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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.

-Ice Cube

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When I Was In

Ice Cube

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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.

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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.

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

South Central Is Just Who I Am.

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.

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?'

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

Unanswered Questions

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

For My Birthday, Buy Me A Politician!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 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?

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 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.

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."

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 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.

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

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

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

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

Falling In Love

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"

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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’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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.'

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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 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."

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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 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.

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

Unanswered Questions

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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