Words by DeWayne Rogers
Images by Dave Goodson for Steed Media Service
“Sometimes people like your nickname more than your real name.”
Silence enveloped the room as the revealing words of O’Shea Jackson echoed off the walls and sank into our consciousness in haunting fashion. Maybe he has a point. Maybe once you ascend to superstardom like Jackson has, then people really do stop caring about who you are and instead become obsessed by what they imagine you to be. But none of that speculative talk seemed to matter right now since Jackson still had the floor. Both he and his alter ego had always been one in the same, but that’s not how the general public traditionally saw it. In their minds, Jackson takes a permanent backseat to the legendary Ice Cube any day of the week.
So as his self-realization continued to linger in the air, Jackson sat down and began to answer letters from some of our rolling out readers who longed to take a peek into the mind of a man whose longevity is built upon his uncanny ability to poetically perfect the oxymorons of life. He’s the gansta rapper that makes children’s movies. The funny guy who chastises the government. The angry black man that can’t stop smiling. And now, he is an open book to rolling out.
**Dear Ice Cube,
I’ve been a big fan of yours since the beginning and always thought you were the coldest cat in NWA. I wanted to ask you about your new movie. I keep seeing posters for it, but I have no idea what it’s about.
Val, Houston
Dear Val,
This movie is called The Longshots and it’s based on a true story about a girl named Jasmine Plummer who becomes the first girl to play quarterback for Pop Warner football, and leads her team to the championship. So it’s a real strong story that I also think will be real inspiring.
**Dear Ice Cube,
You always seem to be producing a new movie every time I turn around. What goes into your thought process when you’re deciding what movie to do next?
Dontavious, Liberty City, Miami
Dear Dontavious,
There are a lot of factors that go into the movies that I pick. I really want to do movies that, of course, motivate me and turn my creative juices on. You also have to make sure that the movie company wants to put the money behind it too. You know, it’s not just me sitting in a room coming up with stuff, and then me just doing it. There’s a lot of collaboration that goes into what movie is done next.
**Dear Ice Cube,
The title of your new movie, The Longshots, seems semiautobiographical, since I’m sure there were times in your life when you were considered to be a long shot. How did you overcome those moments?
Melanie, St. Louis
Dear Melanie,
I overcame by not caring what was and by focusing on what is. I don’t care about what happened in the past, and I never let people’s words discourage me. I don’t believe in letting walls stand up in front of you either. I believe in either going around them or knocking them down. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just don’t let it stop you. By having that attitude, I’ve always expected the worst, been waiting on the worst, and been waiting to fight against the worst that can happen. And that has led me to my current attitude, and helped me get to this point.
**Dear Ice Cube,
I am an aspiring filmmaker, and I wanted to know what your defining moment was. When did you know that you could make movies?
Karl, Chi-Town
Dear Karl,
I honestly didn’t know that I could write movies. It wasn’t until I was on the set of Boyz n the Hood when that first entered my mind. I was sitting with John Singleton and he asked me when I was going to write my first movie. I told him that I didn’t know anything about writing a movie, and he was like ‘if you know how to write a rap then you know how to write a movie.’ So that night I actually started writing my first ideas down. And things have been rolling ever since.
**Dear Cube,
You have always been outspoken about the government. What do you think that black men can do to rise above some of the crap that goes on?
Akpo, Atlanta
Dear Akpo,
We need to improve on working together. We’re still where we’ve stood for a long time, which is separate, and in this country, unequal. But we can work together if we want to. I think there are more black millionaires running around here than ever before, so we should make it a point to do things that the government’s not doing, or that the city’s not doing for our people and in our neighborhoods. In a lot of ways, black people are damaged goods, and our past still affects our future. It’s still so hard for us to work together after so much mistrust has been spread throughout our community. It takes strong individuals who have accomplished extraordinary things to reach back and make these things happen within our community. But this is something that we can’t blame on anyone else. We just have to make it happen.
**Hey Cube,
Do you think these young cats in the game respect your contribution to music? It seems like black people never pay homage. What’s up with that?
Jelana, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dear Jelana,
We really are an ‘out with the old, in with the new” type of people. Something is always developing within our community, so we’ve just always been like that. But I do I feel like I get the proper respect, though, because whenever I see any fans, friends or people that are just out there, they show me mad love and mad respect, and they know my history. Maybe they don’t recognize that in the magazines or in the mainstream media, but who cares about that.
The Knights of the Round Table
Ice Cube has long been considered hip-hop royalty. So when he discusses the culture, people are best served if they just shut-up and listen, which is precisely what rolling out did when it was time for him to “knight” the next generation of hip-hop standard bearers. Here’s who Cube bestowed his blessings upon.
“I love Kanye. I think he could definitely keep the torch going. There’s other MCs that aren’t necessarily doing what I do, that I would knight, so to speak. Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, The Game. These are dudes that I think are on their way to [being] hall of famers in this rap game. “
Who’s That Lady?
It’s no coincidence that Keke Palmer was Ice Cube’s choice to play alongside him in his new movie The Longshots. I mean let’s face it, the 14-year old rising star can flat out act. Point blank. Period. So before the project could move forward, Cube understood the importance of solidifying her place in the film to ensure the best available person was on the job. Once his wish was granted, the rest was up to Palmer. And boy did she deliver. The gracious teen’s passion for the big screen was only equaled by her enthusiasm for her interview with rolling out.
Her thoughts about the film…
“I’m so excited about this project. I worked really hard on it. So I hope everybody goes out and sees me throw around the football a bit. I really enjoyed working with Ice Cube as well. He gave me my first movie [role], so it was good to be able to work with him again.”
Her preparation for the role…
“Knowing that the actual character that I’m playing is a real person was really cool to me. A lot of people think that Akeelah and the Bee was based on a true story, but it really wasn’t. So to finally do a real person who is actually in the world meant a lot to me. So I just studied as much as I could about her, and when you add in the football aspect, it was a lot of fun. “
Her athletic background…
“I’ve never done anything with sports before, and I really didn’t know anything about football. But when I did the movie, my coach taught me the mechanics and said that I was really good at it. I never thought about playing football before, but everyone always said that I would be good at basketball because I have big hands.”
