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I'm Not Trying To Turn Into Eddie Murphy, And Just Do Kids Movies The Rest Of My Career. I'm Going To Still Do A Wide Variety Of Movies, As Well As Do Hardcore Rap.

-Ice Cube

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I'm Not Trying To

Ice Cube

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I'm Not Trying To Turn Into Eddie Murphy, And Just Do Kids Movies The Rest Of My Career. I'm Going To Still Do A Wide Variety Of Movies, As Well As Do Hardcore Rap.

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I Know I Ain't Too Old. I Always Think Of My Fans About 10 Years Older And 10 Years Younger Than Me.

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.

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.

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.

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

I Think I'm Unique To The Game 'cause Of My Versatility.

I Think When Somebody Goes To The Movies And They Spend Their Money And They Take The Girl Out, The Family, They Want To Have A Good Time. You Don't Always Want To Be Hit Over The Head With History Or How Bad Society Is.

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.

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

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 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.

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

I'm Always Open, And Will Criticize Myself, Too. And I Just Think Being That Honest With Everybody Puts You In A Different Space Than Somebody Who's Just Shooting Venom At A Certain Group Or A Certain Amount Of Individuals.

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.

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.

I Can't Really Attribute My Success Onscreen To Any Formula And Suggest You "do This Or That" To Make It As An Actor.

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

Run Dmc Brought Us Out Of That Underground-only Feel. They Brought Rap Above Ground And Made It Respectable As An Art Form To Mainstream Music.

When You Go To A Movie, You Don't Care For One Oscar, Really. Do You Care If A Guy Got A Oscar On The Shelf Or Is It A Good Movie? And, You Don't Care How Much The Movie Made.

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. What's Important Is Whether Or Not People Feel Like They Wasted Their Time Or Money When They Pay For A Movie Or A Cd.

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.

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

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.

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.

I Remember Wishing There Was Snow In L.a. And How Jealous We Used To Get Of Those Christmas Specials With Kids Playing In The Snow.

God Damn, It's A Brand New Payback From The Straight Gangsta Mack In Straight Gangsta Black How Many Motherfuckers Gotta Pay Went To The Shelf And Dusted Off The Ak Caps Gotta Get Peeled Cause "the Nigga Ya Love To Hate" Still Can "kill At Will"

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

If You Born In The Mud, You Gonna Be Dirty, And People Don't Understand That.

I'm A Menace To Society, But Girls In Biker Shorts Are So Fly To Me. After The Date, I'mma Want To Do The Wild Thing... You're Talkin' Lobster? I'm Thinkin' Burger King.

Seeing My Son Getting Roughed Up By The Police Is Not Fun. It Brings Back Memories Of When I Got Roughed Up By Them. He Grew Up Totally Different Than How I Grew Up, And To Me, He Shouldn't Have To Go Through That.

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

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.

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

With Film, I Have To Be A Team Player; It's A Whole Different Thing. I Can't Just Be A One-man Show. I Have To Learn How To Use People To The Best Of Their Ability And Motivate Them To Be As Passionate About The Project As I Am.

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

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

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.

I Was A Very Interested Arts Student, I Was Always Into That Part Of School And When I Got Into High School I Went Into Architectural Drafting. It Gave Me An Understanding Of How To Build Things And It’s Really Helped Me Put Things In Perspective. With My Music And My Movies, To Me It’s All Art.

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

Never Question The Size Of Ice Cube's Balls!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Go Down To The Corner Store And Beat The Jap Up, Clean All The Crap Up.

Don't Talk About Death, I've Got Too Much Life To Live, To Many Orders To Give.

Humpty Dumpty Sat On The Wall With A Joint, Drinking Some Eight-ball.

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.

They Thought We Were Just Basically Keeping Ourselves Underground On Purpose. And It Was Just Strange For People To Approach Music That Way. And For Rap, Trying To Get Recognition, And Be Seen As A Regular Form Of Music Like Anything Else. I Mean, The Soul, R&b, Rock 'n Roll, They Would Dis The Hell Out Of Rap When It First Came Out.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Unanswered Questions

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.

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

When I Did 'boyz N The Hood', I Never Thought How We Grew Up In South Central Was Interesting Enough For A Movie.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

My Thing Is, I Know Kids Cuss, They Do Their Thing, But I Tell My Kids, 'don't Do It In Earshot Of Any Adults, Or You're In Trouble.'

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.

A Good Movie Is A Movie That You Could See Over And Over Again, Not A Movie That Wins A Oscar, Or A Movie That Makes A Lot Of Money. It's A Movie That You Personally Can Watch Over And Over Again. That, To Me, Is A Measure Of A Good Movie.

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.

[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!"

I Love Performing. I'll Never Get That Out Of Me.

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

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.

Keep Doin' What You're Doin', Fall In Love With What You're Creating, And Everything Else Will Fall Into Place.

Falling In Love

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.'

If You Think About Stuff That Happened When You Were Young, It Stays With You Forever.

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

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

Some Comedians You Work With, They Only Turn On When The Camera Turn On, And They're Like Sad-faced Clowns When The Camera's Off. And Then, They Come Alive When The Camera Come On. And You Be Like, "oh, Damn. You're Not A Depressed Ball Of Depression, But You Are Actually Funny."

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

I'm Not Really Into The Political Game As Far As Paying Politicians And Stuff Like That, I'm Not Into That. You Do Your Job, And I'll Do Mine.

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

I Love Any Time You Can Enlighten People To Mistakes, That's How I Started My Career.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

"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.

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

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!

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

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

I'm A Good Counter Comedian. I Can Just Work It Off With Looks, Or Have Something Crazy To Say Back. That Works For Me.

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.

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.

I'm Ready To Run A Studio. I'm Ready To Green Light Movies, And Be In It To Win It, You Know? It's Close. It'll Happen.

But With Rap Music - Not Just N.w.a. - But Rap Music In General, Seeing These Artists Wearing These Team Logos All The Time Started Bringing A Synergy And Energy About Having To Rep Your City, Your Team, Everywhere And All The Time.

Young People Are Dying For No Reason All Over The World That Don't Know Why. It's Ugly, Everywhere.

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.

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.

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 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.

I'm The Most Successful Person In My Generation Of Family Members, And That Sucks.

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.

Any Time There's Racism Somewhere In Sports, We Should Get It Out Of There Because Sports Is A Place Where Everything's Supposed To Be Fair.

I Don't Know What's My First Real Memory. When You're Little, You're Always Looking Forward To Days That Are Special, Like Christmas, Birthdays, The Fourth Of July, And Family Gatherings. But I Can't Pinpoint My Earliest Memory.

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

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.

Do Not Turn Into Just Cookie-cutter Producer, Cookie-cutter This, But A Producer That People Say Wow, When They Do Something It's Great Or Just Unique Or Whatever.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

We're In This Entertainment Business Really To Give The Audience What They Want.

I Wake Up At 5:30, 6 In The Morning, But Don't Head Into The Office Right Away. I Like To Hang Out With My Wife, Talk About Things, Get Some Coffee, You Know.

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

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.

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.

You Have To Be Able To Give The People What You Want In Your Way. And That's How You, To Me, Become A Person That They Love And Not Just A Fly-by Night Actor.

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.

Well, For The Transition From Rapper To Actor, I Was Fortunate That Director John Singleton Pursued Me For About Two Years To Be In Boyz 'n The Hood. I Really Wasn't Even Thinking About Acting At The Time, Since I Was Singularly Focused On Being The Best Rapper In The World. So, That Was Really A Blessing, Because I Wasn't Really Taking Him Seriously.

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.

I'm Not Sure If Music Got A Future. We Have All These Electronic Ways To Download And Steal Music And Get Music, But There's No Money In Makin' Music.

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.

You Want The Industry To Finally Admit That You're Good. But I'm Still Good Without Their Admission.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Brothers Keep Asking Ice Cube, 'yo, When Will You Bust?' They Surround Me And Make A Big Fuss

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 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.

I've Always Gotten Good Grades, You Know, With My Teachers And My English Teachers, 'cause I Was Able To - They'd Say, "what Did You Do For The Summer?" I'm Able To Explain It To Them In A Written Form. And My Teachers Always Patted Me On The Back For That, Being Able To Take What's In My Mind And Put It On Paper.

I Never Go To The Grammys. I Just Never Go. I Don't Know If I Care Enough, And I Went Because My Son Wanted To Go, And They Asked Us To Present Best Hip Hop Group Of The Year. You Know, We Had Two Records From Compton In There, And It Was Just Like A Cool Thing To Do, And To Do With Your Son, And It Was Just Cool. But We Was The First Award Up, So After I Did My Thing I Just Jumped In The Car And Came On Back Home.

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

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 Like To Tell The Streets What The Political Climate Is, And I Like To Tell Any Politicians That's Listening What The Streets Think. And Sometimes People Get Nicked Up And Bruised Up, But I Usually Have A Lot Of Good Medicine For That.

I Think The Worst Thing You Can Do About A Situation Is Nothing.

If It Was All About Me, I'd Do A Whole Lot Of Pop Records, Make A Whole Lot Of Money, Just Rake In The Dough. But It's Never Been All About Me. It's All About Being A Voice For The Voiceless. People Who Can't Speak For Themselves, Who Don't Have A Mic, Don't Have A Say.

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

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.

You Can Measure Films On Box Office Success, Or People Lovin' The Movie Whenever They See It. That's What I Measure My Movies On. How Much People Love These Movies After They Get A Chance To See Them, No Matter How They Get A Chance To See Them.

It's Easier For Me To Get Comedies Made Because Of My Track Record. Everybody Needs To Find Their Niche. I Love Dramas, But I Understand That I Am Still Just A Young Man In Moviemaking. I Know There Will Be Some Time To Get Back To That.

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

I Used To Game A Lot, You Know, Back In The Day. My Gaming Time Done Got So Short That My Skills Ain't Where They Need To Be To Be Online, You Know What I'm Saying? I Just Got That Xbox One. I Gotta Get My Skills Back, Up The Par To Call Myself A Gamer.

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.

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

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

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

I Was Ready To Get Out Of The Box And Play Something A Little Different Than What Everybody Has Seen.

I Was Trying To Be The Best Rapper In The World. I Wasn't Thinking About Acting.

Sometimes When You're Relegated To Your Neighborhood, You Forget That There's More Important Things Than Your Neighborhood Going On Out In The World.

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'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.

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?'

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.

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

I Think [director] Malcolm Lee Is A Real Master At Being Able To Make You Laugh While Bringing Serious Subject-matter, So The Movie Doesn't Hinge On Silliness, But On Real Life.

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

Obama Reminds Me Of The Black Kid At A White School That Don't Nobody Want To Play With.

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.

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.

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

You Have To Resist Falling In Love With The Money They [producers] Want To Give You. You Have To Really Resist That, And You Have To Just Think About The Work And Whether It's A Movie That You Would Want To See.

Falling In Love

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.

I Identify With The Bottom Of The Pyramid, Because, Outside Of Having Money, I Am At The Bottom Of The Pyramid.

I'm Not Trying To Turn Into Eddie Murphy, And Just Do Kids Movies The Rest Of My Career. I'm Going To Still Do A Wide Variety Of Movies, As Well As Do Hardcore Rap.

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

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.

I Hear About People Getting Shot All The Time. But Most Of The Guys You Hear About Getting Shot Pulled Through.

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.

I Always Tell People That If You Gave Me A Pen And A Piece Of Paper When I Was A Teenager And Said, "write Out How You'd Like Your Career To Go," I Would Have Probably Short Changed Myself Compared To What It's Been For Real. I'm Just Extremely Excited About What I've Accomplished.

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.

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.

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

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