A native of Los Angeles, Ice Cube formed his first rap group called C.I.A. in 1986.[8] In 1987, with Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, he formed the gangsta rap group N.W.A.[8] As its lead rapper, he wrote some of Dre's and most of Eazy's lyrics on Straight Outta Compton,[1][3] a landmark album that shaped West Coast hip hop's early identity and helped differentiate it from East Coast rap.[2]N.W.A was also known for their violent lyrics, threatening to attack abusive police which stirred controversy.[1][8] After a monetary dispute over the group's management by Eazy-E and Jerry Heller, Cube left N.W.A in late 1989, teaming with New York artists and launching a solo rap career.[8]
Ice Cube has also had an active film career since the early 1990s.[9][10] He entered cinema by playing Doughboy in director John Singleton's feature debut Boyz n the Hood, a 1991 drama named after a 1987 rap song[2] that Ice Cube wrote.[9] He also co-wrote and starred in the 1995 comedy film Friday,[11] which spawned a successful franchise and reshaped his public image into a bankable movie star.[10] He made his directorial debut with the 1998 film The Players Club, and also produced and curated the film's accompanying soundtrack.[12] As of 2020, he has appeared in about 40 films, including the 1999 war comedy Three Kings, family comedies like the Barbershop series, and buddy cop comedies 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and Ride Along.[11]He was an executive producer of many of these films, as well as of the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton.
Early life
Ice Cube as a high school senior in 1987
O'Shea Jackson was born in Los Angeles on June 15, 1969, to hospital clerk and custodian Doris and machinist and UCLA groundskeeper Hosea Jackson.[13][14][15][16] He has an older brother,[17]and they had a half-sister who was murdered when Cube was 12.[18] He is a cousin of fellow rappers Del tha Funky Homosapien and Kam. He grew up on Van Wick Street in the Westmontsection of South Los Angeles.[19][20] In ninth grade at George Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles,[21] Cube began writing raps after being challenged by his friend "Kiddo" in typewriting class. Kiddo lost.[22] He has said that his stage name came from his older brother, who "threatened to slam [him] into a freezer and pull [him] out when [he] was an ice cube".[22][23][24]
Cube also attended William Howard Taft High School in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles.[13] He was bused 40 miles to the suburban school from his home in a high-crime neighborhood.[25][26] In the fall of 1987, soon after he wrote and recorded a few locally successful rap songs with N.W.A, he enrolled at the Phoenix Institute of Technology Phoenix, Arizona.[13][27] In 1988, with a diploma in architectural drafting, he returned to Los Angeles and rejoined N.W.A, but kept a career in architecture drafting as a backup plan.[13][28]
Music career
Early work
In 1986, at the age of 16, Ice Cube began rapping in the trio C.I.A. but soon joined the newly formed rap group N.W.A. He was N.W.A's lead rapper and main ghostwriter on its official debut album, 1988's Straight Outta Compton. Due to a financial dispute, he left the group by the start of 1990. During 1990, his debut solo album, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, found him also leading a featured rap group, Da Lench Mob.[29] Meanwhile, he helped develop the rapper Yo Yo.[3][30]
1986: C.I.A.
With friend Sir Jinx, Ice Cube formed the rap group C.I.A., and performed at parties hosted by Dr. Dre. Since 1984, Dre was a member of a popular DJ crew, the World Class Wreckin' Cru, which by 1985 was also performing and recording electro rap. Dre had Cube help write the Wreckin Cru's hit song "Cabbage Patch". Dre also joined Cube on a side project, a duo called Stereo Crew, which made a 12-inch record, "She's a Skag", released on Epic Records in 1986.[31]
In 1987, C.I.A. released the Dr. Dre-produced single "My Posse". Meanwhile, the Wreckin' Cru's home base was the Eve After Dark nightclub, about a quarter of a mile outside of the city of Compton in Los Angeles county. While Dre was on the turntable, Ice Cube would rap, often parodying other artists' songs. In one instance, Cube's rendition was "My Penis", parodying Run-DMC's "My Adidas".[32] In 2015, the nightclub's co-owner and Wreckin' leader Alonzo Williamswould recall feeling his reputation damaged by this and asking it not to be repeated.[33]
Upon the success of the song "Boyz-n-the-Hood"—written by Cube, produced by Dre, and rapped by Eazy-E, helping establish gangsta rap in California—Eazy focused on developing N.W.A,[34] which soon gained MC Ren. Cube wrote some of Dre's and nearly all of Eazy's lyrics on N.W.A's official debut album, Straight Outta Compton, released in August 1988.[1] Yet by late 1989, Cube questioned his compensation and N.W.A's management by Jerry Heller.[35]
Cube also wrote most of Eazy-E's debut album Eazy-Duz-It. He received a total pay of $32,000, and the contract that Heller presented in 1989 did not confirm that he was officially an N.W.A member.[36] After leaving the group and its label in December, Cube sued Heller, and the lawsuit was later settled out of court.[36] In response, N.W.A members attacked Cube on the 1990 EP 100 Miles and Runnin', and on N.W.A's next and final album, Niggaz4Life, in 1991.[37]
1989–1993: Early solo career, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Death Certificate, and The Predator
In early 1990, Ice Cube recorded his debut solo album, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, in New York with iconic rap group Public Enemy's production team, the Bomb Squad. Arriving in May 1990, it was an instant hit, further swelling rap's mainstream integration. Controversial nonetheless, it drew accusations of misogyny and racism. The album introduces Ice Cube's affirmation of black nationalism and ideology of black struggle.
Cube appointed Yo-Yo, a female rapper and guest on the album, to be the head of his record label, and helped produce her debut album, Make Way for the Motherlode. Also in 1990, Cube followed up with an EP—Kill At Will—critically acclaimed, and rap's first EP certified Platinum.[38]
His second album Death Certificate was released in 1991.[39] The album thought to as more focused, yet even more controversial, triggering accusations of anti-white, antisemitic, and misogynist content. The album was split into two themes: the Death Side, "a vision of where we are today", and the Life Side, "a vision of where we need to go". The track "No Vaseline" scathingly retorts insults directed at him by N.W.A's 1990 EPand 1991 album, which call him a traitor.[37][40]Besides calling for hanging Eazy-E as a "house nigga", the track blames N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller for exploiting the group, mentions that he is a Jew, and calls for his murder.[41][42] Ice Cube contended that he mentioned Heller's ethnicity merely incidentally, not to premise attack, but as news media mention nonwhite assailants' races.[42] The track "Black Korea", also deemed racist,[39] was also thought as foreseeing the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[38] While controversial, Death Certificate broadened his audience; he toured with Lollapalooza in 1992.[29]
A ticket from a 1993 Ice Cube concert in Omaha, Nebraska
Cube's third album, The Predator, was released in November 1992. Referring to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the song "Wicked" opens, "April 29 was power to the people, and we might just see a sequel." The Predator was the first album ever to debut at No. 1 on both the R&B/hip-hop and pop charts. Singles include "It Was a Good Day" and "Check Yo Self", songs having a "two-part" music video. Generally drawing critical praise, the album is his most successful commercially, over three million copies sold in the US. After this album, Cube's rap audience severely diminished, and never regained the prominence of his first three albums.[11]
1993–1998: Lethal Injection and forming Westside Connection
Cube's fourth album, Lethal Injection, came out in late 1993. Here, Cube borrowed from the then-popular G-funk popularized by Dr. Dre. Although not received well by critics, the album brought successful singles, including "Really Doe", "Bop Gun (One Nation)", "You Know How We Do It", and "What Can I Do?" After this album, Ice Cube effectively lost his rap audience.[11]
FollowingLethal Injection, Cube focused on films and producing albums of other rappers, including Da Lench Mob,Mack 10,Mr. Short Khop, andKausion.[3][38]In 1994, Cube teamed with onetime N.W.A groupmateDr. Dre, who was then leading rap'sG-funksubgenre, for the first time since Cube had left the group, and which had disbanded upon Dre's 1991 departure. The result was the Cube and Dre song "Natural Born Killaz", on theMurder Was The Casesoundtrack, released by Dre's then-new label,Death Row Records.
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