Mark Stefanos
It’s hard to sum up all of what Ice Cube means to LA. At age 55, his new album Man Down has been on repeat for fans of his West Coast sound, with the lead single “It’s My Ego” becoming the biggest solo debut of his career. He kicked off Game 2 of the World Series at Dodgers Stadium with performances of “Bow Down” and “It Was A Good Day” that were so flawless and electrifying, Kiké Hernández would later shout him out during the victory celebration — “we didn’t even need to play the game, we had already won it.” His countless contributions to West Coast culture have firmly etched him into Mount Westmore along with Snoop, Too Short and E-40.
While other hip hop heroes have retired from public life or stuck around long enough to see themselves become the villain, Ice Cube is as relevant and respected today as when LA Weekly first profiled N.W.A in 1989. Back then N.W.A burst onto the scene in an angry political tsunami, and the next 40-odd years of Cube’s career have been an LA Odyssey. Ups and downs, a lifetime’s worth of controversy from speaking — and living — what’s on his mind, and lots of hits: records, movies, the upstart basketball league Big3, to name a sampling.
And through it, his story plots out a rebellious and resilient LA ethos — at least the version for people who travel past the 10: Respect yourself. Don’t stop hustling. Keep it real. Rep your hood and step up to the moment. But don’t take yourself too seriously and enjoy some sun while cruising to the G-sound.
Ice Cube steps up to the moment on Man Down. He tells the story of ambition and betrayal on “Ghetto Story,” clowns on keyboard warriors on “Talkin’ Bout These Rappers,” and on “So Sensitive,” he gives voice to the masses exhausted from having to cater to the whiniest people in society. But it never gets preachy — it’s insightful but still fun and funny and gets you dancing. It’s the latest chapter in the story that started with “Fuck Tha Police.”
Aside from a little grey in the beard, he would be hard to distinguish today from the many framed shots of his storied career that line the walls at Lench Mob Studios in LA, where the album was recorded and where we sat down for an interview, edited for length and clarity below. In person, he’s measured, thoughtful, deliberate. He speaks in the same voice he’s always spoken in. And, excluding the most self-important muppets from the internet literati circle jerk, when Ice Cube has something to say, we listen. When he tells us it was a good day, we win.
On the track “Not Like Them” he promises to “do this shit ’til I’m 90” — so LA’s got a lot more Ice Cube coming.
I thought the album was a lot of fun. You have all the big names: Snoop, Xzibit, etc. And you have tracks about betrayal — but you have maintained all these relationships. What does it mean to have brothers like that?
I think it’s important to be able to connect with like minds, people who have the same interests. Everybody you mentioned loves hip hop. I don’t see it as just a money thing. It’s a deep love for the art. So we see eye to eye on a lot of things.
Everybody mostly is from the West Coast, besides Killer Mike and Busta Rhymes. We’ve all grew up in the game together — through the ups and downs, through the West Coast being its hottest to having kind of a backlash because of the outcome of Tupac and Biggie. It was sort of dominating for a while, and it seems like it’s coming back around to the West for a minute. So, I’m pretty happy to take advantage of the feelings out here.
What is it about the West Coast vibe that’s resonating again you think?
I think ever since Dre and them did the Super Bowl, it just re-reminded people what the West was all about. Even us doing Mount Westmore with Snoop, E-40, Too Short reminded people what the West was all about. And then you have people like YG and ScHoolboy Q coming out, making noise, getting respect for the West Coast. Tyler, the Creator started to just swing it back, and then Kendrick knocked it out the park.
(Robert Redd)
A standout track on the album, “So Sensitive,” very fun.
Yeah, I like that one too.
I think you’re touching on a big theme with what young men are feeling these days. Can you spell it out — what happens when guys are too sensitive?
I think things that should get done, don’t get done. People have an excuse to not step up to the — to the moment. It’s not even stepping up to the plate, because you gotta handle shit sometimes in real time. So, just giving people an excuse to not feel like it, you know. “Don’t feel like it, don’t do it.” What if everybody don’t feel like it? What gets done?
The pendulum done swung a little too far in the sensitive area. Not just men, it’s everybody. Everybody needs to toughen up. Let’s deal with certain things straight on. If you got an excuse, you think you solved the problem — that ain’t it. “My car wouldn’t run. Couldn’t get there. I got the excuse — don’t go. Don’t get it done.” We gotta get away from that shit.
There’s that quote, it’s like, “Hard times make strong men. Strong men make good times. Good times make soft men. Soft men create hard times.”
Yeah. That’s straight up. A little adversity never hurt nobody. Just because something is too hard, that don’t mean it’s impossible. But people let the hard stop them. “That’s hard.” Okay, so, what’s that mean? It means, it’s gonna take extra effort and focus to get it done. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it cause it’s hard.
I’m guessing you’re a tough dad.
I don’t think I am. I’m fair. Fair but firm. I’m not ultra strict. You know what you’re supposed to be doing and what you’re not supposed to be doing. You already know — why I gotta tell you?
What’s it like to have Ice Cube as a dad?
Gotta ask my kids — I think it’s ultra cool. I think they’ve been able to be themselves as kids, youngsters and adults. They can be themselves without me putting any pressure on them to follow in the footsteps.
So you got this album out. It’s charting high, it’s a big record. You’re 55. What’s it like to be at your age and still be putting out hit music?
Same like it was at 25. Feel good. Feel good when people dig what you’ve spent so much time putting together — to put it out and make it public for the fans to be a part of it. It’s right where I want to be. I want to still be doing it, and still have a fan base that want more — want the record, looking to see me when I come perform, and just still be into the type of music that I’m delivering.
What would you think that those people would say is missing from rap today?
Most people always say the messages. I always look at that as — jewels are buried. They’re buried under the surface. So I think most rap fans would be like, “Yo, drop more jewels in the music.” I think that’s what’s missing. And that’s what most fans would say.
Now, that ain’t — go and make a bunch of message rap. Nobody want to hear a bunch of message rap, or gospel religious rap would be top of the chart. But people want you to bust dope rhymes, dope beats, dope flows, dope subject matters. Be clever. Be witty. But drop jewels. And that’s what people really dig. To me, that’s what’s my style, which is street knowledge, called “gangster rap” — I can roll with that, ain’t going to go against that. But it’s really street knowledge. And it’s music with the jewels dropped in there. And hopefully at the right time, at the right place, where it’s not feeling like in a college dorm or some shit. I’m still listening to music, it’s still rap. Still got to be fun and funny and clever and real.
Yeah, “street reporters” — at one point you were quoted as calling yourselves that.
Before the internet, everybody’s a street reporter.
I saw that looking back in the LA Weekly archives, one of the first N.W.A profiles we had was in ‘89 by Jonathan Gold.
We was on the cover.
The May 5, 1989 cover of LA Weekly (LA Weekly Archives)
Yeah. Very fun profile. I’m going to ask you about living in LA during that time in a minute. But just to what you were saying right there: what can someone do to find depth in their life and be able to translate that into their art? The jewels you’re talking about.
The things that move you. The things that you run across that move you on a day-to-day basis. Things you learn, things you hear — to try to incorporate it in your work or in your presentations to the public is passing that on. And to me, it’s just about paying attention to yourself as you absorb information. Being a rapper this long, what you notice about all rappers is they have to be fucking super observant of people’s surroundings, attitudes, feelings, slangs, language, communication. I think they’re ultra tuned in to everything that’s going on around them because you never know what could be a rhyme, you never know something somebody said over here can be part of a flow.
I think my senses are more tuned because when you’re trying to make music for people to dig, you got to do something that they like. So you got to know what they like and know what they don’t like. Know what’s cool, know what’s not, know what’s gonna work, know what’s probably not. You got to at least go into the studio with that information to try to make it so all people connect with it, so everybody can adapt that way of looking at things.
When you see something that’s — oh man, that’s jewel, bam — how can I apply that to what I’m doing? It might not be what you’re doing at work, but “I’m gonna tell my nephew this. Oh, I got to hit my folks off with this shit that I learned.” Bam, bam, bam. That’s how I think as an artist. It’s like, damn, that’s a jewel. I got to figure out how to incorporate that into some lyrics.
I’m curious about this because you’re a prolific writer. Somebody who started — what, you were writing when you were in high school?
Elementary.
Elementary school.
Yeah.
And you write rap, you write movies. What is the writing process for a song?
Writing a song depends on what inspires it. You know, sometimes I have a title that I have been sitting on for, sometimes, years. I’ll be sitting on a title, and I’ll hear music that fits that title and music that’s dope that I feel like my flow is going to be perfect for. So that’s part of it coming together. I have this one piece over here and I’m waiting for the other piece to lock in. I got the title, I’m waiting for the music to work with the title. And then I start to think about a hook — is there a hook on this music with this title? And if I lock into a hook, then I’ll write the rhyme.
The title is like the theme?
Yeah. That’s one way I write. Another way, sometimes I’ll get a beat and the beat just makes shit start to tumble out. So I’m listening to the beat and it’s just — I’m so in love with it lyrics start to tumble out. And then I’ll write to that because that’s never bad when the lyrics just come to you.
Then sometimes I don’t have a title or nothing, just get a beat. Or I’ll think of a title and figure out what beat I have that this title is going to fit on. Or a hook — I’ll think of a hook and think, what beat does this hook fit on? And then start writing the rhyme. It’s just different ways of coming about it.
Do you write it down?
Sometimes. Sometimes I write it on a pad, and sometimes I’m on this phone just typing it in there because it’s faster. I should be writing down everything, but some of it is just how it comes, I don’t file it down.
I think you’re one of the great rap comedians.
Ha. Thank you.
I mean, it’s undeniable. Do you think of yourself as a comedian?
No. I know I can make people laugh, make something funny. Comedians can do it every day, drop of a dime. I got to create it a little more.
You make funny movies, you got some of the funniest lines in rap.
Yeah, I think I can create very funny scenes and situations. I like that I can make comedians laugh, when they tell me that they love Friday and they laugh and shit at it. It’s cool to make your favorite comedians laugh.
Who are your favorite comedians?
Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock. Of course, Mike Epps, Kat Williams. John Witherspoon, rest in peace. Of course Richard Pryor, Bernie Mac, yeah man, some of the best. Dave Chappelle. Funny as shit.
How did you pick the comedians that you put in your movies, like Mike Epps and Kat Williams?
If they could be good in the part — if I see them and I can visualize them playing the part. Some might be good at stand up, but they may not be good for an acting role. So I gotta make sure, I gotta see something in them where I know they can do it.
So many of my friends growing up said Friday was their favorite movie. And I heard the talks about Last Friday — I heard that it’s going to be coming.
Yeah, yeah. We’re working on it.
So I got to ask — I was watching the Dodger victory parade and they’re like, “Cube won that game for us. The game was over before it started.” What’s that feel like?
It feel good. You want to affect the team in a positive way. You know, we was riding on such a high after Freddie Freeman hit that grand slam the night before. They was just ready. They was hype. It’d be hard to beat the Dodgers, I don’t care who performed that day. But the fact that it was me — I’m such a big Dodger fan. I grew up watching them play the Yankees and seeing them series, I just never thought I’d be a part of it. And to have the team say that they won as soon as they saw me come out — it’s just next level. Next level.
Ice Cube electrifies Dodgers Stadium at Game 2 of the World Series, Oct. 26, 2024. (Mary DeCicco/Getty)
We put a poll on our website asking who had the better performance, you or Fat Joe. And it was, I think 99 to one or something like that.
Damn, yeah. It was hard for Fat Joe to follow that. Especially with his team down 0-2. I done been to series where the LA team was down 0-2 — last thing you want to see is a performance by somebody. You like, “let’s get to this goddamn game.” So he had an uphill battle.
That’s very diplomatic, thank you. So I mentioned this Jonathan Gold piece that I was reading. I cover parties for LA Weekly. You look at the aesthetic of the culture right now, it’s very 90s. But you were living it. What was partying like in LA in the 80s and 90s?
Depends on which party you went to. They had house parties that could be pretty hairy. You know what I mean? Sketchy. Fun, but dangerous. And then you had, not quite the club, but it was a lot of parties where if you was 18 and up you can go. Teenager parties too, which was cool. No alcohol there, but people dancing their ass off and having a good time.
Hip hop being so fresh and new, it was exciting to hear the new songs that the DJ would play. And everybody back then was into dancing, so they was dancing with each other. It was a real cool atmosphere. You didn’t know who you was going to see in the club — Ice T in one corner, Tone Loc in another. It was these different LA icons all over the place, and it was just fun. Sometimes we was doing the party, sometimes we was just sitting there kicking. Never knew who was going to get on the mic and get down. It was real cool.
And you’ve been in LA your whole life.
Yeah.
Never thought of going anywhere.
Nah.
And nor will you.
I don’t want to. My wife might want to, but I don’t want to go nowhere.
So what do we got coming up? Is there going to be touring involved with the album?
Yeah. I’m still working on more music, doing a lot of visuals for this record. I think it’s time for me to do a big production tour. So, I want to put that together, and kind of celebrate my 40 years of hip hop.
40 years, damn.
Yeah, it’s been a minute.
What’s cool is the record is doing great. My Day One fans love it, and to me, that’s mission accomplished. As long as my Day One fans love the record, everything else is gravy.
And we may get a Man Up?
Yeah, stay tuned.
Ice Cube’s new album, Man Down, is out now.
Our Dec. 13, 2024 cover (Photo: Robert Redd; Cover Design: Jewel Baek)