Ice Cube Celebrates 10th Anniversary Of BET At Hollywood & Highland Center

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Ice Cube I Am The West on Lynch Mob/EMI in-stores now!

Ice Cube - 'She Couldn’t Make It On Her Own' ft. Doughboy & OMG (video)

Ice Cube - I Am The West on Lynch Mob/EMI in-stores next week September 28th.

Ice Cube - 'Drink The Kool-Aid' (video)

Ice Cube I Am The West on Lench Mob/EMI arrives September 28th.

Ice Cube Discusses N.W.A. Movie, Dr. Dre's Detox And More

via All Hip Hop

Ice Cube I Am The West on Lynch Mob Records arrives July 13.

Ice Cube Interview On Good Day New York

Ice Cube is in town promoting the L.A. Raiders documentary 'Straight Out Of LA' which is premiering tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

West Coast Weekend Premieres Of Sorts On Both Sides Of America With Dr. Dre & Ice Cube

Today at Fenway Park, Interscope's Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre showed up for batting practice at the Boston Red Sox & New York Yankees season opener, to promote Beats by Dr. Dre Red Sox headphones and to drop new info on the Dr. Dre & Jay-Z upcoming cut "Under Pressure."

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On Saturday (April 3), the 5th Annual 2010 Paid Dues Festival hit Southern California with Ice Cube headlining the event, premiered a new joint off of his upcoming I Am The West "I Rep That West."

Arabian Prince: N.W.A. Original Member Fact Finding Interview

via Phoenix New Times

People Don't Know: A lot of guys in the picture weren't actually making music at the time they posed on the cover.

Arabian Prince: "A lot of them, they were just homies from the neighborhood and we were like, 'Hey, we taking a photo. Y'all wanna go?' And they were like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,'" he says. "It was just a random photo. None of the cats, at that time, were doing anything. And any of those guys who moved on to do music after that . . . It was probably a direct thing from being on that album cover."

In fact, these dudes were put together so randomly that Arabian can't even identify the guy standing on his right.

"The guy next to me, I don't even know."



People Don't Know: "Panic Zone" was N.W.A's first single only because the group was scared to go gangsta right off the bat.

Arabian Prince: "'Panic Zone' was the first single because me and Dre came from the electro background and we knew that there was no way in hell that we were going to get any of that gangsta stuff played on the radio, and we wanted to make sure we got it to the DJs and got some radio play just so people would know we were there. And so, we were like, 'Hey, let's do some dance records' because we knew we could get this played because that's what people knew us from before," he says. "So we did 'Panic Zone' and that's what got us on KDAY [AM 1580, Los Angeles]. And, after that, once the gangsta stuff blew up, KDAY was like, 'Eh, well I guess we gotta play it if you've got the clean versions.' So we had to go back and do clean versions, and that's how it got on the radio."

People Don't Know: N.W.A. and the Posse was pretty much a scam by the group's first record company, Macola.

Arabian Prince: "The first record we ever did was called N.W.A. -- it wasn't called N.W.A and the Posse, it was just called N.W.A. -- and it was an EP with four or five songs on it. Then we left Macola Records to go to Priority Records. Macola, they were thieves at the time; they ripped everybody off. So when we left, they went back and took our EP and put a bunch of other crap on there -- that wasn't even us -- and called it N.W.A. and the Posse and turned it into an album."

People Don't Know: N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton lineup didn't have much street cred.

Arabian Prince: "Eazy was the only one in the hood who was really a real gangsta -- doing the drug thing, doing everything else. All the rest of us were just DJs. We were producers, we had done a lot of records, and that's how the whole thing came together. Cube wasn't actually doing anything. He was in school [in Phoenix] until we brought him back. Ren was just Eazy's boy; he lived down the street from him. And, I mean, Ren wasn't really banging, but he was probably the next closest thing to Eric (Eazy). If you had to go in order it would be Eric, Ren, then probably me and Dre because he grew up in Compton. So did I. It wasn't like we were pushovers, but we weren't no gangstas. Then I would go probably Ice Cube, then Yella. Yella was about as far from gangsta as you could possibly get. He was more close to freakin' Morris Day and the Time."



People Don't Know: Being famous is over-rated.

Arabian Prince: Arabian Prince is, was, and always will be a businessman. Unlike a lot of guys involved in the loose early days of the group -- when everyone contributed what they could in the studio (often without getting a writing credit) -- he filed lawsuits to collect his share of the group's royalties.

"I made so much money back then 'cuz I still got all my royalties off of everything. I had to sue them and do some other stuff, but I got it," he says. "I never was the cat that wanted the fame -- I've been making records since I was in school -- so I always wanted to behind the scenes. And so when I had the opportunity to kinda duck back behind the scenes, that's what I did."

Prince says he has plenty of money as a result but also doesn't fear for his safety the way so many guys from the gangsta rap scene do.

"I have no enemies. I can go anywhere, walk down the street, play golf. I can go to the mall, I can go to these events with these cats. I DJ all around the world. I just have fun, man. I think that's the life, man. You've got to be able to enjoy your money and your success and not [have] TMZ is all up in your face every time you get out of your car. Or every time you go to the club, you've got to have a bodyguard because people are trying to get after you."

Ice Cube Goes Off In Anaheim, CA Concert Recap

As reported by Nate Jackson at the OC Weekly

"Surreal" doesn't even begin to describe the feeling that comes from standing an arms length away from Ice Cube at last night's show (Sunday, Dec. 13) at the Grove of Anaheim. In the roaring darkness punctuated by flashing cameras, the aura of rap's grittiest gangster rapper-turned-actor is palpable seconds before the show explodes with blaring stage lights and gunshot blasts from the DJ booth.

Strutting on stage with longtime friend and collaborator W.C. ( Dub-C) of West Side Connection, Cube's arrival was met with a hero's welcome after an hour and a half anticipation. It has been over a year since the release of Cube's latest album, Raw Footage, and by most accounts, the Grand Wizard opted to make this a night of gangster classics, allowing his fans to relive his rise to fame hit after hit, jam after jam.
As the sub woofers of the DJ Booth blasted with bone rattling bass, Cube opened with a viable list of classics that included "How to Survive in South Central", "Hello" and "Natural Born Killaz" as a gathering storm of chronic mist rose from different sections of the shadows. At various points, Cube and W.C. were satisfied with the deafening crowd response, often pausing to salute fans with a trademark gangsta grimace. Even after almost three decades of watching Cube and his crew rap from the gut about street life and West Coast hustle, his booming voice still sent chills through the audience as he punctuated the end of venerable 90s jams like "Check Yo Self" with the night's trademark phase: "Hell mutha f**kin' yeah!"

Read the full concert review here:
OC Weekly - Last Night: Ice Cube at the Grove of Anaheim

PHOTOS:
Orange County Register

(video courtesy of mrsjimenez678)

Ice Cube: 'Straight Outta L.A.' Raider Documentary L.A. Times Article

(photo courtesy of Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The title of (Ice) Cube's project, "Straight Outta L.A." is a play on the title of the landmark album he and gangsta rap group N.W.A. recorded just over 20 years ago, "Straight Outta Compton."

"Straight Outta L.A.," which does not yet have an air date, chronicles how the Raiders between 1982 and the team's announced departure in 1995 were embraced by gangsta rappers as hip-hop exploded on the music scene. In one of the first instances of merchandising synergy between sports teams and cultural cliques, rappers started wearing Raiders gear -- black and silver jackets, hats and hoodies emblazoned with the team's logo of an eye-patch-wearing pirate. They showed up at games, and their rowdy behavior was an integral element of the ambience that intimidated calmer fans.

Said Cube, "I thought I had died and gone to heaven when they moved here." He and others responded to the team's outsider persona. "It was like the way it was with rap. We got tired of trying to play the mainstream game. So we decided we would just do records for the 'hood."

With the success of the group and his own solo work, Cube was able to buy Raiders season tickets. He pointed to a far-off section of the Coliseum: "There they are, around the 20-yard line, about 13 rows up. We'd come with the family, and with all the homies in their gear. The crowd was everything, from rowdy to tame. If you had the courage to be here, you belonged in Raider Nation."

Read the full article here:
Los Angeles Times - Ice Cube documents Raider love in 'Straight Outta L.A.'

In addition, Ice Cube vs Rod Woodson on ESPN in a quiz about the L.A. Raiders - Silver and Black Showdown.