Background Image

...

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.

-Ice Cube

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Used To Love

Ice Cube

...

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.

Views: 3

Topic

More From Ice Cube

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.

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 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.

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

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

Never Question The Size Of Ice Cube's Balls!

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.

You Ask Me, "did I Like Arsenio?" About As Much As The Bicentennial.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Should I Peel A Cap Or Should I Let Him Survive?

Unanswered Questions

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

I Like To Deal With Things I Heard About, ... People Are Always Getting Their House Broken Into Around The Holidays. That's When The Crime Rate Goes Up.

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.

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.

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

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

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.'

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

People Are Still Tied To Their Hoods, And It's Usually Not The Artist, It's Usually The Friends And Instigators Who Get It Popping.

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.

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.

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

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 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."

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

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.

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 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.

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'm Always The "less Is More" Guy When It Comes To A Scene. So I'ma Be The One Who Will Keep It Grounded. Even If I Let It Go Off And Go Crazy, I'm Still The Voice Of Keeping Things Grounded In Reality.

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.

You Wanna Be Remembered For Making An Impact And Changing Things.and 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 Really Appreciate Family. I Really Can't Imagine Life Without Them!

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

I Don't Do Much Cooking, But One Of My Favorite Dishes To Eat Is My Wife's Macaroni And Cheese.

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

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.

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

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't Boycott Something You Never Went To Anyway,so Why Put Energy Into It?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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!

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 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.

My Wife Keeps Me Sharp. You Know, She Ain't Going To Let Me Get Comfortable With This "ice Cube" Stuff.

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.

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

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

[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!"

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.

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 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 Did Are We There Yet? Because I Wanted To Do A Movie For My Fans' Kids. Black Kids Don't Really See Movies On This Budget For Them, Starring Them. And There's So Many White Kids That Love That Movie.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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"

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

You Got To Get Used To Somebody, When You're Acting Or Going Through A Scene, Somebody Yelling, "do It A Little Louder!" Ok, You Do It A Little Louder.

There's Nothing Wrong With Starting Off In A Box, But You Got To Have A Plan To Come Out That Box.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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. And That Just Gave Me A Chance To See How Life Could Be. And It Gave Me A Chance To Interact With Everybody, Not Just Black People Or Mexicans. It Made Me Just A Little More Worldly.

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.

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

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

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

Sometimes You Got To Start Somewhere. And It's Cool, As Long As Where You Start Is Not Where You Plan On Finishing.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

I've Been Fighting My Whole Career To Show A Different Side And Prove Naysayers - Not Prove Them Wrong, Because I Don't Think You Should Get Your Energy From Negative People.

I Figured, When I Make A Movie, Especially Earlier In My Career, One Thing I Was Going To Make Sure Was That The Movie Doesn't Cost A Lot And That It Has Potential To Make A Lot Of Money. That's How You Get Respect In Hollywood.

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

Unanswered Questions

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

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.

I Love Music. It's Freedom, A Way To Deal With Pent-up Frustration.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Falling In Love

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 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.

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.

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.

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'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.'

"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.

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?'

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

I Think When Hip Hop First Started, People Were Open To It, And Groups Like Public Enemy And There Was Groups Like Poor Righteous Teachers And All These People Who Were Spitting A Lot Of Knowledge, A Lot Of History, Questioning A Lot Of Societal Barriers Was Starting To Be Super Popular.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

You Can't Pussyfoot Around. When You're Talking To Lions, You Can't Meow Like A Pussycat.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Trending Author

Wilhelm Ostwald

J. Edgar Hoover

Category