West coast legend Ice Cube recently paid a visit to Sway’s Universe while out promoting his new film Fist Fight.
During the interview, the OG of what’s now dubbed “Gangsta Rap”, talked about why he made the transition from hardcore MC to an on screen nice guy, which he contributes to the need for r “regenerating the fan base.”
“I noticed that my fans had kids,” Cube said. “They would come up trying to explain ‘this is Ice Cube,’ and their kids would be like ‘I don’t know who the hell you are.’ So I said, ‘OK, that’s a problem.’ I don’t want daddy having to explain to son, mother having to explain to daughter who I am. I need to do something that they like, so that’s when I decided I need to do a movie like Are We There Yet?”
Cube went on to say that he initially introduced the softened version of himself with the release of the 1992 smash hit “Today was a Good Day”, which many people in his camp was against at the time.
“When I did ‘It Was a Good Day,’ people in my camp was saying ‘man you can’t make that kind of record. You talk about the hard shit. Whatchu doin’?’ And I was like ‘nah, I talk about the real shit,’” Cube continued.“If I’m having a good day, goddammit I’m going to make a record about it, and y’all just gon’ listen to it. It’s not some caricature, it’s supposed to be the real.”
In regards to the 25th anniversary of one the most prolific albums he’s released to date, Death Certificate, Cube says he has a lot planned for fans to celebrate the album’s success, including a re-release with three new songs.
“We’re gonna drop the 25th anniversary edition of Death Certificate,” Cube said. “We got three new songs on there. A song called ‘Only One Me,’ another song called ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop,’ and then a song called ‘Dominate the Weak.’”
Cube also touched on his newly founded basketball league coming this summer, revealing that it will be a three-on-three league.
“It’s actually turning out to be something real cool.” Cube said. “We’re gonna go from city to city and we’re going to play four games in that city. You’re gonna see all the teams play, and there’s gonna be a final four, kind of all-star atmosphere around these events.”
Check out the full interview below.
