Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Yo, it's effective immediately. I'm DJ Head.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: What up, Hip Hop Nation? It's your favorite homegirl, Gina.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Views, man. A legendary day today. Something I've been waiting for for many, many, many, many, many moons. An idol, a legend. One of the reasons. One of the men, the reasons why I do what I do and I say what I say, and I stand on what I stand on. The legendary Ice Cube has joined the show.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: Yay. Yay, man.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Thank you, bro. Not. Not for being here, but thank you for just being who you are, you know?
[00:00:32] Speaker C: Appreciate that, man. Thank you for having me and thank you for being who you are.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: But I. I'm the most biased nigga in the industry. I am one of them people who I say West Coast, I say over my chest, I throw the dub up. I'm unapologetic about it.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: Beautiful.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: I, you know, I talk a lot of shit.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: And I prioritize our music. And I've taken a lot of bumps and bruises over the years for being the biased. You know what I'm saying?
[00:00:57] Speaker C: It's cool.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: But I felt the need to do that because of what y'all kicked off, you know what I mean? And I remember seeing that shit, and that was. It meant a lot to me because I'm be honest with you, it didn't resonate with me until I got into the business and I realized how hard it was for us on this side of the map. So that's kind of where I want to start.
I've talked to Warren about it. I've talked to Dawg about it. Has it always been from your lens? Has it always been difficult for a West coast artist in the music industry?
[00:01:28] Speaker C: In hip hop?
[00:01:29] Speaker A: In hip.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: For sure, yeah. Because all of the, you know, the biggest rappers were east coast rappers. You know, it was hands down for a long time as the music started to get more popular and we were all fans of east coast music.
And so when, you know, the west coast started to do hip hop, it was different styles popping up from, you know, kind of the techno, you know, fast.
Now they call it edm. Yeah, Edmund. To more party raps, even comical raps with Bobby, Jimmy and the Critters.
And then you had, you know, Compton. You know, Compton were, you know, different kind of rappers. You had Mix Master, Spade and Tidy, T and King T.
And then you had Ice tea. You know, iced tea was a major turning point with us getting traction.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: So that was in the hip hop.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Industry, Ice Tea, because iced tea had been embraced by all the New York legends from Africa Bambaata and the Zulu Nation. He was rolling with a guy named Africa Islam.
He was friends with Kares and Rakim and, you know, just all the biggest east coast artists would, you know, give love to Ice T. And then.
And then Ice T came with a major hit, which 6 in the morning broke a lot of barriers.
And he was the first one on a major east coast tour, you know, with all the east coast rappers. And then it was Ice T. It was called the Dope Jam Tour. And I remember going to see him when I was in Phoenix.
I was going to a trade school out there for a year.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: What were you in trade school for?
[00:04:05] Speaker C: Architectural drafting.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Oh, shit.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
I didn't. I wasn't sure, you know. You know, the kind of hip hop we was doing, you know, was hardcore underground. We didn't know that it was a place in music for us. You know, we felt like what we doing is just gonna be for the street and for, you know, la, because what we talking about is pretty much a LA thing. And so that's where we figured our whole career would end up. Being hardcore LA locals that never could break through because of the music being so hard. And it wasn't too many people doing the music consistently like that. Facts where damn near every song was hardcore, you know, and couldn't get played on the radio. And it was just.
We was cool with that because we had tried to do records to get on the radio different at different stages, and then that just wasn't working. Cause, shit, it was just better records out there.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Okay, so you don't think it was a slight because you were from this side? It was more like. It was just better shit in the market.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, you know, some of the shit we couldn't even get the west coast to listen to. So, you know, it was like, you know, we just wasn't good enough yet.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Or we just. Just hadn't hit our stride or found our place, you know, our niche.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: At what point did west coast music or the gangsta rap go mainstream?
[00:06:01] Speaker C: That's a good question. As far as totally mainstream, I really don't think it got there till, well, a few records started to break, like, turn up in areas that you didn't expect. Like people were listening to Stria Compton in all walks of life. I wouldn't consider it mainstream yet, but I think by the time the Chronic came around, that's when I saw it just get totally embraced on a whole nother level.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: You don't think that the Straight Outta Compton was like. Was Mainstream, I mean, impactful, impact wise.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Like before that it had an impact in the mainstream, but the mainstream wasn't ready for the record. Okay, so it broke into that, but it wasn't like embrace as much as a record. Like the chronic was by the mainstream just ate that up.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Was it the subject matter or it just. Cause people.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Well, it could have been the subject matter because it was more, you know, the party, let's kick it. You know, I mean, it's drink, smoke, hang out. It wasn't as heavy as the NWA Records, which was, you know, about, you know, fuck the police, express yourself, you know, dope, man.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Okay, so the reason why I asked that is because it always seems like there's a. This darkness cloud over our shit. Like I've always, and I'm being honest with you, like, it's something I've battled. I've been in the business for 15 years at this point, and I've never heard somebody say that shit sounds too Atlanta or too south or too Midwest.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: It's always too West Coast.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: And I, and I take offense to that when I hear that shit. Cause what does that even mean? So have you heard that in your career? And like, oh, yeah, what does that mean?
[00:08:06] Speaker B: They been saying this.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: It's been forever. It's, you know, we used to get a lot of love from the artists, the producers, record company execs.
But, you know, we used to get a little hate from the industry. You know, magazines, you know, program directors at, you know, at radio out there.
Yeah, it took, you know, it took the East Coast, west coast beef and then Atlanta getting hot for all that stuff to, you know, start, you know, making its way out. The industry is still there a little bit in different areas, but for the most part, you got a hit record, it can get played anywhere. Back then it was real regional, but also radio was regional. You know, radio, you know, you got this, you know, you know, nationwide, you know, satellite radio and a lot of urban rhythmic stations became, you know, under Radio 1 or what's that, Clear Channel. So things have become more nationalized where when hip hop first started, things were more regional. So you had more, you know, LA would play la, the Bay would play the Bay, Houston would play, you know, Houston, New York played New York, Philly played Philly.
And they would bring up artists out of those ranks and really expose them to that crowd. And then you blow up locally and then you get a chance to blow up nationally. Now you pretty much gotta, you can bubble in the club, but you really gotta blow up nationally. To get any kind of real traction.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Now you gotta make a TikTok, all that.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: But the game has always been evolving and changing. You know, back then it was, you know, bootleg tapes, it was, you know, doing videos, you know, underground videos. Then it was, you know, make underground DVDs, and, you know, so the game has always been flipping change.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Go ahead, go ahead.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: I want to know who came up with the concept for Chin Check.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: Chin Check.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: The lady in the closet hiding. Somebody breaking.
[00:10:52] Speaker C: Oh, that. You know, that's Dr. Dre and his. They put that together after the record was made. You know, so we made the record, and then they put that intro on the front of it. Yeah. So, yeah, it's pretty.
It's pretty dramatic. And look, you know, we started doing that. You know, we were one of the first groups that was really invested in trying to make the records more vivid with sound effects and skits. And we was trying to paint the picture so people could really feel what was going on and not just hear it. Not just hear a song, but, you know, hear a dramatic, almost a reenactment of what could go on and what can happen. And so we became, you know, masters at the skits and intros and, you know, mixing the music with the sound effects and the reality.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: A conversation I was recently having with Elliot Wilson, the homie Jeremy, is what. How many people have to be on a record for to be considered a posse cut?
[00:12:04] Speaker C: We settled a posse cut.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: We settled at four.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Because three it could be. That's. It's three verses on the song. I said four. That to be considered a posse cut. What does Cube think?
[00:12:15] Speaker C: I never heard the term posse cut.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Well, like, a group song, like. Well, posse cut would be like multiple people on a record. Like, Wu Tang used to do it. Y'all did, like, chin Check, correct?
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think.
I don't know. Like. Yeah, I would say more than three. Yeah. Maybe four. Four is probably. I was right.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: That's a nice.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: That's a nice number where, you know, you feel like, okay, this is not just the main guys with the homies too, coming in.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Right?
[00:12:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Four more.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Can we go back?
So you're my father's favorite rapper.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: Okay. That's cool. You got it. You got a smart father.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I grew up in the household thinking that you guys were the only rappers that existed because that was the only music that would, like, be played. I didn't even know that Friday. I literally just found out today that Friday was made in 99. I thought Friday was made more for Kurt.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Oh, 95.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: See, I'm all off. Yeah, 95 and. Cause we were. I watched it growing up, so to me it felt more so. Like, current.
[00:13:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: But anyway, so I'm calling my uncles, I'm calling my dad, like, what should I ask Ice Cube? So they, like, ask them about growing up where you grew up.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: So I went to Washington, Henry Clay, West Athens, and they wanted to know. They told me to ask you, how were you able to stay out of like the whole gang politics and stuff like that?
[00:13:42] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I wasn't. You know, if you grow up in the neighborhood, there's no way to stay away from it all.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Because I never heard you say cuz or like, it's always professional.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: Well, it's very.
Well, you know, it's like when we started to do music, we was trying to kind of get away from the streets. It was like a way to do something positive that wasn't, you know, we all. We did sports. It was, you know, sports, gang banging girls. You got motorcycles and, you know, mini bikes and go karts and all that kind of stuff. But for the most part, this hip hop music was something new. It was something that my brother and his older dudes didn't get a chance to really get involved with. This was like something new for our generation that we was getting involved with. And it was cool, it was creative.
And to me, it was like a way to not be focused on gang banging 24 7. You could be focused on being creative and making music. And we spent hours and hours and hours in the studio. And so it was really all about choices. You know, everybody got choices in the hood. You don't have to if you don't want to. You know, I used to watch TV and be like, damn, it's people that come make you gang bang. You know, that wasn't happening in our neighborhood. Cause everybody could handle they self. You know, you either wanted to.
So I was just lucky that I had an outlet like hip hop. And I was hanging out with people who were making records and who was doing shows like The Wrecking Crew, Dr. Dre, Lonzo Williams, Clientele, D.J. yeller, you know, that was just showing me a whole new world that was. Man, they was making money, you know, they. They had, you know, they lady friends, you know, I mean, coming in and out. So. And they was doing parties. We was. We was dealing with crates and records and speakers and studios. And it was just like a vivid new world. And that was just cooler to me than just banging.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: When you when you were like, I guess not when you were. But as a rapper, like, what was your. Did you always want to get into film and television? Like, was that always a thing for you creatively?
[00:16:27] Speaker C: No, no, that was something I wasn't even thinking about.
I was happy to be a part of creating videos for the songs, you know, that was cool. But I thought film, that you had to go to school, like a Juilliard or something. You had to, you know, actually know what you're doing. Yeah, all that. And so it was something that I knew I wasn't gonna do, you know, I was really just worried about trying to be the best rapper in the world at the time. And so, you know, thank God I got discovered by John Singleton.
I was up at the Arsenio hall show when he had a show not too far from here, Paramount Studios. And we was up there. And I was up there because I wanted to talk to Arsenio about why you not having NWA on your show.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: You was tripping a little bit.
[00:17:23] Speaker C: I was on one. I wasn't going, you know, I was just one. I just wanted a conversation. I just wanted a conversation. I was just wanted a conversation.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Was it time when you was leaving?
[00:17:34] Speaker C: This was. No, no, this before. All the way in it. Yeah, I wasn't even leaving. I wasn't thinking about leaving.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: And he had had Luke, you know, Uncle Luke, two Live Crew on the show. And I was like, man, if you can have Luke, you can have nwa, you know what I'm saying? So that was my reasoning. But I never saw him, you know, I saw this intern dude named John Singleton who was like, you, Ice Cube, you and NWA now back then it was all about Eazy, you know, it wasn't really about the rest of us, you know, Eazy, E was like, he had blew up first. And so, you know, I was like, yeah, yeah, you know.
So now he got me engaged cause he knowin my music, you know, I mean, he knowin, you know, what I do in the group. So he started talking about this movie and I'm like, dude, you, you know, you're an intern, you're not a director, you know, you.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: You little manned him.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: No, I didn't. Little man. Oh. I'm like, no, no. I just was thinking in my mind, you know, he was still in usc, he was a junior at school, you know, so I'm like, okay. And then he want to put me in a movie. So I'm thinking like, I'm not even an actor, man. You know, so.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: So you had zero experience.
[00:18:55] Speaker C: Zero.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Boys in the Hood.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: Zero. Zero.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Was it just like improv, or did you do any acting?
[00:18:59] Speaker C: No one. Improv. It was. It was good script and, you know, having John to help me and Cuba Good junior and, you know, Lawrence Fishburne, Regina King, you know, all these people who were seasoned or knew what they was doing, you know, would help me get through it. But so it was never on my mind till he put it on my mind and he put me in the movie, you know, two years, you know, almost a year and a half later. And, yeah, I was just, you know, blown away by the experience, so I just kept on going with it.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Did John Singleton have any impact in you getting into the business side of TV and film?
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Yeah, when we sitting. We was doing Boys in the Hood, he would have these rejection letters on his. Like, he framed them, put them all in his hallway. When you walked in, you get to read what. Why People said they didn't want to make Boys in the Hood. Different studios. So. Wow.
I was reading them tripping off of them. You know how they were saying that? It was like, it's not. There's no audience for this. You know, it's. It's.
It's not complete. You know, you don't know enough about the character. It was just like a bunch of bullshit. You know what I'm saying? So I'm reading, I'm like, damn. And then I'm tripping off him for putting them up on the wall. You know, that.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: Was he being petty or was motivational?
[00:20:35] Speaker C: It was motivational. It was to show people, I don't care who doubts you. If you believe in it, keep going. Keep doing your thing. And so he just looked at me one day, he said, man, when you gonna write a movie? And I was like, slow down. You know, I'm saying, I'm just trying to, you know, be, you know, good in your movie. Like, I'm not. I'm not even thinking about writing. I'm just thinking about doing a good job. And he was like, man, you think. You think you're gonna get more scripts? Good as Boys in the Hood. He said, ain't nobody making no movie for you. Ain't nobody gonna write no movie for you, man.
Ain't no place for you out there, man. You gotta make your own place. So I'm like, okay. And then he started helping me write. And then, you know, give my. You know, I never went to film school, so help me kind of, you know, get it together. And, you know, the first couple of scripts Was whack. And you.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: The one you wrote.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Yeah, the first couple wasn't. Well, they weren't structured right. You know, they was like, were you.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Trying to write something funny or was these.
[00:21:50] Speaker C: No, no, these was dramas.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:21:52] Speaker C: You know, I wrote. I wrote three dramas, and then. Well, I wrote one that was kind of. It was a drama, but it was kind of funny.
But then Friday was the.
Was the.
I always say it was the third script, but it was actually the fourth script that I wrote.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: When you wrote. When you were writing the movie, you were. Cause I remember seeing the movie, obviously. And when you were writing that, you were on the road. Were you working on that?
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: So did you know you was funny, like.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I know.
Yeah, I know.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: I'm saying, like, because, you know, like, when people. Like, I've been on tour before, like, obviously, you go on tour, you with the homies, like, you pranking niggas, like, you know what I'm saying? Was that you or was it not that? Were you, like, the funny person? Cause everybody.
[00:22:41] Speaker C: I always hang around people funnier than me.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: But I can make them laugh if I want to.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: So when you writing the script. When you writing Friday, you was like, this is a comedy. You went into it with that mindset. Yeah, okay.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: We had. When I say we, it was me and DJ Pooh.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Facts. Shout out to Pooh and.
[00:22:59] Speaker C: Yeah, shout out to DJ Pooh, who's a. He's a genius. And so me and him, we would just trip off shit like In Living Color and movies like Hollywood Shuffle.
Hollywood Shuffle by Robert Townsend. Shout out to him.
His movie is what led us to do Friday because he did that movie, like, you know, with credit cards. Damn near, like 250,000 maybe. Might be more, but it's a legend. Fucking 250,000 to make the movie. And it was. It's a masterpiece, actually.
Just because it's low budget doesn't mean it's not as brilliant as movie making gets, you know? I'm saying? So we was like, yo, let's make a low budget movie about, you know, the shit we be seeing around the neighborhood. Like, it was actually supposed to be me and Pooh sitting on the porch, tripping out. Who was supposed to play Smokey? He ended up playing Red.
He was supposed to play Smoke.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: How did Chris Tucker come in, get involved?
[00:24:20] Speaker C: Well, when. When we were making the movie, we were gonna make the movie with Priority, with Brian Turner, priority. And the movie, we needed, like, 2.45 million. But he was only Willing to put up a million seven or something.
And I was too broke at the time. I wasn't gonna put up none of my money for no damn movie. I was like, even your movies, oh, no, you don't find other people money. I'm doing enough. Goddamn. I wrote it in it. I'm starting it, you know, so.
So New line came in and they was like, yo, we want to, you know, we'll put up all of it. You don't need Brian. And so we was like, we want to make the movie.
We don't want to cheapen the movie by. I mean, it's already a low budget movie. We don't want to make it lower budget than it need to be a guy. It's like this is 20 days of shooting and it cost 2.3 or something like that. So.
Well, when they got involved, they were concerned that Pooh had never done a movie.
And it was like, well, there's like, you know, 80 pages of dialogue, you know, saying we gotta find somebody that's a little more seasoned. So they was trying to talk me into a lot of different actors.
And I saw Chris Tucker and I was like, well, let's try this kid.
And they was like, nah, he hasn't been in the movie either.
I said, y'all just put him in House Party 3.
But y'all gave him a small little part, which y'all crazy. I gave him this little bitty ass part.
I want to give him a bigger part.
Fly man, let's do a screen test, me and him. And so when I. When we flew him in and did the screen test, he knocked it out the park. So he was like, told you this is the guy.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: The Friday scripts, though, like, they're literally unmatched the entire franchise. Because it didn't feel like you guys were making a movie. It felt like, well, hearing the script, it didn't feel like it was a movie. It just felt like just watching homies, just chilling, just kicking it. Y'all have so many one liners like that. Those are jokes that we still tell. Things that you guys were saying in there. That's stuff we still say. It is just naturally funny. It's not like scripted jokes.
[00:27:01] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the magic in those movies.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: I. So like I said, I went to Henry Clay. I actually went to knock on Craig door when I was like 13, and I knocked on this.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: I didn't even know this.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: We used to pass the. We used to pass the houses. Hearing Clay's on the same street that Friday was Shot on. So we passed the houses every day. And I was looking, I'm like, dang, this house, look. It just looks so familiar.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: You just knocking on niggas doors.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Yeah, And I knocked on the door and I said, craig house.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Did you think Craig was going to answer?
[00:27:31] Speaker B: I just wanted. I really wanted to see the inside of the house.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: So I'm like, is this Craig house? And the lady said, baby, don't know Craig live here.
So I look across the street, because now I'm looking for Ms. Parker House. And Ms. Parker House is actually right across the street.
[00:27:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So we went to go look for Smokey house and Stanley.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Y'all didn't have to do, huh?
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Well, it was after school. But all the houses are painted different now.
[00:27:55] Speaker C: Yeah, they painted them different.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: But can we solve this Twitter debate?
There's a Twitter debate about Friday. And I did start it. Cause Friday one of my favorite movies. So I started the. I started the debate.
Smokey made $100, but he also sold Hector a dub, so he had 120.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Craig cashed his check.
[00:28:17] Speaker C: Did you see Craig cash his check?
[00:28:19] Speaker B: No, but he went to go pick it up.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: Okay, did you see Craig cash his check?
[00:28:24] Speaker B: But why they didn't just go cash the check.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: Why he got cash the check? Cause he got fired. He never got the check. He went to go get the check and he got fired.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Okay, but they did have $120. Cause why was they asking everybody for 200 instead of just $80?
[00:28:42] Speaker C: Cause they wanted $200.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: They was trying to pocket some shit.
[00:28:46] Speaker C: I mean, who wanna give up everything they got in their pocket?
[00:28:51] Speaker A: He just told you he wasn't paying for his own movie out of his 30s.
[00:28:53] Speaker C: Yeah, who wanna. I mean, you owe somebody money, you.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Gonna get every single dollar in him. Y'all could have got. So.
[00:29:01] Speaker C: Hey, you know, I didn't know he was gonna say that. That he was gonna kill me too. Just on him.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Okay. And why didn't Craig just go to Debbie house that night? Since her mama was out of town. Why he was. See you in the morning.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: She got questions.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Cause he could have just went over there like that night instead of in the morning. Cause her mom was out of town.
[00:29:24] Speaker C: He just had a fight, you know what I'm saying?
You know, had a fight with the biggest, scariest bully in the neighborhood. Yeah. You know, he probably want to soak, heal his wounds. You ain't really into it. You ain't really in the mood after a fight like that. Right.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: Is it true that Deebo is inspired by somebody in real life that you actually knew.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rest in peace. Dude named Big Sam. Really? Yeah. In my neighborhood, yeah.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Wow.
Okay. You got any more folk dogma or folklore you want to get about Friday?
[00:30:08] Speaker B: No. I do want to know though, why. Why weren't you in Anaconda 2 and 3?
[00:30:14] Speaker C: They didn't ask me to.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: You would have did it though.
[00:30:17] Speaker C: Probably not, but you know, they didn't ask me, that's why.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: With snakes.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: I don't trust snakes.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Like snakes, like in real life snakes.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: Like, I mean, I'm not afraid of them if you asking that. Were there any real handle snakes before?
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Were there any real anacondas in the movie?
[00:30:35] Speaker C: Yeah, a few.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Really?
[00:30:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: What?
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Oh, no, you tripping.
So it's like. Like real big ass.
[00:30:47] Speaker C: I mean, you know, they were big ass snakes to me.
Yeah, there's a few.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Okay, that's crazy. I don't like snakes at all. I get freaked out. But.
[00:30:59] Speaker C: Have you ever touched a snake?
[00:31:00] Speaker A: No.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: Why not?
[00:31:01] Speaker A: I don't fuck with snakes.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: I ain't touching them snakes.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: I'm not fucking with no snakes.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Do you know what one feel like?
[00:31:06] Speaker B: It's a date. Snake skin, slippery boots.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: Scaly.
[00:31:10] Speaker C: See, it's not slippery.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: It's scaly.
[00:31:13] Speaker C: No, it feels. It feels.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: I felt snakeskin boots. The homie Poncho, he was a ranchetto.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: But it's the smoothest skin you've ever touched, ever. And to feel it like a muscle. It's like a big muscle. And you feeling something that's dead and cold. This is warm and alive.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: The smoothest skin ever.
[00:31:39] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not slimy at all. It don't look.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: This girl named Michelle got the smoothest skin I ever seen in my life.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: Okay, shout out to Smith.
[00:31:48] Speaker C: I shouted you out in the interview. We talking about a snake, though. We ain't talking about a female.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: No, but I'm just saying I'm cool. I don't like them. Don't want nothing to do with them. It's snakes and possums. Those only two things I wish didn't exist in life.
[00:32:03] Speaker C: Why?
[00:32:03] Speaker A: I just don't care.
[00:32:04] Speaker C: What's wrong with the possum?
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Possums are ugly as hell.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: We don't need them though.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: They don't do shit. But they don't really provide any value to society.
[00:32:11] Speaker C: I mean, they do for the other animals. They eat their ass.
There's a food chain out here. I feel people.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: I just. I can't rock with it.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Has there been any talks of Cause you guys did a series of barbershop. Was there, like, any talks to do any other franchises, turn them into series?
[00:32:29] Speaker C: Um, there's always talks about it. You know, to me, it's always harder to really, you know, recapture the magic of a movie in a series.
So, you know, usually they. The talks go nowhere.
You know what I'm saying? They just.
It's not easy to turn it into a great series.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Yeah, did.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: So I think it's easier to turn a series into a movie than it is turned to move into a great series.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: I agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that. Do you. Do you have, like. So I know your son. Like, I think he's a very talented actor. Like, I think O'Shea is, like.
I don't know. Like, I see him and I see him, like, doing. I see him as a leading man at this point, right. Because he's proven to me that, like, not that I'm somebody to prove to, but I like acting. I'm a fan of actors, Right. And so when I'm watching him do different movies, I really liked him in Den of Thieves.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Like, I felt like that showed his versatility because he was like. Because the plot tw. I was fucked up at the end because I'm like, oh, he's the. Oh, I didn't like it. Fucked me up. Right? But I feel like his duality is really good. Do y'all have anything that, like, do you have anything specific? Like, do you write roles for him or, like, want to do something with him specifically?
[00:33:52] Speaker C: I have something I want to do with him that we trying to get made.
But what's cool is he's doing his own thing.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: His own thing?
[00:34:01] Speaker C: Yeah, he dig it. He's into it.
And, hey, you know, he played a win, so it's just cool to watch him get down.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: But do you give him tips on, like.
[00:34:13] Speaker C: Of course.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Okay, like, what's something that y'all have discussed where you gave him a pointer or anything?
[00:34:19] Speaker C: Well, you know, to always walk in there like, you second generation Hollywood shit you are. You know what I mean? If Keith or Sutherland can walk in, like, he's the man. You can walk in like, you the man too.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: You can too.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: You know what I'm saying? It's like, make sure you ain't that. They understand that. You know the business inside and out. You grew up in the business.
You done been every premiere, you done been in Eddie Bay's, and, you know, you done been to press junkets, and you just know the game. So don't let nobody play you cheap or pretend like you don't know the game or try to play you like you a new booty in the game.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Do you usher your family away from music? Because I remember Snoop saying, like, if he had a choice, he would have his kids and stuff, go and do sports or some. Where there's rules and regulations because the music industry is the wild, wild West.
Do you shy away from that or it's whatever you want.
[00:35:26] Speaker C: No, it's whatever they want to do. I'm gonna help them get down in it.
As long as they got the passion for it, I'm gonna help them with it. Yeah, if they just playing with it, then they can go play about it.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: That ain't what you want.
[00:35:39] Speaker C: I mean, I ain't gonna worry about it if they playing with it, but if they serious, then I'll get down with them.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: How do you approach a new body of work? Like, do you go in with a concept already? You just start recording and see how I feel. Like, do you. Because I. Me, personally, I think I look at you as like a conceptual artist.
[00:36:00] Speaker C: I mean, I'm writing down titles and concepts all the time.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:04] Speaker C: And I'm always looking for music that inspires those concepts.
So if I get.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: So you have the concept first, and then you look for the music to illustrate that. Yeah, okay.
[00:36:16] Speaker C: Sometimes. Sometimes I get a beat and it just.
I need to start writing. It just turned me on to the point where I wanted just no concept, nothing. Just want to figure it out because the music is good. And then, you know, a lot of times I have all these titles and concepts for songs, you know, that I want to do, and I'm waiting for the right music to start writing a rhyme for it.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: It's my ego.
I particularly like that song. Cause you talking shit. I like. She do, too. I like when you talking your shit. Like, I just.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: A lot of people like that.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: I don't like Humble Cube. I ain't gonna lie.
I don't like Humble Cube. Cause you to me. And again, going back to my west coast bravado, I see a lot of people get the accolades. Like, even what 50 is doing, you know, I love 50. I don't want no smoke. But even what fifth is doing with the television and the movies, like, Cube been doing that. But I don't ever see those that being, like, celebrated like that. You know what I mean? Like, Cube has been doing television shows, movies, and discovery. Like, we know a whole generation of talent because of Ice Cube. Not on the music side. And then again, on the comedy side, like, if you want to keep it a buck. So to me, like, I be looking at those things, and I be trying to figure out, like, why is Cube so humble? Like, is that something that you are mindful about, you just not an egotistical person in general? Or, like, how do you. Where you. Where you at with that?
[00:37:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I don't.
I mean, the raps are braggadocious. You know, I let everything speak for itself. I don't feel like it's cool to, you know, if I'm doing something cool and you don't notice, I don't think I should be shoving it in your face, telling you how cool it is.
I think it should be noticeable or I'm not doing my job.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:23] Speaker C: So, you know, to me, that's better. It's better for somebody to.
To be like, oh, damn, I see you got them new shades on. You know what I mean? You got that new watch. Damn, that's hard. Instead of me saying, hey, y'all, look. Y'all see. Y'all see this? All right. Yeah, give me some props. What's happening, you know? I mean, y'all see this? It's like, that's corny to me, you know, it's better if everybody know what I could do.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Right?
[00:38:57] Speaker C: You know what I'm saying? If you don't know, then to me, you out the loop. It ain't nothing, you know, I think I've made myself known. I think can't nobody do everything I can do.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Speak.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: Go ahead. Go ahead.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: I was gonna say, speaking of that, I want to give you flowers for creating a top three diss tracks of all time. I love Dish tracks. I love when disrespect on record.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: She went to Washington.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I know all about that. I know what time it is.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: No, Vaseline is so freaking disrespectful. And no, Vaseline is one of the reasons why I felt like everybody was so sensitive with this old Kendrick Lamar and Drake thing when they were getting drunk.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: I got a record on my new album called so Sensitive.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Really?
[00:39:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Go for it, though.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: What were your thoughts when you saw the diss track exchange between Kendrick Lamar and Drake?
[00:39:50] Speaker C: Love it. Love it. You know, that's. That's hip hop.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: It's supposed to be like that, right?
[00:39:58] Speaker C: It's the essence of hip hop, you know, battling, you know, talking shit.
You know, it's not, you know, a political thing all the time, you know? I mean, sometimes it's just about getting to the raw essence of what the music has always been about. And battling is part of the game. It's part of it. You know, every young mc, when I was starting out, came up battling. You looking for battles. You going to different schools looking for battles, and that was part of the game.
And then you look at the heavyweights when they battle. The LL's versus Kumo D's, the KRS versus Juice Crew, heavyweight battles.
And then, you know, to me, that's as part of, you know, Ja rule in 50, me and Nwa, you know, easy and them and Death Row, you know, I'm saying Tupac and Biggie now, the key. And what I like about this battle between Drake and Kendrick, and I wish Drake would have, you know, kept going, but I understand it. But what I liked about the battle is it didn't get physical. You know what I mean? It stayed on wax and it didn't get.
It didn't turn into crime and just go to street shit.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: There were people who felt. West coast natives that felt disrespected when Drake used.
What was it? Tupac and Snoop Dogg's voices.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: In response to Kendrick Lamar. Did. Did you find that disrespectful? Or is it like.
[00:42:16] Speaker C: No, I mean, AI is whack, so. Yeah, AI. Anybody using AI to diss, to help him with a diss track, that's whack.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I mean.
[00:42:28] Speaker C: It's just. It's just. It's terrible.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: I'm gonna read you this west coast bitch. It's the dosage. I can't overdose on no ho shit. I minister a minister. I minister this pimp shit. I've been a minister. I've been a minister since an infant. I was Kendrick before Kendrick.
[00:42:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Ooh.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: So hold on.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: He be talking that shit.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: That's what I say. I like that. I like when you talking that shit. So when you try. When you writing these records, like, you said, like, it's hip hop. Like, this is what it is, right?
When you. Have you. Have you ever wrote something and then took it out of a record? Cause you felt like, nah, that's too much on it.
[00:43:09] Speaker C: Of course.
[00:43:10] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, but what was the reason why you removed it or took the. Took it out of the record?
[00:43:16] Speaker C: Because it could easily get misconstrued. You know, sometimes words have these double meanings, and you might want to say one thing, but you damn sure don't want to say another.
And I remember I said, on one record, America's most wanted, and I never really like to go over the lyrics because People got what they got in their mind.
You flip it. But, you know, I was saying something about I'm Superman and I say, so get the Crip tonight. Cause I'm a rip tonight.
But everybody thought I was saying, so get the Crip tonight.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Cause you a Crip.
[00:44:09] Speaker C: You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah. So cool Flip, though. I mean, you know, it's.
You know, any time a word can be flipped and misconstrued, you gotta always think twice if you wanted to be that or not.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: So you. You're mindful of that when you. When you are like, writing and recording and like that, did you? I don't think you've always been that way. I think, like some of the early Cube shit I was listening to.
[00:44:37] Speaker C: Which line I've been like that for. For a very long time.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: I'm talking about, like the. I'm talking about, like, death certificate Cube. Like, yeah, you was. You was always.
[00:44:46] Speaker C: I've been like this since before I went solo.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Okay. So it's safe to say that everything you ever said, you meant that shit when you were saying it. Like. Yeah, okay.
[00:45:01] Speaker C: I mean, I look at the records, I look at the records like time capsules. You know what I'm saying?
[00:45:07] Speaker A: Time period.
[00:45:07] Speaker C: It's a time capsule. So if you want to know what I was thinking in 90, go pick up those records. 91, 92.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: After all these years, what still inspires you to create?
[00:45:21] Speaker C: It's the best part, to create something from scratch out your mind. That's.
That's how the universe was created. You know, it's something that's in your mind and you can give it a physical form and let people enjoy it. Even after your death, to me, is worth doing.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: That's powerful.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Another thing, obviously you a big entrepreneur, like the Big Three. Congratulations.
[00:45:53] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: On Big Three. I feel like it's needed, you know what I'm saying? I know you was getting a lot of you probably still are that we just don't hear about. Cause you also don't whine or cry or like, complain. Like, you just kind of just deal with shit. And I respect that. Just as like, you know, an elder statesman and a man or whatever. Like, it'd be a lot of people whining about their contracts and, you know, it's different things like that. They won't give us an opportunity. They won't let me do tv. They won't let me. It's always that. But I salute to you on the Big three. And as far as, like, Creating that space. What initially prompted you to want to do that in general? Like, what did you feel like the game was missing that or.
[00:46:30] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, just as a fan.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Just as a fan.
[00:46:34] Speaker C: As a fan, it's something I wanted to see. And I used to hate when the finals was over, no basketball, just nothing till football start. And like, preseason football's cool, but we all know we want week one, and it's always two to three months, just dormant. And it's just. It was just try. I used to hibernate like a bear and shit, wake up in September so I could see football. So I was just tired of that, man. Then Kobe scored 60 points in his last game.
So I'm like, man, still can score 60 points. He could still play. Maybe not 82 games, maybe not back to backs, maybe not, you know, three games in four nights, but half court to 50 once a week?
Hell yeah, could do that. So just wanting it to come true made me think about it more and more.
Me, my partner, Jeff Quinac, just start brainstorming. For about a year, we didn't even think we was gonna do it. We was just talking shit, like, what would it look like? Like, what would you do different in the NBA? What would you do different in the NFL? Like, how would you treat your athletes better than they do? You know, it's just. And then everything was starting to become a good idea. It was like, damn, this is a good idea. And then we looked around and we like, nobody would do this.
It gotta be us.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: Nobody.
[00:48:25] Speaker C: Nobody would do this. It gotta be us.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: You see? I see a lot of people want to do shit. They don't ever pull the trigger on it, or they're afraid of failure or they afraid, like. But then also you do see things like when the XFL came and that ended up not working out, like, what's been. What do you think is different? Or what do you do differently than most other people who want to start their own leagues and stuff like that? What do you think the secret sauce is to success for that?
[00:48:50] Speaker C: A few things.
I started off with star power.
Those other leagues are starting off with a lot of unknown people you don't know.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:49:01] Speaker C: And not only star power, but a game that people were familiar with. You know, it was like the little cousin of five on five is three on three. And everybody has seen dudes play three on three or five on five, so it wasn't foreign to the eye. It was something people were used to. And then we had wrinkles that you can't do or haven't been done in five on five, which is like the four point shot, you know, the one shot free throws, you know, first to 50, no garbage minutes, because there are no minutes.
You know, it's just a sprint, you know what I'm saying? And like, we all was sick of basketball where the last two minutes, last 25 minutes. Because they filing, replaying, they, you know, saying if it bounced off the hand or the rent, you know, it's like, God damn, let's get to the end of this shit. I need to go eat. Yeah, I'm hungry. I gotta go pick up the kids. Like, so we've all sick of that.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:13] Speaker C: So I'm like, man, let's take out this clock. First to 50, so ain't nobody bullshitting.
Our dudes drenched. When's the last time you looked and saw an NBA game and saw the players just drenched and sweat?
[00:50:27] Speaker A: I mean, don't nobody cruise.
[00:50:31] Speaker C: I got an hour to play. You know, cruising time ain't running out. We got time to get back, you know, all that bullshit. So I wanted to cut all that out. And like, first of 50, you know, you want to be first or last, so you gotta play hard the whole game or you gonna lose straight up. And then. So all these wrinkles made our game fresh, new, exciting.
We didn't lock into cities early. We went from town to town showing people how dope it is, adding entertainment.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:10] Speaker C: You know, having multiple games so you can go see the whole league with your ticket.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:51:15] Speaker C: Having an affordable ticket. So now you there, it ain't just corporate assholes and they boxes, you know what I'm saying? Or they sweets. It's families, it's mothers and bringing all the little cousins and kids because they can afford to, you know, we're not breaking the bank. And then you see in the whole league, it was just a lot of value in the league that you can't get in other sporting events.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Have other organizations reached out to you to consult for them? Because I think creatively they could use some of that.
[00:51:51] Speaker C: No, they haven't. And I probably wouldn't do it yet. You know, after I've felt like my work is done as far as making sure the big three is here forever. Okay, then I'll, you know, I wouldn't take another.
I wouldn't focus on another league until this league is rolling downhill and printing money.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: Right. And then also the other thing is, I seen the whole thing with Caitlin Clark and stuff like that, but are there athletes that come to you like, hey, Q, you Know, I come fuck with you. You know what I'm saying? Like, is that. Is that a.
[00:52:34] Speaker C: You mean as far as what I plan or.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: Yeah, like, you know, like, I can play with you. You know what I'm saying? If you, you know, if I do what? If you look out for me. You know what I'm saying? In what way?
Well, I mean, they want the contracts because I feel like we play, we.
[00:52:50] Speaker C: Pay all of our players the same amount of money.
The way they can make more money is if they win. So if you come in first place, you get first place money. Second place, second place money. Yeah, I'm talking about extra and above the base pay. Base salary.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Got you.
[00:53:13] Speaker C: So can't nobody come to me and say, hey, man, slide me a little extra.
[00:53:17] Speaker A: Well, the rest of the rumor is.
[00:53:20] Speaker C: It would break the system. Yeah, it would break the system and what the league has in place and why we're successful, why we have true teams. Because one guy making the lion's share and the other guy making peanuts. Everybody, we make the same. We lose, we make the same.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: I respect that.
[00:53:44] Speaker C: You get more for winning than you do for losing. So the incentive to win is always there.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: And do people, you know, like, in the league, in NBA, there's a super teams now where it's like, I mean, Bron went to Miami, and then we got KD going to, you know, play with Steph. And then like, is that. Do you do something within the big three to make sure that that doesn't start to become a thing?
[00:54:06] Speaker C: Like, well, there's always, you know, if you win the championship, you get to keep your team together, okay? So you have to actually come back with the same team in order to play no draft picks. If you win the championship, you got to actually defend the title with the same people.
[00:54:25] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:54:26] Speaker C: So second place, you have a choice.
You keep three players, but you got to send one or two back to the draft pool.
Okay?
The other teams, you keep three players, but two of your players go back in the draft pool and we just shuffle the deck again and you re pick.
And each year you get a chance to reshuffle your team a little bit. If you didn't win the championship.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: So you keep winning, you get to keep running it back. Same three.
[00:55:02] Speaker C: See, if you really didn't want champs.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: You need to start writing, like, congress and legislation and shit, you know what I'm saying?
[00:55:12] Speaker C: I mean, we got the, you know, contract with black America, but.
[00:55:16] Speaker A: Nah, I'm dead ass, though. Like. Cause there's some of the shit that's be going on. I'm like, it could use some of that, what you just said. You know what I mean?
[00:55:23] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, to make things, you know. Right. And.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:28] Speaker C: You know, the competition stay high.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: I fuck with that.
[00:55:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Cause now the other teams that's putting their team together, they know what they chasing.
[00:55:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:37] Speaker C: They. We gotta get better than that, or they're never.
They're never coming down.
[00:55:43] Speaker A: Right. Okay. The last thing on the big three is a lot of the sports organizations are going to streaming services and stuff. Is that something that you are looking at, like, as far as, like. Cause traditional television. Everybody's streaming traditional television now at this point anyway. You know, NFL did the, you know, the shit with Amazon, and, like, that's kind of like. It seems like that's the path forward now at this point, even with the NBA. Is that something that is on your mind as well? Like.
[00:56:09] Speaker C: Well, we love cbs.
It gives us the prestige. A league like this. Knees facts.
Everybody still loves free facts, you know, so it's great to be on cbs, but they only play half of our games.
[00:56:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:56:27] Speaker C: So the other half we are looking for, you know, we would like to actually be on another network, but if not, you know, those games last year, they was on X. Yep. You know, we may do some things with X, but we still gonna look for, you know, a licensing deal for those games so they can end up in streaming, you know, or linear tv.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. For sure.
The other. The last thing that I want to talk to you about is just from a musical standpoint, like, the tree that I think from that we have is out here, specifically from an LA perspective. We got y'all, like, NWA and the things that y'all. Then from NWA, you got cube, different cube, you get Mac 10 and so on and so forth. Right. And then, you know, Dre, we don't even need to go down that.
Is there a possibility of Ice Cube, like, working with newer artists, or are you, like, too busy for that? Like, younger, new, young artists. Do you have. You have your eye on people? Are you paying attention? Do you give. Do you care? Like, is that. Cause I know, like, people would benefit a lot from the game that you have, and I just always wish that we had that as well. Like, not necessarily mentorship, tutelage, not even you being in the studio like that, but just something that I always try to tell the younger artists is like, hey, bro, make sure you understand this. Like, how would you just say you told O'Shea, like, make sure they understand, you know, your business, your Contracts, you've always been savvy like that. So I just wanted to know if that's something that you were doing or interested in doing.
[00:58:09] Speaker C: Well, you know, of course, I'll give any artist any game they ask. You know, if anybody hit me up, call me up.
I'm always open like that. You know, as far as working with artists, you know, putting this league together, you know, dealing with my own career, as far as music, movies, you know, it's just only so many hours in the day, you know, under bandwidth is not there to be able to cultivate an artist and get them to the point where, you know, we can actually blow them up.
And what happens when you, you know, I know a lot of people say, come on, Cube, you got, you know, just, you know, I mean, give them a little bit something. But what happens is, if you don't give an artist your all and it don't work, then they feel like you didn't do everything you needed to do. So, I mean, you create a monster on that level, or sometimes, you know, you could blow artists up and then think you didn't do shit. You know, it was all them. They was gonna blow up anyway. So it's a headache either way. Yeah, you know, sometimes a thankless gang.
And so, you know, at a certain point, you know, I felt like I've contributed to the west coast family tree, but, you know, my sons is out there, you know, it's not just O'Shea Jr. I got a son named Darrel that's out there, and he, you know, he works with young artists. He's still looking for talent, you know, and I would always help him help his artists blow up. So me personally, you know, them days are behind me, but you never know. And it's only because I'm a true artist that's doing a lot of different things. You know, I'm not.
I'm not looking to make money off of a new artist.
[01:00:23] Speaker A: I feel that.
[01:00:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: What about. Because you. Essentially, you gave us Chris Tucker and Mike Epps. So what about comedians? Are there any comedians that you're looking at? Cat Williams? Yeah.
[01:00:36] Speaker C: Any comedians or what that you're.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: That you're looking at or that you entertain you always.
[01:00:42] Speaker C: Younger kids, always.
You'll see when the movies come out.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: Okay, so speaking of that, because according to IMVD, last Friday comes out in 2025.
[01:00:53] Speaker C: Well, we haven't started shooting it yet, so I wouldn't listen to them.
[01:00:59] Speaker B: Okay, so IMVD is. This is a.
[01:01:01] Speaker C: It may, but I. You know, it's easier Said than done.
[01:01:05] Speaker B: It says expected.
[01:01:06] Speaker C: I apologize. It's easier said than done. You know, we gotta make sure it's what everybody want.
[01:01:14] Speaker B: If you got, like, two lines or something for me or something.
[01:01:18] Speaker C: It's a long line. You. You mean a line line? Cause you mean some script lines. It's a long line of people that's asking me the same thing.
[01:01:27] Speaker B: I already know.
[01:01:28] Speaker C: Yeah, everybody asks.
Everybody asking, you know, they.
[01:01:33] Speaker A: Not from here, though. They. They tell them to get in the Philly movie. Damn. Not like that. But I'm just not like that. I'm just.
[01:01:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I feel you.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: Okay, so what you said, what's the date on it?
[01:01:48] Speaker B: It says 2025.
[01:01:51] Speaker A: Oh, like in a few months?
[01:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: Oh, shit.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Like next year.
[01:01:54] Speaker A: You say you haven't started filming yet?
[01:01:56] Speaker C: Nah.
[01:01:56] Speaker A: Okay.
I guess what I want to know from your perspective is all the things that you've done and contributed. Like, what else is on Q's bucket list? Like. Cause you've attacked many industries and kicked indoors figuratively and literally for different things. Right. I saw the movie. You know what I'm saying? But, like, what else is on that list of things? Because I fancy myself in the remnants of you, Dre. I look at Fif. I look at different people who've tagged Kevin Hart, who've done so many different things in so many different arenas. Like, it's like, what's next? And I don't like the way my brain works. I'm like, it's always something next. Is there something that really is, like, an itch you want to scratch that you haven't really got a chance to tackle yet because you don't have time or.
[01:02:42] Speaker C: Well, you know, I just want to shore up what I already got.
I still got a lot of work to do with the big three that is successful, but it takes, you know, takes work to keep it where it is. You know, it just won't stay there without, you know, making sure you put a lot of energy and talent and people and keep it going. So got a new record coming out called Man Down.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: Man Down? Yep. I was gonna say so.
[01:03:20] Speaker C: You know, hopefully we shoot videos and tour that record and, you know, get people excited about, you know, a following record after that. And, you know, we putting, you know, some movies together, trying to get the Friday movie cocked and loaded and ready to go. So I kind of got my work cut out for me. You know, I'm not looking to conquer new ground yet. You know, to me, it's about making sure you deliver on the promises that are Already made.
And, you know, if I don't do that, then what I got next, nobody gonna give a damn about any anyway. It's really about following through and not, you know, not doing stuff. Cause you can, but doing it. Cause you should.
Doing it because it's right and the time is right.
[01:04:25] Speaker A: So with purpose.
[01:04:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. You know, and just always getting better, you know, Always trying to get better. Always trying to execute, you know, Got a lot of things going on, you know. You know, from merchandise to, you know, a cannabis business. You know, we just gotta.
We gotta play full.
[01:04:56] Speaker A: Play full of shit.
[01:04:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Just making sure it's all great before we give it to the public.
[01:05:01] Speaker A: Okay, so my last question. I know you got one. My last question is on the album, you got a song called Not Like Them.
[01:05:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:05:07] Speaker A: Is that a play on Not Like Us?
[01:05:09] Speaker C: No, I did that way before Not Like Us.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: It was Kendrick before Kendrick.
[01:05:14] Speaker A: What? Keep up.
[01:05:17] Speaker C: No, it was just saying that, you know, I'm not like the rest of them.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
[01:05:22] Speaker C: I'm a different breed.
[01:05:25] Speaker B: What percent of the Straight Outta Compton movie is not true?
Was everything accurate?
[01:05:39] Speaker C: Maybe 5 to 7% was.
You know, you gotta understand when you're trying to shove ten years into two and a half hours, sometimes you have to summarize what happened. And not always, you know, be like a documentary. You have to, you know, because you're. You're doing this with actors and you're doing this in a dramatic setting.
So you have to summarize things that may have happened in a week's time or month time, and maybe put it in two scenes. So sometimes you're scrunching things and you're adding all the elements that was there in that week into that room or into that.
[01:06:38] Speaker A: You got to make it make sense.
[01:06:40] Speaker C: Yeah. So, you know, some of that, that goes on, but, you know, what you're creating is the feeling, the sense, the drama of what was taking place around you as well as what was going on within the group. Take, for instance, we wanted to show the crack era because we were all living through it. It was a decision. We were all making music selling dope, sports, you know, that was the decisions to be made. And so, you know, Eazy had at the time was, you know, selling dope.
So we wanted to show that. We wanted to show his life and what he was going through. But also we wanted to show how much overkill the LAPD was on. Because you wanted to know why we wrote a song like Fuck the Police.
So now we put easy in the scene and we put the battery in the same scene, okay. To show how extreme they were going, which made us go extreme musically.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: Facts.
[01:08:14] Speaker C: So. So we had to crunch all this into one scene.
You see, I'm saying.
And that's like some of the things that you have to do when you're.
When you're trying to create a movie based on reality, but you're doing a scripted movie, you know, it's not a documentary, so you have to, you know, make sure it's true, but also entertaining, but also follow the guides of a film. First act, second act. You know, it's a balancing act you have to do.
[01:08:55] Speaker A: Is it true that that scene where Suge was telling Eazy, don't make me change you, is that true that it almost got taken out of the film?
[01:09:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it did. Because, you know, only a few people were in that room.
[01:09:11] Speaker A: In that room. Yeah.
[01:09:12] Speaker C: To know what actually happened.
Easy wasn't there. So, you know, it was. It was just on. How do we handle this scene? You know, it has to be threatening because he signed the contract. You know what I'm saying? So it had to be something other than just. Just, you know, a conversation.
[01:09:47] Speaker A: Had you had any conversation with Suge since he been in jail?
[01:09:51] Speaker C: No.
[01:09:51] Speaker A: Okay, and then what was the first conversation you and Dre had when y'all decided to make the movie? What was the first conversation?
[01:09:58] Speaker C: Was it like, Dre, like, man, I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know if I want to up on.
[01:10:05] Speaker A: I don't fuck with this shit.
[01:10:06] Speaker C: I don't fuck with our legacy.
[01:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:10:10] Speaker C: Cause he said, everybody that tried to make a movie, it sucked, you know, Except Ray.
[01:10:17] Speaker A: Ray. Except Ray. Shout out to JB Fox.
[01:10:21] Speaker B: Straight Outta Compton is one of the best biopics, though.
[01:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I think y'all got it right.
[01:10:26] Speaker C: Yeah. I told him. I said, you know, I talked to Gary Gray and everybody involved. I said, look, it's a thousand ways to get this movie wrong. It's only a few ways to get it right. We gotta figure out those few ways to get this movie right.
And nothing can stop us. Like, we can't let nothing get in the way of making this movie the right way.
[01:10:58] Speaker A: I want to also. And we'll close. I want to shout out to F. Gary Gray, because we had him here. He was here at Sirius Pandora, downstairs in our studio with a live audience. And he gave you your flowers because you gave him opportunity, you know, when at one point, that kind of changed his life, you know what I'm saying? And he really appreciated that. And I think that's indicative of your legacy in general. Just giving opportunities to people. But after he fucked with Cube, he said that's when he was able to go do a $100 million movie and set it off with Queen Latifah and, you know, Jada Pinkett and the whole. Not Vivica and all of that. So that was super. I thought that was super dope for him to remember that, because, like you said, you give people an opportunity, and they act like you ain't do shit.
[01:11:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you know, I appreciate that. Gary Gray, but shout out to Dub C. Dub C is the first one to work with Gary Gray.
He did a dress code video, and I liked how that video came out. Then I started to. I wanted him to do a video for me.
He did True to the Game. And then from there, we did. It was a Good Day video.
[01:12:10] Speaker A: Yep. Classic.
[01:12:13] Speaker C: And then we did a St. Eyes.
[01:12:20] Speaker A: Psa, did Gary Gray, did that St. Ives commercial.
[01:12:24] Speaker C: Well, we did a few. I directed a few of those commercials. But he. We did a PSA where we was.
You know, we wanted to give a message on both sides.
And so those things got him.
Got new line to give him a chance on Friday, the movie. Word. So doing all those videos. And then he had. Did some things with TLC and Cypress Hill. He started doing some big videos. And, you know, that's how he ended up getting. Getting the okay to do the Friday movie.
[01:13:04] Speaker A: Hey, man, thank you again, you know, for. Oh, are we gonna get another. I know we. We on man down right now, but are we gonna get another Mount Westmore?
[01:13:12] Speaker C: Like, they.
[01:13:13] Speaker A: You don't know?
[01:13:14] Speaker C: I don't know.
[01:13:15] Speaker A: Okay. Are there songs that exist that was.
[01:13:17] Speaker C: Yeah, there's songs that exist.
[01:13:18] Speaker A: Are there 13 of them?
[01:13:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:13:21] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:13:21] Speaker C: Probably more than that.
[01:13:22] Speaker A: All right, well, all right, cool. So I'll take that.
[01:13:24] Speaker B: Warren G said he wanted to hop on it.
[01:13:26] Speaker A: Facts.
[01:13:26] Speaker B: He told us that.
[01:13:27] Speaker A: He told us he was up here. He was like, yo, I want to get on that, man.
[01:13:31] Speaker C: Easy.
Go for it.
[01:13:33] Speaker A: But, yeah, man down. I'm. You know, I can't wait to see, like, what you own. Because, like, I think. Brilliant mind. I respect intellect. Appreciate one of the most brilliant minds, you know.
[01:13:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:13:45] Speaker A: That we have. And I just want to tell you that, you know.
[01:13:48] Speaker C: Thank you.
[01:13:49] Speaker B: Same. You not only raise us in music, but on tv, like, you raised our parents. And sitting us in front of the tv, turning on. You was babysitting us, not knowing that you babysitted. So thank you for Your impact and.
[01:14:02] Speaker A: Your contribution also, that, that's.
[01:14:04] Speaker C: That's amazing.
[01:14:05] Speaker A: Also, being an LA native, I gotta go back real quick. The Dodgers won the World Series. Yeah, you popped out and you popped out. And then when I tell you so, it's three moments I have. The first one is Dr. Dre at the Super Bowl. Yeah, I'm losing my shit. Cause I can't be there, right? So I'm watching on the thing. I'm like, I'm losing my fucking mind, right? Snoop, they seawalking on tv. This shit crazy.
Second moment I had was being a part of the pop out with.
[01:14:37] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, that was amazing too.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: Thank you. Third moment was hearing the music. I'm like, he not. I said, is he doing Bow down on tv?
[01:14:50] Speaker C: What the fuck is going on? I said, we won, we gonna win this motherfucker, right? Yeah.
[01:14:56] Speaker A: So I'm losing my shit, right? I reposted this shit. Elliott Wilson reposted me for reposting. Like, niggas is going crazy, right? He said he's a West Coast Wilson now. But whatever, you from New York. So for you, one of those moments, in my humble opinion, was like, oh, we gonna win this shit. Did you? I don't know what even to ask you about that, but I just want you to just paint me that picture of that moment for you. I know you don't have many of them, but being a LA native like the Dodgers, I don't think people, the world don't really understand what that means to la Black and brown.
[01:15:31] Speaker B: And then to have you pop out.
[01:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, you was the face of that shit.
[01:15:34] Speaker C: Like, that's crazy, you know, dream come true stuff. And I grew up watching these, grew up watching the Dodgers, grew up watching them in the World Series play against the Yankees.
77. I was knee high to a horse fly, but I was there. 78. They lost both times. And then in 81 they beat him. And so, you know, like, to have them even play each other was just bringing back memories. And, you know, then I got the call, like, do you wanna. Do you wanna bring out the Dodgers? Hell yeah. I'm like, what? We were supposed to do a game one, but. But then Fernando died.
Rest in peace. And so they was like, we gonna do something for Fernando. Can you do a game too? I was like doing any game y'all want me to do. And, you know, talking it out with my man, Jesse Collins. Now, Jesse Collins is the one that produced the Super Bowl.
[01:16:38] Speaker A: I know we did together.
[01:16:39] Speaker C: He produced the Oscars too. You know, I think the One where Will and Chris got into it. But he, you know, I did Hip Hop squares with him. I don't know if y'all remember Hip Hop Squares.
Yeah, I did hip hop squares with him. And so he was like, yo, you know, it'd be hot if you come out through the center field gate and walk all the way to home plate. I'm like, nothing. Come on with it. Come on with it.
[01:17:12] Speaker B: Was a piece of you like this for that East Coast, west coast beat?
[01:17:15] Speaker C: Nah, I wasn't thinking of none of that. I would. Man, that's so far in the back of my mind, I was thinking about beating the Yankees, you know what I'm saying? This is like, real Dodger fan. So I'm like, man, we gotta beat him. So I knew I had flipped the words in the. In the song. And, man, when that gate opened, it's 52,000 people, they going nuts. And everything was perfect. You know, the music's perfect in my ear. Mike was hot. And, you know, it was just about hyping up the crowd and really hyping up the team.
[01:18:00] Speaker A: You talk some shit in there, though.
[01:18:01] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. You know, definitely had to talk shit.
[01:18:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:18:04] Speaker C: You know, because we needed to beat them. You know what I'm saying? It was like, LA needed this.
[01:18:11] Speaker A: And so we still salty about not getting our parades. We didn't get our bubble parade.
[01:18:16] Speaker C: Thank you, thank you.
[01:18:17] Speaker A: You know what I'm saying?
[01:18:18] Speaker C: And they talk about the bubble. Like, everybody else didn't want the championship either, you know what I'm saying? Y'all was going for it. Now it's a bubble when we get it, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't a bubble when y'all was trying to get it. And so just amazing. And what was cool is being able to high five the team and, you know, just get them pumped up and getting the dub, you know, that was most important. That was the most important, getting the dub.
[01:18:47] Speaker A: Nah, for sure, man. Listen, thank you, bro. I appreciate you for coming through. Like, legendary. And I've been waiting for this for a decade, so.
[01:18:56] Speaker C: Anytime, man. Appreciate y'all.
[01:18:58] Speaker A: It's Ice Cube, the legend. It's effective immediately.
[01:19:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
