TURNING POINTS: ICE CUBE

O’Shea Jackson was born in the South Central area of Los Angeles in 1969. While remaining committed to his education, he began pursuing music as a teenager under the moniker Ice Cube. He later became a member of N.W.A, the highly controversial gangsta rap pioneers who proudly declared themselves ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Group’. Following a publicised feud with the collective, Ice Cube’s subsequent releases saw him continue to fan the flames of discontent among marginalised communities while provoking moral outrage among liberals and republicans in equal measure. He has led a successful acting career since the early 90s, and his 10th solo album Everythang’s Corrupt will be released later this year.

I was in a group called C.I.A. with Sir Jinx, who is Dre’s cousin, and Dre ended up moving down the street from me. Dre moved in with [Jinx] because he got kicked out of his house. I started writing records for the World Class Wreckin’ Cru, who he was with at the time. [Eazy E] started getting involved around ’85, he was getting interested in the music business. I wrote a record for one of his groups, but they didn’t want to use it. He ended up using it, and that record ended up being Boyz-N-The- Hood.

We were trying to make the best record possible. We were really, really experimental with the record, and we were fans of a lot of breakbeats. We didn’t know these records were going to be big, we actually thought they were gonna be kind of neighbourhood records, because at the time we were just pretty much local LA artists. But then it started blowing up, then we realised we had a style that worked for us. We started to run with it.

At the time, we didn’t take the FBI seriously. The FBI was not a big threat to us, because we were young and naive to what they were all about. We were used to dealing with local police officers, you know, the LAPD, the LA sheriffs – that was our biggest nemesis. So we didn’t look at the FBI matter as anything significant. But our managers and record label, of course, took it dead serious. They were very concerned that the FBI was worried about our music.

I’d planned on having Dre produce my [first solo] record. Even when I left N.W.A, I thought we’d be able to work it out, money wise. But Eazy E and Jerry Heller, the manager at the time, vetoed that. I’d always had a cool relationship with [Def Jam executives] Lyor Cohen and Russell Simmons, even as a member of N.W.A. When I went solo, I was asking Lyor to hook me up with Sam Sever, who produced for the group 3rd Bass. So I went to New York to meet Sever, and the motherfucker stood me up! On my way out, I saw Chuck D in the hallway. He’d known about my N.W.A situation, because I’d asked him advice about it, and he asked if I wanted to come into the studio with him and Big Daddy Kane and jump on a record called Burn Hollywood, Burn. Then he offered to do my record. That was a dream come true, because [the Bomb Squad] was my favourite producers other than Dr .Dre. So I knew I was in great hands and I knew the record was gonna be the shit. I learnt a lot from just being around Public Enemy. Being in their presence and talking to Chuck D all the time about the influences the Nation of Islam had on him. He really opened me up to a new of thinking.

Ah man, I’ve had the idea ever since I started doing movies. It’s been a long hard process to get it together, but we’re here. It’s really taken two years to get it together like it’s supposed to be. I’m so happy that we’re filming right now, it’s coming out real good. I think everybody [other NWA members] was cool with it from the start, but it was just about getting the right script together, getting the right movie company behind it, because we wanted to make it as big as we could. Getting Universal behind it was a major accomplishment, we’re making the movie we want to make and they’re giving us the money we need to make it. It’s really about guys from the neighborhood using the power of music to combat the reality of their life. To me, it’s a very important movie dealing with courage, and standing up for what you think is right.

Well, I usually flip a lot of different topics, and Everythang’s Corrupt is like a mixture of timely political messages and hip-hop tracks which are just good fun, which are just about bustin’ good raps and talking about the lifestyle. With me at this point in my career, I’ve just got to do what I feel without really worrying about record sales or radio play. And that’s what I’m doing.