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

-Ice Cube

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You Don't Have To

Ice Cube

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 '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.

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

Unanswered Questions

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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"

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

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

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.

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.

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

Unanswered Questions

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

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 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'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.

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'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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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'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.

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.

For My Birthday, Buy Me A Politician!

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

What I Learned From Architectural Drafting Is That Everything Has To Have A Plan To Work. You Just Can't Wing It. I Can't Get All The Materials I Need For A House And Just Start Building. Whether It's A Career, Family, Life - You Have To Plan It Out.

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

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

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

If You Love What You Do, And You Believe In Your Talent, There's Nothing Better Than Breaking Through. There's No Better Feeling Than Breaking Through.

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

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.

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

I've Done Movies For Certain Reasons; I Did 'anaconda' Because The Black Man Lives. Simple. The Black Man Isn't Dead In The First Three Pages, Like Jurassic Park. It's Like, 'the Black Man Kills The Snake With A Latino Girl? Damn! I Got To Do This.'

When 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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'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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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.'

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 Wanna Be Remembered For Making An Impact And Changing Things. I Guess For The Good Or For The Bad, It Don't Matter. But I Guess You Just Wanna Be Remembered When It's All Said And Done.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

With Comedies, I Like To Be A Producer, Because Comedies Can Get Corny And Go Off Track Real Fast.

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 Wanna Mess Up What You've Done. It's Like Jordan Coming Back: You're Scared To Mess Up The Legacy.

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

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

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.

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Barbara Mandrell

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