Me Ice Cube As A Joke Because He Said I Was Trying To Be Too Cool. I Just Liked It And Started Telling Everybody In The Hood "my Name Is Ice Cube."

What I Learned From Architectural Drafting Is That Everything Has To Have A Plan To Work. You Just Can't Wing It. I Can't Get All The Materials I Need For A House And Just Start Building. Whether It's A Career, Family, Life - You Have To Plan It Out.

The Best Thing I've Done With My Money Is Buy A House For My Family. You Wake Up To A House You Love And You Feel Like Somebody.

My Advice For Anyone Who Wants To Follow In My Footsteps: Create Your Own Path, Hone Your Talent, Be Ready To Show Your Talent, And Don't Doubt Yourself.

There's Never Really Been A Real Hood Christmas Movie.

I'm Not Actually From Compton - I'm From South Central Los Angeles, And My Father Still Lives In The Same House I Grew Up In, So I'm There All The Time.

You Can Do Anything In The World If You Say "hey Man, Don't Blame Me, The Devil Made Me Do It. It's An Easy Way To Escape Responsibility."

The Moral Is That A Career Can Be Gone In An Instant. And All You Have In This World Are The People You Love.

It Never Gets Old. Working With Somebody Like Kevin Hart Is Rejuvenating In A Lot Of Ways. He's Such A Pro. He's So Good.

The Creative Process Of Making A Movie Really Turned Me On. I'd Started Getting Behind The Scenes With A Camcorder And Vhs Tape When Making Music Videos.

When You Have A Good Movie, It's Hard To Categorize It. It's Everything. It Makes You Laugh, Makes You Cry And Makes You Think.

The Way I Grew Up And The Neighborhood I Come From, When You Know Somebody's Beating You And You Still Let It Happen, Then You're A Victim. You're No Longer A Man When You Know Something Is Happening And You Don't Stand Up. So That's Just How We Raised.

Our Household Is Built On Love And Respect. And We Don't Really Let Negative Vibes Stay Too Long. It's Worked Out. I Got A Great Family, Great Kids.

Don't Worry About Being A Star, Worry About Doing Good Work, And All That Will Come To You.

Comedies In Hollywood Is Usually The Path Of Least Resistance When It Comes To Being Black In Hollywood And Putting Movies Together. They Would Rather Make Us Laugh Than Cry, In Some Respect.

Gangsta To Us Didn't Have Anything To Do With Al Capone And Stuff Like That. It's Just About Living Your Life The Way You Want To Live It. And You're Not Going To Let Nothing Stop You.

[boycott Oscar] Is Like Crying About Not Having Enough Icing On Your Cake. It's Just Ridiculous.

I Don't Get Nothing But Love. In Every Ghetto All Over The World. Nothing But Love. They Respect That I Came Outta There And I'm Doing It The Right Way. You Can't Do Nothing But Respect That.

You Don't Wanna Mess Up What You've Done. It's Like Jordan Coming Back: You're Scared To Mess Up The Legacy.

You Learn That Hollywood Has Its Own Rules, Sometimes. And It's Tricky, And Sometimes You Can't See What's Coming Around The Corner.

It's Funny How People Who Ain't Never Been Down There Can Think That America Is So Fair And That We Should Be Alright. It's Funny That The People Who Have Their Foot On Our Neck Are Telling Us, 'get Up. What's Wrong With You?'

If The Day Did Not Require An Ak Then It Was Good

I Really Appreciate Family. I Really Can't Imagine Life Without Them!

You Don't Have To Spend $200 Million Or $100 Million To Make A Great Movie.

Everybody In The World Has To Compromise. I Don't Know One Person That Gets Everything They Want, So The Politicians Are Going To Have To Figure That Out And Stop Pointing Out, "he Shook Hands With A Democrat In 1989. He Ate With A Republican Last Week." It's Petty High School, Even Junior High Stuff Going On. It's Junior High Politics Going On, So It's A Shame.

Sometimes, When You Want To Laugh, Reality Steps In.

My Problem Is That I Never Get Through The Whole Book. I Skim Through This One, That One, And Then The Other One.

You Know It Ain't No Stoppin' All The Doggs I'm Droppin' It's Friday Night, So Everything Is Poppin.

I Have Great People, Smart People That Are Around Me And We Love The Challenge. I Guess It's Like Climbing A Mountain Or Building A Building. It's A Challenge But You Love Every Challenge That It Brings Or Presents Itself.

Anybody That Really Knew Tupac Will Tell You The Same Thing. That He Was Just A Dude That Was Full Of Life, Full Of Energy.

To Me, In A Perfect World, You Have The Flavor And The Magic Of Movies Like 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon And Bad Boys.

You Pay To Have A Good Time, You Don't Always Want To Pay To Be Schooled Or Sad Or Reminded How Bad You Got It. To Me A Movie Theater Ain't Always The Place For That.

The Movie Industry Is One Big Collaboration. Music Gives Me That Freedom To Create Things Straight From My Heart And My Mind.

Our Records, If You Have A Dark Sense Of Humor, Were Funny, But Our Records Weren't About Comedy. They Were About Protests, Fantasy, Confrontation And All That.

I Think Rap Music Is Brought Up, Gangster Rap In Particular, As Well As Video Games, Every Other Thing They Try To Hang The Ills Of Society On As A Scapegoat.

I Think Reading Is Important In Any Form. I Think A Person Who's Trying To Learn To Like Reading Should Start Off Reading About A Topic They Are Interested In, Or A Person They Are Interested In.

Everybody That Wants To Be Successful Should Always Be Careful Of What You Wish For. A Lot Of Artists And Entertainers Want To Put The Genie Back In The Bottle And Wish They Could Go Back To Being What They Were.

Early In My Career, People Wanted To Hear Music About Protest, About Trying To Change Things.

Money Comes And Goes, But Your Inner Feelings, Your Gut Feelings, Your Manhood, Your Womanhood, Whatever, That Stays With You. That Don't Go Anywhere. So You Either Proud Of Who You Are And How You Handle Situations Or You Not. If You Handle A Situation Wrong, You, It Will Haunt You.

To Me, It's My Job Not To Laugh, No Matter What's Said. By The Time We Shoot, I'm Ready For All That's Coming. I Probably Do Most Of My Breaking In Rehearsals, When I Know That I Can.

We Should Love The Fact That We're Not Just Getting One Point Of View. That We Have This Diversity In Entertainment, And People Are Not Scared To Be Themselves, And People Are Not Scared To Make People Uncomfortable, And That's All Part Of It. That's All Part Of Being Free.

Truth Is The Ultimate Power. When The Truth Comes Around, All The Lies Have To Run And Hide.

I Believe Every Pencil Has To Be Sharpened Every Now And Then To Stay Sharp, Or You Dull Out. So My Records, I Chose To Speak On What Black People Do, What White People Do, What Women Do, What Men Do.

You Can Go Raise The Money Outside Of The Industry, And Then What You're Doing Is Fighting With Your Money To Get Back Into The Industry, Or For Them To Use Your Money Instead Of Their Own. So, You Got To Figure Out How To Do It Within The Flow Of The Industry.

I Always Want To Read The Script Before I Totally Commit.

Never Question The Size Of Ice Cube's Balls!

While I Had Done The Movies Through Revolution Studios, We Own The Sitcom. It Was A Situation Where, Once The Team Was Assembled, I Knew We Could Create Something Really, Really Good.

Twerking Has To End. Not For The Ones That Look Good Doing It, But For All The Ones That You Feel, 'you Don't Have Enough To Twerk Back There. Your Twerkin' Look Like Jerkin.'

Today I Didn't Even Have To Even Use My A.k ! I Got To Say It Was A Good Day

I Get Freedom Out Of Hip-hop. I Get To Be A True Artist Without Any Shackles Or Harnesses.

Rap Is Just Somebody Getting Something Off His Chest. That's All It Is.

I Do What I Do. You Like It, Great. You Don't, Go Listen To Somebody Else. I'm Stickin' With The People Who Stuck With Me.

Don't Want To Hear My Favorite Rapper Doin' A Love Song. If I Want To Hear Something Soft, I'll Throw On Luther Vandross.

I Don't Consider Myself Ever Joining. But I Have Affiliations, For Sure.

I Care About What I Look Like On The Red Carpet.

Cinderella Hoein' For The Fellas, Mr. Roger Was Getting Kind Of Jealous.

Doing It Your Own Way, Not Having To Go Exactly By The Book To Be Successful.

For Me Rappers And Dancers Are Poets And Artists And Often Times The Most Interesting Performances Are Given By Them.

There's Things People Say In The Barbershop They Won't Even Say In Their Own Living Room, Because It's Just One Of Those Zones Where Nobody's Going To Judge You Too Much About Your Dumb Opinion.

I Think Rap Music Is The Sole Reason For A Lot Of Black Acceptance In Pop Culture; Because The Music Is Very Popular, It Gets Our Image Out In Other Ways Than In Movies.

We Come From The Days When Rap Used To Agitate The Mainstream. Now It's More Buddy-buddy. That Doesn't Sit Well With Me. So What We Need Is [a Bit More] Street Politics, Bringing Up Issues, Agitating You A Little Bit. And Nothing Can Agitate You More Now Than A Terrorist Threat.

The Silver And Black May Have Another Home, But The Raiders Will Always Belong To The People Of Los Angeles.

A Lot Of People Have A Misconception Of What The Ghetto Is All About. You Know, It's Only A Small Percentage Of The People That Are Bad. Everybody Else Is Good.

My Thing Is: Stay Creative. And Just Because Somebody Starts To Pay You, That Don't Mean All Your Creativity Goes To That, And You Don't Save None For Yourself To Be Able To Do Other, Bigger And Better Things And Still Follow Your Dreams Even If You Start Off Inside Of A Box.

I Used To Love To Draw. I Didn't Want To Go To Art Class Because I Felt That Would Be Too Corny When I Was Young, But Architectural Drafting Was The Cool Thing To Do Because There Was More Precision. It Taught Me A Lot About Building And Structures And Doorways And Frames And Windowsills.

We Don't Do Movies For The Industry. We Do Movies For The Fans, For The People. If The Industry Give You A Trophy Or Not, Or Pat You On The Back Or Not, It's Nice, But It's Not Something You Should Dwell On.

I Know That There Are Obstacles; I Know That There Are Hills To Climb, I Know There Were People Before Me That Made My Journey Easier And There Are People Behind Me That I Have Made The Journey Easier For.

My Son Darrel Could Recite 'straight Outta Compton' At Two Years Old. He Loved It! You Can Expose Your Kids To Anything As Long As You Sit There And Explain It To Them.

Money Is The Root Of All Evil. Yeah, Money Is The Root. It's Not Racism And "this-ism" And "that-ism"; It's Our Thirst And Hunger For Money. And That's Where All The Bodies Are Buried.

I Still Want To Put Together Bigger And Better Programs To Work With The Community. I Still Think I Could Do Better On That End.

You Don't Have To Be Super Clean To Be A Super Star

If You Give Anybody The Chance, They Can Always Make A Decent Human Being Out Of Themselves. It's The People That Don't Have A Chance, That We Look Down At Like They're Monsters Or They're Animals Or That They Want Something Different Than The Rest Of Us.

Creating Is Really What I Like To Do. The Best Thing In The World Is To Have An Idea In The Back Of Your Head And Then To Make That Idea Into A Movie And Have People All Over The World Enjoy It.

I Wanted To Go In A Different Direction, Artistically. But Having Somebody Like Terry[crews] In It Was Your Ace In The Hole. That Makes It Very Strong, So I Definitely Had To Jump In With Both Feet.

Usually People Who Attack The Rap Are People Who Aren't Even Fans.

I Could Do An Interview Or Just As Well Not Do One. It's Not Like I'm Looking For Extra Publicity.

I Feel Like I Got A Whole Lot Of Living To Do Before I Think About Summing It Up In A Book.

I Would Love A Shot At A Lead Role, But It's Not Up To Me Right Now. I Just Try To Make The Most Out Of Every Opportunity I'm Given, And Hope Somebody Will Get On My Side. Until That Happens, I'm Just A Working Actor.

I'm Not The Type Of Actor Who Is Trying To Do A Whole Bunch Of Different Shit, You Know What I Mean?

Most Actors Have To Sit By The Phone And Wait For Somebody To Call Them Up To Audition And Stuff. I Don't Think I Can Exist In Hollywood Just On That. I Think I Need To Be Proactive And Making Sure That Things I Really Want To Do Are Being Developed To The Point Where Somebody Wants To Make Them?

We Used To Have Mtv And All These Ways We Can Show Our Videos, And It Was These Rap Shows, And It Was Everything. And Then It Became Not Cool To Be Conscious; It Became Cool To Just Hang Out. Escapism Rap Became The Norm. And, When I Say "escapism Rap", I Mean Getting High, Get Your Cars, Get Your Money, Get Your Jewelry, Go To The Club, Have Your Women, And It Just Became All About Escaping Your Reality And Not Making Your Reality Better On A Real Tip; Not Just On The Have Fun Tip.

I Don't Listen To Nothing While I'm In The Studio, Because I Don't Want To Be Influenced By Anybody Else.

I Don't Cook Gumbo, But I Just Know It's A Lot Of Good Ingredients In It. And, With A Movie, You Got To Have All Those Ingredients.

I've Got A Basketball Signed By All The Greats From Julius Irving To Oscar Robinson. It Was At An All Star Game I Got Them All To Sign It. So That Ain't Going Nowhere. I'm Going To Die With That In My Casket.

I've Been Around A Lot Longer Than Most Rappers Stay Around. So I Don't Feel Like, I Haven't Made Too Many Career Mistakes.

I Think My Fans Respect Me For Bein' As Truthful And Honest As You Can Be And Still Be Rap Music And Not Be Opinion Music. It's Still Rap, Its Still Style, Flavor, Flair, And People Just Kind Of Like How I Present Myself And The Things That I Do.

Music Has Done A Lot To Enhance The Emotions Of Sports. It's Played In Arenas. Whenever There Is Footage Cut Together They're Always Using Music. And It Goes Together, You Know.

No Matter What Part Of The Country You Come From, You Can Always Come Together To Make Groundbreaking Hip-hop.

I'm Always Happy. I've Just Got A Mean Face.

There's A Lot Of Potential That Goes Unused In Places Like South Central L.a., A Lot Of Brilliant, Smart People Who Just Don't Have That Chance To Show It.

I’m A B-boy At Heart. I Still Like Rhyming. It’s Just The Radio Game Is Like Chinese Arithmetic. It’s Hard To Know What Nuts To Crack. But I Still Love Music, Been Dropping Music. Never Stopped Really.

There's A Lot Of Talent In South Central L.a., In Compton And Long Beach And Watts, And The City North Of Pico Pretty Much Sits Back And Waits For That Talent To Emerge And Then Steps In.

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William Petersen

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