Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are looking
at a figure who is, I mean, he's honestly a bit
of a cultural shapeshifter. Yeah, that's the
perfect way to put it. Because depending on exactly
when you tuned into pop culture, you might know
him as the scowl behind the most dangerous rap
group in history, you know, the voice of a generation's
rage. Or, and this is the crazy part, Completely
conversely, you might know him as the lovable,
slightly irritated dad in a family road trip
movie. It's two different people. It feels like
it. We are talking, of course, about O'Shea Jackson,
better known to the entire world as Ice Cube.
It is such a fascinating trajectory, isn't it?
You really don't see many careers that can span
from writing Boys in the Hood, which is this,
I mean, incredibly gritty street level reality
check. Right. To starring in Are We There Yet,
which is pure family friendly slapstick. It just
it feels like two different lifetimes or maybe
even two different people sharing the same face.
Exactly. But when you look at the source material
we have today, which is a. really comprehensive
breakdown of his life and career right up to
early 2026, you realize it's actually a very
consistent line. There isn't an old cube and
a new cube so much as there is like a singular
philosophy that he just applied to all these
different industries. And that is exactly what
we are here to figure out. How does one guy inhabit
all those spaces without losing his core identity?
Because usually when an artist sells out or goes
mainstream, they lose that original edge. They
do. They lose the credibility. Totally. But Cube
somehow kept the respect of the streets while
selling popcorn movies in the suburbs. So our
mission today is to unpack how a kid from South
Central L .A. used a challenge in a typing class,
of all things. I love that detail. To launch
a global empire. We're going to look at the gangster
app, the political commentary, the Hollywood
blockbusters, and the sports leagues. And the
controversies. You absolutely cannot tell the
story of Ice Cube without looking at the heat
that has followed him. He has never been one
to shy away from friction, whether it's with
the police, with record labels, or with the entire
Jewish community at one point. He leans into
it. it absolutely we are going to get into all
of it the good the bad and the very very complicated
but i think what i'm most excited about are the
specific surprising details like I thought I
knew the Ice Cube story, but I did not know about
the architecture degree. Right. That feels like
a detail from a different biography entirely.
That is such a key piece of the puzzle. If I
had to frame our discussion today, I would say
the central theme isn't just talent. It's agency
and authorship. Agency and authorship. Yeah.
Whether it was music, movies, or business. Cube
has always fought like tooth and nail to own
his narrative and maybe more importantly, to
own his finances. He refuses to be a passenger
in his own life. He wants to be the driver, the
mechanic and the guy who built the road. I love
that framework. That's perfect. So let's start
at the very beginning. The blueprint, if you
will. Let's do it. Because before he was the
Don of the West Coast, before the scowl that
launched a thousand memes, he was just O'Shea
Jackson. Born June 15th, 1969 in Los Angeles.
And his background is it's very working class,
very grounded. This isn't a story of industry
connections or anything like that. Right. His
mother, Doris, was a hospital clerk and a custodian.
His father, Hosea, was a machinist and a groundskeeper
at UCLA. So he sees hard work right from the
jump. I mean, this is manual labor, service work.
This is wake up early and get it done energy.
100%. He grew up on Van Wick Street in the Westmont
section of South Los Angeles. Now, this is crucial
context because while the world associates him
with Compton, largely because of the Adam title
straight out of Compton, his roots are actually
in South Central. It's a slightly different geography,
though. I mean, the economic realities and the
pressure of the environment were very similar.
OK. But the thing that always cracks. me up is
the origin of the name Ice Cube. Oh, this is
great. Because when you see him in the late 80s,
that name just radiates cold, calculated aggression.
It feels impenetrable. Right, like I'm distinct,
I'm solid, I'm cold -blooded. It sounds like
something a marketing consultant came up with
to sell a hard image. Not even close. It came
from his older brother. No way. Apparently, when
O'Shea was younger, he was trying to be cool
or maybe he was just pestering his older brother
as younger siblings do, you know, trying to hang
out with the older crowd. We've all been there.
And his brother got fed up and threatened to
slam him into a freezer and not pull him out
until he was an ice cube. That is hilarious.
It's such a violently mundane sibling threat.
It's so specific. I'm going to turn you into
a literal ice cube. It's so specific. And somehow
he took that threat, reclaimed it, and turned
it into one of the most intimidating monikers
in hip hop history. Well, it speaks to his ability
to flip a situation, right? To take something
that was meant to minimize him. You're just a
little kid. I'll freeze you and wear it as armor.
But the real ignition point for his career. the
moment O'Shea Jackson strictly became a writer,
where he realized the power of the pen happened
in ninth grade at George Washington Preparatory
High School. The typing class. This is my favorite
detail because it's so analog. We're talking
about a beat machine or a studio session. We
are talking about a typewriter. A typewriter.
In the early 80s, he had a friend named Kiddo.
And Kiddo challenged him to a rap writing contest
during typewriting class. I mean, can you imagine
that, teacher? just trying to get kids to learn
the home row keys, A -S -D -F, trying to get
their words per minute up so they can get secretarial
jobs. And in the back of the room, the future
of West Coast hip -hop is being written on a
QWERTY keyboard. The rhythmic clacking of the
keys probably sounded like a beat to him. It
must have. And the stakes were just bragging
rights, but Cube took it seriously. Kiddo lost.
Of course. And for Cube, that was the spark.
He realized, I can do this. I can put words together
better than the next guy. It wasn't about being
a gangster yet. It was about being a wordsmith.
It was about the architecture of the rhyme. That's
a great way to put it. But here's where the story
takes a turn that most people, they just don't
expect. This is the education paradox. This is
the part that blew my mind. So he's living in
a high crime neighborhood, South Central, dealing
with the realities of the crack epidemic era,
the police helicopters, the gang violence. All
of it. But he's not going to school there. Right.
He was part of a busing program. So he was bused.
40 miles to William Howard Tapped High School
in Woodland Hills. 40 miles? That is a wealthy
suburban school in the San Fernando Valley. So
every single day he is physically traversing
these two very different worlds. He's leaving
the pension of South Central, sitting on a bus
for an hour, and then arriving in the affluent
manicured suburbs where kids are driving convertibles
to school. That has to do something to your psyche.
It has to. You're seeing the disparity in real
time twice a day. You're seeing what the other
half lives like. That perspective is absolutely
crucial for a writer. You learn to observe. You
learn that the world isn't just one thing. It's
the code switching, right? Learning how to navigate
different environments, how to speak different
languages, essentially. He's seeing what making
it looks like in the suburbs and he's seeing
what struggling looks like at home. It gave him
this panoramic view of Los Angeles that his peers
who stayed in the neighborhood just didn't have.
OK, but the real curveball comes after he starts
making noise in the music scene. Yeah, this is
the architect chapter. This is the plan B that
I think defines his whole mindset. It's fascinating.
So it's 1987. He has already hooked up with Dr.
Dre. He has recorded with NWA. They are starting
to buzz locally. The energy is building. The
streets are talking about them. The iron is hot.
It is. And what does Ice Cube do? Does he go
on tour? Does he buy a chain? No. He enrolls
at the Phoenix Institute of Technology in Arizona.
In Arizona. He leaves the L .A. rap scene. just
as it's heating up to go to the desert. For a
diploma in architectural drafting. Okay, wait.
Let's just pause on that image for a second.
You have the guy who is about to write, straight
out of Compton, arguably the most important protest
album of the decade, sitting in a classroom in
Phoenix, drawing blueprints, learning about load
-bearing walls, vanishing points, and scale.
He did it. In 1988, he got the diploma and came
back. He literally viewed it as a backup plan.
He has been quoted as saying he wanted to have
something to fall back on if the rap thing didn't
work out. That is incredibly pragmatic for a
teenager. Yeah. Just so much foresight. Most
kids who get a sniff of fame, especially in music,
they drop everything. Oh yeah. They go all in.
They burn the boats because they believe the
hype. Cube is like, let me just get this trade
degree just in case. It speaks to that theme
of agency we talked about. He didn't want to
be dependent on the music industry's whims. If
the record label failed, if the audience didn't
show up. If the fad died out, he could go draw
houses. He could still eat. He could still eat.
And I think that draftsman mindset, the idea
of building something from a plan, understanding
structure, understanding how pieces fit together.
You see that later in how he builds movie scripts
and business ventures. That's a great point.
He is an architect of his own career. He doesn't
just feel his way through. He plans. He sketches
it out first. So he comes back from Phoenix,
diploma in hand, ready to be an architect if
needed. But obviously Plan A was starting to
work. It was working. Let's talk about those
early days because before NWA really exploded,
there was CIA. Right. The group CIA crew in action.
This was a trio he started with Sir Jinx. They
were performing at parties hosted by Dr. Dre
and the world class. wrecking crew. Okay. And
this is where we see a side of Cube that gets
overshadowed by the angry persona later on. His
humor. Yes. The parody raps. This feels so distant
from what the police, but it's the same guy.
It's the same brain. He had comedic timing from
the start. They were performing at the Eve After
Dark nightclub. Run DMC had the huge hit My Adidas
around. Iconic, yeah. Iconic track about sneakers.
So Cube gets on the mic and performs a parody
called My Penis. It's classic teenage boy humor.
It's juvenile, sure, but it requires a certain
level of confidence to get up and do that. You
have to be willing to be the clown to get the
crowd moving. Oh, yeah, and it was effective,
but maybe a little embarrassing for the venue
owners. Alonzo Williams, who was the leader of
the Wrecking Crew, sort of the gatekeeper at
the time, running the glitzy R &B electro scene.
He actually recalled later that he felt his reputation
was damaged by it. Oh, wow. He asked them not
to repeat it, but it shows that Cube wasn't just
a gangster rapper. He was an entertainer. He
knew how to get a reaction. He knew how to work
a crowd. That skill translates whether you are
making a joke or making a political statement.
So he's cutting his teeth. He's making people
laugh. He's making people listen. And then at
16 years old, he sells his first song. This is
the moment. The hobby becomes a profession. He
sells it to Eazy -E. And this is the formation
of the empire. Eazy -E was just forming ruthless
records. And you have to remember, Eazy -E wasn't
a rapper initially. He was a drug dealer looking
to launder money into a legitimate business.
He was the bank. He was the bank. And he was
trying to put together the super group N .W .A.
And the song Cube sold him was Boys in the Hood.
Which is, it defines the genre. It's the reality
rap manifesto. It's not about partying. It's
about surviving the day. It really did. But here
is the nuance that people often miss. Cube wrote
Boys in the Hood, but initially he didn't want
Easy to Rap It. He wanted a group called HBO
to rap it. They were signed to Ruthless, but
HBO rejected it because they were from New York.
They looked at the lyrics, the slang, the references
to the 6 -4 Impala, and they said, we don't get
this. This isn't us. Wow. They walked out. So
Dre convinced Eazy to rap it himself. That is
a pivotal moment in history right there. If HBO
had recorded it, NWA as we know it might never
have happened. Exactly. And when Eazy recorded
it, his delivery was so raw, untrained, almost
conversational. And that made it feel even more
real. But crucially, when they got to the album
Straight Outta Compton, Cube became the primary
ghostwriter. He wrote some of Dre's lyrics and
nearly all of Eazy's lyrics. So when we are listening
to Eazy -E tell these gritty stories, stories
about Compton, about the specific streets and
the specific violence, we are actually listening
to Ice Cube's words coming out of Yeezy's mouth.
Precisely. And remember, Cube was the only core
member of NWA not actually born in Compton. Right.
He's from South Central. He's from South Central.
So he was channeling the energy of his friends,
observing their lives like an embedded reporter,
and turning it into this cohesive narrative.
He was the storyteller. He was the pen behind
the ruthless image. He gave EZ the words to become
the character EZE. That is wild. It makes you
realize that NWA wasn't just a group of guys
freestyling. It was a carefully constructed image.
And Q was the architect of the words. He was
designing the building that EZE was living in.
essentially and that contribution is what led
to the explosion straight out of compton comes
out in 1989 it changes the world it scares the
mainstream it energizes the youth it gets the
attention of the fbi it puts west coast hip -hop
on the map permanently but by late 1989 the architect
looks at the blueprints of the business deal
and he realizes the math doesn't add up the split
This is legendary in music business history.
This is the moment where that agency theme really
gets tested. It is the ultimate moment of asserting
value. Cube looks at manager Jerry Heller. He
looks at Eazy -E. He says, wait a minute. I wrote
most of Eazy's debut album, Eazy Does It, which
is platinum. I wrote the hits on Straight Outta
Compton, which is platinum. We are touring the
world. We are selling out arenas. And my total
pay is $32 ,000. $32 ,000. For writing some of
the most iconic songs in history. I mean, even
in 1989 money, that is. Yeah. Not enough. That's
a decent salary for a manager at a grocery store,
maybe. Not even. Not for the primary writer of
the biggest group in the world. It was a pittance
compared to the money the label was generating.
And Heller presented him with a contract in 1989
that incredibly didn't even confirm he was an
official. member of the group. It was a bad deal.
It locked him in without fair compensation. Cube
refused to sign it. He left the group in late
1989. He sued Heller, which was later settled
out of court. But just think about the guts that
took. NWA was the hottest thing on the planet.
He was the star lyricist. And he walked away
because he knew his worth. That's the backup
plan. Confidence again. He knew he could survive.
But the industry must have thought he was crazy.
Everyone said NWA made Cube, not the other way
around. Eazy was the face, Dre was the sound.
Who was Cube without them? Just a writer with
a scalp? Exactly. And the remaining members,
Ren, Dre, Eazy. They went on the offensive. This
wasn't a quiet breakup. On the 100 Miles and
Running EP and the Niggas for Life album, they
called him a traitor. They called him Benedict
Arnold. They attacked his credibility. They basically
told the world, this guy is nothing without us.
Wow. They tried to bury him before his solo career
even started. So he's out on his own. He's got
the whole world watching to see if he fails.
He had the biggest group in the world dissing
him. And what does he do? He doesn't try to replicate
the NWA sound. He goes to New York. This was
the artistic pivot that proved his genius. 1990,
America's Most Wanted. Instead of trying to recreate
the smooth, funky West Coast town with a local
producer, which would have been the safe bet,
he goes to New York and works with the Bomb Squad,
Public Enemy's production team. Which is such
a clash of styles. On paper, you have the West
Coast gangsta narrative, which is usually slower,
more laid back, more rolling in the car music.
Right. Mixed with that. chaotic noisy industrial
east coast political production and it worked
it was an instant hit it swelled rap's mainstream
integration it was politically charged affirming
black nationalism the sound was dense frantic
and anxious perfect for the lyrics he was writing
which were about a society on the brink of collapse
but it also drew immediate controversy right
misogyny oh yeah we can't gloss over that the
lyrics were harsh aggressive, and often directed
at women in a way that drew significant criticism
from feminists and cultural critics. But from
a career standpoint, it proved Cube could stand
alone. And he didn't just look out for himself.
He launched the career of the female rapper Yo
-Yo and appointed her the head of his label.
That's a cool detail. He's building his own team.
He's not just the artist. He's the executive.
But then we get to 1991. Death certificate. This
is where things get. really heated. Famerical's
most wanted was the jab. This was the haymaker.
Death Certificate is probably his most complex
work. Structurally, he splits it into two sides.
The death side, which is a vision of where we
are today, the violence, the drugs, the despair
and the life side, a vision of where we need
to go. Organization, community, self -reliance.
It's a concept album. It's a concept album. It's
almost theatrical in its structure. But the album
represents a moment where the art is almost overshadowed
by the sheer level of controversy it generated.
And we have to talk about No Vaseline. No Vaseline.
This is the response in W .A. calling him a traitor.
And it is widely considered one of the most scathing,
most effective distracts in history. He did not
hold back. He attacked the group, systematically
dismantling their image telling. Easy was being
exploited, telling Dre he was a sellout. But
he saved his most vitriolic venom for Jerry Heller.
And this is where the anti -Semitism charges
really come into play. It wasn't just business.
It got personal and racial. Yes. In the song,
he blames Heller for exploiting the group, which
is a legitimate business dispute, but he brings
ethnicity into it. He refers to Heller as a white
Jew. a devil and other slurs. And he endorsed
the Nation of Islam book, The Secret Relationship
Between Blacks and Jews. During this time, he
was framing the exploitation not just as manager
artist, but as Jewish manager, black artist.
And the backlash was massive. You had the Simon
Weisenthal Center, you had billboard editorials.
Huge. And Cube's defense was that he was just
being descriptive, that he mentioned Heller was
Jewish, just like the media mentions a suspect
is black. He argued he was just calling it like
he saw it. But the lyrics call for violence and
you. racial epithets it was a line in the sand
he was labeled anti -semitic by many a label
that has shadowed him for decades it wasn't just
a rap beef you know it became a societal issue
and yet on that same album he has black korea
which also drew huge criticism for being racist
against asian store owners it did it threatened
arson against korean -owned grocery stores the
lyrics were incredibly aggressive but here is
the reporter side of cube coming out while black
korea was criticized as racist and the lyrics
are certainly threatening many people looked
back at it a year later and said he predicted
the 1992 la riots wow He was capturing the tension
in the streets between the black community and
Korean store owners. He was documenting the temperature
of the city before it boiled over. He wasn't
necessarily advocating for the riots, but he
was warning that the pressure cooker was about
to explode. He was saying, if you don't treat
us with respect, this place is going to burn.
Oh, exactly. Which leads us right into The Predator
in 1992. The riots happen, the city burns, and
Cube is there with the soundtrack. He was ready.
The Predator was recorded post -LA riots. The
song Wicked references it directly. April 29
was Power to the People. And this was his commercial
peak. It was the first album to debut at number
one on both the pop and R &B charts. Both. That's
huge. He had It Was a Good Day and Check Yourself.
He was the voice of the moment. He was the one
artist who seemed to have anticipated the chaos.
While everyone else was reacting, he was narrating.
It Was a Good Day. It's so iconic. It's almost
a break from the anger. Just a day where nobody
died. Everything went right. The Lakers beat
the Supersonics. It's this weirdly wholesome
moment in the middle of a very hard discography.
It highlighted his storytelling ability perfectly.
It showed he wasn't just one dimensional rage.
He had hopes. He had humor. He wanted peace.
He wanted to enjoy a burger and a basketball
game. It humanized the gangsta image. For sure.
But then we hit 1993. Lethal Injection. It's
a slide. Or at least the plateau. Well, the shift.
He moved toward G4, trying to ride the wave that
Dr. Dre had created with The Chronic. But critics
felt it was a step down. It felt like he was
following a trend rather than setting it. And
truthfully, after Lethal Injection, his dominance
in rap started to wane. He never quite regained
that voice of a generation status in music. The
youth moved on to Snoop Dogg, Tupac, and Biggie.
The sound changed, and Cube wasn't leading it
anymore. But, and this is the genius of the draftsman,
just as the music dominance starts to fade, he
has already started building a new house. The
Hollywood pivot. And I don't mean a guest spot
on a sitcom. No, this isn't just a rapper doing
a cameo. This is a full career reinvention. It
started with Boys in the Hood in 1991. He played
Doughboy. A character named after a song he wrote.
Exactly. He was playing a version of the stories
he had been telling. But the pivotal moment came
from the director, John Singleton. Singleton,
who was also young and from the neighborhood,
told him, if you can write a record, you can
write a movie. There it is. The agency again.
Don't just act in the movie. Write the movie.
Don't just read the lines. Create the lines.
And he took that advice to heart. In 1995, he
co -wrote the screenplay for Friday. Now look
at the economics here. They made that movie for
$3 .5 million. Which is nothing. That is a shoestring
budget for Hollywood. Yeah. That is catering
budget for a Marvel movie. They shot it on the
same street he grew up on. And it's a stoner
comedy. It's two guys sitting on a porch. It
shouldn't have been a blockbuster. It's so low
stakes. But it grossed $28 million worldwide.
And it completely reshaped his image. He went
from the political firebrand, the scowl, the
guy shouting about the death side, to a comedic
actor. He was funny. He was relatable. He showed
he could carry a film without a gun in his hand.
And importantly, he showed that the black experience
wasn't just about tragedy. It was about joy,
community, and humor. And he owned the story.
Friday spawned a franchise. Next Friday. Friday
after next. He created an asset. He wasn't just
an employee. He was the creator of the IP. And
then he just kept expanding. He did Three Kings
in 1999 with George Clooney critically acclaimed
war comedy. He proved he could act in serious
movies alongside A -list stars. Right. Then he
pivoted to family films. The Family Man era.
Barbershop. Are We There Yet? I remember when
Are We There Yet came out, people were shocked.
The guy who said F the police is making a movie
about driving kids in a minivan. Right. It felt
like a betrayal to some hardcore fans. They call
him soft. But if you look at it through the lens
of agency, it makes perfect sense. He saw a market.
He saw longevity. Gangster rap has a shelf life
for the artist. You can't be 50 years old rapping
about shooting people on the corner. It doesn't
age well, and frankly, it becomes tragic. Yeah,
it's a young man's game. It is. But family comedies
pay the bills for decades. They allow you to
grow old gracefully. And he wasn't just acting.
He was producing. Oh. Are we there yet? Right.
Became a TV series on TV. He produced Straight
Out Compton in 2015, the biopic. Where his son,
O'Shea Jackson Jr., played him. Which is the
ultimate full circle moment. He literally authored
his own history on screen, casting his own son
to play him. Talk about controlling a narrative.
I mean, come on. He ensured that the history
books would remember NWA the way he wanted them
to be remembered. He made sure the context of
the writing and the business disputes were in
the movie. It's incredible. And he didn't just
stay in movies. We have to talk about the mogul
era, 2000s to today, because he didn't stop rapping,
but he changed how he did it. He formed West
Side Connection with Mac -10 and WC in 1996.
The album Bow Down. This was during the heat
of the East Coast versus West Coast rivalry.
Cube felt the East Coast media was biased, so
he formed the super group to combat that. They
had a huge hit with Bow Down. It was aggressive.
It was territorial. It was West Side till I die.
But even that had a business split, right? He
seemed to have a pattern of forming groups and
then leaving when the business gets messy. Yes,
they disbanded in 2005. There was a rift between
Cube and Mac -10. Apparently, Mac -10 was upset
that Cube's film commitments were limiting their
ability. to tour. And again, Cube prioritized
his broader portfolio over just the group. He
wasn't going to turn down a movie role to do
a club tour. He was looking at the bigger picture.
He was diversifying. And he's still putting out
music. He had the album Man Down in 2024, his
first in six years, and Man Up scheduled for
2025. He formed a Mount Westmore with Snoop,
E -40, and Too Short. He stays active. He serves
the core fan base. But the biggest move in the
last decade has to be the big three. The basketball
league. This is where he steps out of entertainment
entirely and into sports management. Launched
in 2017, a three -on -three basketball league
with former NBA players. Most celebrities, if
they get into sports, they buy a minority stake
in a team. Right, like Jay -Z with the Nets.
Exactly. They are a mascot in the owner's box.
They put their face on the brand. Cube created
a league. He wrote the rules. He owns it. It
goes back to that typewriter. I can create this.
He didn't ask the NBA for permission. He just
built the parallel structure. It really does.
Whether it's a rhyme scheme, a screenplay, or
a sports league structure, he is building systems
that he controls. He saw that fans loved these
retired players, Allen Iverson, Joe Johnson,
but the players couldn't run up and down the
full court anymore. So make it half court. Make
it three on three. Introduce a four point shot.
It's brilliant product design. It addresses a
market inefficiency. And he's a massive sports
fan, Raiders and Dodgers. He actually helped
popularize the Raiders gear in the 80s, which
became a huge part of the team's identity. OK,
so we have the architect, the rapper, the actor,
the mogul. But we can't ignore the ideology because
Cube is a complicated guy. He's not just a businessman.
He has a worldview that has caused a lot of friction.
We touched on the anti -Semitism in the 90s,
but that thread didn't disappear. No, it's a
mix of pragmatism and provocation. Let's look
at religion. He converted to Islam in the 90s,
but he describes himself as a natural Muslim.
He says, it's just me and God. He has denied
being a member of the Nation of Islam, but he
readily adopted their ideology of black nationalism,
self -reliance, economic separation. He liked
the discipline and the focus on black ownership.
And he's also said some pretty contradictory
things about religion later on. Right. 2017,
he said religion is stupid, in part, and that
he might change religions three or four times
before he dies. He claims to be on the Christian
tip, the Buddhist tip. It seems he takes what
he finds useful from each and discards the rest.
Again, he is the author of his own belief system.
He refuses to subscribe to a prepackaged dogma.
He drafts his own spiritual blueprint. But the
controversies didn't stop in the 90s. 2020 was
a rough year for his public image. It was. He
went on what was described as a Twitter spree.
He posted memes and theories linked to anti -Semitism.
He promoted Luz Farrakhan. The Daily Beast wrote
an article addressing his long, disturbing history
of anti -Semitism. It seemed like he was reopening
old wounds, using his platform to amplify conspiracy
theories. And his response was classic Cube.
He didn't hire a crisis PR firm to write an apology.
Not at all. He doubled down. He said, I ain't
got time to be anti anything. I'm too busy being
pro black. He dismissed the backlash as hype.
He refused to back down or offer the standard
PR apology. He basically said, read it how you
want. This is where I stand. Wow. It alienated
a lot of people, but it solidified his standing
with his core followers who see him as a truth
teller who can't be silenced. And then there
was the vaccine situation. This felt like another
collision. between his personal agency and the
establishment. This is a prime example of his
stubbornness or his principles, depending on
how you view it. In 2021, he was set to star
in a comedy called Oh, Hell No, later titled
Stepdude, with Jack Black. It was a $9 million
paycheck. $9 million. That is generational wealth
money for most people. That is buy an island
of money. That is never work again money. And
he walked away from it. Just walked. Because
he refused to get the COVID -19 vaccine, which
was required by the production. That is consistent,
though. He walked away from NWA over money when
he felt the terms weren't right. He walked away
from $9 million when he felt the terms weren't
right. You can disagree with his stance on the
vaccine, and many people did, but you can't say
he could be bought. That is the through line.
He places a higher value on his personal autonomy
than on the check. He would rather lose the money
than lose the choice. It's the ultimate luxury
of being the architect. You don't have to live
in anyone else's house. You don't have to follow
anyone else's rules. And speaking of personal
life, in an industry where marriages last about
five minutes, he's been married to Kimberly Woodruff
since 1992. Since 92. Four children. And he has
a very specific philosophy on parenting. He teaches
his kids to question the violence depicted in
media, including his own lyrics. That's interesting.
He separates the art from the reality and expects
his kids to do the same. He didn't hide his music
from them, but he contextualized it. This is
a story. This is a character. Don't go out and
act like this. It's fascinating that the man
who wrote some of the most violent lyrics in
history is a strict father who emphasizes critical
thinking. So let's bring this all together. We've
gone from the freezer threat to the typewriter
to the contract dispute to the movie set to the
big three court. What does this all mean? When
you look at the arc from the architectural drafting
student to the gangster rap pioneer to the Hollywood
mogul, the connective tissue is consistency.
Whether he is in music, film or basketball. Cube
has always insisted on ownership and creative
control. He writes the lyrics. He writes the
scripts. He owns the league. He is never just
talent for hire. Never. He figured out early
on that the person who draws the blueprints is
the one who controls the building. He realized
that if you don't own your work, your work owns
you. He's the draftsman. He is. And here is a
provocative thought to leave you with. Cube's
entire career is built on a plan B that became
a plan A. He got the degree in drafting just
in case NWA didn't work out. It asks the question,
how much of Cube's success comes from his raw
artistic talent, the voice, the charisma, and
how much comes from that pragmatic structural
mindset? That's a good question. Did he succeed
because he was the best rapper or because he
was the best planner? Because he treated his
life like a drafting project where every line
had a purpose and every structure was built to
last. That is something to think about. Maybe
we should all go take a drafting class. Seems
to pay off. Couldn't hurt. At the very least,
you learn how to draw a straight line. That's
it for this deep dive into the world of Ice Cube.
Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on
the next one. Stay cool.