Ice Cube

Even though I have a nice house, nice family, the rest of my generation is still in South Central L.A. My cousins, my brothers, my sisters, they don't wanna move out. They don't want to and they don't have the means to sustain it. That's where my heart is and that's what I think about all the time.

Music is where I have the most creative freedom, but I love producing. To me, that's kind of where all the action is. You get a chance to have your hands in every aspect of a film. From picking a director, sometimes picking a writer, to the actors, the wardrobe, set design, editing, music, and marketing.

I've done movies for certain reasons; I did 'Anaconda' because the black man lives. Simple. The black man isn't dead in the first three pages, like Jurassic Park. It's like, 'The black man kills the snake with a Latino girl? Damn! I got to do this.'

I love music. It's freedom, a way to deal with pent-up frustration.

I do what I do. You like it, great. You don't, go listen to somebody else. I'm stickin' with the people who stuck with me.

Rap is just somebody getting something off his chest. That's all it is.

Sports without music is just a game. Music makes it entertaining.

Gangsta to us didn't have anything to do with Al Capone and stuff like that. It's just about living your life the way you want to live it. And you're not going to let nothing stop you.

When I did 'Boyz N The Hood', I never thought how we grew up in South Central was interesting enough for a movie.

When I was in N.W.A. and didn't get paid all the money I was owed, that's when the business side of showbiz hit me.

'Boyz-n-the-Hood' was actually supposed to be written for Eazy's group. He had a group out in New York called Home Boys Only, called HBO. One of them looked like LL Cool J. Eazy wanted to write a song for them, a street song, like what we were doing on the mix tapes. So when I wrote it, it was too West Coast for them.

Anything that got to do with a pig, I ain't eatin'.

I really appreciate family. I really can't imagine life without them!

I think reading is important in any form. I think a person who's trying to learn to like reading should start off reading about a topic they are interested in, or a person they are interested in.

Money comes and goes but your inner feelings your gut feelings your manhood your womanhood whatever that stays with you. That dont go anywhere. So you either proud of who you are and how you handle situations or you not. If you handle a situation wrong you it will haunt you.

I've been caught in parachute pants. And on my high school yearbook, they used the wrong picture. They were supposed to use the picture of me with a nice suit on. They used me with my collar flipped up, in a fuchsia and white striped shirt. I blame Prince and Michael Jackson in the Eighties for that.

Sports without music, it's nothing but a game. Music adds the emotion.

When people see the Cubevision logo, they should know it's something good, something worth checking out.

The moral is that a career can be gone in an instant. And all you have in this world are the people you love.

It's not like I'm the first man ever to do this, y'know? You gotta go back to Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr. Those are people who've done music well and movies well, and y'know, Frank Sinatra and Elvis and all these dudes have made the transition. I don't know about Elvis, 'bout doin' 'em good, y'know? It's nothin' new.

I am only 33, I've got a lot to do. This is the first half of my career. I'm looking forward to the future and I'm proud about the past.

There's never really been a real hood Christmas movie.

I go light on breakfast. Sometimes it's a yogurt, but a lot of times it's leftovers from one of my wife's dinners.

South Central is just who I am. Even though I have a nice house, nice family, the rest of my generation is still in South Central L.A. My cousins, my brothers, my sisters, they don't wanna move out.

I definitely support cop acting more than cops, but all of them ain't bad, just some of them.

I think I'm unique to the game 'cause of my versatility.

I think the worst thing you can do about a situation is nothing.

There's a lot of potential that goes unused in places like South Central L.A., a lot of brilliant, smart people who just don't have that chance to show it.

I've got a basketball signed by all the greats from Julius Irving to Oscar Robinson. It was at an All Star game I got them all to sign it. So that ain't going nowhere. I'm going to die with that in my casket.

I have a really beautiful life right now, so there is no reason to be hostile. I'm a husband, a father and a man who tries to do the right thing in life and in my work.

Truth is the ultimate power. When the truth comes around, all the lies have to run and hide.

My grandmother worked at one of those Bel-Air mansions, and we would go - not too often, but every now and then - to pick her up. Hollywood was probably 12 miles from my house, but it might as well have been a million miles away. The only time I saw that world was on TV. Until I started making records.

I think, to me, reality is better than being fake.

I'm just an entertainer, man. I don't like to pigeonhole myself to anything. I love to do it all.

I used to love to draw. I didn't want to go to art class because I felt that would be too corny when I was young, but architectural drafting was the cool thing to do because there was more precision. It taught me a lot about building and structures and doorways and frames and windowsills.

Snoop Dog is the Phil Jackson of youth football coaches. He ain't going to accept nothing but a winner.

Our records, if you have a dark sense of humor, were funny, but our records weren't about comedy. They were about protests, fantasy, confrontation and all that.

I was ready to get out of the box and play something a little different than what everybody has seen.

I never was in the Nation of Islam... I mean, what I call myself is a natural Muslim, 'cause it's just me and God.

You don't wanna mess up what you've done. It's like Jordan coming back: You're scared to mess up the legacy.

Early in my career, people wanted to hear music about protest, about trying to change things.

I remember wishing there was snow in L.A. And how jealous we used to get of those Christmas specials with kids playing in the snow.

You like a woman, she's got kids, it's a package. You can't just go in one-sided.

I grew up in the seventies and disco was big. That influenced me the most.

Twerking has to end. Not for the ones that look good doing it, but for all the ones that you feel, 'You don't have enough to twerk back there. Your twerkin' look like jerkin.'

My worst ever car was a green Datsun B210, back when they called it 'Datsun' - now it's 'Nissan.' Very unsexy, unattractive. Girls hated the car. I was embarrassed to even be in it... but it was my transportation.

Ice Cube is the piece of me that I give away to the public.

I still enjoy doing music. I'm not going to stop doing it, and doing it the way that I feel it should be done.

I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat.

But with rap music - not just N.W.A. - but rap music in general, seeing these artists wearing these team logos all the time started bringing a synergy and energy about having to rep your city, your team, everywhere and all the time.

I wake up at 5:30, 6 in the morning, but don't head into the office right away. I like to hang out with my wife, talk about things, get some coffee, you know.

I'm not the type of actor who is trying to do a whole bunch of different stuff, you know what I mean?

We're in this entertainment business really to give the audience what they want.

If you think about stuff that happened when you were young, it stays with you forever.

I make a mean cup of coffee, if you give me the right ingredients.

Music has done a lot to enhance the emotions of sports. It's played in arenas. Whenever there is footage cut together they're always using music. And it goes together, you know.

I love any time you can enlighten people to mistakes, that's how I started my career.

Theres things people say in the barbershop they wont even say in their own living room because its just one of those zones where nobodys going to judge you too much about your dumb opinion.

Don't worry about being a star, worry about doing good work, and all that will come to you.

It's funny how people who ain't never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It's funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, 'Get up. What's wrong with you?'

Sometimes when you're relegated to your neighborhood, you forget that there's more important things than your neighborhood going on out in the world.

Doing it your own way, not having to go exactly by the book to be successful.

Rap is always evolving. It's easy for the old school to hate the new school, but it's a music that got a little stifled I think, by the Internet a little bit.

I never was in the Nation of Islam... I mean, what I call myself is a natural Muslim, 'cause it's just me and God. You know, going to the mosque, the ritual and the tradition, it's just not in me to do. So I don't do it.

Everybody who comes from the gangster life they want what that man in the suburbs wants. Nice family. Nice house. Nice cars. Bills paid. Kids in school. Food on the table. Nothing more.

Some people have a taboo about doing advertising in the States. You know, where they kind of make their bread and butter. But to me, that's crazy.

I'm trying to cut down a little on eating, on sodium, keep my blood pressure down, which is tough. Because I love food! I do, but it's unfair how everything that's bad for you tastes so good, and all the good stuff, veggies and green things, doesn't match up.

The thing is with hip-hop, it has its waves and the waves crash against the beach and the new waves come in. So to stay relevant you have to roll with that.

Young people are dying for no reason all over the world that don't know why. It's ugly, everywhere.

I used to game a lot, you know, back in the day. My gaming time done got so short that my skills ain't where they need to be to be online, you know what I'm saying? I just got that Xbox One. I gotta get my skills back, up the par to call myself a gamer.

For me rappers and dancers are poets and artists and often times the most interesting performances are given by them.

I have great people, smart people that are around me and we love the challenge. I guess it's like climbing a mountain or building a building. It's a challenge but you love every challenge that it brings or presents itself.

I have a lot of milestones that I'm proud of when it comes to music, 'Amerikkka's Most Wanted,' I'm extremely proud of that. Just because of what I had to go through to get that music produced, that album produced.

Don't get a movie confused with real life. I'm a well-rounded human being like everyone else.

Ive always gotten good grades you know with my teachers and my English teachers cause I was able to theyd say What did you do for the summer Im able to explain it to them in a written form. And my teachers always patted me on the back for that being able to take whats in my mind and put it on paper.

I been all around the world and I haven't found a city that I'd rather be from or rather come back to than Los Angeles.

South Central is just who I am.

Quincy Jones' autobiography 'Q' is very good. Because he's a master at music, he's one of our greatest composers, and its good for him to have a book and tell the good ole days when he was with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and Ray Charles.

The silver and black may have another home, but the Raiders will always belong to the people of Los Angeles.

I was a very interested arts student, I was always into that part of school and when I got into high school I went into architectural drafting. It gave me an understanding of how to build things and it's really helped me put things in perspective. With my music and my movies, to me it's all art.

There's a lot of talent in South Central L.A., in Compton and Long Beach and Watts, and the city north of Pico pretty much sits back and waits for that talent to emerge and then steps in.

The best thing I've done with my money is buy a house for my family. You wake up to a house you love and you feel like somebody.

What I learned from architectural drafting is that everything has to have a plan to work. You just can't wing it. I can't get all the materials I need for a house and just start building. Whether it's a career, family, life - you have to plan it out.