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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.

-Ice Cube

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Most Of The Problems

Ice Cube

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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.

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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'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.

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

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

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

We Have To Step Up As Adults And Try To Guide Our Youth.

I Want To Do More Drama. Comedy Is The Path Of Least Resistance For My Company. People Know We Can Do Them. People Know They Get A Good Response. People Want To Make Them. Who Am I To Push Up Against That?

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

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.

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."

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

"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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I Love Godzilla, But My Favorite Was On This Tv Show, Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot. I Used To Love The Idea Of Having A Giant Robot Under My Control. That Was Like A Dream Come True For A Kid.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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'm Always Kind Of Off To The Next Movie, And Focused On Making Sure That The One I'm Currently Working On Is As Good As The One That's Already On Tv.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

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"

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.

Never Question The Size Of Ice Cube's Balls!

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

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.

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.

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

Unanswered Questions

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."

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

I Definitely Support Cop Acting More Than Cops, But All Of Them Ain't Bad, Just Some Of Them.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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 Care About What I Look Like On The Red Carpet.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

[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'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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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

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 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

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.

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

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.'

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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'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.

South Central Is Just Who I Am.

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.

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.

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

Unanswered Questions

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, To Me, Reality Is Better Than Being Fake.

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.'

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

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

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