#2004 - Ice Cube

[0] Joe Rogan podcast, checking out.

[1] The Joe Rogan Experience.

[2] Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

[3] Man, that's what you was doing.

[4] He just wanted to go smoke weed.

[5] Joe and shit, y 'all.

[6] I couldn't keep up with Snoop.

[7] Oh, hell.

[8] Snoop just keeps going.

[9] Man, Snoop, he got a fucking professional bud roller.

[10] I think he's paying 40 grand a year or some shit.

[11] Really?

[12] I don't know, how much, but I know it's a dude.

[13] who's eight hours a day, he just bringing, he bringing Snoop like a hundred blunts in a bag.

[14] Here you go, Snoop.

[15] He's the one dude that's exempt anywhere he goes.

[16] No one's going to fuck with Snoop with weed.

[17] He smoked weed at the White House.

[18] Did he really?

[19] Yeah, he went in the bathroom and got down.

[20] I said, oh, man, you know, I said, yeah, you know, he blaze anywhere.

[21] You know, church, swimming pools.

[22] He's inside the pool blazing.

[23] Underwater.

[24] He's got a card.

[25] You can just let him slide.

[26] Yeah.

[27] He's Snoop.

[28] You know, what you're going to say?

[29] What are you going to say?

[30] What are you going to say?

[31] Man, everybody loves Snoop.

[32] The same thing with Chappelle.

[33] When we go out with Dave, Dave, Dave just fire up in a restaurant.

[34] Hey, man, you know.

[35] Gotta let him know you in the house.

[36] Nobody says anything.

[37] Yeah, what they're going to say?

[38] I mean, who wants to be part of his next comedy special?

[39] The person that told Dave Chappelle, you can't blaze in Ruth Chris.

[40] No, sorry.

[41] You know, no, no, nah, nah, nah, no. Well, hey, man, thank you very much for being here.

[42] I really appreciate it.

[43] You want some coffee?

[44] No, thanks for having me. You know, I probably had too much coffee.

[45] Yeah, today, you know what I mean?

[46] I probably had about two cups already, so I should be cold till this afternoon.

[47] So I saw this video where you said you're doing just a podcast tour.

[48] Yeah.

[49] Yeah, I'm going to hit everybody, you know, everybody that want to talk to me. You know what I'm saying?

[50] I just want to be able to get the message out to the people, talk to the people.

[51] You know, I've been trying to push my league and mainstream sports media have really, you know, basically ignored what we doing for the last six years.

[52] I think they're nervous about the NBA.

[53] they're nervous about their relationship with the NBA could be damaged if they promote the big three.

[54] I would think it would help everybody.

[55] Yeah, I mean, it's basketball in the summer.

[56] You know, they got the WNBA, but we really don't play at the same time.

[57] You know, they got the games, we got our games.

[58] And, you know, what's crazy, is we got their, you know, former Hall of Famers as a part of this league.

[59] And they wanted to be a part of this league.

[60] So it's not like we hijacking them or we, you know, kidnapping them.

[61] They want to be a part of this league.

[62] They wanted to be successful.

[63] And they want to make money in the summer.

[64] So I don't know what the NBA is thinking about trying to deprive Dr. J. and Rick Berry and Iceman, George Gervin, a little check in the summer?

[65] Like, what's the problem?

[66] Yeah, it doesn't seem like it would compete at all.

[67] It seems like it would enhance.

[68] It would make, it's, when you have more basketball for basketball, I mean, basketball fans, they have a season.

[69] When it's over, it's over.

[70] Yeah.

[71] The fact that there's more basketball seems to me, but I'm a person that's like, I feel like there's enough pie for everybody with everything.

[72] I feel like that with fighting with MMA.

[73] When there's a new organization comes out, I'm like, good.

[74] Good.

[75] Give people more opportunity to make money.

[76] Without a doubt, you know, and it's about who do it the best.

[77] And we're not trying to compete in any way, shape, or form with the NBA.

[78] We're very complimentary.

[79] So I don't understand why they would, you know, do some of the things that's being done behind the scenes.

[80] Oh, they're like encouraging people to not do it?

[81] Encourging people to not sponsor us.

[82] I mean, like, yeah.

[83] Yeah, I mean, encouraging networks not to play us.

[84] Really?

[85] Yeah.

[86] Those things, we've been able to survive, but, you know, at a certain point, it's just redundant and ridiculous, and we've got to fight back some ways, shape, or form.

[87] It just, in my mind, it seems silly.

[88] It seems like it only enhanced.

[89] But that's what happens when you get big corporations, man. Yeah, and you know what?

[90] Joe, it's not the players.

[91] It's not the owners.

[92] It's not GMs or scouts because they, you know, name a big owner.

[93] He probably loves the league.

[94] And we've heard from a lot of them that they love the league.

[95] They would love to invest.

[96] And the players love the league.

[97] They come to the games.

[98] They play in the league when they're done with the NBA.

[99] Gems, scouts.

[100] come sitting next to be on the front row and be like, oh, man, you know, and they even pull some of our guys, put them in the G League, or a couple of our guys made it all the way back to the NBA, you know, 10 -day contracts, things like that.

[101] So it's not the culture of the NBA.

[102] It's just the suits.

[103] It's the corporate people.

[104] You know what I mean?

[105] It's the brass.

[106] It's the top guys that are scared of what we got.

[107] Just scared of competition in general always.

[108] Well, they think they own basketball.

[109] They think, like, we own basketball.

[110] Isn't that crazy?

[111] But it's nuts.

[112] It's fucking nuts.

[113] Because I don't hear kids running out saying, Mom, I'm about to go play NBA.

[114] Right.

[115] No, they say, Mom, I'm about to go play basketball with my friends.

[116] Yeah.

[117] So basketball doesn't have an owner.

[118] And they are, I think, intimidated.

[119] that we have changed the game.

[120] You know, and we haven't changed it just to change it.

[121] We've changed it for the better, and we've changed it within our own version of the sport.

[122] So we're not trying to change five on five.

[123] We're just trying to introduce three on three and elevate it to the professional level, which we have.

[124] I only think that would be a good thing.

[125] Those suits are silly.

[126] It is a good thing, man. They are silly.

[127] That's why I'm here, man. It's like it's time for these, you know, suits to get out the way and, you know, let the relationship flourish if it's going to flourish.

[128] And even if it don't, look, we're doing fine when our sixth season, our ratings are growing.

[129] You know, we did, you know, 500 ,000 people on CBS this Sunday.

[130] That's awesome.

[131] It's crazy.

[132] Where this idea come from?

[133] me and my guy, Jeff, you know, we've been working together for over 25 years.

[134] Like everything in the last 25 years, we kind of been, you know, cooking it up.

[135] So, you know, we see Kobe score 60 points in his last game.

[136] Now, this idea had been brewing in me, but it was like, you know, it's sports.

[137] I'm an entertainment guy.

[138] You know, I'm in rap.

[139] I'm in the, you know, music and movies and television and that.

[140] So it had just been sitting there, and this dude hit 60 points in his last game, and then there's nowhere else you can see him play.

[141] He's done.

[142] Bye.

[143] Wave, going to tunnel.

[144] And we're like, that sucks.

[145] It sucks that we cannot ever see Kobe Bryant playing a professional basketball game again.

[146] There's got to be other guys that people want to see that still got it.

[147] They may not be able to play 82 games.

[148] You know what I mean?

[149] They may not be able to play back -to -backs in three games and four nights.

[150] But half court three -on -three to 50, they're going to look like all -stars.

[151] And so that's where the idea started to.

[152] germinate and that makes sense too that it's just the breakdown as you get older you just can't do as many games that makes sense yeah i mean they still can play like if you put them out there one game give it all you got against the 20 year olds those they'll do great but if you haven't played the next day you know they just can't recover as fast as the 20 year olds so they look like like they can't play, you know, the next day.

[153] So by having a week off, you get to recovers like football.

[154] You know, you get a chance to let your body recover, heal.

[155] So by the time that next weekend come around, you're 100 % ready, good to go.

[156] Let's do it.

[157] Especially with the way guys train today, where older guys can train today.

[158] And, you know, with the science of sports nutrition and science of recovery.

[159] They're just so much.

[160] No worries.

[161] There's so much better at it now than they've ever been before.

[162] We changed our mind.

[163] We got rid of the scenes.

[164] We heard you was on Joe.

[165] What can we do?

[166] This is so stupid.

[167] That's the thing with older fighters, too.

[168] They have a hard time getting through camps.

[169] That's part.

[170] It's like they can still fight, but getting through an eight -week camp is two a days and all the sparring.

[171] Yeah, too much.

[172] Yeah.

[173] I remember I forgot the football player.

[174] Um, he played for the Giants receiver, uh, Plexico Burris, Plexico Burris, the coaches hated him because why ain't going to say hating him?

[175] You know, I'm just exaggerating, but they didn't like the fact that he would not practice at all.

[176] Come in the game on Sunday and score a touchdown.

[177] It's like it goes against everything that they preach.

[178] You have to practice, you have to practice, you have to practice, then you are conditioned to score the touchdown.

[179] But he's like, no, I got to recover.

[180] I got to recover.

[181] I got to recover.

[182] And then by Sunday, I can go out and score a touchdown.

[183] And that goes against coach's philosophy.

[184] But he knew his own body.

[185] Of course.

[186] And, you know, we all know our own body to a certain extent.

[187] Yeah.

[188] You know, and I think you should always save an athlete from himself.

[189] but you shouldn't push an athlete before he's ready to go yeah yeah it's uh it's it's it's it's always different for different people too like yes people recover quicker it's just you know as athletes get older in particular they get more and more wise to that more and more wise to like how their body works and what they need to do and not need to do yeah you know the you know i heard one player say that man they don't pay they don't pay they don't pay me to play in the game like I'll do that for free 70 ,000 15 ,000 fans who wouldn't do that for free they pay me to practice they pay me to show up on time they pay me to do all the stuff I don't want to do and you know that makes sense but sometimes you don't practice somebody just because you're paying them yeah well the difference in like you guys you guys can never do this with foot when football players are done they're kind of done because just the damage they take some you know i think it depends on the style and i think you could do um you know uh uh interest in flag version of football um i think you could sell it if it was you know thought about and really worked on to be, you know, pleasing to the fans.

[190] How would you do that?

[191] Like, because people love touchdowns, but they also love tackles.

[192] They love people getting hit.

[193] Yeah.

[194] I mean, there's a few ways to do it.

[195] You know, you could do pads seven -on -seven and kind of, you know, open the game up a little bit, so it's not so many collisions.

[196] Coming from so many different angles.

[197] Yeah.

[198] Less people, more space, more skill set, not so brute, but a little bit of hitting.

[199] Could do it that way, too.

[200] Yeah, that could work.

[201] The flag one, I would think, would be kind of tough.

[202] It's tough because people look at flag as kind of like a side, you know, a byproduct of football, not real football.

[203] Almost like football for kids Yeah But they, you know But guys will go out and play two -hand touch All day, you know Yeah So maybe that's it Hmm Who knows Well, it's interesting when fighters Figure out ways to do that too Like what Floyd is doing What Floyd is doing is so interesting He retires from fighting And he says, I'll just start Boxing people have no chance Hey, why not?

[204] You know?

[205] I mean, exhibition Like we saw that in what was Rocky or something.

[206] He's like, he started doing exhibitions with Hulk Hogan and, you know.

[207] Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[208] And got caught.

[209] I mean, he got hurt, like, you know, dealing with that.

[210] So, I mean, I think people want to see Floyd fight.

[211] You know, some people want to see him lose.

[212] You know, I never wanted to see Floyd lose.

[213] And so he'll always have some interests, you know, even if he's fighting, you know.

[214] What he did is, it's just complete genius.

[215] Yes.

[216] First of all, from just changing his style, right, he broke his hands a lot.

[217] So when he was younger, they called him Pretty Boy Floyd.

[218] Yeah.

[219] And then he changes his name to money.

[220] And when he changes his name to money, he turns heel.

[221] Yeah.

[222] He became like this guy taught, and everybody wanted to see him get beat.

[223] Yeah.

[224] And he's the most unhittable guy in the history of the sport.

[225] Yes, sir.

[226] He's right up there with Pernell Whitaker.

[227] Like, those are the two guys that I say are, like, the most elusive guys in modern, and not, you know, past Willie Pepp in modern era.

[228] Pernell Whitaker and Floyd.

[229] Floyd's even more impressive because he stands right in front of guys.

[230] He stands right in front of you and you can't hear him.

[231] Right in front of you.

[232] And you can't get a good one on it.

[233] You can't get shit on them.

[234] It's one of the most amazing skill sets.

[235] He's like a, you know, one of those like Minnesota Fats kind of pool players that know all the trick shots.

[236] Yeah.

[237] You can't beat him, you know, a guy that can, you know, you know, play a hand or board game or ping pong.

[238] You just know, you just can't beat him.

[239] And he just, he's that way in boxing.

[240] Yeah.

[241] He just knows all the tricks of the trade.

[242] And he's just better.

[243] He has way more information about where he should be for where he can hit you and where he should be where you can't hit him.

[244] It's just, he's got it all in his head.

[245] He knows what punch can be thrown at what time and what punch can't.

[246] And so he just, when he knows you can't throw a punch, where he is.

[247] And when he knows you can, that's where he ain't.

[248] My favorite fight, I've had a lot of favorite fights is, but one of my favorites was the Canello fight because it was just a masterclass.

[249] Yeah.

[250] Masterclass.

[251] And just a young, incredibly promising champion, a guy who's going to be an all -time great, but not yet.

[252] Not yet.

[253] You're not ready for that guy.

[254] You know, Floyd always catch him young.

[255] He catches coming up.

[256] Yeah, he catches young or old.

[257] Yeah, you know.

[258] And he tap you up and then he say, thank you yeah you know next he did a smart thing too he got him to cut down 152 pounds yeah got him a little lighter yeah a little smaller a little more dehydrated a little weaker yeah a little weaker and then just box him up yeah but if you see what it did to canello's game like you see canello when he fought danny jacobs later on his he was moving like floyd like he mirrored that you have to yeah you're dealing with a master um and when you fight a master or you you know if I rapped against a master or if I, you know, you spar against a master, you better take a few tricks of the trade with you.

[259] You know, that's the whole thing about respecting the game.

[260] Daniel Cuomio always says you get the rub.

[261] Like when someone fights for the title and you fight a world champion, you feel what that's like, like, okay.

[262] And you either get way better or you kind of like realize I'll never beat that guy.

[263] You'll never get that level.

[264] There was like a lot of, like during the Tyson era, nobody got the rub.

[265] He was like, he got in there and you were like, fuck this.

[266] I mean, Tyson had you so many, he had so many psychological advantages.

[267] Yes.

[268] Everybody else, you know, give me the pretty robe.

[269] Put this satin on the robe.

[270] I need to look.

[271] I had to have flares coming from my tassels, you know, have to be right.

[272] You know, I got to look pretty coming in there.

[273] Floyd come in there, gladiator style.

[274] Yeah, Mike had a towel over his head with a hole in it.

[275] And no socks on.

[276] He ain't here for none of that.

[277] He just here to whoop your ass.

[278] It was the best.

[279] And, you know, he psychologically beat a lot of people before he even landed that fatal punch.

[280] Oh, yeah.

[281] Even after the Buster Douglas fight, that didn't even take it away from him.

[282] A lot of times when a guy gets knocked out, like their aura of invincibility goes away, but with Mike, it was still there.

[283] Yeah, because people are always scared of the, You know, when you snap, nobody want to deal with crazy.

[284] You know what I mean?

[285] Everybody could deal with everything, but, you know, everybody get out the way of crazy.

[286] Yeah.

[287] When Mike was screaming, I'll eat your children.

[288] Man. Yeah.

[289] This is the walkout.

[290] Look, he's just pushing everybody out of the way.

[291] Nobody even want to give him a dab because they don't know if he's going to knock them out on his way to the ring.

[292] Yeah, that's, I mean, this is some of the G. shit ever.

[293] You know what I mean?

[294] Like just a cut the towel and half, man. You know what I ain't got time for this shit.

[295] I'm ready to knock somebody the fuck out.

[296] It was a special time in boxing because it was a long time where the heavyweight champion, you know, Larry Holmes didn't get his dude because he beat up Muhammad Ali.

[297] Everybody was always mad at Larry.

[298] Yeah.

[299] And then when Mike Tyson came along, it was like all of a sudden there's like a real heavyweight champion or everybody wants to see him fight.

[300] Yeah, you know, he was my first experience of a guy who was just, you know, the incredible Hulk, like going and knock people out, you know, two or three rounds, it's over.

[301] You know, I grew up watching Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes and all the other fighters in between, you know, I wasn't really, you know, old enough to appreciate Joe Frazier or nothing like that.

[302] but when Tyson came around, he was like, oh, this is what, this is what you want in a fighter.

[303] That's why he was a superhero.

[304] Yeah.

[305] I was like, this is what you want.

[306] You want that attitude, you know, pretty fighters are okay, but you want a ferocious fighter.

[307] Yeah, pretty fighters are fun to watch.

[308] Floyd's, look, as a person who appreciates what Floyd can do, the way he expresses himself, it's just it's genius it's genius boxing when you know a lot of people want to know who's the best ever I feel like you go on who got hit the least who won the most fights and who got hit the least if you look at that Floyd's at the top of the heap by far like no one's even close yeah and count the money yeah and count money yeah I gotta say he you know he is the best you know but when you want to see like a destruction the Mike Tyson fights for a completely different kind of an event Yeah, you know, the thing is, is, you know, I think people would love Floyd if he, you know, had a little more pop on the punch, you know.

[309] I mean, he can hit you and get you and pop you and drop you and back you up and do all those good stuff and make you look bad.

[310] And I think, you know, he's just people, you know, fault him for not, you know, when he hit it, you know, it hurt.

[311] Yeah, well, he always had hand problems.

[312] He had multiple hand breaks.

[313] Yeah.

[314] It was very unfortunate.

[315] But that also probably contributed to how skillfully was because he couldn't get guys out with one shot.

[316] So he had to just always be in the right spot, piece you up, hit and not get hit.

[317] Just the way he did it standing in front of people.

[318] It's just I don't think folks understand how hard that is to do.

[319] So crazy.

[320] Yeah, it's almost like magic.

[321] You know, it's almost like magic You know how You know, like You're standing there And you're saying, come on Come on, come with your best shot And you can't get it You can't land it.

[322] How?

[323] How?

[324] Why can't I land this shot?

[325] You know what I mean?

[326] Everybody thinks they can too.

[327] That's what's interesting.

[328] Yes.

[329] Especially in this whole promo tour He's doing where he's just running around doing these exhibitions.

[330] They all think, I could probably land a shot.

[331] No. He's a step.

[332] He's 46.

[333] Six?

[334] No. They're talking about him fighting Pacquiao about them doing it again.

[335] I'd watch that.

[336] Yeah.

[337] I mean, hell yeah.

[338] Fuck yeah.

[339] I don't think age should really keep you from checking out somebody you know who's a master.

[340] Yeah.

[341] Especially he's fighting someone his age.

[342] Yeah.

[343] It's two masters going at it.

[344] and you know age is just a number you know it's really just a number it's not it's not reality reality is how you feel you know so it's a saying if you didn't know how old you were would you know how old you are some people would it's it's an indicator of how well your body's functioning it's a pretty good indicator though like if you said someone wants a fight in their 60 you go 60.

[345] 60's too old.

[346] Yeah, you know, it's too old to see fast skills.

[347] But have you ever seen an old man fight?

[348] It's pretty interesting, you know.

[349] A couple old dudes, you know what I mean?

[350] I've seen on the internet a couple old dudes get at it.

[351] And it's, it's fun.

[352] You know, one round get down?

[353] Yeah, you know, it's like, we got the 60 -year -olds with the one -round get down.

[354] We're going to go as long as they can before they fall out.

[355] You get fucked up as a 60 -year -old though, you don't recover.

[356] Yeah, that's true.

[357] Your ass kicked as a 60 -year -old, you might be fucked for the rest of your life.

[358] Yeah.

[359] You're risking a lot.

[360] Yeah.

[361] Some people would do it, though, you know.

[362] I've seen some guys are young that got fucked up that were never the same.

[363] You know, it's, it's the, it's the roughest way to make a dollar in sports.

[364] The roughest.

[365] And UFC even take it to another notch because, you know, somebody can kick your mouth open.

[366] your jaw open, knee you in the face, elbow you in the eye socket.

[367] Yeah, or just, you know what I mean, you know, pull your shit out of socket.

[368] Yeah.

[369] Yeah, it's like...

[370] It's a rough game.

[371] It is.

[372] It's a rough game, you know.

[373] Tap out, baby.

[374] Tap out.

[375] Yeah.

[376] It's just, but it's the most exciting thing to watch.

[377] Combat sports, to me, it's just like, man, when you watch like a world title fight, there's very few things, whether it's boxing or any.

[378] MMA, like when Terrence Crawford's going to fight Earl Spence.

[379] Yeah.

[380] That fight is going to be crazy.

[381] Yeah, man. That is a crazy moment where you got two undefeated champions in their prime.

[382] Yes.

[383] And no one knows what's going to happen.

[384] You're like, I don't know.

[385] Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

[386] You know, sometimes those fights, they're just two -skilled.

[387] You know, have you ever seen these guys this fight?

[388] They're two -skilled, and they're just both missing because they can't hit each other because they both got the skills, you know.

[389] And they don't want to take too many chances and open up.

[390] Yeah, so hopefully it's not one of them.

[391] You know, hopefully it's one of those, they take it personal from the first couple of rounds and keep it going.

[392] Terrence Crawford's never been in a boring fight ever.

[393] Neither is Earl Spence.

[394] I think they're going to go after each other.

[395] Well, they know how to tattoo their opponent.

[396] So I can imagine them just tattooing each other, you know, back and forth.

[397] Yeah, I'm interested to see how Terrence, what Stancy uses, too.

[398] Because he, in my opinion, he's the best switch hitter since Marvin Hagler.

[399] Nobody switches like Terrence.

[400] Yeah.

[401] Terence is just, he's south -pawed, then he's orthodox, and it's just as good from both sides.

[402] And you've got to, like, do all this calculating in the middle of the fight and switch it up.

[403] Everything's coming from a different angle now.

[404] Yeah, your brain is not moving as fast as it should be.

[405] That's such a big advantage.

[406] The body can't move that fast if your brain is.

[407] Right, you have to think.

[408] Thinking so much.

[409] Yeah, it should be instincts.

[410] But, yeah, it's going to be an amazing fight.

[411] And, you know, I'm worried a little bit about Earl.

[412] You know, he's been in those car accidents.

[413] Was it one?

[414] The Ferrari.

[415] That's a crazy car accident, dude.

[416] He could have died in that 100.

[417] If he didn't have a seatbelt, I mean, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but if he was wearing a seatbelt, he might be dead.

[418] If he was wearing one.

[419] Yeah, he got thrown from the Ferrari.

[420] He was in a convertible.

[421] Have you seen it?

[422] No, I've seen the car.

[423] You seen the video?

[424] seen the video oh shit watch this this video's crazy here it goes wow yeah so he got thrown out of the car and that's how he survived i didn't know it's like that yeah geez dude 100 % could have been dead yes 100 % i mean that was a terrible accident it's hard to say that you 100 % i mean he rolled like five six seven times look at that car it's if if he wasn't a master athlete could he had survived that and who knows what happened to him when he survived right like did he hit his head did he hit his neck like what is he okay like is he 100 % or is he always going to be a little fuck from that this is another angle wow Jesus oh my god that's one of the most horrific ones I've seen but he was okay that's good amazing amazing because like a talent like that to take that guy at a young age and it would be so horrible yes yes it would be it would be devastating to give these dudes money and they you could just go buy one of those cars it's kind of crazy you could just go buy a 700 horsepower car you don't even know how to drive yeah you just have money yeah I know I used to uh there was a trip because I remember being at the studio echo sound one time and Tupac came we pulled it up in the pens It's like, oh, man, Pac, you got your bins.

[425] He's like, yep, I don't have my license, man. I hope I don't wreck it.

[426] Like, damn.

[427] Man, parked that car, man. You don't know how to drive it?

[428] He's like, no, man, I've been in New York, man, for so long.

[429] Don't worry about driving.

[430] I'm like, oh, you know, I think he did wreck it a few times, you know what I'm saying?

[431] For it was all said and done.

[432] Learning how to drive first cars and bends.

[433] It's bends, you know.

[434] It was like 500.

[435] What was the first thing you bought when you started?

[436] making money.

[437] Oh man, the first thing I bought, um, like the first car.

[438] Oh, man, I bought a, uh, a Honda Accord.

[439] I bought a Honda Accord, you know, they had just come out with a new model.

[440] It was about, it was about 20 Gs.

[441] And I was like, you know, I'm sick of rolling around here.

[442] You know, at first I had like a, uh, uh, a sidekick, you know, uh, Suzuki sidekick.

[443] Oh, no. I remember those.

[444] A sidekick.

[445] And I was like, man, I need some luxury.

[446] You know what I mean?

[447] I'm starting to make money.

[448] You know, let's go down here and get this Honda Accord.

[449] Kim, she's my wife, but she was my girlfriend at the time.

[450] So we went down there, a place on, I think it was Los Angeles.

[451] They had a Honda spot.

[452] And I just went in there and bought a black Honda Accord.

[453] Cash.

[454] Wow.

[455] Yeah.

[456] That's a pretty reasonable car.

[457] Like, you didn't go crazy.

[458] I only had 20 Gs, so if I'd have 40 out of both, you know, probably a BMW, you know what I mean, three series or something.

[459] So, you know, at the time, it was the first cool thing I was able to buy and not sweat it.

[460] You know what I mean?

[461] Like, that's the key, is to buy it and not sweat it.

[462] Right.

[463] You know, if you're buying it and you're sweating it still, and you're like, damn.

[464] I remember, I remember one day, I remember Drain Yeller, they got checks.

[465] I think they got checks for like $35 ,000.

[466] Next thing I've seen them, they both had vets, I think.

[467] Corvettes.

[468] And I was like, how much do you play in 31?

[469] How much you play for you was 33?

[470] I'm like, y 'all broke now.

[471] So what?

[472] We look good.

[473] It's funny, but that's the temptation, you know?

[474] Yeah, I mean, you know, you, man, you like, you only live one.

[475] And we know a lot of people that die young.

[476] And so it's kind of like, get it while of getting is good.

[477] Yeah.

[478] It's also you're young.

[479] When you're young, when I first started making money, my manager thought I had a gambling problem.

[480] He called me up and said, are you having a gambling problem?

[481] Because he knew how much money I was burning through.

[482] I go, no, man, I'm eating lobster every night.

[483] I grew up poor.

[484] Yeah.

[485] I'm like, I'm eating steak and lobster.

[486] I'm taking my friends out.

[487] Like, I'm spending money.

[488] Yeah, I mean, that's what you do, you know, and it feels good.

[489] Yeah, it feels good.

[490] It feels good.

[491] It feels good to finally be able to treat and not, you know, worry about what it's going to look like.

[492] That's the big thing is the worry.

[493] I remember the first check I got a check from Disney for a development deal from Disney in, like, 1993.

[494] And when I got the check, it was like weight lifted off my shoulders.

[495] So it was like, who, like, I could look in my bank account.

[496] I go, I got money in the bank account.

[497] Yeah.

[498] I can pay the bills.

[499] I don't have to think about the bills right now.

[500] And it was like, like I was lighter.

[501] Without a doubt.

[502] I mean, it does weigh on you when you can't, you know, when you don't know exactly where the money's going to come from.

[503] You know, the bills here, you know when you got to pay it, but you really don't know exactly how it's all going to come together.

[504] You know, you help the universe bless you with an opportunity.

[505] Yeah.

[506] And so to not have that worry, it is a weight lifted off, you know.

[507] And I wish more people could feel the weight lifted off.

[508] But there's another thing.

[509] The more you make, the more you spend.

[510] So sometimes the weight comes back on, you know what I mean?

[511] The weight comes back on.

[512] And then you have employees, and that's another weight.

[513] That's a different weight.

[514] That's like you think about other people's families.

[515] Yes.

[516] You're making money for them.

[517] Yeah, you know, you really, you know, that's why I don't do nothing crazy.

[518] You know, I'm not in the skydiving, nothing like that, you know.

[519] I'm definitely not going down in no damn submarine to look for more Titanic.

[520] I don't do, I don't take those crazy chances because, you know, I got generations dependent on me. Yeah.

[521] And so, you know, got to take that responsibility.

[522] serious because you never know when others in my family bloodline or whatever are going to be able to have the opportunities that I have, you know, even though my son, O'Shea Jr., you know, he's working constantly.

[523] He's in Spain right now.

[524] Yeah, he is.

[525] That's amazing that he's just carrying on.

[526] That's beautiful.

[527] It is.

[528] That must make you very proud.

[529] Man, it's like the best.

[530] one guy asks me you know how does it feel saying your son you know straight out of Compton and you know it does so well I said it's like it's like winning the Super Bowl on a team and then your son comes and win the Super Bowl for that same team that's the feeling I don't know if anybody has ever had that feeling but it seems like that's how I feel it's like I won with NWA and he won with NWA that's amazing that's and what a perfect person to play I mean how who would be better to play you exactly it's perfect I mean before he you know decided to take the movie I was you know I would take him on tour with me and we would do we was doing that anyway he was would jump on stage he would do dope man and you know i'm like oh this my son you know and um i'm like man he he got that swagger up here you know what i mean mommy of a young me okay so when it was time to do the movie when it was really a go i went to him and i said uh hey man this this nWA movie looked like it's going to go um he was like cool man that's good good luck man that's great like hold on hold on I said I want you to play me he was like okay and I'm like that was too easy you know what I mean that was like you know that was he was like okay and he just kept on walking I'm like wait a minute and then I said I got to see if he's serious or he's just you know saying okay just to say okay but it's a hell of a lot of work so So I started putting him through the ringer a little bit.

[531] You know, I was like, hey, man, we got an acting coach for you.

[532] You know, LA, you need to go down there on Thursday.

[533] You know, you need to be there at this time, and that, boom, boom, boom.

[534] It's like, oh, okay, all right, all right.

[535] And he would go.

[536] And I'm like, okay, he's starting to go.

[537] But is he just going?

[538] Is he participating?

[539] Is he into it?

[540] You know, boom.

[541] So I said, I'm going to try something else.

[542] I sent him to New York to a guy for, you know, training, acting.

[543] I'm like, I'm sending him all the way to New York and see if he'll do that because that's when he'll bail and be like, oh, I don't, you know, I got something to do.

[544] So he got on the plane, flew to New York, worked with this cat, flew back.

[545] Now, when he flew back, I was checking him out, seeing what he, he was doing you know we was far from actually casting a movie at that time and then he was like uh he came up he was like i'm gonna go work with my coach today i'm like what say yeah me and my acting coach we're gonna get together we're gonna do a couple little things so i'm like he's into it he's into it yeah so then i let him do that so now i have to approach gary gray now gary gray is the director of straight out of compton he also directed friday and he directed it was a good day you know these are some of my biggest projects and when i told him he was like yeah man it's cool you know he's just thinking about who he's gonna get to play him i said okay guess who i want to play ice cube he's like who who who oh who i said my son he was like oh cute you said what the fuck man i thought we was making a real movie man I said, we aren't making a real movie.

[546] What you're talking about?

[547] I said, he's going to be great, isn't it?

[548] He's going to be great.

[549] If you get the part, he'll have to audition and Universal will sign off on him.

[550] But you're going to work with him, just like John Singleton work with me. You know what I mean?

[551] John put me in boys in the hood.

[552] I didn't act.

[553] I wasn't no actor.

[554] I was just a rapper.

[555] and um he saw something in me put me in the movie and he helped me through it and the rest is history and you're going to do the same thing and he was like wow so make a long story short it's audition time screen test time now my son going there and he said he got pissed off because it's five other fucking ice cubes there to audition he's like Like, these dudes think they're about to take this?

[556] He said, man, I felt like I had the family name on my back.

[557] I had to go in there and house this shit.

[558] And he said, you know, when he left the screen test, Donna Langley from Universal called me. And it was like, your son was great.

[559] He was actually the best one.

[560] And we're going to sign off on it.

[561] Wow.

[562] Yeah.

[563] It's cool.

[564] Cool story.

[565] That's a great story.

[566] It's great story the way you made him do it.

[567] too that's so smart he worked harder than any of the other actors like two years of grinding because you know the coach's son always he get it to worse right you know what I mean yeah and and it was no different on this movie of course he had I had to make sure that he won and he set up himself for a career in this game that's amazing that's amazing your career like it's one of the things that's so fascinating about your career is like there was never anyone like you before that did what you did you went from gangster rap to like family movies yeah like no one's ever done that and then sports entertainment like you branched out into so many things but the the key part of it that people need to understand today is when you guys came out when NWA came out the whole world went what the fuck Yes.

[568] The whole world.

[569] I remember I was on, I was in Revere, Massachusetts.

[570] I was on an elliptical machine at the gym.

[571] And a friend of my told me, you got to listen to this shit.

[572] And I had a cassette walkman.

[573] Yeah.

[574] So I'm there with a cassette walkman on the elliptical machine listening straight out of Compton going, holy shit.

[575] Like this is why.

[576] There was nothing like that before that.

[577] And I remember laughing while I was riding the elliptical.

[578] I'm like, these guys ride their fucking minds.

[579] This is crazy.

[580] And then there was like the tipper Gore shit where Al Gore's wife was trying to censor rap music.

[581] The PMRC, parents resources against music counts or something like that.

[582] And that was the Democrats, folks.

[583] That's the reason you have an advisory sticker on the record because that was the compromise.

[584] They were saying, you know, I sent my.

[585] sent my daughter to the record store to buy a record she came home with the fucking two live crew I know this shit was gonna be like this you know so you know the compromise from the record industry was we'll put a parental advisory sticker on the record so if a parent was buying a record for Christmas you know they parents It was like, I want too short.

[586] You know what I mean?

[587] They go by the two short record, put it in.

[588] And they're like, what the hell?

[589] So we were the first group to put that sticker on our records.

[590] We were the very first group because priority records designed that parental advisory sticker.

[591] And, yep, that sticker.

[592] And it was actually, it had to be.

[593] stuck on the record like a sticker and they had to go through all our records in every record store and put the sticker on so the next time we did artwork we just planted it in the artwork and then kids wouldn't buy your shit if it didn't have to stick it's like people was putting a sticker on clean records that's hilarious it's like a clean record not one ounce of profanity on it but they was putting the parental advisory because kids was looking at it was like we're just sticking with no that's the opposite effect it promotes it yes that's exactly what happened it promoted it two live crew was the first band that got arrested though right weren't they the first band that got arrested um on stage I believe yeah I'm not sure you know his rap got a long history you know I don't know if somebody you know tackled you know cool herk or somebody right right but but that's the one that went nationwide news and yeah he got arrested yeah Luke fought for all of our freedom of speech to be honest you know if they would have took Luke down and the two live crew at the time and said that his music is too obscene and you can't sell stuff like this you know everything was probably be so, you know, sterile right now, you know.

[594] Yeah.

[595] Oh, for sure.

[596] Well, that's the same thing with Howard Stern and radio.

[597] Yes.

[598] You know, they went after Howard.

[599] They find them insane amounts of money for the Howard Stern show.

[600] Yes, I remember.

[601] And if he just folded and gave into that, there probably no podcasts or it would have taken a lot longer for people to figure this out.

[602] Yeah.

[603] It's incredible.

[604] It's incredible when you stand.

[605] Stand up at the moment of truth, you know?

[606] Yeah.

[607] Like, it's important for us to stand up at the time that is going on and not back down and then try to regroup and then go at it.

[608] You know, it's really important.

[609] It is.

[610] For people to stand up for themselves.

[611] But it's hard.

[612] Yes.

[613] It's hard today more than ever because you get so much pressure.

[614] People, like, especially during COVID, people ganged up on people people were doing the man's work for the man who the fuck are you trusting like why are you trusting these people that have been lying forever yeah man it was wild during that time like you know people being bullied into doing things that they didn't want to do a lot of them didn't want to do it they did it because of their work or their, you know, their, um, situations or, yeah, a lot of them are hurting right now.

[615] You know, I know, you know, I know, um, a guy that's, you know, been dealing with tonight is since, since he got it.

[616] And so, you know, it's just, yeah, I know quite a few people that got fucked up.

[617] Some of them pretty bad.

[618] It's just, it was just, There was, if you wanted to do it in a textbook way, like if it was a conspiracy, that's how I would do it.

[619] I'd isolate people, make them stay at home, take away their livelihood, make them scared, give them small checks, you know, and then give them this thing that you got to take to get back to normal.

[620] Want to get back to normal?

[621] Yeah.

[622] Go take that.

[623] Don't worry.

[624] Safe and effective.

[625] Safe and effective.

[626] Safe and effective.

[627] And then you have all this pressure.

[628] And everyone is yelling at you if you don't do it.

[629] If you don't do it, we're not going to get back to normal.

[630] and everybody got scared and everybody just stepped in line and it was strange it's strange yeah it was um you know stepping in line sometimes is not the way to go no it's not always the way to go you know you're trying to prevent and trying to make things all smooth and easy and no issues and and back to normal and all that and the world might be back to normal, but are you normal?

[631] Well, you've got to be able to make informed decisions.

[632] Yes.

[633] And when you can't make an informed decision and you're being pressured anyway, it's like, what do you, how long?

[634] And this is the thing that was driving me crazy.

[635] Before the election, when Donald Trump was president, all they were talking about is, I'm not going to take the shot.

[636] You're going to take a shot that Trump made?

[637] Who's going to take that shot?

[638] Even Biden was saying it.

[639] Who's going to take it?

[640] Kamala Harris is saying it.

[641] We were all saying that.

[642] Don't take that.

[643] I would never take that.

[644] And then all of a sudden, Biden becomes president.

[645] No, like, you've got to take it.

[646] Like, is this the same thing?

[647] This is the same thing.

[648] You know, as long as it takes to develop a vaccine, this is the same vaccine.

[649] Same one.

[650] You guys were just talking shit.

[651] And, you know, no matter who tried to give it to you at the end of the day, it wasn't ready.

[652] It's not ready.

[653] You know, six months to try to turn this thing into something effective that was totally, you know experimental totally experimental and everybody who took it was basically signing up to take an experimental drug and I'm not anti -vax I've been vax before like I've had vaccines they have out all of them everyone I was supposed to get exactly but those have been some been around 80 years some been around 50 40 and I just wasn't comfortable after six months.

[654] I was ready to take it.

[655] The UFC allocated 150 vaccines, I think, for all their employees.

[656] And this was when we were doing shows during the lockdowns.

[657] Yeah.

[658] So we'd go, there was a COVID bubble.

[659] You'd get tested.

[660] You get tested the day of the event.

[661] And I was there, and they said, oh, we got the vaccines.

[662] You want to take it?

[663] I said, yeah.

[664] So I called up the doctor.

[665] I said, hey, man, can I take it?

[666] And they said, yeah, hold on.

[667] We'll set it up.

[668] I was going to take it like before the show.

[669] I thought it was just like a flu shot.

[670] Give me that thing.

[671] It's normal, right?

[672] And they call me up and they say, no, we can't do it until Monday.

[673] It has to be done at the clinic.

[674] Can you go on Monday?

[675] I said, I can't.

[676] I go, but I'll be back for another event in two weeks.

[677] Okay, we'll do it then.

[678] And during that time, it got pulled.

[679] During the time, it got pulled for blood clots.

[680] And two guys I knew had strokes.

[681] Wow.

[682] Wow.

[683] Yeah.

[684] Wow.

[685] And then I was like, okay, what is going?

[686] And then my friend got it and got over it quick.

[687] And I was like, what's going on?

[688] my real estate lady had it, and she didn't even have any symptoms.

[689] She tested positive twice, and she's like, well, I got to isolate, but I feel fine.

[690] And then I was like, what is this?

[691] Is this a death sentence?

[692] Or is this like, how many people are asymptomatic?

[693] You find out like 65 % of the people are asymptomatic?

[694] Like, what the fuck is going on here?

[695] Yeah.

[696] And then I knew some people that got it and got real sick, but they were fat or they were out of shape or they had other problems.

[697] Then I knew a few friends that were real healthy that got it.

[698] They got wrecked because they didn't take it seriously.

[699] And they kept working out so there was a lot of confusion yes and you know it was a lot of a lot of fear but when i finally got it and i got over quick and then they started attacking me for taking a horse medication i was like what the fuck is going on shouldn't you be more interested in the fact that this deadly disease hit this 55 year old dude and he was better in three days isn't that more interesting like why don't you ask what i took like why did i get better what is it yeah i wasn't vaccinated yeah i wasn't vaccinated but i i got over it quick So what's wrong with that?

[700] In any other fucking rational, sane world, when there's a disease and someone goes to a doctor and gets medication for that disease and gets better in three days, you go, oh, well, that's a way to get better from that disease.

[701] It's not that this is one singular thing that you have to do that I can't even do now because I already have antibodies.

[702] Like, this is stupid.

[703] It's crazy.

[704] And, you know, the thing is, is when money is the driving force.

[705] and I don't know if they can even get money off of what you took you know what I mean it seems like something that's been around for a long time that's not just one of the things I took and and there's no money in it right no new money in it yeah so that's really what it's all about you know it's not about if it worked or if it's effective it's about they can't make no money off of it and we got this new stuff that we can make billions so that's where the pressure comes from and that's why they're pushing it.

[706] That's why you have to think for yourself because money is driving these people to give you bad advice or give you the wrong advice or to hide, you know, solutions and cures and remedies from you.

[707] And, you know, you got to, once you peep that, you know, once you peep that, that out you have to take a step back and make sure that you're following the money to make sure it's not take you down in the middle of a pandemic that's why it was so hard because everybody was just like locked in their house and scared especially in california the attitude in california was so much different than the attitude here we came to texas i'm like don't it has a fucking mask on this is crazy yeah they're just out normal yeah cali they went crazy with it you know i was using the mask really to as a disguise, so I can finally walk through here and nobody asked for a selfie.

[708] You know what I mean?

[709] Cool.

[710] So, you know, I kind of like, I got the mask in my pocket for that too.

[711] You know what I mean?

[712] Pop it on, up to the airport.

[713] It's just a disguise now.

[714] Yeah.

[715] Well, finally, you can wear a mask.

[716] Yeah.

[717] That's what I tripped off, too.

[718] I was like, they letting all these people stand around in these stores, walking through these stores with their face cover.

[719] Yeah.

[720] And banks.

[721] Yeah.

[722] Yeah, exactly.

[723] When is a guy just going to pull out a pistol?

[724] And they were like, I don't know.

[725] They all had masks.

[726] We don't know who was.

[727] Who was that mask man?

[728] Well, it's happening so often in New York City, they made people take their masks down when they went into stores.

[729] They made that a rule so that the camera can get a shot of your face.

[730] Lord.

[731] It's so stupid.

[732] It's so stupid.

[733] I'm supposed to keep this on to protect everybody.

[734] Well, and then they found out real early that it didn't even work.

[735] They knew early that those things were bullshit.

[736] But it was a thing that it would get you to comply with.

[737] Yeah.

[738] And it's also, you did it so you didn't feel like an asshole.

[739] If everybody had a mask on, you didn't, you felt like an asshole.

[740] I was like, oh, I put a mask on it.

[741] Yeah, and, you know, people were looking at you like, you're the one spreading all the COVID around here, huh?

[742] Yeah, yeah.

[743] It was crazy.

[744] I knew a guy got sick wearing the mask.

[745] Like, he had this cloth mask that he just felt it was the thing that was going to protect him.

[746] I'm like, dude, you're breathing.

[747] in and like wash that thing yeah you know what I'm saying you breathing that you I don't know what you breathe you're breathing in last week's you know bad breath yeah fat burger like dude you know I'm saying take that off your face yeah you wouldn't want that on a wound no right you know a dirty ass rag over a cut yeah and you're breathing through it all day every day getting right in your bloodstream yeah you're smoking weed through that thing man take it off Yeah, it was just weird.

[748] This is a weird time.

[749] I saw that you would have to pass on a movie because they wanted you to get shot.

[750] Yeah.

[751] You know, they, uh, strangest thing, you know.

[752] Say, we're doing the movie.

[753] We're doing the movie.

[754] Um, I'm like, okay.

[755] And then, um, all the producers in Hollywood decided that they don't want anybody on movie set that haven't gotten a vaccine.

[756] And what year was this?

[757] This is 2020.

[758] Okay, so it's in the middle of it.

[759] I mean, we're coming out of it.

[760] I think it might be 21 when we know, okay, everything is going back to normal.

[761] But I believe the news came out during 2020.

[762] And so, you know, I never thought it was a producer's mandate.

[763] you know I thought it was a studio mandate but I think the studios really wanted to have you know kind of a little out so they put it on a producer like this is not us this is this production that production this production that production I'm like but it's every production so you mean tell me every producer in Hollywood has this mandate give me a break it has to come from the studio to hit every producer because every producer don't think the same.

[764] Right.

[765] Some producers, you know, had their own different opinions.

[766] So anyway, it was a studio mandate.

[767] They put it on individual producers.

[768] So producers talk to my people, and they're like, if he don't take it, you know, he can't be in the movie.

[769] It's like, it's not taking it.

[770] It's like, okay, can't do the movie.

[771] Okay, no problem.

[772] Now, I didn't go out telling every, everybody what happened.

[773] I didn't put the word out that I didn't even tell people that I wasn't vaccinated.

[774] I didn't tell people not to go get vaccinated.

[775] I didn't tell people that I'm not doing this movie because I don't want to be vaccinated.

[776] But somehow, some way the news hit the, you know, I don't know if Hollywood reporter or somebody put it out that this is why Cube is not doing the more.

[777] movie.

[778] And I thought it was chicken shit.

[779] I thought it was, you know, it's like what happened to the hippo laws, you know, or OSHA, one of them, I forgot, I think it's hip, you know, where you're not supposed to reveal a person's medical status.

[780] And here it is, they print in mind.

[781] And so I just thought it was bullshit.

[782] And it just kind of snowballed, you know.

[783] I'm like, what they want is for people to tell me I'm stupid.

[784] You know what I mean?

[785] They want people to tell me, you turn it down $9 million, you're stupid.

[786] You know, I'll do anything for $9 million.

[787] How stupid can Q be?

[788] And I don't care about that.

[789] You know, it's like I didn't lose $9 million because I never had it.

[790] Like, if you never have some shit, you can't lose it, okay?

[791] You lose it when it's in your bank.

[792] bank account then you look up and it's gone you know what I'm saying but if you never had it I didn't lose it it just was never given to me and so you know they they try to you know put my business in the street put pressure on me everybody around me telling me how stupid I am so I can go get vaxed and say you know please let me do the movie you know that was never going to happen I don't care if it was 20 million um that was never going to happen and if you got injured from that vaccine, you would have paid that $20 million to be healthy again.

[793] Damn right.

[794] Damn right.

[795] Yeah.

[796] Damn right.

[797] There's a lot of people out there that wish they weren't forced into making that decision.

[798] And that's where the real lawsuits are going to come from.

[799] The real lawsuits, since you can't sue the vaccine companies, they're going to start suing these businesses, and they're already lining up.

[800] Without a doubt.

[801] Without a doubt.

[802] It was a gigantic error.

[803] And they're, you know, they fired a lot of people.

[804] You know, I think they fired a lot of, cops in New York and they had to hire them back and give them back pay and give them back pay but what about the ones that were injured that took the Vax?

[805] Yeah.

[806] You know, they gotta have some kind of repercussion because, you know, they just proved that they just kind of told on their self that we got this wrong.

[807] Yeah, and nobody wants to talk about it.

[808] That's the crazy thing because all the news stories.

[809] Nobody can.

[810] Yeah.

[811] That's when I'm talking about the gatekeepers.

[812] Nobody can talk about it because somebody above them told them no. From this outlet, that outlet, you know, the NBA, going back to that, you know, I'm just kind of putting it in perspective.

[813] But the guys in the NBA used to talk about the big three.

[814] If you go back to year one all the time, and then they just stop.

[815] And then I asked, you know, I asked my guy, you know, what happened, man?

[816] Why y 'all stopped?

[817] They told us we couldn't mention the big three anymore on air.

[818] So I'm like, that's chicken shit.

[819] You know, that's that bullshit that I'm talking about.

[820] Yeah.

[821] That, you know, I'm talking about what happened to me, but it obviously happens everywhere to all of us.

[822] you know what I mean and we got to somehow some way get these people out of our way or um not support what they're doing and producing um you know some of these mainstream outlets are really just an extension of these corporate conglomerates who want to you know kind of control our emotions, control our movement, control our spinning, control our personalities, control our mind, and, you know, what we're going to do about it, like, at the end of the day?

[823] You know what I'm saying?

[824] Like, we're going to just sit here and let it happen day after day until we're steamrolled and and um war out and have no fight in us or are we going to stand up where we can you know what I mean and push back when we can I know everybody can't in all situations and don't feel bad when you can't but when you can and you know you can do it yes do it like when you have the leverage take it yeah take it like like you have See, when you got the leverage, you got to go.

[825] Yeah.

[826] Use that to your advantage.

[827] You might not always have the leverage.

[828] You might not always have, you know, the right timing.

[829] But when you do, when you can, we got a buck back, you know.

[830] If not, we're just going to continue to get steamrolled and not be heard and canceled and all this kind of stupid stuff.

[831] Yeah, and we're just repeating patterns.

[832] have played out throughout history.

[833] When people get power, they want to have ultimate power, they want more power, any obstructions they see to their goals, any things that people were doing that would get in the way, they want to silence that, stop that, they want to bust unions, they want to do whatever the fuck they can to consolidate their power.

[834] Yeah, and it's, at a certain point, it's just ridiculous.

[835] Yeah.

[836] And it was not good for us.

[837] These are some of the most unhappy people in the world.

[838] who is just concerned with more and more power, and they're powerful.

[839] You know, whenever you saw a guy who was maxing out, you know, bench pressing or whatever, and blew out his shoulder, like.

[840] Much times.

[841] It's like you was maxed out the last time you maxed out.

[842] Why are you trying to max out even more and more and more and more, and then you blow out your shoulder?

[843] See what I'm saying?

[844] So at a certain point, you got to know when you got enough of this and enough of that.

[845] I think the money people, though, they never think that way.

[846] Because it's all about numbers.

[847] Like, the whole thing is numbers.

[848] It's not like, look, I put out a new album.

[849] Look, I put out a new movie.

[850] I'm creating a thing.

[851] I'm putting together stuff.

[852] For them, it's always numbers.

[853] It's all numbers.

[854] It's just numbers.

[855] And so you never feel satisfied.

[856] And there's always a guy with a bigger jet.

[857] There's always a guy with a bigger house.

[858] There's always a guy with more of this, more of that.

[859] yeah yeah and usually you know you can find happier people with way way way less yeah if your goal is happy that is not the occupation you should be in that's not no yeah those people are miserable yeah and they're always chasing and they're never satisfied you know that to me is torturing itself well it's also stupid and if and if you're running a corporation it's actually your obligation, your obligation to your shareholders to continue to make as much money as possible.

[860] So you're trapped in a system that obligates you to behave and think that way.

[861] And if you don't, you won't be competitive.

[862] Yeah.

[863] It's a, it's an ugly game, you know, and I don't see where people are being thought about in these type situations, you know.

[864] It's all about, you know, capital don't care.

[865] Yeah.

[866] Capital has a emotions.

[867] Capital only respects capital.

[868] Yeah, the only time it respects people's opinions is when people boycott shit and it works, like this Bud Light thing.

[869] Yeah.

[870] And now people are like, don't do that again.

[871] Yeah.

[872] Like, be careful.

[873] Because look what happened to Bud Light.

[874] Well, who controls Bud Light?

[875] That's the question.

[876] Why would they make a dumb decision like that?

[877] Are they trying to ruin Bud Light?

[878] And why would they want to ruin Bud Light?

[879] Are they trying to take down some of our most iconic American brands and why would that help?

[880] I don't think they were trying to I don't think they had any idea this was going to happen.

[881] It's this ESG thing that everybody has to dedicate a certain amount of their time to, you know, woke stuff.

[882] Who mandates that?

[883] It's a good question.

[884] Where does the ESG money come from?

[885] Is that government?

[886] Like, where does that come from?

[887] And they have scores and the ESG score of your corporation determines what you get.

[888] And the problem is also you get these people that are coming out of college, like this lady who made the decision for Bud Light.

[889] You know, she's gone through the university system.

[890] She's in the corporate system, and she's a woman, and she thinks, you know, we have to be more inclusive, and that's all the language everyone's using today.

[891] Yeah.

[892] So they don't know any real people.

[893] They don't know regular people.

[894] They have no idea that if you take a brand Bud Light, which is like known for, you know, blue -collar drinking people that they like to fucking watch football and drink Bud Light.

[895] And then all of a sudden you have this mentally ill person who's just an attention whore and you make a big deal out of putting this person's 365 days of womanhood.

[896] You put that on a Bud Light can and they freak the fuck out.

[897] Yeah.

[898] And then Kid Rock shoots a bunch of them and then it's on.

[899] Once Kid Rock shoots your cans, you got real problems.

[900] Yeah.

[901] I'm pretty sure you do.

[902] Yeah, man. It's kind of like I think you got to You got to still ask why Like what you think there's like a conspiracy Well you know Who's getting hurt Who's getting hurt in this whole thing Is it the Bud Light Um Anheuser Bush Brass Are they are they Will their bonuses be affected Will their checks and salaries be affected You got this lower level person fired And a bunch of middle class guys are paying the price because you got distribution centers, you know, the guys that deliver the beer, nobody want.

[903] And now they're out of a job.

[904] Now you're really attacking the middle class by making a brand that's so big take a hit like that.

[905] It says, yeah, the quickest destruction of a company in history.

[906] Bud Light sponsors Toronto Pride Brade.

[907] So, you know, it's...

[908] Oh, when was this?

[909] That was just the other day?

[910] Oh, they're so silly.

[911] They're leaning into it.

[912] But meanwhile, the gays are mad at them.

[913] The pride people are mad at them because they didn't support Dylan Mulvaney.

[914] So they kicked it out of gay bars.

[915] You don't win, you know, either way at the end of the day.

[916] But, you know, I think about the company.

[917] that own these companies, the people that own these companies, and why would they let a decision like that take the company down?

[918] I don't think they thought it was going to.

[919] I think this is a legitimate public outrage one, where they just pushed too far and people went, fuck you.

[920] And it wasn't even like a real, like, promotion.

[921] It was a thing they sent a can to this person, this Dylan Mulvaney person.

[922] But I don't think it went anywhere else.

[923] I think it was just like, here, this is for you, and you put it on social media.

[924] Yeah, they made some sort of a partnering deal, you know, and that was it.

[925] So why Target do the same thing?

[926] Well, I think that's an ESG thing.

[927] That's an ESG thing, right?

[928] And Target lost billions of dollars, too, because people are sick of this shit.

[929] They're sick of social things like that that are controversial getting stuffed into your face and where you have to accept it.

[930] Yeah.

[931] And people are like, I don't want to accept it.

[932] It's just coming here for fucking toilet paper.

[933] Yeah, I think, you know, people got to keep it in perspective as well, too.

[934] You know, I don't think people grab a beer to be so, I mean, to, you know, to learn about the newest social event or the social situation going out.

[935] Grab a beer because you want a beer, hang with your buddies or hang, you know, with people that enjoy beer and y 'all shoot the shit.

[936] And politics really shouldn't be in somebody's beer mug, you know.

[937] They just don't get it.

[938] They think it has to be in everything.

[939] Everybody, because of social media, everybody feels like they're fighting.

[940] some sort of social battle with everything they do.

[941] And, you know, and this is one, this is another one.

[942] It's like, it's like forced compliance.

[943] You have to, you're forced to comply with this.

[944] And, you know, it's fucking up women's sports in a huge way, in a huge way.

[945] And, you know, some organization are pushing back against that.

[946] And some people are pushing back against the organizations that are pushing back against it, which to me is insane.

[947] Like, if you care at all about biological women, you should be against that.

[948] Without, I mean, what if, like, LeBron said he wanted to play in the WNBA?

[949] I'm retiring from the NBA because I'm 49 and I'm going to play in the WNDA.

[950] Well, they wouldn't be able to stop it if he just decided to say, publicly, I identify as a woman.

[951] What are they going to do?

[952] They can't do anything.

[953] And then that would be the end.

[954] That would be Dave Chappelle has a bit about it.

[955] Yeah.

[956] LeBron scores 100 again tonight.

[957] Well, there was some fucking.

[958] And knucklehead that was getting an interview, they said, if Mike Tyson and I died and fought it as a woman, should he be able to fight women?

[959] And they're like, well, the short answer is yes.

[960] Oh.

[961] Lord.

[962] It's so crazy.

[963] Yeah.

[964] It's okay.

[965] And there's also different specifications.

[966] It's like what you have to do and how long you have to take hormones before you can identify as a woman and compete as a woman.

[967] Like, just fucking stop.

[968] I mean, who's going to check all that?

[969] Yeah.

[970] There's a reason why there's women sports.

[971] And there's a reason why there's men sports.

[972] And it's what you're not talking about who, who you are.

[973] or what your truth is, live your truth.

[974] I mean, Title IX just got, you know, just turned, what, 30 or something like that, you know what?

[975] Protecting women's sports.

[976] Yeah.

[977] Yeah, which is great because it forces schools and, you know, they make a lot of money, you know, teaching whatever they're teaching them schools.

[978] And they should carve out some for women to be able to play for their school, you know.

[979] great and um so i don't understand you know sometimes things don't make crazy man sense and when they when they don't make crazy man sense i just back out it's stop thinking about it yeah it's probably a good move because you're not going to solve it i mean people i think ultimately it gets solved where people just don't accept it anymore and then hopefully it'll go i mean maybe they to just develop a transgender league where trans people play against trans people that would be great.

[980] Why not?

[981] But you can't pretend you're a biological female just because you wish you were.

[982] You can't pretend when it comes to women's sports.

[983] You can't pretend when it comes to women's rights issues.

[984] It's like, that's not you don't want men dominating that because that's what it is.

[985] It's men entering to women's spaces.

[986] Yeah.

[987] And whether they're...

[988] Ultimately.

[989] They identify as a woman, that's great.

[990] But you physically, you're a biological male.

[991] Yeah, yeah.

[992] And you want to compete against them?

[993] You want to play rugby against women?

[994] Get the fuck out of here.

[995] Get the fuck out of here.

[996] That's crazy.

[997] No, they want to dominate.

[998] They want to dominate.

[999] There's a lot of that.

[1000] They want to dominate.

[1001] They want to be winners.

[1002] Yeah.

[1003] If all of a sudden you give me a woman and a winner and just fucking kick everybody's ass.

[1004] Yeah.

[1005] You know how you used to, like, play the kids in basketball?

[1006] Like, they ate.

[1007] You had just shack out there.

[1008] Yeah, you just shack.

[1009] Yeah.

[1010] Yeah, it's the ultimate sandbagging, you know?

[1011] It's like, you know you have a giant advantage.

[1012] Like, the one that drove me the craziest was the MMA fighter.

[1013] Yeah.

[1014] Because that person became a woman for two years and then started competing as women and not telling them and saying it was a medical issue.

[1015] I don't have to disclose a medical condition.

[1016] Like, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what that is.

[1017] Wow.

[1018] If that person said that they were a woman and competed against women, that's deception.

[1019] that's a fucking lie but if you said your biological male and the women still want to fight you okay all good yeah you know um it's tricky man it's like a slippery slope yeah you know that really starts to get bizarre after a while you know because where does it where does it um actually in at the end of the day, you know?

[1020] Yeah.

[1021] What if somebody say, I don't identify as black.

[1022] I want to be another color.

[1023] Yeah.

[1024] Purple.

[1025] What you're laughing at me?

[1026] You can get purple.

[1027] You're laughing at him with cancer your ass.

[1028] You laughing at me because I'm purple?

[1029] Yeah.

[1030] That's basically.

[1031] Yeah.

[1032] Well, you know, you might as well, you know, I'm a chicken dinner.

[1033] I'm macaroni and cheese, I'm rice, I'm the rolls.

[1034] Yeah.

[1035] You know, I'm a chicken dinner, man. This people identify as younger people.

[1036] It's like the whole, it is a slippery slope.

[1037] Yeah, because people can, you know, people always can be extreme with stuff like that.

[1038] They're extreme with it.

[1039] And they keep pushing boundaries.

[1040] And they're pushing boundaries on age of consent now, which is.

[1041] It's crazy.

[1042] You know, there's people that are also pushing back against calling people pedophiles.

[1043] And saying you should call them minor attracted persons.

[1044] Man, come on.

[1045] It's insane.

[1046] I mean, you're getting academics that are saying this.

[1047] It's insane.

[1048] Yeah, it is.

[1049] You know, it's borderline madness somewhere almost there.

[1050] Yeah, well, it's the end of an empire.

[1051] Yes.

[1052] And, you know, there's this guy, Douglas Murray, he's his English, British intellectual.

[1053] And he said that every time a civilization is close to collapsing, they become obsessed with gender.

[1054] It happened with the ancient Greeks, the Romans.

[1055] It's just like some weird thing that happens when everything is just going too good and life is too easy.

[1056] People get obsessed with the weirdest things.

[1057] And now we're obsessed with gender.

[1058] Wow.

[1059] It's the beginning of the end.

[1060] Stay tuned.

[1061] Yeah, who knows?

[1062] I mean, maybe we'll bounce back.

[1063] You know?

[1064] Get a good president.

[1065] in there, you know, turn it around.

[1066] I don't put a lot on the president.

[1067] I don't put a lot on the president, for sure.

[1068] I wonder what would happen if Robert Kennedy Jr. got in there.

[1069] Very interested to see what happens with that guy.

[1070] Yeah, you know, he's, you know, he seemed like a guy who at least is down the deep dive.

[1071] Yeah.

[1072] And talk real.

[1073] and, you know, really try to dissect what's really going on instead of just going with the herd, which would be easy for him to do.

[1074] Like, go with the herd, you know, he may be, you know, even ahead more or he may even be doing better, you know, when they pull, I think he's like 20 % of people or something.

[1075] Yeah, he'd probably be doing better.

[1076] Probably doing better, and, you know, instead of, you know, maybe he'll be one of the guys.

[1077] And so by him going this route, it seems like he's on a more noble route.

[1078] And we just check him out and see how he navigates some of this stuff.

[1079] He's definitely on a more noble route.

[1080] And it's definitely not something he planned to do initially.

[1081] I mean, he was an environmental attorney.

[1082] He was a guy that cleaned up the Hudson.

[1083] River.

[1084] They would go after these corporations that were dumping toxic waste.

[1085] And that was his thing.

[1086] It was like mercury in the water and, you know, trying to hold the corporations accountable.

[1087] And then these women started showing up every time he would speech, give these speeches.

[1088] And they said, we want you to look into mercury and vaccines.

[1089] Yeah.

[1090] And so this is 18 years ago.

[1091] And so for 18 years, this guy's been saying all this stuff about environmental concerns.

[1092] And that was what his whole thing was.

[1093] And it wasn't until COVID.

[1094] came along and then he wrote that book the real anthony fouchy detailing you know what it is that these people are actually doing and how they are engineering these viruses and they give grants and it's it's dangerous gain of function research and then they give you one medication that you have to take and everybody gets on board with it and they're making fucking billions of dollars yes and no one's talking about what he's saying and he's saying it in a well -informed way and he's expressing it to people like this is this is the playbook they always use and they just used it on everybody look he's dealing with the same people we probably all are dealing with and and it's really time for us to really come up with a with a plan on how we're going to deal with this because it's just going to continue to happen yeah it's just going to continue to happen you know I don't have all the answers um but I think we need to collectively start to, you know, not just give a pass to people doing things like this.

[1095] And, you know, we've got major outlets that's not delivering the right message to the people, not delivering the right message, basically steering them the way that, you know, these super rich people want us to go.

[1096] and it's not cool no it's not and I'm hoping people wake up enough to at least slow it down because these people are pushing in a very obvious and very specific direction they want digital currency centralized digital currency that they control and they want to get everybody on a social credit score system they'll probably connect it to some sort of a vaccine app or if you want to travel around all they would need is another pandemic to try to push that shit through and they're already talking about that it's very spooky because when you look into the history of this this lab and them funding it and this getting out and the way they responded to it the whole thing is so scary because it was effective it was effective and very very financially effective i mean they made a lot of fucking money yeah and if they could do something similar again and then clamp down more on people that's what scares me this this talk of centralized digital currency that's what they have in china if they if you fuck up up in China and you get a bad social credit score because you tweeted something they didn't like.

[1097] Now you can't buy a plane ticket.

[1098] Now you can't buy a car.

[1099] Now you can't get a loan.

[1100] Now you can't do something.

[1101] You step the fucking line and people self -censor because they don't want to be a part of that.

[1102] Now they got you.

[1103] Yep, they got you.

[1104] Want you self -censor?

[1105] Yeah.

[1106] Got you where they want you.

[1107] Yeah, we know that they were involved in Twitter.

[1108] We know that the government was involved in silencing different voices.

[1109] You know, they stopped that Hunter Biden laptop story from getting out before the election.

[1110] It's just, it's so obviously dirty shit.

[1111] I did a record called Everything's Corrupt.

[1112] And it is when you really look around.

[1113] Yeah.

[1114] And it's like, where is the people that's doing the right thing?

[1115] Yeah.

[1116] You know, where they at?

[1117] Have you thought about doing anything with politics?

[1118] No, I would never.

[1119] I would never do nothing with politics.

[1120] Does anybody try to pressure you?

[1121] What you mean?

[1122] Like, Cube, you should run for mayor.

[1123] I tell him I'm already to mayor.

[1124] It's like, the only thing I would do, I said, king me, you know, just, only thing I would accept is, turn me into a king.

[1125] Turn me into a king.

[1126] President, politician, begging -ass politician, a powerless puppet.

[1127] Oh, no. Oh, no. You know, I talked to one guy who actually spends the money that the government allocates.

[1128] So, you know, Congress say this industry is going to get this many billions.

[1129] It's up to him to say where that money goes.

[1130] And I'm like, well, how often do you talk to people at Congress?

[1131] He said, never.

[1132] he said they can't even get me on the phone I'm like what he said these people can't even get me on the phone man I don't listen to them you know what I mean I just tell them where the money got to go wow so he gets to decide you know he's part of the government that you know when they allocate the money it goes to these different agencies and departments and and then they allocate where it goes They can't spend any of it, so they can't take it, but they can spend it.

[1133] And then they can develop relationships with the people that give them money.

[1134] Yeah, so, you know, the people in Congress are, to me, actually, powerless.

[1135] They're just theater at the end of the day.

[1136] Well, they're theater who also gets the inside trade.

[1137] Yeah.

[1138] That's the beautiful thing.

[1139] Exactly.

[1140] I mean, they know where that money's going.

[1141] Yeah.

[1142] You know what I mean?

[1143] They might not be able to touch it, but they can be on the other end to make sure they, you know, their investments are carved out and they make them pretty penny off of it.

[1144] Well, not only that, they do it openly in front of everybody.

[1145] It's not illegal.

[1146] And every time people call to ban it, like Nancy Pelosi's like, what?

[1147] No, no, yeah.

[1148] We're not going to do that.

[1149] Why would we do that?

[1150] Yeah, exactly.

[1151] Well, ladies are at $200 million.

[1152] She makes $200 grand a year.

[1153] Yeah, right.

[1154] She's better at stock trading than Warren Buffett and George Soros.

[1155] Yeah.

[1156] Why wouldn't she be?

[1157] She know where all the body, I mean, she knows where everything is going to hit.

[1158] It's crazy.

[1159] What's going to hit, when it's going to hit, and how much it's going to hit for.

[1160] And unless that's illegal, fuck you.

[1161] Like, fuck your whole system.

[1162] Exactly.

[1163] Because, you know, it's easy to, you know, it's easy to, you know, it's, It's easy to corrupt these people.

[1164] You know what I mean?

[1165] It's all our money.

[1166] Did you ever think you would have to think about it so much, though?

[1167] Like, I didn't think about this so much, like 10, 15 years ago.

[1168] Well, I always had my kind of, you know, every sense, you know, people like Tipper Gore come after you.

[1169] Oh, yeah.

[1170] You pay attention to where the shots are being fired, you know.

[1171] So before then, just a little, you know, I was sitting, my pops would look at the news and yell at the screen.

[1172] You know what I mean?

[1173] That's how I know what was bullshit and what was real, you know.

[1174] And then, you know, I started doing my thing and then like the law, the FBI, you know, all these agencies started to come down on us, really scared the shit out at the record company because we couldn't, we could care less.

[1175] We was like, the day we got the FBI letter.

[1176] What was the FBI letter?

[1177] We got the FBI letter.

[1178] They sent the letter to priority records saying one guy was like I'm, you know, part of this department of the FBI.

[1179] And we're very concerned with this record called Straight Out of Compton.

[1180] You guys got a song on there called Fuck the Police.

[1181] And we think this song could encourage, you know, people to go against law enforcement and blah, blah, that's and blah, blah.

[1182] like that and um basically you know we'd like it if you guys took it off the shelf you know i'm saying to that tip so you know they call us up there you know they panicking we don't know why they want to come here we got to talk to you get up there and it's like pull out this letter FBI and we're like it's like man do you know what this is he's fucking agent he uh he he he he's sent me this letter and, you know, they was all, like, nervous and shit.

[1183] And we're looking like, a letter?

[1184] That's all you get?

[1185] They're not going to come in here and try to fuck with us?

[1186] Like, they're not going, you know what I mean?

[1187] Arrest us, cuff us, rough us up, none of that.

[1188] And we're like, y 'all scared over a fucking letter.

[1189] Come back to South Central with us.

[1190] You know what I mean?

[1191] Deal with the sheriffs down there.

[1192] You know what I mean?

[1193] They do way more than give you a letter.

[1194] So we felt that it was like, you know, Easy was like, we're going to be big as fuck after this.

[1195] You know what I'm saying?

[1196] And, but the guys at the record company, this was the first time they ever dealt with, like, pushback.

[1197] First time the government probably even knew they existed.

[1198] So they were freaked out.

[1199] And we, uh, we were like, okay, we was looking for them to raid our houses and shit.

[1200] Like, damn, because we, we, we're not seeing the batter ram.

[1201] We know, seen them run up in people houses on.

[1202] dope charges or whatever you know especially in the late 80s early 90s that's like they got a kick out of just running up in people houses and shit so um we were like looking for that to come for the in the next you know next few weeks we was looking like oh they're about the hiss and it never happened so we was like what's the what's the issue what's the problem so it was just that letter and that was it was just that letter and then we made the letter public And they kind of just backed off and shit.

[1203] And then it became a big story of, you know, the FBI hates this group.

[1204] I think we was on the cover, like, one of those, you know, New York magazines.

[1205] And it was like the FBI hates this group.

[1206] Yeah, look at this.

[1207] Yeah, the FBI hates this man. Wow.

[1208] Yeah.

[1209] Easy was right.

[1210] Yeah, he was.

[1211] That's the letter.

[1212] Wow.

[1213] Look at that.

[1214] A song recorded by the rep group NWA on their album entitled Straight Out of Compton Encourges Violence and Disrespect for Law Enforcement Officer and has been brought to my attention.

[1215] I understand your company recorded and distributed this album.

[1216] And I am writing to share my thoughts and concerns with you.

[1217] Advocating violence and assault is wrong.

[1218] And we in law enforcement community take the exception to such action.

[1219] Violent crimes, a major problem in our country, reached an unprecedented high in 1988.

[1220] Seventy -eight law enforcement officers were feloniously slain.

[1221] And the feloniously slain the line of duty during 1988, four more in 1987.

[1222] Law enforcement officers dedicate their lives to protection of our citizens and recordings such as the one from NWA are both discouraging and degrading to these.

[1223] brave dedicated officers music plays a significant role in society and i'd want to you be aware the fbi's position relative to this song and its message i believe my reviews reflect the opinion of the entire law enforcement community huh yeah never met this dude nah no no never interesting yeah 1998 it was a different world and that was the first that was like the the first moment of that where, you know, we had heard that, like, the government and politicians were concerned about rap music.

[1224] Without a doubt.

[1225] And then it just, no, they didn't come after me, but all these other different agencies were starting to hit us up.

[1226] And, you know, they were going, they started going after iced tea, you know, a little bit because he, body count did a song called Cop Killer.

[1227] And, yeah, you know, it was a, it was a time when we grew up really.

[1228] real fast.

[1229] We had to understand that, you know, this is bigger than hip hop.

[1230] And we got to, we got to stand up for what we know is true and right.

[1231] It's like, we're not making shit up, you know.

[1232] Go down, you know.

[1233] I've seen guys tell cops, you know what I mean, take off that gun, take off that badge, and we can knuckle it up in the streets and do it like men.

[1234] So, you know, we knew that sentiment was out there where people was really like, yo, if you're not going to, if you're going to act like a thug, you know what I'm saying, let's thug it out.

[1235] You know what I'm saying?

[1236] Are you going to act like an officer?

[1237] Then we'll, you know, we'll, you know, we'll respect your authority.

[1238] You see what I mean?

[1239] Yeah.

[1240] So it was a lot of cops that we respected that came through that and they would treat us like, you know, real humans, you know, not like, you know, suspects.

[1241] You know what I mean?

[1242] You don't want to be like to treat you like a suspect.

[1243] You ain't out here doing nothing.

[1244] These dudes, so we knew some dudes that would come through and talk to us, tell us, you know, y 'all need to watch out, be careful, you know what I'm saying?

[1245] And, you know, do anybody know something that happened around the corner and all these little stuff?

[1246] And we like, nah, nah, nah, no. But they was respectful, and we respected their authority.

[1247] Then there was others that would come through, you know, look at you crazy harass you you know we was kids on the bikes we saw one day they came we like eight nine years old man we on our bikes got our bikes laid down we made a ramp we all kicking on the grass resting looking at our bikes like their fucking motorcycles and shit like you know and um man sheriffs hit get the corner came all up on the grass and like get against the car all that you know, bullshit.

[1248] And we're kids.

[1249] They know we kids sitting on the bikes, man. What you think we did?

[1250] You know what I'm saying?

[1251] Like, rode on somebody grass.

[1252] You know what I mean?

[1253] What you think we're out here doing?

[1254] Yeah.

[1255] So what was it like when the album came out, like, interacting with cops?

[1256] Most of them was cool, actually.

[1257] Most of them said they listened to the song.

[1258] In the movie, we get ran out.

[1259] to Detroit like they ran us off stage because we sung the song a lot of undercover police you know throwing M80s and shit on the stage yeah so we thought they were shooting at us so we run off they catch us they round us up and you know they like thought you was gonna come to Detroit right talking that cop I mean that uh fuck the police shit and can't come through Detroit talking that we should run out of jail you know I mean we should like y 'all up and blah blah blah and we like listening we listening and he said um but if y 'all got a couple of pictures y 'all got a couple a by 10s y 'all sign it for my daughter we ain't gonna have no problems so you know we was pissed but we was like man easy was like getting t -shirts get them everything they need come on come on come on come on come on and so you know we signed the shit you know reluctantly But the concert's over Yeah, they turned the concert out Yeah I mean they ran us off stage after Three songs And they got pictures And then they got pictures And they got autographs for their daughters And they let us go They just said you can't come to Detroit With that bullshit Wow So it was only Detroit That was the only place That was the only place Cincinnati they ran us off Really?

[1260] Man they would They would They would have us They would Before every concert or a sergeant or a captain or somebody would come in with a city ordinance of what was obscene in their city, in their town, and what could be said on stage and what couldn't be said.

[1261] And if you say any of this or do any this, we will arrest you after your performance.

[1262] Wow.

[1263] Like what words?

[1264] I mean, fuck, motherfucker.

[1265] Really?

[1266] Oh, my God.

[1267] It was like the 1950s again.

[1268] like on that tip um wow and this is 88 around that yeah 88 89 wow and we hit the stage we like man we would tell the audience you know what these motherfuckers told us backstage they said we couldn't say fuck we couldn't say shit we couldn't say this we couldn't say bitch you know I mean and we're gonna start this off with a bitch is a bitch you know so um we would do our shows you know sometimes they would just let us go and then sometimes you would like after the show you'd have to look and see the looking like the security and everybody face and you knew okay they on us so many of times we we come off stage but then we like switching jackets like people handing you jackets handing you different shirts and shit so you can put them on and walk through the backstage because now cops was like where they at you know we're those guys that was on stage and uh in Cincinnati I had to I saw them coming I saw them all like looking around and I didn't have a chance to change my shit so they was looking for me and so uh I hit the exit I just I went outside I went outside the concert and there was people like flowing in and out and um it was like cute what you doing out here I said man they're looking for me He's like, I jumped in the car with them, like fans of shit.

[1269] I just jumped in the car with him.

[1270] They drove me across the bridge to Kansas, I mean, Kentucky is right across from Cincinnati.

[1271] We're sitting in waiting for anybody to drive up, nobody drove up, and they end up driving me back to the hotel, and then you got easy and Dre.

[1272] Where the fuck was you?

[1273] Where'd you go, man?

[1274] We all got citations, and we got to come back here.

[1275] They want us to fly back here to go to court, and they come.

[1276] They couldn't kick.

[1277] They was looking for you.

[1278] They couldn't catch you.

[1279] I was like, man, I dip.

[1280] I dip.

[1281] And I'm going to dip again next show.

[1282] You know what I'm saying?

[1283] It was crazy.

[1284] Did they have to go back?

[1285] They had to go back to court.

[1286] Wow.

[1287] Yeah, I had to go back to court and fight it.

[1288] And what happened?

[1289] I don't remember because I end up leaving the group.

[1290] I ended up leaving the group so I don't really know what happened kind of after 89 with everybody, you know.

[1291] Wow.

[1292] What a wild time.

[1293] It's crazy.

[1294] crazy but fun like we were living the time of our lives because we never knew we was going to be this popular throughout the country we thought the records that we did were just local you know we was going to be you know hood stars you know right there in our neighborhood people was going to love us but outside of Compton south central long beach watts we were like you know people they're not even going to know what we're talking about right little did we know that everybody was kind of going through the same things that we were going through that's so wild so what like what was it like when it blew up I mean that had to be for you to be a young guy in this you know hip hop just in general was relatively new yeah and for it to blow up that big that had be a wild like change of your life it was you know because you think You think you're only going to be an underground artist.

[1295] Like, before we sold our records, records like ours would be in the section with, like, the Red Fox records and the Richard Pryor, the Eddie Murphy, the dirty, you know, comedy, dirty comedy records.

[1296] That's where you would find these dirty hip -hop records.

[1297] And there was a few, you know, it was a dude named Blowfly.

[1298] Blowfly would have songs called, he had a song, he got one of the song called Rap Dirty.

[1299] And like those kind of songs would be in this section that nobody went to unless you just wanted to laugh or something.

[1300] So we thought our records would end up there in that bend.

[1301] And it just blew up.

[1302] MTV Bandar straight out of Compton video.

[1303] And that blew the group up because people wanted to know why did they do something that even MTV was scared to show?

[1304] And so we went from thinking we were going to be in that little bin to they putting us in the front of the record store and promoting that, you can get straight out of Compton here.

[1305] Wow.

[1306] And so it just took us from, you know, that back -of -the -store stuff to prime real estate.

[1307] How many records did straight out of Compton sell?

[1308] I don't know the exact end figure, but even that, while I was still in the group, it was like 2 million records, and then it was just growing.

[1309] So by now, it's got to be up to at least four.

[1310] Wow.

[1311] That had to be a fucking crazy experience to not think that that was ever going to happen, and then boom.

[1312] It was, you know.

[1313] Most controversial band in America.

[1314] We went from being straight locals.

[1315] to like being everywhere.

[1316] Matter of fact, I went to school after I was in the group.

[1317] Like, I was like, you know, I can't hang my hat on this.

[1318] I'm not going to be able to live.

[1319] You know what I mean?

[1320] On dirty rap records, you know what I'm saying?

[1321] Can't play them on the radio.

[1322] You know, only underground people are going to hear it.

[1323] So I went off to a trade school, Phoenix, Arizona called Phoenix Institute of Technology.

[1324] Where'd you go to learn?

[1325] Architectural drafting.

[1326] Really?

[1327] Yeah.

[1328] Wow.

[1329] Yeah, I took drafting in school and I dug it and sent some pamphling in the mail.

[1330] You know, if you want more information, fill this out.

[1331] A little postcard.

[1332] I filled it out.

[1333] I fucking showed up to my house and it was in there talking to my mother and father.

[1334] I'm like, what the hell?

[1335] you're going to school what I got a show I got to no you're going to school like damn how long was that for a year wow yep yeah fall of 87 to the fall of 88 wow so you got out of trade school and then the album blows up I mean we got out of trade school and then we was working on easy solo album easy does it his solo album came out right before NWA.

[1336] And that blew him up, and we were along for the rise.

[1337] So when the NWA record came and he was a part of the NWA group, it just put a spotlight on the group.

[1338] And then the record was crazy.

[1339] So just took it to the next level.

[1340] What was your earliest influences in hip -hop?

[1341] Curtis Blow, run DMC.

[1342] Sugar Hill Gang Rakem, Big Daddy Kane, Bismarkey, salt and pepper, like the grates.

[1343] All the grates.

[1344] Beastie Boys.

[1345] L .L. Koojee, for sure.

[1346] You know, we loved L .L. L .L. was the man always.

[1347] And so when was the first time you actually performed?

[1348] How old were you?

[1349] I was probably 15.

[1350] Is that local thing?

[1351] Yeah, you know, we would do rap battles.

[1352] So we would go up to people's school and find out, you know, everybody didn't rap.

[1353] Like now, everybody raps.

[1354] But back then, it was like a niche group.

[1355] So we had honed our skills, so we would go up to different high schools and hopped a fence.

[1356] and nutrition and shit and like find a spot in battle you know what I mean so it was fun I was like it was like a karate master looking for us far you know we're walking around it's like who go to that school who rap over there who over here?

[1357] It's like there some dudes in my school man they can bus man y 'all should come up here you know I was trying to set it up for Friday y 'all come up here Friday hit the fence you know we busts and then y 'all got to get out before you know what I mean the council Come, you know what I'm saying?

[1358] So we'd find ourselves going from different high schools.

[1359] We would ditch our own school to go up to different schools and rap against people.

[1360] But the first time I really hit the stage, we did this contest called the Best Rappers of the West Contest.

[1361] And we entered our song.

[1362] Man, we made it all the way to the finals.

[1363] They did the finals at the Olympic Auditorial.

[1364] in L .A. That's where they used to do all the old wrestling matches and fights.

[1365] So they used to do roller derby there too.

[1366] Thunderbirds.

[1367] And so we there, we performed, Drey came, you know, Drey was in the world -class wrecking crew, DJ crew, you know, so everybody there, our family, and they messed up our tape.

[1368] Like, you know, our music was instrumental, but it was cassette.

[1369] And when they, they hit it it was in the wrong spot they didn't rewind it so we got it it was off cue and then they had to rewind it and then start over the thrill was gone we lost we lost we came in second place and so that was my first taste of you know hitting the stage you knew that's what you wanted to do i loved it you know i had a great time yeah i did and hanging with dray more and more you know he saw us that night he knew we had got kind of robbed a little bit of bit and he was like we'll let you we'll let you we'll let y 'all perform at dudos which is the club he DJed in Compton it's right there on central boule central avenue and um we went down there you know it's it's a party I mean full of bloods it's like full of Compton bloods paroos all through this place this is right in their neighborhood and Dre is like y 'all better be good Y 'all better be good, man. I don't know what they're going to do.

[1370] They might throw shit at you, you know.

[1371] I want to fuck you up.

[1372] Y 'all better be good.

[1373] That's all he kept saying.

[1374] So we were like, damn, we got to think of something clever.

[1375] We got to be good.

[1376] We got to be good.

[1377] So we started doing parody raps.

[1378] We would take the hit song and do a dirty version of it.

[1379] Roxanne, Roxanne was the hit song that was out.

[1380] UTFO.

[1381] And we made a song called Diane, Diane.

[1382] And it was a dirty version.

[1383] of it.

[1384] It went crazy.

[1385] It went crazy.

[1386] So we knew like, oh, damn, this is a style.

[1387] Like, we can do our own rap's hardcore like this.

[1388] We don't have to try to be, you know, fat boys.

[1389] We don't have to try to be.

[1390] Yeah, we can just give it to them raw, how they want it.

[1391] Talk about the neighborhood, you know?

[1392] Yeah.

[1393] That's what we start doing so that's interesting like that so that sort of led to the way the band became doing that show yeah yeah and doing that show we see i wasn't in n w i had my own group so we we start working with easy and n w is actually an all -star group it's it's easy kind of plucking different people from different groups putting them together and saying we're going to make we're going to huddle up and make these dirty records and then after we finish y 'all can go back and make y 'all clean little records that's kind of how NWA was formed wow yeah so they grabbed dray and yellow from wrecking crew they grabbed me i was in a group called stereo crew we changed our name to cia criminals in action but lanzo made us call ourselves crew in action because he was like nobody gonna buy a record That's like criminals.

[1394] So, and then you had easy, you know what I mean?

[1395] So we formed NWA.

[1396] Renn came later.

[1397] When I went to school, that's when Renn came, M .C. Renn.

[1398] So, yeah.

[1399] And then what happened is we do the record.

[1400] It blow up and everybody say, tell their groups, hey, man, this shit is popping.

[1401] And nowhere in the world, we all going back to being.

[1402] nobody in our groups you know what I mean we got to run with this and it just I'm still running with it you're always known for your lyrics you're a great writer like if you did you always have that ability do you wait did you write before you wrote lyrics yeah but you know what I what I did when I was young you know the teachers would always ask like well okay what you do over summer vacation what did you do right right down what you guys do so mine would be thorough you know I would I would be able to really explain everything that I did and they were really impressed my teachers were impressed that I could remember all that and put it in a comprehensive form where they can read you know my whole summer really and so by getting those kind of you know extra credit for being good or you know teacher hanging your stuff up there you know you're like okay I can do this I can do this same with art you know and I actually they had me do a speech during my sixth grade graduation like they asked me would you go up there and address the graduation class so you know the writing that speech these things, I knew, okay, I could put words together and I can speak them in front of a crowd and it wasn't a nightmare.

[1403] So when it was time to rap and time to rhyme, which was a couple years later when I turned 14, then I was able to put it together and feel like, okay, I know how to write and I know how to rap, so jump in front of the crowd, get busy.

[1404] That's amazing.

[1405] That's so interesting that that's the genesis of your writing, because it makes sense.

[1406] Because, like, your writing was always so thorough and well thought out.

[1407] You know, and when you went solo, that was, like, very evident.

[1408] It was very evident.

[1409] Like, this is great fucking writing.

[1410] Like, the lyrics back then, like, that's my favorite era of hip -hop.

[1411] It's, like, early 90s, late 80s, early 90s, like in the East Coast, like, Cool Mo D. Yeah.

[1412] Yeah.

[1413] prolific and set the bar you know those guys started to set the bar higher and higher and you know you had to keep up to even get attention so yeah you know those early pioneers of hip -hop even LL was you know amazing lyricist word smith you know the original rock the bells he's another guy who's done everything yeah movies I call him you know the hip hop LeBron you know he he's been doing this since he was 15 at the highest level and never came down you know what I mean so and still looks great yeah still you know looks like um superstar yeah so it's cool you know to you know to find you know to be friends with these guys that that I looked up to so much as a youngster that was a weird time the East Coast versus West Coast shit was very weird yeah it was uh you know people equated to tupac and shit i mean and bad boy and defro but it was actually bubbling before that it was to me an industry thing in a way like new york had the throne for so long and here go well at least a decade or more and here comes these West Coast rappers, you know, kind of taking attention away.

[1414] And so the industry people, it started to bubble up with them that, yo, we're doing real hip -hop.

[1415] They're just doing gangster records, you know.

[1416] And so that started to kind of get into the artists.

[1417] You know, I mean, that sentiment started to start to put.

[1418] poison the artist and an artist named Tim Dog did a song called Fuck Compton like out of nowhere we was like damn we we like New York why y 'all you know why he take a shot and nobody really rebutted him like you know they kind of let his slide and then more and more artists start taking shots here and there and and then the thing with Bad Boy and Death Row it kind of just took it over the top.

[1419] It just made it because they were the hottest labels.

[1420] You had the hottest label on the East Coast battling with the hottest label on the West Coast.

[1421] So that made that undercurrent of animosity that was growing blow all the way up and look like it was a feud.

[1422] How did that ever get resolved?

[1423] I think when a Tupac got killed and then Biggie was murdered shortly after, people realized this is a dead -end road.

[1424] Like, people stopped listening, really, to East Coast and West Coast at that time.

[1425] And that's how the immersion of the South came.

[1426] You know, the South was there bubbling.

[1427] They was doing their thing.

[1428] They had groups that were, that was making a dent.

[1429] But at one point, all the hip -hop fans were so fed up with the East Coast, West Coast beef that they said, you know, we're just going to pay attention to what the South is doing.

[1430] You guys got to heal your wounds and come back.

[1431] And so that's the emergence of the South and, you know, all the groups that came out.

[1432] Back then, were you touring on the East Coast?

[1433] Yeah.

[1434] So what was it like when you were touring on the East Coast in the middle of all that shit?

[1435] Um, I mean, it was always love, you know, I mean, some fans took sides, but most, most of it was, you know, industry stuff, and they were kind of caught in the middle.

[1436] So, and I did a, I did a record called, you know, Bow Down with the West Side Connection, which we addressed a lot of the beef because we felt like most of the industry was in New York at the time.

[1437] So we felt like if we didn't stand up for ourselves in some way, shape, or form, what we accomplished the last decade would be erased and eroded and dismissed, discredited.

[1438] And we wouldn't, we would be played out.

[1439] You know what I mean?

[1440] We wouldn't have longevity.

[1441] Right.

[1442] So, you know, there was, you know, back and forth.

[1443] But at the end of the day, you know, two.

[1444] Tupac being killed, Biggie being killed was just a wake -up call for the whole industry.

[1445] That's sad that that's how the wake -up call had to go.

[1446] It's crazy.

[1447] Crazy.

[1448] Yeah.

[1449] I mean, I remember I was on news radio, on the set of news radio, when someone told me Tupac got killed.

[1450] I remember thinking, how is that possible?

[1451] How was that real?

[1452] Yeah.

[1453] Yeah, I just.

[1454] You know, it was a new day.

[1455] Like, it's like, oh, we're in a new era where celebrity means nothing.

[1456] You know, celebrity means nothing.

[1457] Anybody can get it.

[1458] Yeah.

[1459] So it's damn there like we back, where we started from back in the hood, you know, trying not to get it.

[1460] And here, you're a celebrity and you can still get it.

[1461] How dangerous did that feel to you back then?

[1462] You know, no more dangerous than it feels when any of people, you know, any person I know get shot, you know, it feels like, you know, damn, you know, this never ends.

[1463] I don't remember taking any more precaution than I usually would, but I knew people, you know, some dudes was getting bulletproof trucks and shit and bulletproof vans.

[1464] and all this stuff, I was like, nah, I ain't going to that extent.

[1465] It's just a crazy time of music history, too, because, you know, there never been, like, rock bands that were feuding with each other to the point where you were worried about people getting murdered.

[1466] No, not that I know of.

[1467] You know, rock bands do feud.

[1468] They usually don't do disc records either.

[1469] Right, right.

[1470] You know, they just feud or they have subliminal, subliminal disses it's never like...

[1471] The disc record thing was wild that was really the first time artists ever went after each other like that.

[1472] Yeah, it's up but you know it's it's like it's like sparring it's like battling it's like you know it's part of the game so it's welcomed in a way you know you you spar you practice you know how to fight and then somebody getting your face and challenge you You're like, okay, this is what we do.

[1473] There's a rumble, you know what I'm saying?

[1474] So it's like you grow battling, you know, you got your raps, you say your cocky shit, you know what I mean?

[1475] And somebody wanted, you know, put it on wax and battle.

[1476] Like, we can battle on wax any day, you know what I'm saying?

[1477] So let's go for it.

[1478] When did it feel like for you, all that shit sort of like went away?

[1479] like the feud stuff when did it seem like it was just back to just making music um for some reason I think like 9 -11 like that tragedy of 9 -11 for some reason like it seemed like from then the feud and stopped and people kind of reassessed and reorganized their thought process when it comes to that like they it was like Like, that's when it seemed like a ceasefire just was the best thing to do.

[1480] Because, you know, like the country went through a crazy shakeup.

[1481] Yeah.

[1482] And it's a trip.

[1483] You know, you had groups like rocking a red white and blue.

[1484] And they was like into, you know, patriotism and really.

[1485] into, you know, uh -oh, you know, we got other forces out there that's trying to take down New York City, you know what I mean?

[1486] We can't be hating on New York after that.

[1487] Like, we all got to band together.

[1488] That was the sentiment.

[1489] It's crazy that sometimes it takes something like that, like a national tragedy to wake people up to what's really important.

[1490] Yeah, major shake -up.

[1491] So how the fuck did you go?

[1492] go from NWA, your solo career, and then movies, and then family movies.

[1493] Like, was there, like, a resistance for that?

[1494] People like, did you listen to his old shit?

[1495] You know?

[1496] I mean, because people were taking their kids to see those movies, and then those kids became Ice Cube fans, and then they go into your old shit, and like, wow.

[1497] Yeah, I mean, it's a great it's kind of like, you know, they're caught in an ice cube vortex in a way, you know what I'm saying?

[1498] Because here's how it happened.

[1499] Like, I'm in W .A. I go solo.

[1500] I'm just trying to be the best rapper in the world.

[1501] That's all I'm concerned about.

[1502] And I meet this kid, John Singleton, who's an intern.

[1503] I meet him at the Arsenio Hall Show.

[1504] He's an intern there.

[1505] there to talk to Arsenio to say, dude, you had two live crew on, why don't you have NWA on?

[1506] So never had that conversation with Arsenio because John Singleton is talking my ear off.

[1507] And he's like, I'm a junior at USC.

[1508] I'm put you in a movie.

[1509] I'm like, dude, what?

[1510] I'm not an actor.

[1511] You know what I mean?

[1512] I thought you had to go to Juilliard for 18 years to be.

[1513] So I'm like, what you're talking about, man?

[1514] And then he pursued me two years, dude.

[1515] Two years.

[1516] And then he finally said, yo, I got the movie.

[1517] You know, we're going to do it.

[1518] And so that was Boys in the Hood.

[1519] So he discovered me. That's how I got into movies.

[1520] And when we're doing that movie, he's saying, when you're going to write a movie?

[1521] Dude, what are you talking about?

[1522] Why you keep hitting me with this stuff that I don't do?

[1523] He said, man, you can write a song like that.

[1524] You can write a movie like that.

[1525] I'm like, okay.

[1526] I go by a computer that same day.

[1527] And Final Draft, which is a script writing, and I start writing a script.

[1528] Like, don't know.

[1529] One thing about writing a script, just start writing one.

[1530] And it was terrible, but he helped me. He just kept telling me keep writing, and keep more pages, just keep going until you finish it.

[1531] And long story short, I end up a few years later right on Friday.

[1532] Okay, Friday, 1995 comes out, big cult classic.

[1533] So as the years go on, got these little kids coming to me doing all these cuss lines from Friday.

[1534] I'm like, what's your little ass doing watching Friday?

[1535] You know, so I did another movie called Barbershop.

[1536] Now, that's an R -rated comedy Friday.

[1537] So I do Barbershop.

[1538] It's good reaction.

[1539] People love it.

[1540] It's PG -13.

[1541] So the movie is bigger because it appeals to a bigger audience.

[1542] So I'm like, damn, we was at.

[1543] able to work it at rated it or are we able to work it at PG 13 what if I did a PG movie because I still got little kids coming to me talking about you got knock the fuck out seven I need to do something for your little seven year old ass so you don't have to go watch Friday you know what I mean?

[1544] You should be watching Friday when you get about 11, 12 not 7 so I was like, you know, I was with Revolution, Joe Rolf over at Revolution, and he was like, yo, we got this movie that Adam Sandler was going to do, but he can't do it.

[1545] Will you take a look at it?

[1546] I say, yeah, I'll take a look at it, and it was already, are we there yet?

[1547] I'm like, oh, this is a kid's movie, you know?

[1548] He's like, yeah, that's okay.

[1549] I think I can, you know, tailor make it where it fits me, but yeah, let's give it a try.

[1550] and we do it and of course everybody go apes shit like Cube you gangster what you're doing these kids movies for what's wrong with you what the hell's going on man you don't guys saw all this stuff they was talking right so movie comes out and kids like lose their mind they love the movie so now this is the vortex right they come in they love are we there yet six, seven, eight.

[1551] By the time they get 10 or 11, somebody doesn't show them barbershop or maybe Friday.

[1552] So they love me from Are We There yet now they love me from Friday.

[1553] And then somebody says, listen to this and hands on my music when they get about 15, 14.

[1554] And they say, I love this guy.

[1555] And I got fans all ages who love Ice Cube because they've been like walked up from Are We There Yet to Barbershop to Friday to my music which is a whole different animal.

[1556] I don't think there's anybody else like that that has that varied a career.

[1557] I don't know.

[1558] I haven't thought about it but it's pretty cool and dynamic.

[1559] You know, I know I met your daughter, she's 27.

[1560] Yeah.

[1561] And the first thing she was exposed to was, I'm only there yet.

[1562] Yeah.

[1563] She's a fan, you know what I'm saying?

[1564] So that movie was a way to stay connected to the younger generation always without the parents saying, do you know who this is?

[1565] Right.

[1566] This is Ice Cube.

[1567] He used to be blah, blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, blah.

[1568] Now the kids know who I am before the parents even have to point it out.

[1569] Yeah.

[1570] So it's been a great thing for my career as far as longevity and gaining new fans without necessarily having to have a new hit record.

[1571] Right, right, right.

[1572] You have a giant library of content?

[1573] Yes, yeah.

[1574] Yeah, and it's cool because, you know, there's always going to be kids, always going to be new kids.

[1575] It's always going to be something for parents to try to shove in front of them.

[1576] To watch, to take their time, and are we there?

[1577] There's a cool option, you know what I'm saying?

[1578] And then we did all we done yet, and, you know, people are asking me, when are you going to do the next one?

[1579] And I'm like, y 'all want a third one?

[1580] Okay, let's think about it.

[1581] You got to do a third one?

[1582] We'll see.

[1583] We've got to talk to Joe and Revolution and, you know, get it right.

[1584] When I found out that you wrote Friday, I was like, that's insane.

[1585] That's incredible.

[1586] Yeah, me and DJ Poop.

[1587] That's a funny fucking movie.

[1588] Yeah, it is, you know.

[1589] I mean, DJ Poole, he's one of those, he's like one of those undercover geniuses that been in, he's been involved in a lot of hip -hop.

[1590] I mean, he helped L .L. do going back to Cali, you know what I mean?

[1591] Like, he's been around forever, and we're all fans of Poo.

[1592] You know what I'm saying?

[1593] And Pooke is funny.

[1594] He technical.

[1595] he he's the one who who got rock star to do the grand theft artist grand theft auto San Andreas that whole you know like take it from Miami and put it in LA you know I mean take it from the Miami dope culture to the LA gang culture so he's the one who's behind the scenes with stuff like that and he helped me write Friday he produced it was a good day the song um so whenever we together it's just magic and uh we wrote friday because we were watching uh in living color uh and we loved hollywood shuffle by robert townsen and uh we was like let's write a let's write a movie about the neighborhood like because everything that was coming out was depressing you know it was colors boys in the hood Venice to society South Central It was like Yo this is a hell zone And we was like I didn't Did you remember it like that Or Don't we laugh around here All the time Like let's Let's show how it really is For us around here And so That's how Friday Kind of germinating became like Yo we're gonna show Our version of How we have fun It South Central It's an all -time classic Yeah, it's a It's a movie that I get common In it all more than any other Like people Quote it Love it Yeah The characters are iconic People dress up When you know you got a line like You got knocked the fuck out That gets repeated For decades Yeah Yeah I mean I knew I knew it was one of those lines Because I had never heard it in a movie before when somebody got knocked out and I'm like yeah this is what he's going to say when he jump over him and look down on him like you got knocked up fuck out how many times you've seen that on a world yeah how many times do you see that a world star hip -hop now though all the time it's just like everybody yells and someone goes down it's automatic it's automatic you know all you know that's as as an artist that's all you want is to have a couple classics that people remember you for, you know, when you 80 in a cafe, you know, drinking coffee, somebody run up and be like, yo, Craig, what's up?

[1596] Yeah.

[1597] I mean, that's all you want.

[1598] That's amazing.

[1599] What do you, like, you could do whatever the fuck you want now.

[1600] What do you enjoy doing most?

[1601] Creating, you know, on all levels.

[1602] Like, that's what get my juices going, is.

[1603] is being in the lab, the creative process, whether it's music, movies, you know, TV, documentaries, or, you know, sports.

[1604] It's being creative.

[1605] It's being part of the mix.

[1606] When I go on movies and I'm just an actor, you know, I'll be like, damn, this is so boring.

[1607] Just sitting around waiting to act.

[1608] You know, I like to be in the producers' meetings.

[1609] I like to know what's going on.

[1610] What's on the set?

[1611] Did we get that stunt?

[1612] You know, we're going to still do that stunt at 3 o 'clock.

[1613] You know, I just need to be part of the mix to stay, you know, motivated and interested.

[1614] You know what I mean?

[1615] But if I'm just a piece of the puzzle and kind of sitting off to the side waiting to be used like a tool -like, it's not as cool for me. Understandable.

[1616] Yeah.

[1617] Why would it be?

[1618] And you don't have to do that anymore Yeah, you know So I want to I want to be in the mix You know, I want to be in the kitchen cooking it I don't just want to sit down and eat it No matter what it is No matter what it is If I'm gonna be a part of it I gotta be in the kitchen I can't just Play a play a Look, I've acted in movies You know, I did 21 Jump Street I did Three Kings You know where I'm just an actor And I'm fine with that You know, don't think okay we can't hire Q because he just want to produce but but I like to produce and I think I add a lot to to the movies that I produce and the movies I produce you can watch over and over and over again and never get tired yeah no it's you've had an amazing career so when you just decided you just do you kind of just do whatever you're interested in now like whatever you feel like pursuing yeah that's a beautiful freedom it is because you know I'm not playing the game no more like I don't play the radio game like how many spins did I get on that song how many spins I look at ice Q fans like clientele I just want to serve them give them what they like give them what they love and go back to the lab I'm not I'm not worried about charts and all these measuring sticks on if you're good or not or is your work good you know views or whatever I'm into doing dope shit that I feel and giving it to the people that want it that's beautiful it's great for artists it's a beautiful life it's pretty I'm pretty blessed in that aspect because I know guys and I know people who are bigger than me on major labels and they're miserable because they they're so scheduled and structured and they feel obligated because you know this and that going on and I don't want to feel obligated when I'm making music to the people who's spending money I want to make the music I feel and if you like it spend money on it well you have a very wise philosophy on how to live your life because like just the way you just like talking about rich people it's a lot of rich people that are miserable as fuck you don't want to be rich you want to be happy yes you'd rather be less rich and more happy without a doubt um like whatever it is you know whatever it is man it's more important to be happy doing it yeah and I notice when you happy doing things and when you when you love what you do and when you um put your all into it you know the money comes when you focus on the money and you're doing things to get the money you're never happy doing it or rarely happy doing it and at the end of the day you wish you could have got more money so I'm not even happy with what you would pay it also doesn't resonate with people the same way it resonates with people when you do what you love when you do what you love and it comes out especially when you're talking about music you do what you love people get it they feel it they feel it from the work Yeah.

[1619] And if you're just doing it because you're hoping it's going to be successful, people feel that too.

[1620] Yeah.

[1621] Or just doing what you think is a hit.

[1622] That's the worst thing.

[1623] The worst thing an artist can do is to go try to make a hit.

[1624] You got to make a good song.

[1625] Damn, if it's a hit.

[1626] A good song is a good song, whether it's played a thousand times or once.

[1627] You know, that's what you focus on.

[1628] good music and whether it's a hit or not that's you know that's in the stars you know where do you think you've got this wisdom to look at things so objectively and clearly um i think you know when i look at how i grew up like my pops is an independent man independent thinker it's not part of any club or any organization or any fraternity or any gang or any it's no man that can come and tell him what to do unless he's at work so um i like that and i saw him stand on his own two feet you know from he he moved to l .A. when he was 19 years old from Louisiana and so he's been a man that handled his business from day one.

[1629] So I think he's the foundation of how I view things and living and being young thrown into the fire.

[1630] You know, it seems like every time I look up, there's something that needs my focus and attention that's trying to take down what I've built.

[1631] So I'm always paying attention, you know.

[1632] I never, I never, I never going something blind.

[1633] And I, you know, I try to understand all the angles before I make a decision.

[1634] That's a very fortunate you had a father like that.

[1635] I am.

[1636] You know, I thank him all the time for just hanging around.

[1637] You know, the statistics are what they are.

[1638] and as men we got to raise our kids you know what I mean we got to be there and as much as we can and it makes a difference it makes a difference with the person that you're raising and the person that you're sending out into the world you know you want to give you want to give your family stability and fathers can do a lot of that.

[1639] They can do a lot of that.

[1640] Yeah.

[1641] It's got to feel great for you to see your son taking off like this.

[1642] Yeah.

[1643] Like with the wisdom that you got from your father, that your son is obviously, he's acquired that as well.

[1644] Mm -hmm.

[1645] They works hard.

[1646] It's great, man. You know, all we want to do is you want your kids to step up in the moment of truth.

[1647] You know what I mean?

[1648] You want them to do what it takes at the time that it's mandatory or the situation arise that they can step up even if it's taking out the trash like you tell you hey you know take out the trash when I get back I want this done and when you get back and it's done you feel better as a parent you know what I mean you feel like okay they stepped up when they needed to when I asked them to and make you feel good that you know got people that that you're sending out in the world that are dependable and responsible and not trying to fuck over nobody yeah fuck yeah no that's that's one of the greatest accomplishments you can make as a human being you you made the world better by raising better people yeah raise good people And, you know, that's the number one job of a parent, I believe, is to raise a good person because the world don't need another asshole.

[1649] Trust me. We don't need another one, we got plenty.

[1650] Yeah, we got plenty.

[1651] We're all full.

[1652] For show, show.

[1653] But it's also great that you set a standard with maybe people that don't even have a father figure.

[1654] That you set a standard with your words, the way you talk about things that address things and think about things.

[1655] and you're so thorough that you set a standard with other young kids that admire you too which is beautiful that's good you know that's great you know and I'm blessed to be in the position to do that I want to do that you know if you you know I hope I'm a good example on you know I have fun with the music and entertainment and this and that but you know I want to be a solid person you know I mean that say what I'm mean, mean what I say, and do what I say.

[1656] And, um, you know, all you got is your balls and your word, man. That's it.

[1657] Tony Montana.

[1658] That's all you got.

[1659] That's what you got.

[1660] Yeah.

[1661] Well, no, you've, you've done it and you've done it in an amazing way.

[1662] You've set a great standard.

[1663] Appreciate it, man. Um, you have too.

[1664] You know, you, you are a great, um, communicator you know i mean and that people need to hear somebody with courage speak for the people when others are so scared to you know some of the things that that you said um today you know a lot of people would be scared to even bring that stuff up man well it's what you said if you can you should when you got the mic use it yeah and i can so i do yeah you got the mic use it someone has to It's a wild -ass fucking time It is, man And We need people to step up that we trust You know, we don't need no more people To let us down That we believe in it You know Absolutely Well listen, brother, I appreciate you very much It was an honor to have you in here I've been a giant fan since the 80s Which is crazy And I just, I appreciate everything you do, man Appreciate you too, man You know, you're great at what you do You got me into UFC.

[1665] You're going to watch next weekend?

[1666] Yeah, I'm going to watch.

[1667] Polkenowski, Jaya Rodriguez.

[1668] Woo.

[1669] It's your passion for the sport, your knowledge of the sport, your breakdown, your ability to go back and say, you know, the origin of this move, and the origin of this move really got me into the game.

[1670] So, you know, you're excellent communication.

[1671] and I appreciate you letting me on the show.

[1672] My pleasure.

[1673] It was an honor.

[1674] Thank you very much.

[1675] Yeah, yeah.

[1676] All right.

[1677] Bye, everybody.