ICE CUBE




Real name:
O'Shea Jackson
Born:
June 15, 1969 in Los Angeles
Lives in:
Encino, Calif.
Personal quote:
"Today I didn't even have to use my AK. I got to say it was a good day." (from "It Was a Good Day")
Family:
Married with three children



The world of rap music was never the same once N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton" hit the streets. Mixed with booming, danceable beats and funky instrumental samples, N.W.A. brought an unflinching vision of South Central Los Angeles gang life, police hatred, and jail imagery to hip-hop's musical soundscape. At the helm of the notorious, multi-platinum-selling crew was Ice Cube, who after leaving N.W.A. over financial disputes has found success as both a rap solo artist and film auteur.
Cube has rested cooly on top of his game with five platinum albums in five years. But behind his ruthless exterior and angry posturing is an acclaimed actor, writer and film director. It may change the image of those who know Cube for performing "F--- the Police," a song which caused even a nervous FBI to take notice.

"I guess people look at me as a real straightforward person, and they think I'm always hard and serious," Cube said in an interview with The Bee. "But I'm also a funny person. When people talk to me, they find themselves laughing. I'm dramatic, but I'm also funny -- just like my new movie ('The Players Club')."

He made his acting debut playing Doughboy in John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood," a film about South Central L.A. life. While many critics remarked on Cube's "impressive" and "earnest" acting, many of his peers branded the movie "gangsta-lite" (fellow N.W.A. partner Eazy-E dissed the film in an interview as "an after-school special with cussing").

But the movie roles kept coming; he had a leading part in the campus drama "Higher Learning," made a cameo in the gangsta rap spoof "CB4" and, with Jennifer Lopez, wrestled a really big snake in the action-thriller "Anaconda."

He stretched out even farther in film by co-writing and co-producing "Friday," a lighthearted, Cheech and Chong-ish look at life in the 'hood. "All the movies coming out about where I live was all dark and hard-core," Cube told USA Today. "I was like, man, we had a lot of fun growing up in South Central L.A. I wanted to show that."

Cube also suprised many with a genuinely funny comedy script, which he penned during a European tour -- a far cry from the nihilistic funk of the N.W.A. anthem "Gangsta Gangsta." "Europe's kinda boring, so I had my computer and I was just doin' it there," Cube explained to High Times magazine. "We had talked about it, so it was kinda like I would read what was going on (to co-writer DJ Pooh over the phone), I would fax him and he would give me his ideas. We were writing it at a distance, but it worked out."

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