EXCLUSIVE: Ice Cube Reveals What He Really Thinks Of Fame

Ice Cube is still reveling in the release of his eleventh studio album, Man Down, which arrived on November 22.

The 19-track project boasts contributions from a laundry list of legendary MCs, including Busta Rhymes, Killer Mike, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, B-Real, J-Dee of the Lench Mob, E-40, Too $hort and Xzibit. Standout tracks like “I’mma Burn Rubber” and “Facts” prove the pioneering West Coast gangsta rapper inside of him is still alive and well.

Ice Cube has been famous for nearly 40 years; the ’80s were highlighted by the rise and ultimate fall of N.W.A, ’90s saw Ice Cube’s solo career take off along with his acting, ’00s officially ushered in Ice Cube the movie star and a Westside Connection reunion, ’10s produced his ninth solo album, I Am West, and saw him establish his Big3 basketball league and the ’20s was the introduction of Mount Westmore—and that’s just a tiny sliver of everything he has going on.

Needless to say, Ice Cube has evolved into a household name. Speaking to AllHipHop, the undeniably driven mogul opened up about “celebrity” and how he truly feels about it.

“I appreciate fame,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s It’s been very good to me. It’s provided me with a lifestyle that I could have never dreamed of. And I appreciate my fans because they’re the reason. And so, you know, I look at my fans as my little army. They the folks that’s always supported my projects. And sometimes you might like my projects. Sometimes you might love it. Sometimes it might not be your cup of tea. But they always give me another look and another chance to give them something cool, so I appreciate that.”

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While Ice Cube’s new album isn’t doing numbers like Kendrick Lamar’s GNX project, which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with more than 300,000 total album-equivalent units sold in its first week, he doesn’t really care. He made the album for his day-one fans, who expect nothing but raw and real lyrics with a healthy dose of straightforward, hard-hitting, West Coast rap-soaked beats.

“People like a simple song,” Cube noted with a shrug. And that formula has worked for him. His music resonates with a wide variety of people from all types of backgrounds, which he called “pretty incredible.”

He continued, “What I tried to do throughout my whole career is just give a real perspective. And some people get mad at that perspective sometimes and it turns them off or whatever. And so to have people to understand it, to rock with it, to look at it as art and then, we drop the street knowledge. So it’s cool because I think you can learn a lot about who I am and who we are as a community listening to the music.”

Like Chuck D once said, Hip-Hop is akin to the “CNN for Black people” and Cube has always tried to paint an accurate picture of what life was like for him—no matter what stage he’s in. Even at 55, he’s rhyming about reuniting with fellow Lench Mob member J-Dee, who was released from prison in 2021 after serving 25 years for murder. He also reflects on some of the hard-earned wisdom he’s learned throughout his life in “Ghetto Story,” how disillusioned he’s become with social media on “Talkin’ Bout These Rappers” and how having an ego isn’t always bad on “It’s My Ego,” all relevant topics to him.

As for Cube’s relentless work ethic, he credited his mother Doris Benjamin, a former hospital clerk and custodian, and father Hosea Jackson, who previously worked a machinist and UCLA groundskeeper.

“I would attribute it to my parents,” he said. “I saw my moms and pops get up and go to work every day. Sometimes my pops would have a couple of jobs and he wouldn’t let nothing make him miss work. It was always, ‘This is another day to prove your worth,’ so to speak. We can’t on our success; that does nothing for anybody. We have to execute every day and then everything turns out right.”

For those who haven’t listened yet, find Man Down below.