Ice Cube stopped by Audacy Atlanta's studios at V-103 to chop it up with Greg Street about everything from the cycle of being inspired and inspiring others, his NWA days, being "satisfied" with his forthcoming album Man Down, and a whole lot more.
Greg started off Ice Cube’s intro by pointing him out as “the real inspiration… behind Master P and the whole No Limit movement,” and calling out his role in influencing so many others in the game.
Calling the recognition a “blessing, because a lot of people influence me,” Cube went on to add, “In the game that's how it is. When you do something cool, it inspires the next artist, might inspire the next generation, might inspire people that's older than you. So, being able to create and put it out on a high level… people have really responded in a great way throughout my career.”
Also delving into when he discovered his skill for writing, noting it happened around 4th or 5th grade, Cube shared that he realized his power with a pen after his teacher, Ms. Prentice, published one of his writing assignments in the school newsletter. “I kept looking at it… like, damn, that's my name. Everybody knows I wrote that,” he recalled.
“From there they asked me to write a speech for my elementary graduation and to deliver a speech to the graduating class," he says, "so I did that and I got a good response. So, you know, from there, I knew I could not only write it but I can recite it.”
Reminiscing about the days of NWA, Cube admits he started out believing they’d be “straight underground artists,” and never get radio play, being cool with just “being locals” and just being liked in Compton and South Central, “that was fine with us.”
He continued, “and then when we put the records out and the response from the whole country, we was like, damn, it's a lot of people going through exactly what we going through. And now this is the anthem.”
Cube also reflects on working with Dr. Dre and D.O.C, calling the latter and less widely praised of the two “ferocious” and “a pillar in Hip Hop.” Noting that “without him, I don't think you get a fully developed Eazy-E,” and how he was “a huge part of the NWA chemistry.”
Eventually getting into his upcoming new album, Man Down, calling the project “quintessential Ice Cube.”The rapper said, “If you're a day one fan,” adding, “I got day two fans and day three fans. I believe you're gonna like the record because I sound like me, you know, I'm not reaching, I'm not doing nothing I ain't supposed to do. When you think about Ice Cube, you think about the West Coast and that's how music makes you feel.”
“It's bangers though,” Cube said, and while he weaves the common west coast thread throughout, “I got producers from all over the country.” Listing off DJ Funky, Zaytoven, David Banner, TMix, The Almighty E-A-Ski, DecadeZ and BiggVon as some of the producers that helped him make magic. Adding, “It’s been a great project to do, getting music from all over the country.”
With the album’s November 22 arrival quickly approaching, Cube shared that he’s “satisfied,” with the outcome. Expressing, “At this point in my career it’s really all about — if I like it, it's good enough, and that's how an artist should think. A true artist... he paints his picture, he put it on the wall, and he gone. If you like it, you like it, if you don't, that's your problem.” Noting Man Down is “not for everybody… This is for people who've been there and people who want to go there.”
Cube also went on to divulge that he not only plans to take his new tracks on tour but “we’re gonna do a lot of visuals for this album and give people the full scope of the vision.” He continued, “I wanna put together a major production tour this time… I done did a lot of it and rip it tours, where I just come out and grab the mic and get down. But now it's time to do the major production like I've done before, like ...
