Greg Street talks with Ice Cube about his new album, 'Man Down,' and more.
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00:00Ice Cube is the real inspiration, I'm gonna say a lot of inspiration behind Master P and
00:10the whole No Limit movement.
00:12Because Cube may not even know this, but when I worked in Houston in 1990, P would come
00:17to the radio station.
00:19Nobody really would mess with him because they didn't really understand what he was
00:22doing, but P had a song called the Jack of the Jackers that was like jacking for beats.
00:28And I still had the demo, and I used to play it on Magic.
00:32And man, a lot of people don't know how many people you've influenced in this game.
00:37Man, that's a blessing because a lot of people influenced me in the game, and that's how
00:46it is.
00:47You know, when you do something cool, it inspires the next artist, might inspire the next generation,
00:56might inspire people that's older than you.
00:59So being able to create and put it out on a high level, people have really responded
01:12in a great way throughout my career.
01:15At what age did you figure out that you had this amazing pen?
01:22About the fifth grade, I had a teacher named Ms. Prentice, and she had us write down our
01:33vacation, what we went through, and mine was so good, she put it in the little school newsletter.
01:42And I kept looking at it, and you're like, damn, that's my name.
01:47Everybody know I wrote that.
01:49Got your credits.
01:50Yeah.
01:52And then from there, they asked me to write a speech for my elementary graduation, and
02:00to deliver the speech to the graduating class, you know, my class.
02:06And so I did that, and I got a good response.
02:10So from there, I knew I can not only write it, but I can recite it.
02:17From the days of NWA, everybody who watched the movie, but just living in that area, in
02:23that era, and DJing in that era, I can remember working in Mobile, and leaving Mobile, going
02:28to Houston in 1990.
02:31And that album was just so much, it was just so crazy.
02:37Like I listened to that album every day, and when they finally put out the promotional
02:42stuff, I think I might have been the first DJ in the world to play Once Upon a Time in
02:46the Projects, the first DJ in the world to clean up No Vaseline with a razor blade.
02:51Wow.
02:52With a razor blade.
02:53Yeah, we had to do that on a razor blade.
02:56And then this crazy day came, right after I moved to Houston, Captain Jack and Big Steve
03:04brought Ice Cube and Yo-Yo to the Palladium, 5900 North Freeway.
03:08I still have the pictures, 5900 North Freeway, and that was the day we finally got a chance
03:12to meet.
03:14Yeah, man.
03:15Damn.
03:16Man, you know, Captain Jack used to be real cool, and always brought us to town, and always
03:23treated us right.
03:25He was real cool.
03:27But that NWA era was just so important, though.
03:29To back up just a little bit, that NWA era was just, like, you guys were the internet
03:35before the internet.
03:36The NWA, in too short, was like the internet before the internet.
03:41Well, I guess to say, NWA, too short, boogie-down productions, and then some of the other underground
03:47New York artists.
03:48And some of the L.A. artists, too, like the world-class Wrecking Crew, Dr. Dre and all
03:52them, when they were doing the breakdancing music.
03:54But for the street music, the music that we really gravitated to for so long, NWA was
04:00so important in what you guys were doing with the movement, because most of this music was
04:04never on the radio.
04:06Yeah, yeah.
04:08We expected to be straight underground artists.
04:10We never thought we was going to get on the radio.
04:14We just was cool with being locals, you know what I mean, being just, if they liked us
04:21in Compton, Watts, in South Central, we was like, you know, that was fine with us, because
04:27we didn't expect everybody to be going through what we was going through.
04:32And then when we put the records out, and the response from the whole country, we was
04:37like, damn, it's a lot of people going through exactly what we going through.
04:42And now, you know, this is, this is they anthem, they feeling what we saying, because nobody
04:48giving it to them like this.
04:50You know, everybody is, you know, not sugarcoating it, but it was just commercial, not really
04:57being raw.
04:58And we, you know, so it was a surprise to us, because we had expected to be straight
05:05underground artists.
05:07And here we are, causing controversy on the main street level, on the main stream level.
05:18And we had to go out and defend the music and defend, you know, why we was coming from
05:23this angle.
05:25And we had government agencies and, you know, all kind of committees and people, Congress
05:33people coming after us to shut it down.
05:36Wow.
05:37Now, also during this time period, there was a whole little Dr. DJ crew you had, Dr.
05:44Dre, Dr. Rock, all those guys, a lot of people don't know this, but Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, NWA
05:52in those early, early days, spent a lot of time in Dallas with D.O.C. and with Dr. Rock.
06:00It actually started with going to the skate rinks in Dallas with Dr. Rock.
06:04Yeah, Dre really was, you know, when he was with the record crew, you know, I think he
06:11was real, he was influenced a lot by Dr. Rock.
06:19And then, you know, he came back when, you know, one time after visiting Dallas and was
06:26like, man, I found, I found this incredible MC out there, I'm going to fly him out.
06:33And I was like, who is it?
06:36What's his name?
06:37He said, Doc.
06:38I'm like, what's up with all you doctors, y'all motherfuckers getting together?
06:45Excuse me.
06:46Sorry.
06:47Excuse me.
06:48Y'all getting together.
06:49And, you know, y'all, you know, coming over with a crew almost.
06:55And he was like, nah, I'm going to work with this young artist, you know, D.O.C.
06:59And it was so cool when we met.
07:04He was just, you know, the coolest dude on earth.
07:08You know, if you meet D.O.C., he just, he ain't never changed.
07:12Yeah, I forgot the Feelin' Fresh crew.
07:15He ain't never changed, you know, and just getting a chance to see how he worked and
07:21his pen game.
07:22You know, he kept us all sharp, too.
07:24You know, it's like everybody gave me a lot of credit and ran.
07:30But D.O.C. was there and we knew he was ferocious.
07:36And if we didn't get it right, he would.
07:39He's been Dr. Dre's Batman forever.
07:41Man, he's.
07:42He's been like Roderick D., where the whole Aftermath sound really came from, from Fort
07:45Worth.
07:46You know, D.O.C. is a pillar in hip hop, you know, without him, you know, I don't think
07:56you get a fully developed Eazy-E because, you know, I wrote songs, you know, but I was
08:07writing for myself, too.
08:08So it was only so much I could do.
08:11And then he was writing songs for Eazy and he was writing his own songs.
08:17So between us two, Ran jumping in there, Dre jumping in there, you know, we, Eazy became
08:26a superstar.
08:27A super, super star.
08:28Yeah, super.
08:29Like he was on the next level.
08:32And then we were trying to now make a name for ourselves.
08:37And so D.O.C. is a huge part of the N.W.A. story, yeah, chemistry for sure.
08:50Speaking of Eazy-E, in your opinion, I don't think he gets his credit for this, but Eazy-E's
08:57radio cover, in my eyes, is responsible for the Jordan 3 becoming what it became in the
09:04hip hop community.
09:06Yeah, I had to salute that.
09:09I remember when he bought them, you know, he was in the mall, you know, and Eazy would
09:13buy, this was before records because he had cash before we all had money, so he would
09:21just buy a lot of stuff.
09:22He would just, shopping bags, you know, that's all you saw was shopping bags and, you know,
09:28he'd buy five pairs of shoes at a time.
09:31He grabs these Jordans, I'm like, oh, he's like, man, I'm rocking these on the cover.
09:36He actually had the Jordan suit, has the whole suit, and rocked it on the cover of his album.
09:43And, you know, it was just a plain blue album with him kneeling down a few different ways
09:49in that suit, but them shoes is...
09:51The radio.
09:52Yeah, it's blasting.
09:53And Compton's In the House remix was on the B side of the cassette.
09:56Yeah.
09:57That's one of my favorite N.W.A. songs too, that remix was crazy.
10:00I mean, Dre and Ren, they had a chemistry, you know, when they rapped together, they
10:05damn near sounded like one person.
10:07But that beat was actually, I could hear a lot of influence in that beat from EPMD's
10:11You're A Customer.
10:12Oh yeah, that's straight You're A Customer, but just redid, you know, West Coast way,
10:16but straight You're A Customer beat for sure.
10:19Now speaking of music, there's a whole...
10:23You've been around the world, I mean, movies, TV, music, the TV production, the movie production
10:31company, we all gonna get another Fridays.
10:35I can feel it in the room right now, before anybody...
10:37I know everybody asks that question on every interview, but the new album that we're talking
10:42about today.
10:43Yeah, Man Down.
10:44Man Down.
10:45I heard the single, the remix is crazy.
10:47Oh, thank you.
10:49Killer Mike did his thing, Busta Rhymes killed it.
10:52Yeah.
10:53And salute to them, you know, they pay homage to me, and that was a pleasant surprise.
11:02I didn't tell them to do it, I didn't know they was gonna do it, so I felt good about that.
11:09How you feeling about the whole body of work?
11:12Quintessential Ice Cube, you know, if you a day one fan, I got day two fans and day
11:18three fans.
11:19Day four, five, and six.
11:21I believe you're gonna like the record, because I sound like me.
11:26I'm not reaching, I'm not doing nothing I ain't supposed to do.
11:31I'm West Coast grooves, you know, it's kind of like when you think about Ice Cube, think
11:37about the West Coast, and that's how this music make you feel.
11:42You know, it's bangers though.
11:44I got producers from all over the country.
11:47Everywhere.
11:48DJ Funky's part of the project.
11:49DJ Funky is, you know, he helped A&R the project.
11:52My boy Dorian.
11:54Oh man, we have Zaytoven on it, you know what I'm saying?
11:58It's just, we got my man David Banner did some tracks for me.
12:03T-Mix, T-Mix got some great tracks on there.
12:07T-Mix is incredible.
12:08Yeah man, he's our hidden secret, you know what I mean?
12:12He lived with me for a long time.
12:14He's the best, you know, he's like one of the most humble, but super talented dudes.
12:21And, you know, dudes like EA Ski, Northern Bay Area dudes like Decades, you know, all
12:30of them came through.
12:32Big Vine helped us with a few things, you know, so it's been a great project to do,
12:39you know, getting music from all over the country.
12:42Now we getting ready for the release date.
12:44Yep.
12:45Can't wait, you know, November 22nd.
12:49And I'm satisfied, you know, at this point in my career, it's really all about if I like
12:56it, it's good enough.
12:58And that's how an artist should think.
13:00A true artist.
13:01A true artist, you know, he paints his picture, he put it on the wall, and he gone.
13:05If you like it, you like it.
13:07If you don't, that's your problem, so.
13:09How many people in the world?
13:10How many people in the United States?
13:11Oh man, too many to count.
13:13Everybody's not, everybody don't have to like it.
13:15No, not at all.
13:16And it's not for everybody.
13:18You know, this is, you know, for people who've been there and people who want to go there.
13:25Yeah.
13:26So the album is on the way.
13:29Is there going to be a tour?
13:30Yeah, definitely going to be a tour.
13:33You know, we're going to do a lot of visuals for this album and give people, you know,
13:38the full, you know, scope of the vision.
13:43And I want to put together a major production tour.
13:46It's time.
13:47You know, I done did a lot of grip it and rip it tours, you know, where I just come
13:52out and grab the mic and get down.
13:54But now it's time to do the major production like I've done before, you know, like Up
14:00and Smoke tour and other things I've done.
14:03So much history.
14:04Man, it's like four decades, dude.
14:08A lot of history.
14:09Yeah.
14:10Man, it was so, it was so heartbreaking, man, to lose Crazy Toons.
14:15Man, he was so important to us.
14:18Yeah, I still think about him a lot.
14:22He's just, you know, the best dude who was always there for you.
14:29Always.
14:30A lot of people might not have been there for him, but he was always there for you.
14:35And he wasn't into the hype.
14:37He wasn't into the credit.
14:39He wasn't into the attention.
14:41Just the music.
14:42Just the music, the business.
14:44And, you know, upholding our standards, you know, on the West Coast.
14:49And you need guardrails.
14:51You know, you need people like Greg Street to uphold the standards.
14:55You know who he really, really reminds you of?
14:57And you're going to agree with this one million percent.
15:00DJ Funky.
15:01Yeah.
15:02Funky.
15:03Same way.
15:04They act the same.
15:05They have the same mannerisms and everything.
15:07Yeah, and a pure dude, you know, and good for your soul when you see him.
15:14You know, DJ Funky is a good dude.
15:17He did everything he could to help me with this project.
15:21You know, flying out, meeting people, getting people into the studio.
15:27You know, he helped us put together a record with Corrupt and, you know,
15:32just hitting me with a lot of music from different producers that he worked with
15:37and seeing what I feel, you know.
15:40And, you know, I think he hit me with at least 30 tracks.
15:44Wow.
15:45From all over the place.
15:46And so, you know, as a dude that's been in the game for a long time, you know,
15:53and I'm doing a lot of things, there's only so much bandwidth.
15:57So sometimes you might miss somebody out there that's hot.
16:02And you need a DJ Funky.
16:04You need a Tony Draper.
16:06You need a Big Von.
16:08You need people to, you know, keep lacing you and finding new producers and
16:12new sounds and saying, man, you should do a record with this dude or that dude
16:16and get some beats for you.
16:19And so, you know, I'm very appreciative.
16:21Well, you know, like for us, the people that you named, Draper, Von, Funky,
16:26myself, we can actually hear music sometimes and imagine different people
16:31on those tracks because a lot of producers actually try to make records
16:35for artists based off of what they've already done.
16:38Yeah.
16:39And the trick is to understand and be able to hear the future.
16:44Like I'm not trying to make another Today is a Good Day.
16:47I'm not trying to make another No Vaseline, but this right here
16:51could be the next level.
16:53This is the next one.
16:54Yeah.
16:55And, you know, it takes curators.
17:00It takes people who understand the music on a, you know, multi-level,
17:07you know, almost on a three-, four-, five-dimensional level to understand
17:13who would sound good on what today.
17:16Today.
17:17Today.
17:18Yeah, today.
17:19And so I think any OG artist that's out there in the game,
17:24they need people to lace them with tracks and to show, like,
17:30yo, you know, try it on this.
17:33Try it on that.
17:35Because, you know, a lot of artists get stuck in their ways.
17:38You know, they've had a lot of success.
17:41And they don't listen.
17:42They usually want to do it the same way.
17:44Yep.
17:45As we get ready to wrap this up, we're getting ready for the new album,
17:48of course.
17:49Look for that.
17:50It's a classic.
17:51If you're an Ice Cube fan from back in the day, if you're an NWA fan,
17:54if you're a Friday's movie fan, if you're just an O'Shea Jackson fan, period,
17:59you've got to stream the album, download it.
18:02I know you're going to have some crazy merch.
18:03You're going to have some stuff out on the Big 3 tour.
18:05Yeah, Big 3.
18:06You know, we'll be back this summer.
18:08We're selling teams, so now teams are going to represent cities
18:13and grow the league and keep it popping.
18:17You know, keep having fun in the summer when the NBA is done
18:21and waiting for the NFL.
18:23You've got the Big 3 to look forward to.
18:26The Big 3, Ice Cube.
18:27Ladies and gentlemen, we have a lot of histories.
18:30Like my brother, he always answers the phone.
18:33He doesn't change his phone number.
18:34But I never told you this on a public platform.
18:37I really appreciate it.
18:39I did a deal with Def Jam, and I actually did a remix to Jay-Z's
18:4430-something.
18:45Most people have never heard this.
18:47I think DJ Drama leaked the verse on a mix tape,
18:49but actually I did it for my album, and it was Ice Cube
18:55and Andre 3000 on the 30-something remix.
19:00Jay claimed he didn't like Andre's verse.
19:02He wanted Dre to do another verse.
19:04We knew that wasn't going to happen.
19:06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:07And the verse was crazy.
19:09Man, you know, when does Andre 3000 do a verse that's not crazy?
19:14And when does Andre 3000 do a verse, and I send him the beat
19:18and tell him my idea, and he sends it back within 24 hours?
19:21Yeah.
19:22You know, that's how much love we got for you, man,
19:24because you've always, you know, gave us your energy, your audience.
19:29And the thing is, you know, we know not to come around
19:35unless we got something that's right, because you're going to tell us,
19:38hey, man.
19:39No, no, that ain't it.
19:40That ain't it.
19:41That ain't it, my boy.
19:42We come back with it, and that's cool.
19:43That's what we need.
19:44You know, we need those, like I said, we need those guardrails
19:47and those, you know, pillars.
19:49It's honesty.
19:50Yeah, and people who are trying to help you, you know.
19:53And if I'm wrong, I'm going to admit it.
19:55Yeah, you know, it's cool.
19:57You know, we ain't always right, but we always try to do right.
20:03It's my ego.
20:05Ice Cube here at V103, Odyssey Exclusive.
20:07Congratulations.
20:09Shout out to my dog, Brother Ron.
20:11Shout out to Keebo, my rare breed brother.
20:13The whole family, Tony Draper.
20:15Man, Dub C.
20:17I didn't even get into our Mad Circle story.
20:20I still got Coolio's jersey, too.
20:22Oh, man, yeah.
20:23Coolio gave me the jersey.
20:24The Mad Circle group was something.
20:26It was something.
20:27It was crazy.
20:28Yeah, yeah.
20:29You remember the intro they did for me?
20:31Magic Mike was big in the South at the time,
20:33and they did a West Coast beat and screwed it down
20:36and made it like a Magic Mike beat
20:38and did a Greg Street intro for my show in Houston.
20:41That's dope.
20:42It's incredible, man.
20:43You know, Dub C, my partner in crime, man.
20:46You know, I do anything for my guy.
20:49You know, he's always there for me.
20:51I'm always there for him.
20:53We've been knowing each other since we was, you know, 10, 11 years old.
20:59Played football against each other.
21:01Shopped marbles together.
21:02All that, you know.
21:03Rode bikes and, you know, rapped against each other.
21:08And then, you know, once we became, you know, professionals,
21:13started doing records,
21:14it was all about helping each other get to the next level.
21:18Lynch Mob, Ice Cube, Yay Yay.
21:21Yay Yay.