Speaker 1: Yo, what's cracking this your homeboy? Ice Cbe Hotstyles, My style,
Speaker 1: Jo Styles, Die Soule. We're doing it big right here
Speaker 1: on the Bootleg Cavs podcast. I was about to say show.
Speaker 2: Before we start the episode, Man, I got to remind
Speaker 2: everybody that we are on the radio in eighty cities
Speaker 2: every single day across the country. Man Real ninety two
Speaker 2: to three every day Monday through Friday in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: Wild ninety four to one in Tampa, Kkfur and Phoenix.
Speaker 2: We're all over the place, Miami, Vegas. We can go
Speaker 2: on and on. We want to give a shout out
Speaker 2: to our latest affiliate. Shout out to Knoxville, Tennessee, Man
Speaker 2: Hot one oh four point five for being the latest
Speaker 2: city to join the Bootleg cav Show network. All right now,
Speaker 2: I don't ever really talk about the radio show on
Speaker 2: the podcast, keep them separate. But if you want to
Speaker 2: listen to the radio show, you can click the link
Speaker 2: in the bio for a list of all the cities
Speaker 2: you can listen to at. Yeah, that makes sense. Let's
Speaker 2: get to the interview, Yo, Bootleg cav show Man special
Speaker 2: guests in here a living legend, one of the greatest
Speaker 2: of all time, one of the founding fathers of the
Speaker 2: hip hop that I grew up on, the freest thinker
Speaker 2: in hip hop. In twenty twenty four, Ice Cube the
Speaker 2: don Mega Well.
Speaker 1: Yes, what's happening with man, it's an honor.
Speaker 2: We did a conversation before, but it was with the
Speaker 2: Mount Wesmore guys. Yeah, so it's good to have you,
Speaker 2: like on the one on one you got new music out,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, like, Yeah, yeah, that's dope.
Speaker 2: It's my ego is it sounds like vintage Cube.
Speaker 1: Good. That's what I wanted. Thank you, That's what I wanted. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like when like, you know, people like I
Speaker 2: grew up listening to try to chase like a current record,
Speaker 2: It's just it's just like that's not why, like we
Speaker 2: love you, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, being in the game for almost forty years,
Speaker 1: that's great. It's and I've seen waves come and go
Speaker 1: and I just you know around the Laugh Now Cry
Speaker 1: Later record six. Yeah, right before that record, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: when I pick up a I need a Baker record,
Speaker 1: I want it to sound like I need.
Speaker 2: A Baker, right, you don't want it to sound like that.
Speaker 1: She chased Joyeah, so I felt like, well, ice Ce
Speaker 1: fans are the same way, you know, when they pick
Speaker 1: it up, they wanted to be cointessential, authentic ice Cube.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I that's what I've been worry about,
Speaker 1: worrying about delivering, you know what I mean When I
Speaker 1: say worrying, I'm not like I'm worried, but he's what
Speaker 1: I've been focused, you know, doing records. That's you know,
Speaker 1: totally me.
Speaker 2: I wonder too, because like you're you're always, you know,
Speaker 2: growing up. I feel like people could listen to your
Speaker 2: albums for kind of like a current narration of the world. Yeah,
Speaker 2: through you know, through your eyes at least. And I
Speaker 2: do feel like the world is like in a crazy
Speaker 2: place right now, at least in the United States. It
Speaker 2: feels like everyone's losing their fucking mind. Are you, like,
Speaker 2: are you getting back to some of the like, you know,
Speaker 2: addressing some of the shit that's happening that people are
Speaker 2: freaking out about or.
Speaker 1: I believe so. I believe so in my own way though,
Speaker 1: right you know, it's really about making good records at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, and you don't want like
Speaker 1: the things you're trying to show or highlight to get
Speaker 1: in the way of a good record, right, so you
Speaker 1: have to find ways to to uh barrier is the
Speaker 1: wrong word, but to fit it. It's you feed your
Speaker 1: dog medicine without a doubt because people are not buying
Speaker 1: music for a history lesson or uh. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not a social studies experiment. It's music. So that the
Speaker 1: magic buying your music. But the magic is to make
Speaker 1: it bad, make it bump if you both the rhyme's
Speaker 1: dope for sure, to make it a good song at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, because it could be for me,
Speaker 1: it could be for any artists. Nobody want to be
Speaker 1: preached to in their music. You know, they want to
Speaker 1: they want to rock with something they can relate to.
Speaker 2: But I think it's about relatability. Yeah, and if and
Speaker 2: if you take that and you know, apply it, then
Speaker 2: it's a plus. If not, if the records are good,
Speaker 2: the records are.
Speaker 1: Good, Yeah, it's it's about now. Of course, I got
Speaker 1: a few records that's you know, all about me. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm an MC so I mean it's my ego, but
Speaker 1: I think everybody should celebrate their ego. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's something that.
Speaker 2: I feel like I feel like we've gotten away from
Speaker 2: like everyone's so like worried about you know. I feel
Speaker 2: like you kind of said it at the end of
Speaker 2: the record. You said, like people are gonna get triggered.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like so what it's good for them to be triggered.
Speaker 1: Let them know you here for sure, Like you can't
Speaker 1: be docile, that won't get you nowhere. You have to.
Speaker 1: It's cool, you know, as long as you don't go overboard,
Speaker 1: you know, but you gotta, you know, let people know
Speaker 1: you here. Why are you unique? Why are you you?
Speaker 2: I think back, and I'm like, could ice Cube from
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one release Death Certificate today and not get canceled.
Speaker 1: Or like Lethal Injection?
Speaker 2: I think it's songs like like kve Bitch or like
Speaker 2: Black Korea, Like, yeah, I don't know if these songs
Speaker 2: could exist these days without people like you know, you'd
Speaker 2: have a TMZ article written with like twenty like they'd
Speaker 2: be on an MSNBC running you through the Mud or something.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't necessarily
Speaker 1: think about that, you know. To me, people's reaction and
Speaker 1: the music that they or whatever makes them react from
Speaker 1: entertainment is usually a good thing, right, as long as
Speaker 1: you get a reaction. Oh yeah, you want to You
Speaker 1: don't want a record to play and there's nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to. You want to.
Speaker 2: You want to strike a motion.
Speaker 1: Without a doubt. You know. That's to me, the reason
Speaker 1: people like music because it strikes emotional chords and so
Speaker 1: you know, nobody's stopping me from saying anything. So it's
Speaker 1: all about the artists having the courage to do it
Speaker 1: and not worry about so called being canceled.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll say this, man, you ended up
Speaker 2: being right about a lot of shit, especially like you know,
Speaker 2: I'll say this, like you're You're the main reason I
Speaker 2: didn't get the second JAB.
Speaker 1: Man, that's good.
Speaker 2: I got the first one. But when I was like, wait,
Speaker 2: Q passed up on nine million dollars, I'm I gotta
Speaker 2: do something. I got to look.
Speaker 1: Into this, you know, And I didn't need the JAB, So.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that, though cute, oh no problem saved
Speaker 2: me from a potential vaccine injury or you know, mild
Speaker 2: card dice is I'm.
Speaker 1: Glad you didn't. You know, if you didn't need it,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't get it.
Speaker 2: That was a crazy time though, because you know, like
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, like you had kind
Speaker 2: of become the the poster child for like anti vacs.
Speaker 2: And I'm curious as somebody who had the FBI come
Speaker 2: after them at a certain point in time in their
Speaker 2: career with n w A in the eighties, Tipper Gore
Speaker 2: et cetera to having like mainstream media and like social
Speaker 2: media come after you for something else, obviously.
Speaker 1: Totally different things. What were the difference.
Speaker 2: Between dealing with those two things and what was crazier?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, for clarity, I'm not anti vacts.
Speaker 2: Right, but but you can get the face of it.
Speaker 2: Well yeah that list just like RFK is not anti VACCX.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well you know, but so you have so you
Speaker 1: have to for anybody who thinks make it make it clear.
Speaker 1: I've been vaccinated before as a kid, you know, with
Speaker 1: you know all the ship they give you that course,
Speaker 1: but no, don't take flu shots. But but you know,
Speaker 1: the childhood vaccinations, I've gotten them before. Okay, but those
Speaker 1: were studied for years. This is something new six months
Speaker 1: fast track bullshit. So the difference was me, I knew
Speaker 1: it was nothing they could do to make me do it.
Speaker 1: Outside holding me down and and and sticking it in
Speaker 1: my arm right now. And I felt like nobody was
Speaker 1: gonna do that. So, you know, I knew that bad press,
Speaker 1: people coming down on you, people talking ship. I've had
Speaker 1: that before, and that don't that don't kill you. I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day in a flood, you
Speaker 1: want to be a tree. I love that. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You want to be steady while everything is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so stand your ground, you know, stand on your beliefs.
Speaker 1: Let the chips fall what they may. I was willing
Speaker 1: to take, you know, any kind of you know, consequence
Speaker 1: for for you know, standing on what I believe would
Speaker 1: actually harm me and not help me.
Speaker 2: I love that. Did you feel like because since then,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure from the from at least my recognition,
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any new Cube movies. I know you're
Speaker 2: working on it, like I think Warner Brothers just greenlit
Speaker 2: a New Friday or that's even works, right, But did
Speaker 2: that affect that, the whole hysteria around your decision, did
Speaker 2: it affect you getting new movies after after everybody you
Speaker 2: realized it wasn't that big of a deal.
Speaker 1: You never know, you know, you you never really know
Speaker 1: why movies don't happen or didn't happen or or what.
Speaker 1: So you know, I got my hunch that it probably did.
Speaker 1: You know. The first movie that we lost was the
Speaker 1: one you talked about, which was a movie I was
Speaker 1: doing with Jack Black called oh hell No.
Speaker 2: And Buddy Cop stuff.
Speaker 1: No, no, it was. It was. It was a comedy,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't Buddy Cop. But but that was the
Speaker 1: first one. You know, I wasn't gonna go on nobody's
Speaker 1: movie set that was wanting me to take the jab,
Speaker 1: so I probably lost out on a few. I was
Speaker 1: in the middle of shooting a movie, uh, the Clarissa
Speaker 1: Shiells boxing story. I was the trainer and we were
Speaker 1: shooting in Canada, so I couldn't go back and shoot
Speaker 1: because I wasn't Canada was not it was, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was real strict. So lost that one. And and you
Speaker 1: know when the movies came back, you know, I was
Speaker 1: offered to do a movie, but it was during the strike.
Speaker 2: So now, so you don't want to cross picket line.
Speaker 1: No, no, even though I had an exempt. Now I
Speaker 1: had a SAG exemption.
Speaker 2: Just the optics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but what is an exemption doing the strike, either
Speaker 1: we striking or we not? What are we doing? An exemption?
Speaker 1: To me, was was useless. I wasn't. I would never
Speaker 1: take an exemption doing a strike.
Speaker 2: Someone told me recently that even though like that strike
Speaker 2: was about AI, like they recently just struck some like
Speaker 2: a ideal like the movie companies. That kind of made
Speaker 2: it like kind of crazy that that strike kept all
Speaker 2: those people out of work all that time. Anyway, but
Speaker 2: I don't know that. You probably don't want me.
Speaker 1: You know, AI, You're gonna have artificial entertainment now, it's wild. Yeah,
Speaker 1: have you artificial fun?
Speaker 2: Have they made any artificial intelligence songs with your voice?
Speaker 1: Because that's the thing they have that's gotta be wild. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's the wackyt shit you ever want to hear. Terrible.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you know, for shits and giggles. But
Speaker 1: I couldn't see nobody buying it. I couldn't see nobody. No, No,
Speaker 1: I don't think turned on by it to the point
Speaker 1: where they where it becomes a hit wreck. I think.
Speaker 2: I think what's gonna end up happening in the future
Speaker 2: is when artists die, maybe one hundred years from now.
Speaker 2: You know, there's going to.
Speaker 1: Be like, but who wants that show? Nobody?
Speaker 2: But you never know, maybe in fifty years an artist
Speaker 2: might be like, look, I got this book of rhymes.
Speaker 2: When I pass away, have a that's.
Speaker 1: Still you know, you pick an artist. It is why
Speaker 1: you love different artists, actors, uh, you know, singers, you know,
Speaker 1: especially songwriters, rappers, this, directors. You like them because of
Speaker 1: the choices they make. Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: The choices they make is what you respect. So when
Speaker 1: you take them out of the choice making, you're really
Speaker 1: not getting the artists work. You know what if they
Speaker 1: got prints, they do a print song and got him
Speaker 1: singing some shit, he would never sings saying some things
Speaker 1: he would never say.
Speaker 2: You know what's funny is when Pop died and all
Speaker 2: those albums were coming out. Yeah, and I remember there
Speaker 2: was an album called Oil to the Game and it
Speaker 2: had like fifty se jah Rule and all this shit,
Speaker 2: and I just remember being like, I mean, like it's cool,
Speaker 2: but like I don't know, Poko, it is song with
Speaker 2: these guys, so it felt it just felt weird.
Speaker 1: It is weird. It is as opposed to.
Speaker 2: Like putting him on an album with like people he
Speaker 2: actually was peers with, you know, but it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: who's hot, who's current, Let's throw them on these unreleased
Speaker 2: TUPAC records, reproduce them, and then it's like it's it's
Speaker 2: it's like almost like a blend or a mash up
Speaker 2: mixtape as opposed to like an album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't get the same feeling from it,
Speaker 1: not only because you know, you know, they were not
Speaker 1: there and the creation of this, so you don't even
Speaker 1: know if these are his choices or these are records
Speaker 1: that he even wanted out. That's the key.
Speaker 2: Everything not everything that gets not everything that gets recorded
Speaker 2: is supposed to hit hit hit.
Speaker 1: Consumption because some of it is it's just ideas. Some
Speaker 1: of it is, you know, not good enough for the public.
Speaker 1: Some of it is you know, whack. You know. At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's a reason why he
Speaker 1: hasn't been released.
Speaker 2: I love the remix that just dropped because I look
Speaker 2: at Killer Mike as a modern day ice Cube. Uh.
Speaker 2: Killer Mike is one of my favorite rappers of all time. Uh,
Speaker 2: one of the best guys. Somebody else who's a free thinker, Yeah,
Speaker 2: somebody who's always just kind of like been a man
Speaker 2: of the people I love Killer Mike Man and it
Speaker 2: was just so dope to hear you guys and him
Speaker 2: pay homage to you in his verse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was amazing. You know, I didn't know he
Speaker 1: was gonna do that, So that was you know, straitsalttle
Speaker 1: him and Buster you know, gave it up for sure.
Speaker 1: That was none beloved. You know, respect them both, you know,
Speaker 1: as MC's in the game, they've always you know, played
Speaker 1: to win and never played the game cheap for sure,
Speaker 1: never played the music or what it's all about cheap.
Speaker 1: I don't look at them dudes as you know, just
Speaker 1: money grabbers, you know what I mean. It's correct. The
Speaker 1: love is pure. So it's always good to get on
Speaker 1: the track with some ferocious him sees that. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: make sure you have your game stepped up.
Speaker 2: Yo, are you your your son is one of my
Speaker 2: favorite Twitter follows because I'm a diehard wrestling fan. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he is like.
Speaker 1: He's in it. Yeah, he the man.
Speaker 2: He's like a real wrestling like he's got a podcast,
Speaker 2: like he's he's.
Speaker 1: On it, like man, it's wrestling on every day at
Speaker 1: the house. One of those.
Speaker 2: Do you follow like anything that's going on, Like are
Speaker 2: you like, just just because it's on, Like, are you
Speaker 2: like yo, So, what's going on with the bloodline right now?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm trying to keep up, you know. He
Speaker 1: he he uh, you know, he's showing me what's up.
Speaker 1: But he he goes between different air so he's looking at.
Speaker 2: You can watch the old ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the old you know, uh w w F you
Speaker 1: know w c W. He's like keep up. He all
Speaker 1: over the place with it. So it's hard to keep
Speaker 1: up with who's current and is this a current Max watching?
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm I'm happy that he's passionate and
Speaker 1: that he's able to talk about it, you know, you
Speaker 1: want to You got a podcast, so he able to
Speaker 1: talk to some of the biggest names in the game.
Speaker 1: And no, I think it's and he's really good and
Speaker 1: go you know deep into you know, the behind the
Speaker 1: the you know the act. I forgot what he called it.
Speaker 1: It's you know character, Yeah, what's the character when you
Speaker 1: in character all the time? Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I was following his account on Twitter
Speaker 2: for a while and I thought it was like a
Speaker 2: parody account because I was like, there's no way ice
Speaker 2: Cube Son is like one of the Biggest Wrestling. I'm
Speaker 2: like the same dude from like Den of Thieves, Like
Speaker 2: he loves this ship.
Speaker 1: For real, loves it for real, for real, you know.
Speaker 2: And then the podcast I was like, oh, ship, he
Speaker 2: really is about this ship for real.
Speaker 1: I remember when he was he was still in uh
Speaker 1: I think he was still in elementary and I went
Speaker 1: to go pick him up from school. Just take him
Speaker 1: out of school middle of the day, you know, I
Speaker 1: would love it. Yeah. I used to do that in
Speaker 1: the middle of exactly all that, you know, pick him
Speaker 1: up in the middle of the day because I know,
Speaker 1: you know when they say your parents is here to
Speaker 1: get you, you know, everybody grabbing ship. They gone. So
Speaker 1: picked him up, were rolling, didn't tell him where we
Speaker 1: was going. We didn't go home, so I know he
Speaker 1: was tripping out. Didn't tell him where we was going,
Speaker 1: and I was like, as we got close, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want him to freeze. I want him to
Speaker 1: you know, have his ship together. I said, you want
Speaker 1: to meet the Rock today, you know, and he was
Speaker 1: like what he just couldn't believe it that we was
Speaker 1: on our way to go talk to the Rock and
Speaker 1: we went and met him, you know, out here and uh,
Speaker 1: Venice and uh sat down. We ate.
Speaker 2: It was just you know, tall Fire and your kids.
Speaker 2: You're sitting there, sitting.
Speaker 1: There and uh what he remembers, he ordered the burger
Speaker 1: in the rock ordered the burger. So he was like,
Speaker 1: we got the same thing. Yeah, exactly, you know, geeking
Speaker 1: off that. So to see him now being able to
Speaker 1: hit all the events, know all the people. That's so
Speaker 1: if you love and be able to do a podcast,
Speaker 1: be and starting to become one of the biggest names
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know, and definitely and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: speaking and commentating on the wrestling. It's cool.
Speaker 2: I always was curious. So straight out of Compton and
Speaker 2: Easy does it came out in the same.
Speaker 1: Year kind of, you know, a few months apart.
Speaker 2: Right, so very close close to each other. Yeah, when
Speaker 2: you guys were working on like was there was all
Speaker 2: that shit getting worked on at the same time, and
Speaker 2: it was it was there like whiteboards in the studio
Speaker 2: or like that's going on easy Ship. This is going
Speaker 2: on straight out of Compton? Like how or were they
Speaker 2: separate sessions?
Speaker 1: Like well, what happened? You know, we started to you know,
Speaker 1: Easy was blowing up, so it was all about Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, we had multiple records on them. Then we
Speaker 1: had some n w A records that he was on,
Speaker 1: and the whole thing was like, let's put all our
Speaker 1: energy into the Easy Does the album. I was still
Speaker 1: uh through the first half of the album. I was
Speaker 1: still in Arizona, so I would only be able to
Speaker 1: work on it on them.
Speaker 2: We're going to school out there, right. It wasn't Debrye,
Speaker 2: but it was like.
Speaker 1: No, it was damn there, Like it was called Phoenix
Speaker 1: Institute of Technology. I just know.
Speaker 2: I remember when I was a kid, I always thought
Speaker 2: you went to debry I was like man.
Speaker 1: To but it was low low, a low budget and
Speaker 1: the Rye and Ship, yeah it was. It was definitely,
Speaker 1: but so just getting it together and making sure it
Speaker 1: was dope, and then like once we had it and
Speaker 1: it was done, then we just started to focus on
Speaker 1: the n w A record on the album because we
Speaker 1: knew we had we had some dope singles out by
Speaker 1: then we had Dope man, now we had Gangster, so
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, let's get ready to do
Speaker 1: a whole album on the group.
Speaker 2: It's just so crazy to think that all of that
Speaker 2: was being worked on around the same Yeah, like what
Speaker 2: a special time that you guys didn't even understand was
Speaker 2: like going.
Speaker 1: To change the trajectory of like everything, not at all.
Speaker 1: We thought we were gonna be straight underground locals, like we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna crack off in LA.
Speaker 1: It's just that's that's we thought that's the only place
Speaker 1: we about to jump off. Visit right in LA where
Speaker 1: they understand what we're talking about. Because we didn't know
Speaker 1: the rest of the world was paying attention with this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. When did you guys realize that you
Speaker 1: made raider hats a thing? Like when we would go
Speaker 1: out of town to other cities.
Speaker 2: They could be in Wyoming and they'd be raider hats
Speaker 2: hit the Yeah, we.
Speaker 1: Would hit the foot locker and they would be like, man,
Speaker 1: all the raider stuff is gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why do you even have it in stock We're
Speaker 2: in Chicago or something.
Speaker 1: Because of us. It was like they they would be like,
Speaker 1: all of us gone, So get to the show and
Speaker 1: everybody out there in raider hats, and we in Denver
Speaker 1: when you know these different places that had their own teams,
Speaker 1: but it was all raider gear out there.
Speaker 2: I always wanted to ask you America's most wanted was
Speaker 2: I remember it got five mics in the source because
Speaker 2: when I was I was born in eighty seven, so
Speaker 2: I was one years old with Straight Out of compt
Speaker 2: came out. But I like went back and like like
Speaker 2: study all the five MIC albums.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but to think about like kind of where you
Speaker 2: were in your career coming out of the group, feuding
Speaker 2: with the group, having this pressure of like having to
Speaker 2: deliver your first thing outside of the group, but then
Speaker 2: also being like brave enough to be like I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go tap in with like New York and and you
Speaker 2: know and the Bomb Squad and PE and these guys.
Speaker 1: What was the pressure like for.
Speaker 2: You And how nervous were you to work working on
Speaker 2: that project because you have to kind of understand the
Speaker 2: narrative that's happening, like I gotta make sure whatever I
Speaker 2: do is better than whatever they're doing, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I didn't really look at it like that. You know.
Speaker 1: When I left the group, you know, I left for nothing,
Speaker 1: So I didn't. I didn't. I was like, damn, now
Speaker 1: I gotta go find a deal, right, I don't even
Speaker 1: have a label. And so I went and talked to
Speaker 1: Brian Turner at priority. Shout out the priority man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: shout out to priority. Shout out to Brian Turner, Mark
Speaker 1: surround me who don't get a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, a lot of mention. So he's like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do to keep the group together.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, it's over. He said, well, we still
Speaker 1: want you, so we will give you a solo budget
Speaker 1: and deal for a solo album. So that was, like, man,
Speaker 1: the best news I had heard since I left the group,
Speaker 1: because now you got somebody to go that deal. Now
Speaker 1: I can do my own way, you know, where I
Speaker 1: can be the head producer on it and what I want.
Speaker 2: To go and wherever, like whatever ideas you want to
Speaker 2: get across. You don't have to clear with it.
Speaker 1: I don't have to clear with with Dre and easy
Speaker 1: is unapologetically you know, argue with Rinning a little bit.
Speaker 1: Y're gonna beal and ship. So I could just do
Speaker 1: what I want. And now I got uh it's me
Speaker 1: and it's sir Jenks who was he was soaking up
Speaker 1: a lot of game from you know, from the time
Speaker 1: I started start. We started hanging with the Recond crew,
Speaker 1: and and then the Recond crew kind of dismantled, and
Speaker 1: then we put n W A together and he's real
Speaker 1: competitive with his cousin Dre right, real competitive. So I
Speaker 1: knew he was ready to produce and ready to show
Speaker 1: what he got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like this guy, his like his cousin is the
Speaker 2: biggest or at least you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he did. I mean, he delivered, and so
Speaker 1: I said, uh, but he wasn't ready to do a
Speaker 1: whole project. You know, he was ready to to contribute.
Speaker 1: And you know, he has some tracks that he actually
Speaker 1: produced on the America's Most Wanted. Everybody give credit to
Speaker 1: the Bomb Squad, but Janmes, did you know once upon
Speaker 1: time the projects a song called the Bomb It's a
Speaker 1: Man's World. So he you know, we we knew, you know,
Speaker 1: we wanted to have other producers for other tracks. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't know we were gonna have one other team
Speaker 1: working on the whole album. We thought, let's get tracks
Speaker 1: from here here right there. And I was talking to
Speaker 1: Chuck d throughout the breakup because we had met on
Speaker 1: the road. We met in Las Vegas at the Thomas
Speaker 1: and Max Center on some shows we had did together
Speaker 1: Easy and n W A Republic Enemy, and then we
Speaker 1: became real cool exchange numbers. So when I was going
Speaker 1: through the breakup, I would call him, you know, really
Speaker 1: for some big brother advice, you know what I should do.
Speaker 1: He was trying to keep us together. He was like, man,
Speaker 1: this group is too important for sure. Got to try
Speaker 1: to keep it together. Cube. But also at the time,
Speaker 1: I wanted Dre to produce my solo record, but easy
Speaker 1: and and Jerry vetoed.
Speaker 2: That what what Yeah, that wasn't gonna get allowed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they vetoed that even though Dre wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: because me and Dre was actually still on cool.
Speaker 2: Terms, even though publicly there was the feud, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't it wasn't a few yet. It was just
Speaker 1: a breakup. Yeah, But they dissed me before No Vassiline
Speaker 1: or one hundred Miles and Running.
Speaker 2: But No vascanline was like, you know, the greatest this record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was a comeback. That was the
Speaker 1: great after after the Niggas for Life album where they
Speaker 1: dissed me more and said they was gonna do ship
Speaker 1: to me with broomsticks and all this kind of ship. So,
Speaker 1: you know, long story short, I'm looking for Sam Severn.
Speaker 1: I'm in I'm in New York looking for Sam Severn
Speaker 1: because he did the third Base album and they beats
Speaker 1: was banging, yeah, and he stooped me up. But I
Speaker 1: saw Chuck in New York at Depth Jam and then
Speaker 1: we connected and he was doing the record that night
Speaker 1: with Big Daddy King called Burn Hollywood Burn. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and he was like, do you want to be on
Speaker 1: this record? I was yeah, it would let the world
Speaker 1: know you solo. I was like, hell yeah, went down
Speaker 1: there and recording the record. That's when Hank Shockley was there.
Speaker 1: Keith Shockley and I started talking about him trying to
Speaker 1: get my album produced, and they was like, we'll do
Speaker 1: that whole thing. It was like, I felt like I
Speaker 1: was in good hands. How could I miss with the
Speaker 1: best producers in hip hop at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: And so I felt like, our, I'm in good hands.
Speaker 1: If I can't get the best on the West, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get the best on these.
Speaker 2: That shit's crazy and as a classic, and it's crazy
Speaker 2: too because you were kill it will drop the same.
Speaker 1: Year right yeah, later on that year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were like you got that deal and you
Speaker 2: were like, I'm fucking active.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we had records left over from the America's
Speaker 1: Most Won and we're like, what we're gonna do with
Speaker 1: these records. I don't want to wait a whole other years.
Speaker 1: Let's put something out and then and then Chinks had
Speaker 1: did just this crazy remix to Endangered Species. So having
Speaker 1: that and the other records that we had, then I
Speaker 1: thought of that jacking for beats idea.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite album covers was the Kid when
Speaker 2: You with the Gun?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Uh even a song that never gets mentioned,
Speaker 1: Dead Homies ended up becoming a big song for me
Speaker 1: at the time too. After Kill It Will.
Speaker 2: Records, Jacking for beats you were like the first because
Speaker 2: you got to think about like mixtape culture and kind
Speaker 2: of t I has a jack in for Beats freestyle
Speaker 2: that was legendary, Like if did you like, were you
Speaker 2: purposely only grabbing shit you knew you could clear?
Speaker 1: No, I was grabbing everything I liked that year. So
Speaker 1: like some of the dopest beats right came out that year.
Speaker 2: But back then you couldn't just go on YouTube and
Speaker 2: typing something something instrumental. And I'm not sure even back
Speaker 2: then we had records. We was in record pools. We okay,
Speaker 2: he was getting all the records, so we had you know,
Speaker 2: it was instrumentals on each.
Speaker 1: Would you who if you if you could pick like
Speaker 1: three beats.
Speaker 2: Right now, if you did a twenty twenty four jack
Speaker 2: and for beats current beats? Is there anything that comes
Speaker 2: to mind that you would you would you would hop on?
Speaker 1: Oh man, I like us, I mean that's that's it,
Speaker 1: That's what would be uh man, I love that twenty
Speaker 1: one Savage Red Run want it all while we have
Speaker 1: bread Crumb.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's hard.
Speaker 1: And uh man, let me think about what other beats
Speaker 1: that got me going crazy this year? M them two
Speaker 1: are the two that come to mind.
Speaker 2: Do you look at uh death Certificate as like your Illmatic,
Speaker 2: your magnum opus of an album?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's pretty both. You know America's
Speaker 1: most and Death Certificate are pretty you know, epic records.
Speaker 1: You know, they're like my Citizen Kane, so.
Speaker 2: Just like you're left and right hand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh amazing time in music. You know how
Speaker 1: those records was put together, very entertaining records.
Speaker 2: Captivating, like the energy just captivated, Like when you like
Speaker 2: listen to like Summer Vacation, you're like Damn. I feel
Speaker 2: like like I wasn't there, but I felt like I
Speaker 2: felt like that was like the energy of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the energy at the time. And yeah, amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing records.
Speaker 2: You've you've talked about your relationship with John Singleton at
Speaker 2: with but I'm curious, how were you tapped in it
Speaker 2: all to Snowfall, which was kind of his last thing
Speaker 2: that he not a lot, not a lot in Snowfall
Speaker 2: because obviously he passed away. Yeah, I mean even before that,
Speaker 2: you know, he just had a lot of issues with
Speaker 2: the with the the station, the FX or something and
Speaker 2: people running the show, and he couldn't really do it
Speaker 2: the way he might have been exactly how he wanted
Speaker 2: to do it. And you know, John Singleton is at
Speaker 2: his best when he can do what he feels and
Speaker 2: he's not harnessed. And so I don't want to I
Speaker 2: don't want to look at the TV version of It's
Speaker 2: almost like if you were gonna watch it, you would
Speaker 2: wanted to have watched it without knowing all that, like
Speaker 2: going to.
Speaker 1: It blindly, right, Yeah, but you know I knew.
Speaker 2: Like I watched it not knowing that, Like I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously you kind of knew it was based off Freeway
Speaker 2: with Ross, right, but like I didn't know that, Like
Speaker 2: there was like this thing where you know, I guess
Speaker 2: he wanted he was he wanted to get some sort
Speaker 2: of credit, you know, Like it was kind of like
Speaker 2: based on my life. Loosely, I already watched.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of people out there with the saying, right,
Speaker 1: that's fair. It's just the most famous one. To be fair,
Speaker 1: You you bring dope in your neighborhood and you make
Speaker 1: a lot of money.
Speaker 2: And at the time the CIA was providing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you make a lot of money, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: fuck up the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Yo, when you you and Pooh wrote Friday.
Speaker 1: Because Friday's one of the most pivotal.
Speaker 2: Moments in my life as a child, I talk like
Speaker 2: smoky as a as a white child in Arizona. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for at least a two year period. I mean I
Speaker 2: was like eight years old when that movie came out,
Speaker 2: and that movie literally changed my life. I know the
Speaker 2: entire movie by heart, as a lot of other people
Speaker 2: do that, Like some of the scenes, did you understand
Speaker 2: how they were gonna translate? Like you got knocked the
Speaker 2: fuck out man?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah?
Speaker 2: Or or smoky smoke, an angel dust running down the
Speaker 2: street while the dudes is bust Like did y'all understand
Speaker 2: like how crazy? Like like yo, this shit's gonna go off?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, we knew it wasn't nobody in Hollywood like
Speaker 1: us me and Pool. We knew you got your black
Speaker 1: dudes in Hollywood, and you got your for real funny dudes.
Speaker 1: But it ain't none of them like us. Ain't none
Speaker 1: of them gonna come from this angle of comedy.
Speaker 2: It was so good, just a little like just like
Speaker 2: even like Pool with the chains, like my Mama change man,
Speaker 2: Like there was just I just wonder like like that's
Speaker 2: like one of the most brilliantly written like comedies of
Speaker 2: all time.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, it's here's why people love the movie.
Speaker 1: It's everybody can live a Friday, right like you and
Speaker 1: your man and go out here, have a crazy Friday,
Speaker 1: staying right in front of it, right in front of
Speaker 1: y'all spot and smoke one and just watch and trip
Speaker 1: off come up and you know, just you know, anybody
Speaker 1: can live at So it's very relatable. And what's what's
Speaker 1: memorable is is the day you all remember it's today
Speaker 1: that the Bully gets his ass with what's coming to everybody.
Speaker 1: Remember whoever they have in their mind, and if they
Speaker 1: saw them get it, they remember that day how it
Speaker 1: played out, and it's uh, it gives you a euphoria
Speaker 1: when you see that because nobody really likes it.
Speaker 2: Bully, you know, was it was it like a difficult
Speaker 2: transition or was it easy for you to like go
Speaker 2: from being one of the most prolific mcs and writers
Speaker 2: on the music side to writing a movie that's a
Speaker 2: whole different format that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't easy. I ain't gonna say it was easy.
Speaker 1: It was. I had never been to film school, I
Speaker 1: had never written the script. So actually John Singleton encouraged
Speaker 1: me to write scripts when we was doing Boys in
Speaker 1: the Hood. He said, when you're gonna write a script, cute,
Speaker 1: which caught me off guard because I was just trying
Speaker 1: on the act. That was your first movie. Are you
Speaker 1: trying to suck these lines to man? Let alone write
Speaker 1: the script? Like, what are you talking about? He's like,
Speaker 1: you think he said you like doing Boys in the Hood.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, man, it's good. You know, it's
Speaker 1: cool shit write the script? You said, Uh, you think
Speaker 1: Hollywood got another movie for your ass out there. Hollywood
Speaker 1: ain't got shipped for you. Man, if you want to
Speaker 1: do movies, you're gonna have to write your own movies
Speaker 1: if you want to do them, and that that kind
Speaker 1: of was like, oh damn. And then he was like,
Speaker 1: you can do it. Cute because I see this the
Speaker 1: music you write. You know, it's vivid. People can see it.
Speaker 1: You can see the see play out in their heads.
Speaker 1: So you can write a script. Man, You just gotta
Speaker 1: understand the framework, parameters and what you got to get across.
Speaker 2: And Friday the franchise has just been like the launching
Speaker 2: pad for like Chris Tucker, Mike Epps, Kat Williams, Uh.
Speaker 1: Jerry Crew.
Speaker 2: A lot of times, the first people ever seen Bernie
Speaker 2: Mack was on the first Friday. A lot of people
Speaker 2: didn't weren't watching. You know that in comedy, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So I'm sure cast in that movie
Speaker 2: had to be just fun. Like I could just imagine, like.
Speaker 1: Oh, we had a ball, you know. Once I knew
Speaker 1: I got John Witherspoon, I knew we was gonna have
Speaker 1: a funny movie.
Speaker 2: God rest his soul.
Speaker 1: Man. Yeah, getting him to play my father in the
Speaker 1: movie was a home run and getting them to seriously
Speaker 1: look at Chris Tucker because originally Pool was supposed to
Speaker 1: play smoking DJ Pooh. We wrote it for us to
Speaker 1: do it, and then once Newline got involved with the movie,
Speaker 1: they it was concerned he didn't have enough acting experience.
Speaker 1: So that's why he played red hm hmm. So it
Speaker 1: was there was actual you know, they look poo is amazing.
Speaker 1: He would have been a double smoky too, without a doubted.
Speaker 1: The lines was there, you know, but uh, they were
Speaker 1: trying to put in known actors to be smoky, like
Speaker 1: non comedians Tommy Davidson name came up and other people
Speaker 1: which I thought they were funny. But to me to
Speaker 1: take this movie serious and to really have this movie
Speaker 1: catch you kind of off guard, I really wanted to
Speaker 1: be the only known face in it. I wanted to folks.
Speaker 1: I knew you would recognize with Jeana King and tiny,
Speaker 1: but as far as my guy right, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a new, fresh face because nobody would come in
Speaker 1: the movie thinking live in color or you know, I
Speaker 1: already have their on what kind of funny he's gonna be.
Speaker 1: It was just this was a new character like for
Speaker 1: most people Chris Tucker is smoky Like, it's nothing before
Speaker 1: that that they can really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because even if you watch the Fifth Element, he
Speaker 2: just played like a weird, like a different version of
Speaker 2: smoky in the Fifth Element. Yeah, you know, so like
Speaker 2: a sassy, smoky Fifth Element with Bruce Willis.
Speaker 1: And it's because you know, that's the first real thing
Speaker 1: you've seen the man, and that's really what I wanted that.
Speaker 2: Effect facts, Yeah, it works. I want to jump ahead
Speaker 2: a little. One of my favorite albums of all time
Speaker 2: is bow Down Gangster Killer and Dobe Buelers Fucking just
Speaker 2: one of my favorite songs to ever be made.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: You guys were in this mix with Common when Common
Speaker 2: dropped I Used to love Her? Yeah, and he had
Speaker 2: his verse that you guys reacted to on West Side Slaughterhouse.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is it safe to say west Side Slaughterhouse was kind
Speaker 2: of like the conception of West Side Connection.
Speaker 1: It was was now it was on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm curious, did you guys take real offense to
Speaker 2: like when you heard I used to love Her? Like,
Speaker 2: what were your guys' thoughts? Like, because you guys are
Speaker 2: motivated enough to put that record together.
Speaker 1: I think what it was was we saw a wave coming.
Speaker 1: I think we had saw first before before we took
Speaker 1: any offense to that record. It was records like fuck Compton,
Speaker 1: they came out, Tim Dogg, Tim Dogg, and and so
Speaker 1: we felt like the more successful we got, the more
Speaker 1: pot shots we were starting to hear from New York
Speaker 1: and starting. Yeah, it was it was called keep it real.
Speaker 1: That's what they keep it real. We don't keep it real.
Speaker 1: This is real hip hop. We're keeping it real here.
Speaker 1: So that was the kind of line in the sand
Speaker 1: between patting us on the back for being this new
Speaker 1: phenomenon to how many records these niggas gonna put out?
Speaker 1: You know what I meant it first, but damn. And
Speaker 1: so we were starting to get pot shots, and I
Speaker 1: think Common just got caught up in all that because
Speaker 1: Uh master As had did a record Caross slaughter House
Speaker 1: where he was like, that's why we did West Side
Speaker 1: slaughter House because he was saying our records was just
Speaker 1: saying murder, murder, murder.
Speaker 2: Kill, kill, kill, And I mean, I know he's amazing,
Speaker 2: but Born de Role is like, if you heard it,
Speaker 2: you might think exactly.
Speaker 1: So we were starting to take offence, and you know,
Speaker 1: at first, we was like, Yo, we're just now getting
Speaker 1: accepted in hip hop. Let us be cool, you know,
Speaker 1: and not trip because we all know how to turn
Speaker 1: a party out, and it's just gonna go bad. It
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be nobody, gonna have no funds. It's just
Speaker 1: gonna go bad for us. But it was like, this
Speaker 1: is all we could take. You know, Somebody gotta somebody
Speaker 1: gotta stop this, or everything we've accomplished will be erased
Speaker 1: and negated and looked at as like just a blip
Speaker 1: on the hip hop radar. And I'm like, no, we
Speaker 1: have to solidify what we've done in hip hop, and
Speaker 1: the way to do that is to band together under
Speaker 1: this West Side umbrella.
Speaker 2: So the Bitch and You comes out. Yes, when you
Speaker 2: first hear it, Yeah, how do you feel?
Speaker 1: Well? I mean I had a record, It's a hard record.
Speaker 1: I had a record cock. I had a record cocked
Speaker 1: and loaded and ready to attack. Okay. Then I get
Speaker 1: a call from Minister Farrah con after this is after
Speaker 1: the Bitch and You drops, Yes, okay, But he caught
Speaker 1: all the rappers together because he saw getting out of
Speaker 1: hand and basically was like, if y'all don't call some
Speaker 1: kind of truce with this. Somebody is gonna could die
Speaker 1: and not because as somebody from the West sidegunt tack
Speaker 1: com or somebody from Commons side gonna attack us. But
Speaker 1: now you have maybe a third party could do something
Speaker 1: to one of us and then we're gonna blame each other.
Speaker 1: So when you beef in public, it gives you or not,
Speaker 1: it gives an opportunity for third party. And we was
Speaker 1: thinking government CIA to step in and kill one of us,
Speaker 1: hurt one of us, and then we're gonna.
Speaker 2: Start blacken each other, incite this, divide and conquer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: In the by the way, that's a real thing, without
Speaker 2: a doubt. That's all that's happened in different facets of
Speaker 2: the country over time, like and and to destroy other
Speaker 2: countries and coops and all.
Speaker 1: It happens. For sure, it happened to the Nation Islam
Speaker 1: with Malcolm X. They was beefing. Somebody come in and
Speaker 1: kill Malcolm X. Now one side blaming the other. Other.
Speaker 1: Now that being said, it was it was just in
Speaker 1: the best interest to to stop the beef right there
Speaker 1: and not do the records that I had what was
Speaker 1: the name of the song you had cocked and loaded?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I got to look at my notebook.
Speaker 1: It's buried in my notebook. I haven't it was it
Speaker 1: was crazy though, yeah, I mean I was. It was
Speaker 1: a disc record.
Speaker 2: Did you think The Bitching You was a hard record?
Speaker 1: I didn't feel those things from it, Okay, that's fair,
Speaker 1: you know. I didn't feel like, uh, you know, I.
Speaker 2: Was just wonder because obviously you guys are like, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, we're cool now, but I just want to hear
Speaker 1: the record, and I think I only heard the records once.
Speaker 1: I only heard it once when somebody did you only
Speaker 1: want to listen to it one time?
Speaker 2: You're not going to go back into to it once
Speaker 2: unless you're Drake and everywhere you go it's playing.
Speaker 1: And you know, to me, it was, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it was cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that was, you know, an interesting time for sure.
Speaker 2: On the new record, you say that you're here to
Speaker 2: fight reptiles and lizards.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, I know that you and I are probably a
Speaker 2: little more on the conspiracy side than other people. Huh
Speaker 2: did you mean like reptilians lizard people?
Speaker 1: I think that's what we all fighting somewhere somehow.
Speaker 2: I'm just curious. Yeah, that stuck out.
Speaker 1: It is Yeah, I think we all fighting some kind
Speaker 1: of forces that are not happy with humanity and trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, make sure we're self destruct.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like I don't want to get too
Speaker 2: specific with like any sort of politics or anything, but
Speaker 2: you know, with what's going on obviously the election just ended.
Speaker 1: There is a real economy in division. Yeah.
Speaker 2: People's entire livelihoods and their houses and their car notes
Speaker 2: are paid based on peddling divisive material to divide people, right,
Speaker 2: And I'm just curious from your perspective, you've I mean
Speaker 2: you've seen, I mean, you've been a part of so
Speaker 2: many different like eras of the country as a black
Speaker 2: man in America. Obviously, fucking you've talked about I think
Speaker 2: a bird in the hand and the bushy, the first bush, Jesus,
Speaker 2: the first bush, you know what I mean? Even Reagan,
Speaker 2: it was were you wrapping in before?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: But I'm just curious, like, what what would you say,
Speaker 2: like if you had to kind of as somebody who's
Speaker 2: kind of seen I don't know if the country has
Speaker 2: ever been this divided, Like, what do you think would
Speaker 2: be the healing factor.
Speaker 1: For people to mind their own business a little more?
Speaker 1: I love that, Yeah, I think if if you wait
Speaker 1: make up, and you in social media and you're looking
Speaker 1: at everybody business and you affected negatively, and you start
Speaker 1: affecting people around you negatively because of other people's business
Speaker 1: that you've been watching, that's a problem. Minding your own
Speaker 1: business don't just mean ignoring the world. It means everybody
Speaker 1: got shit they need to do in their own life,
Speaker 1: and they need to mind their own business like you
Speaker 1: mine a goal mine, like clean your shit up, fix
Speaker 1: your shit. You got your loose sinds, type your loose sinds,
Speaker 1: work on your business, and not worry about the fate
Speaker 1: of the world, because nine times out of ten, you're
Speaker 1: getting frustrated and worked up about somebody else's business and
Speaker 1: some shit that don't even concern you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're getting frustrated and worked up because that's
Speaker 2: with the purpose of probably that's what that's what they
Speaker 2: want exactly.
Speaker 1: And you're not hit till you hit, and you're not
Speaker 1: hurt till your hit. So stop waiting. You know what
Speaker 1: makes a soldier fight on through the bullets that are
Speaker 1: coming at him? Why does he keep going? How does
Speaker 1: he keep going when he knows bullets are incoming? Because
Speaker 1: you're not hit till you hit, so you might not
Speaker 1: ever get hit. So why sit there and ship your
Speaker 1: pants when you're not even hit. So most of the
Speaker 1: time people are crying and yelling and this is my
Speaker 1: life gonna change and my rights and it not even
Speaker 1: really affects them, you know. They just get worked up
Speaker 1: over other people's business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even like sometimes like they're getting worked up
Speaker 2: over what they perceive to be factual when a lot
Speaker 2: of times it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not. You know, people always think they can sing
Speaker 1: into the future on how it's gonna be, But that's okay.
Speaker 2: I'm like, hey man, we've lived through everybody, right, so
Speaker 2: it's gonna be. There's gonna be another president of four
Speaker 2: years and another one after that.
Speaker 1: I'm curious.
Speaker 2: You and your wife are one of probably the most
Speaker 2: successful marriage in hip hop at this point.
Speaker 1: How many years thirty two? Uh, we've been together since
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, so I'm married in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful, as somebody I've been married for over five years?
Speaker 2: What is the key to lasting that long? Because sometimes
Speaker 2: me and my wife want to kill each other.
Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta you gotta want to be there.
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta understand the reason you married this person,
Speaker 1: and you gotta want to be there. You gotta you know,
Speaker 1: be a giver, not a receiver. And the more you give,
Speaker 1: the more you will receive in a relationship. That's right.
Speaker 1: And so you know, having somebody to go through this
Speaker 1: crazy life with and if you guys can have each
Speaker 1: other's back where it's us against the world. And the
Speaker 1: thing is, when it's real tight, whether you're married or not,
Speaker 1: y'all still be like that. That's a real commitment marriage
Speaker 1: and all that just a license paperwork. You have to
Speaker 1: be committed to a person for life. And you stay
Speaker 1: down with her. She stayed down with you, and let
Speaker 1: the chips fall what they may. And we could yell
Speaker 1: all day at each other, but still love your ass.
Speaker 1: You Still we're still gonna be Yeah, I ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 1: You ain't going nowhere. You know, we're gonna work through it,
Speaker 1: live through it, and come through it, yo. Whatever.
Speaker 2: Like how close or how far along was the idea
Speaker 2: of the new n w A when like hello and
Speaker 2: chin check and all that ship was like was it
Speaker 2: was it like a thing that was getting worked on
Speaker 2: or was it just a night because you guys were
Speaker 2: I think there was this there was the source cover
Speaker 2: that was.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We we were just you know, kind of figuring
Speaker 1: our next moves in a lot of ways. We had
Speaker 1: just really start to come back together after you know,
Speaker 1: Easy passed away and it was just you did like
Speaker 1: natural Born Killers. Yeah we did that, but that was
Speaker 1: that was for the that was for the murder, was
Speaker 1: the case soundtrack, and basically what happened. You know, we
Speaker 1: thinking about, Okay, this is a project that we we
Speaker 1: like working together. We could get together and do a
Speaker 1: whole nother project. Then dra meet some kid named eminem.
Speaker 2: Crazy some kid, and then and then it just was like.
Speaker 1: Man and then after that he meets some dude named fifty,
Speaker 1: and it was kind of like the hold on cue
Speaker 1: I got. I got a few things to do before
Speaker 1: we get to that, which is understandable.
Speaker 2: And you guys were on the up and smoke tour together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, we had fun. You know, we all went
Speaker 1: out big tour.
Speaker 2: I'm sad because I sold so many of my CDs
Speaker 2: to the warehouse to afford my ticket in Phoenix, Arizona,
Speaker 2: And that was one of the dates you were.
Speaker 1: Not Yeah, when they put the tour together. I had
Speaker 1: spot dates, so I had to miss one or two.
Speaker 2: You miss Phoenix, Yeah, I was like, wait Ice Cubes
Speaker 2: that performing the night?
Speaker 1: What the fuck? Yeah? That was trust me, I was
Speaker 1: I was hating effect that I was a crazy somewhere
Speaker 1: else on some smaller ship and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, ah, that was a crazy tour though it was.
Speaker 1: It was. It was as fun and big and crazy
Speaker 1: as you can imagine.
Speaker 2: You had like that run like around the war and
Speaker 2: peace times when you were like on Corn's followed the
Speaker 2: Leader and then they were on your album and then
Speaker 2: you were doing like a lot of rock festivals or
Speaker 2: shows like I remember just like seeing that shit on
Speaker 2: MTV news all the time. Yeah, what like like what
Speaker 2: made you and Corn like hit it off to where
Speaker 2: you guys did a couple of records together.
Speaker 1: You know, after doing a Lola it was a tour
Speaker 1: in ninety two. I was, you know, hot with that market.
Speaker 1: So it was always you know, me and my management
Speaker 1: looking for ways to connect with another rock group or
Speaker 1: do some cool shit. And I ended up getting with
Speaker 1: new management and they one of the groups was Corn,
Speaker 1: and so I dug the record because it was incorporating
Speaker 1: hip hop into this rock and sure you have a
Speaker 1: breakbeat breakout and then they go back and yeah, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this shit is dope. So meeting them, you know, just
Speaker 1: saying how cool they wash, it was like, dude, you
Speaker 1: know we're working on some shit. If you want to
Speaker 1: come get down, let's get down. And we did stuff
Speaker 1: together and then we went on the Family Values Tour.
Speaker 1: That's the tour. Lamp Biscuit, Yah, yeah, Limp Biscuit, that's
Speaker 1: like yeah corn Limp Biscuit. A group called uh minished
Speaker 1: Well I wasn't Ministry, it was damn They are called
Speaker 1: how Many Values to Ours? That's a fucking legend. The
Speaker 1: front ro Romstein, Wait, Romstein was on that.
Speaker 2: Trash mash and and then ice.
Speaker 1: Cube them motherfuckers a day on.
Speaker 2: Like h that's just such a crazy, like sonic opposite
Speaker 2: of the spectrum like industrial German rock.
Speaker 1: These motherfuckers will put theirself on fire in the middle
Speaker 1: of the Ramstein Dudes, Romstein, Dudes, Ramstein, Ramstein. This motherfucker
Speaker 1: would be performing and then they would come and put
Speaker 1: this vadast ship on him, right, not ship, but it
Speaker 1: was like some uhlobby ship.
Speaker 2: That they could on fire without killing.
Speaker 1: Such as motherfucker on fire? Was this before you went on? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So so then you're like, I gotta follow the dude
Speaker 2: who just set himself on fire?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, this ship was good. No, it was after us,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, yeah, it was. Thank god it was after us,
Speaker 1: but we would be tripping off these dudes. Man, they was.
Speaker 1: They was like, this was some of the crazy ship
Speaker 1: I ever seen.
Speaker 2: And I mean yeah, the mosh pits had to be crazy.
Speaker 1: It was fun. Yo.
Speaker 2: What would you say is your worst movie out of
Speaker 2: all the bigger ones? Your worst big budget movie?
Speaker 1: What's your I'll go first the Triple X. Uh well,
Speaker 1: I would say, uh Ghost of Mars Is I forgot
Speaker 1: about that one. You're right about that. That was I
Speaker 1: did some ship called Rampart with I remember Rampart with
Speaker 1: Woody Harrelson. Yep, that's garbage. Okay, it wasn't. Fucking Triple
Speaker 1: X is better than that ship. Come on, man, Triple X.
Speaker 1: The only reason to me, Triple X had the wrong director.
Speaker 1: They had an old school director when they should have
Speaker 1: got somebody wasn't exhibiting Triple X too. Yeah yeah, yep, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a Sam Jackson and William Dafoe. It was
Speaker 1: just the wrong director. You know. He didn't he didn't
Speaker 1: add no, no, no spice to it. It just felt old.
Speaker 2: What is your, in your opinion, your most underrated movie
Speaker 2: that you don't get You don't you know? I mean
Speaker 2: you've done all about the Benjamins. Yeah, for sure, I agree.
Speaker 2: Follow Yeah, Mike Apps, you feel like that's the Mike
Speaker 2: Apps movie that really made people be like, oh ship, yeah,
Speaker 2: Mike Is.
Speaker 1: I love working with Mike. He's he's uh, he's my
Speaker 1: favorite person to work with.
Speaker 2: Is Uh. It's gonna be difficult to pull off this
Speaker 2: new Friday movie. Obviously, I'm excited because John will not
Speaker 2: be in it.
Speaker 1: Well, I think Friday's great. Is Friday has a universe
Speaker 1: of people. It does, and if we make a movie
Speaker 1: that that is on point, he will be missed, but
Speaker 1: he won't ruin the movie.
Speaker 2: You gotta have unk in it. Of course, something has
Speaker 2: gotten with the barbecue spot. I got it, I got it,
Speaker 2: I got this watch. Did you like my video?
Speaker 1: Oh? I loved it. It wasn't entertainment, it was great.
Speaker 1: And and then did you was that a wig you
Speaker 1: had on it? On? Now? Hell? Yeah, you know that
Speaker 1: you don't look like Moore's day for real.
Speaker 2: This is this is this is uh okay, so kill
Speaker 2: it will comes out and that's your last album in
Speaker 2: which you had like long hair and the death certificate
Speaker 2: you got the fade. Yeah, were you like worried about
Speaker 2: cutting your hair and like because you just like it
Speaker 2: was there's almost like this era of Cube where it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: there's Jerry Jerry curl Cube and then haircut Cube.
Speaker 1: I wasn't worried at all. I had to cut my
Speaker 1: hair because for acting. No, I just got a pool. Okay,
Speaker 1: I could afford a pool. I was in that shit
Speaker 1: every day. And if you can imagine how Jerry Curle
Speaker 1: look after you swim every day for a whole summer. Shit,
Speaker 1: that shit was looking like you know afro. So I
Speaker 1: was like, I love this fucking pool. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: in this shit every day. So I cut my hair
Speaker 1: because I couldn't. I couldn't keep it from looking fucked up.
Speaker 2: Seventh season of Big Three just wrapped.
Speaker 1: Eighth, Yeah, seventh, we're going into today.
Speaker 2: Going into the eighth season. Uh I know that. Uh
Speaker 2: you know, for people who watch it, they just love it.
Speaker 2: They appreciate it, and I'm just curious, like, did you
Speaker 2: ever figure out what the disconnect has been with like
Speaker 2: the NBA?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know what it is. That's easy. They mad
Speaker 1: they didn't think of the ship and they don't want
Speaker 1: somebody like me running something like this when they believe
Speaker 1: they own basketball, but they don't because.
Speaker 2: They have the w NBA, they have the G League,
Speaker 2: They have.
Speaker 1: Every base covered except for what happens when players, but
Speaker 1: they don't own basketball. Correct. Nobody runs and say, ma,
Speaker 1: I'm going out to go play NBA. They say I'm
Speaker 1: going out to go play basketball. So there's room for
Speaker 1: the Big three to exist, and we will exist. We
Speaker 1: don't even need the NBA at this point. Do you
Speaker 1: think it's an Adam Silver thing? Of course, it's a
Speaker 1: straight I mean, is it a smart business decision not
Speaker 1: to work with me and the big No? Okay, so
Speaker 1: it got to be personal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1: It don't make crazy man sense, as my man keyboard was.
Speaker 2: Saying, because you could like embrace it and then it
Speaker 2: could be this cool place where players go. It's like, hey,
Speaker 2: you retired.
Speaker 1: They didn't think of it. They don't want me running it.
Speaker 1: They don't want to work with it, so we don't
Speaker 1: need them now. Maybe four or five years ago we
Speaker 1: probably wanted them to do it, but now they were
Speaker 1: just being on.
Speaker 2: Well they never embraced and won back in the day.
Speaker 1: Remember this is bigger, I mean not bigger. This is different.
Speaker 1: It's different. But I'm saying like they didn't embrace that
Speaker 1: because they they didn't want, you know, that style of
Speaker 1: play to come into the NBA for the Big three?
Speaker 1: Is there?
Speaker 2: I know I saw somebody. There's going to be expansion,
Speaker 2: right like new Ts and all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we're selling teams, so teams are now going
Speaker 1: to be represented by cities and then after we sell
Speaker 1: a lot of twelve, we'll expand.
Speaker 2: So right now there's twelve teams that people can invest in,
Speaker 2: eight because four have been So if somebody wanted to
Speaker 2: invest in the team and bring it to Phoenix, what
Speaker 2: would they have to do?
Speaker 1: Shit, have some MS, A lot of MS, A lot
Speaker 1: of MS, I mean, you know, a reasonable amount.
Speaker 2: A reasonable amount of MS. Yes, some fucking money per se.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's fair. It is fair to.
Speaker 2: Talk to me about the album. I've heard that it's
Speaker 2: amazing good.
Speaker 1: I believe it is you know it's called man Down,
Speaker 1: and you know I have to accumulate it the record.
Speaker 1: That's what I ended up calling it because it felt
Speaker 1: like a record talking about a lot of different subjects.
Speaker 1: A few of them have to deal with the state
Speaker 1: of men and how you know, how are added two
Speaker 1: d is in twenty twenty five four Pussification of men? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know it's sad, and so you know
Speaker 1: it's really about us standing up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Don't be a pussy all your life. Be a dick
Speaker 1: sometime and get hard. I like, what, yo, was it cool? Going?
Speaker 2: I went to Joe Rogan spot in Austin with Freddy
Speaker 2: Gibbs when Freddy Gibbs did it, Yeah, he's got like
Speaker 2: it's very like an unassuming building, like you wouldn't even
Speaker 2: know it's there. Yeah, but let you go in and
Speaker 2: it's like this is a place, Like how cool was that?
Speaker 2: Being able to link with him. Obviously a lot of
Speaker 2: people would say he might have just you know, thrown
Speaker 2: the election in someone's favor, but because he is the
Speaker 2: biggest media platform in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, real cool, you know, being able to you know,
Speaker 1: see how he get down And I've been a fans
Speaker 1: of that dude since fear factor for sure, and then
Speaker 1: to see him you know, getting to the UFC and
Speaker 1: really be you know, extremely you know, passionate and full
Speaker 1: of information. Yeah, which to me helped you know, grow
Speaker 1: that sport and get it to where it is. I
Speaker 1: think his analysis was just as good as the fight.
Speaker 1: And so to see him using that platform and being
Speaker 1: able to to talk about things in a in a
Speaker 1: more you know cool setting two or three hours long
Speaker 1: form really uh deep dive into each topic in each
Speaker 1: conversation without feeling like you rushed or you you can't
Speaker 1: get out of something cool that you think people will
Speaker 1: want to see it here. So it was real cool
Speaker 1: to hang with them and hope to do it again sometimes.
Speaker 2: Any features on the album on Man.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah, we definitely got features Exhibit Killer, Mike Buster,
Speaker 1: Snoop forty, Short, j D, j D, Jermaine pre no
Speaker 1: Nah Nah j D from the Lynch Mob. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know man JD from the Lynch Mob, and
Speaker 1: we got Corrupt on there be Real Yo.
Speaker 2: The it felt like the Mount Westmore album. It was
Speaker 2: a little disappointing in terms of just like the impact
Speaker 2: it made.
Speaker 1: It Yeah, what do you think.
Speaker 2: There were some dope joints on there? But where do
Speaker 2: you think the Mount Westmore project? Because I think what
Speaker 2: my favorite part that came out of that was you
Speaker 2: guys did shows together. Yeah, and it gave fans like
Speaker 2: you could go see all of y'all together on stage,
Speaker 2: which was amazing. But in terms of like the actual
Speaker 2: body of work, it got like mixed up with the NFT.
Speaker 1: It was delayed a bunch of times, Like yeah, it
Speaker 1: just you know, the the NFT thing was it was
Speaker 1: a mistake in a lot of ways, and it's just
Speaker 1: a project that kind of took too long to hit.
Speaker 1: And you know, you got four people trying to come
Speaker 1: together to do something and everybody else they couldn't hold
Speaker 1: on no more, so they had to go do their
Speaker 1: own solo shit and couldn't really work the record or
Speaker 1: you know, promote the record or really.
Speaker 2: Tour the record, right, I mean there was some dope.
Speaker 2: I mean, you guys have some records they got played
Speaker 2: on radio, and shit.
Speaker 1: It's a good record. You know, just wish we could
Speaker 1: have wish it would have came out on time and
Speaker 1: and you know we had time to really work.
Speaker 2: It for Let's say there's a seventeen year old kid
Speaker 2: who hears it's my ego for the first time, and
Speaker 2: they hear you I was Kendrick before Kendrick. Yeah, explain
Speaker 2: because I said, I.
Speaker 1: Know what you mean, but like, well, I started kicking
Speaker 1: what we call street knowledge a long time ago, and
Speaker 1: it's a blend of you know, what's happening on the
Speaker 1: streets and what's happening in the world, and you know,
Speaker 1: being able to do it in a dope way in
Speaker 1: a hip hop form and still be you know, fresh
Speaker 1: but informative is a style at that. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I've helped coin with a few other ogs, you know,
Speaker 1: like Iced Tea and Carras and you know, the Meley
Speaker 1: mel and rock Kims of the world. But and you
Speaker 1: were like also a good kid in a mad city
Speaker 1: before that was the thing, Like yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we all was like you were like, you know.
Speaker 2: Trying to like get your shit together, going to you
Speaker 2: went to Arizona to go to college and shit, but
Speaker 2: you still were kind of telling the story of your
Speaker 2: of your neighborhood and of your Yeah, and you know, I.
Speaker 1: Start rapping at fourteen years old, So it's it's an
Speaker 1: age where you trying to figure out which way you're
Speaker 1: gonna go. You're gonna go sports dope, gang banging. Luckily
Speaker 1: hip hop was right there, and so that's the door
Speaker 1: I went through and it's gotten me here. Uh So,
Speaker 1: you know, the line is not a disc The line
Speaker 1: to me is paying homage to what Kendrick has done
Speaker 1: in the Gang to be honest, or I wouldn't even
Speaker 1: say that about to do the halftime show. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: salute to all those Grammy nominations, Salute to him being
Speaker 1: a true artist and not compromising the art for the fame.
Speaker 1: And I believe I'm the same type artists.
Speaker 2: Well, he just got I think six or seven Grammy
Speaker 2: nominations for Not Like Us Today.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine if like no Vassiline in the Night
Speaker 2: would have got like Grammy nominations and melted the Academy down.
Speaker 1: Ship.
Speaker 2: They're still not even showing the Best Rap Album award
Speaker 2: on TV, which is fucking preposterous to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just you know, it's them trying to keep
Speaker 1: some sense.
Speaker 2: Of number one genre of music in the world. But
Speaker 2: you know, let's not show you the Album of the
Speaker 2: Year A couple of quick things. Would you ever do
Speaker 2: a podcast under the right circumstances, because I feel like
Speaker 2: if you were just like speaking on your perspective of
Speaker 2: current events or music, I just feel like it would
Speaker 2: be Yeah, I can make it work. It's an eight
Speaker 2: figure idea right there. You got to do it, man,
Speaker 2: can make it work. And I mean obviously there's been
Speaker 2: guys who have done it. Would there ever be a
Speaker 2: world in which you would ever make up with mac
Speaker 2: ten and do another West Connection album?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Time will tell. I don't know fair enough. Yea, the
Speaker 2: new album Man Down? Yeah, uh, what is the what's
Speaker 2: the release date?
Speaker 1: November twenty right around the corner?
Speaker 2: We got you and Snoop dropping Like yeah, Snoop's back
Speaker 2: with Dre. This new record feels like classic Cube, like
Speaker 2: the West Coast got.
Speaker 1: This ship right now? Man? Why not?
Speaker 2: You know the dog pounds dropped on Death Row.
Speaker 1: Hey, we ain't never went nowhere, We just got busy,
Speaker 1: but we're back.
Speaker 2: Do you take like when you when you hear that
Speaker 2: term like legacy artists, I feel like that's a good thing,
Speaker 2: is that you're still here and you're still go.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know you still hear people still give
Speaker 1: a fuck, you know, I know, uh, you know, people
Speaker 1: gonna put titles on on on you when you've been
Speaker 1: around for decades, and that's cool, you know, as long
Speaker 1: as they still paying attention, you know, calling the old
Speaker 1: school og legacy legend, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Just don't call me whack and you're I know you're
Speaker 2: working on a lot of other shit, but uh, besides Friday,
Speaker 2: any other movies in the works you're writing in the oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely got we got some things cocked and loaded.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see it, man. I feel like
Speaker 2: it's been a few years since I've seen you, like
Speaker 2: on a on on a big screen, so it's been
Speaker 2: a minute, do you uh randomly? Also, I just got
Speaker 2: to give you props because you also have besides Friday,
Speaker 2: the twenty one Jump Street. Yeah, ship like you're you're
Speaker 2: rolling that as the as the Captain is so good.
Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks, Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 2: I just got to give you props. I can't wait
Speaker 2: to hear the album. Man, the new record is dope.
Speaker 2: The remixes out, will bust a rhyme and kill a
Speaker 2: Mike and uh yeah, man down. November twenty second, ice
Speaker 2: Q one of the greatest of all time. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: I appreciate you man, Luke, I appreciate you too.
Speaker 1: Oh.