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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.

-Ice Cube

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Success Really Comes Down

Ice Cube

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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."

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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.

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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 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.

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.

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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.

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

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

I 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 Always Want To Read The Script Before I Totally Commit.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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 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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Falling In Love

For My Birthday, Buy Me A Politician!

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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?'

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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