 All right. It is my honor and privilege to welcome Ice Cube into the zone, man. This is, I've interviewed a lot of great people here, but it's, uh, I'm truly honored to have you here, man. Well, it's great to be here. You know, let's talk some basketball. All right. Let's do it. Let's, well, before we get to basketball, though, I heard, I know somebody that went to high school with you played football and he said you were a really good football player running back. He said you made like all league as a freshman. Yeah. Yeah. I played full back. You know, I played outside linebacker too. And yeah, you know, try to do my thing. I thought, you know, that was the direction I was going to go in, you know, until I started hanging really with Dr. Dre a lot. Okay. And then from there, I said, I want to get into music. So I just quit the team. So you stopped playing. Well, I just didn't play the next year. I played the full season, but just didn't play the next year. It was like, you know, be up at the school playing football all day or go hang when it's time to hang and try to, you know, double and double in music. And I wanted to, I wanted to pursue music. Okay. So, you know, I quit the team. Who would you run like running back? Who would you compare yourself to? Man, you know, full back, you're blocking most of the time. You know what I'm saying? I didn't really think about that. You know, I just thought about when they gave it to me, just get as many yards as I could. I used to like playing defense the most. Okay. You know, outside linebacker. I used to like to hit people more than getting hit. What kind of basketball player were you? Did you play on the basketball team or anything? I tried out for the team, but I think the coach was hating on me because, you know, by playing football, you're always late to everything basketball. So, but, you know, I just tried to play point guard. And, you know, I used to love to play basketball. And, you know, once again, realize, y'all, this is not my calling. I need to go do something that I'm really good at. And I got a shot at. And so, you know, I stopped playing and switched to music. So you want to talk, let's talk a little bit of basketball. NBA Finals, Golden State, Cleveland. Yeah. Who you, it looks like Cleveland's in trouble. What you think? Well, it was always in trouble. And not about how to play. They got one great player. Yeah. Not about, like, the player skill. I think each player they have has certain skills that can work, but they just haven't been together long enough to win a championship, you know. And when you think about it, they shouldn't win because when you just throw a team together like that, how could you win a championship? How could we trust the, you know, the process, so to speak, when you're just throwing teams together and you can go win a championship? So, you know, Golden State should win because they have a better, more cohesive team. So, you know, if the game lord is correct, that team should win. How many games you got? You know, maybe four or one. Four, that's what I'm thinking. I know you a Laker fan, so I assume you want LeBron here next year. Yeah. I mean, if that's the piece that's going to move us forward, you know, LeBron, I don't think LeBron gets us to the championship, you know, not in the West. What about LeBron and Paul George? Because that's, I don't think he'd come by himself. I think it'd be LeBron and Paul George. I mean, who would turn that down? I think, you know, that could work. I'm still not sure what kind of, what kind of player as far as cerebral player that Paul George is, you know, is he. But you'd have LeBron for that. Yeah, you know, so that may work unless Paul is hiding his ego we don't really see. And then it don't work when, because some people just don't want to take a back seat to nobody. That's how Kobe was. So, you never know, you know, LeBron and Clay, you know, I think that dynamic. I'd rather have Clay. I just, I think he's going to stay in Golden State though. Yeah, I mean, it depends, you know, it's like this. In Golden State, he's cruise control, you know what I mean? He can kind of, you know, be, you know, do whatever he needs to do each night, you know, he don't have to carry no load. But his numbers are suffering and, you know, he's going to want another contract sooner later. So is that going to bother him to the point where he say, look, I got three rings, might as well cash out now and go somewhere and get them numbers and cash out again. You know what I'm saying? So I think the Lakers is a great spot. I think he knows the organization. I don't know why, you know, I'm going to, I need to call Mitch Kupchak and say, what's up, man? How did, how did he slip through your fingers, man? What's up? I know he was around the facility shooting a couple jumpers that Michael, you know, it's like, I know Michael said, Hey, man, peep out my son. What happened? You know, so I got some issues with why we don't have Clay time. So you a big clay, that's your pitch to clay. I get it. Now, if magic called you and said, look, we want you to come and talk to LeBron. He's thinking about Philadelphia. He's thinking about Houston. We want him here. We want you to sell him on the Lakers. What would you say? Nope. That ain't my job, magic. Do your job, baby. So you ain't got no sales pitch to LeBron? No, because I don't want to have nothing to do with whether he comes or not. You know, I don't want people to be like, damn, cute. You couldn't deliver. What's up, man? What you say to me? You know, I want, I'd rather magic do his job. He's getting paid the big bucks. And I sit back and be a fan, stay a fan. And, you know, I'm happy with the leadership. So whatever decision they make, it's prior decision they have to make for whatever reason. I'll be more upset if they get rid of Randall. I mean, I love, really. It'll be interesting to see if they can keep him. He's a walking double-double. Yeah. Yeah. On a bad team, though. Let's see. I think he could play like that on the good. I think he's really learning what he can do on the court and that when he's, when he's going, nobody want to guard him. So I heard you on undisputed earlier say you got MJ over LeBron and the goat conversation, which I'm with you on that kill the goat, but let's go. I mean, I want to kill that goat conversation. Oh, you do? Yeah. Because I mean, greatest of all times is just silly. It is. Oh, so you don't even like having the conversation? Nah, because we haven't seen all time. All time is a long time. So we don't know what's coming down the pipe. And to call somebody greatest of all time is just insulting to the unborn hoopsters in the world who could turn up greater than all of them. Okay. Okay. So you don't have any goat in your mind. There's no goat. There's no goat. There's just, you know, kings of eras. Okay. So it's similar to rapping, right? In a way. It's hard to pick the, I mean, nobody. There is no goat rapper. Everybody got their own opinions. Yeah. Yeah. And how, you know, can the goat be the goat? If he the student and he learned from a teacher, you know, LeBron wouldn't know how to play like that without Jordan. But people like me need something to do though. So that's cool. It's cool. I mean, talking about which player I would rather have on my team, you know, without a question is Michael Jordan. And it's all between the ears, you know, it's cool to be born with those great gifts and then go out there and display your God-given talent. But it's another thing to have to reach down inside and use whatever talent God gave you to conquer. It's just a different mentality. And that's why I get an edge to Jordan. Now that's interesting. You say that because I think LeBron is second best of all time to Jordan. But most ex-players I talk to, they always like, why ain't Kobe in the conversation? You know, because we just make it Jordan LeBron. You a Lakers fan, do you have Kobe? Would you rather Kobe than LeBron? Yes. Okay. So tell me the same kind of thing? Same reason. You know, it's all between the ears. And, you know, I just feel like, to me, Kobe and LeBron are two different players, you know. LeBron is, you know, a great, you know, teammate, so to speak, you know what I mean? But, you know, Kobe is like an assassin. You know, he's like, would you compare Kobe? Would he be more gangster rap than LeBron? If you had to put it in hip hop genres? Because he got that more. Attitude-wise, yeah, yeah. Attitude-wise, yeah. But if LeBron could get gangster, he got bully ball. You know, he can do bully ball. Kobe can take your heart, you know what I mean? So, yeah. I want to get to a little some of your story, too, but first I want to hit you with a little rapid-fire question. All right. All right. Your favorite rapper, obviously, other than yourself? Um, 20 Chuck D and Melly Mel. Melly Mel, okay. Going way back. Yeah, because they are trendsetters and they change the trajectory of the music with their music. So, you know, everybody was hip hop, hibbity, hibbity, hip hop and throw your hands in the air waving like they just don't care to Melly Mel came. It was like a child that was born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind. So, that changed the trajectory of rap. So, the Chuck D, you know, showing that it wasn't all about us as individuals, but all about us as a union. So, those are my two favorite rappers. Who do you think changed it on the West? I remember the first West Coast rapper I think I remember was Egyptian Lover. You know? Yeah, he was Egyptian Lover. He got the LA Dream team. He got a world-class Wrecking Crew. You know, Ice T. Ice T seems like he changed. He's the, you know, the pioneer Pied Piper of what we call gangster rap. He's the, to me, the first one that you know, gave it a form even though it was hard records done by, you know, you can't, you know, school-y D and publicant. I mean, not publicant me, but Karras won with Criminal Mind. So, it's been, you know, if you, if you change the game, you got to be one of the best to me. I was going to ask you about the gangster, the way NWA changed it. Obviously, you guys are viewed as the pioneers of gangster rap. And you mentioned some of the ones that, you know, they have some songs here and there that were like that, but you guys just went straight, you know, y'all took it to another level. What made you guys do that? And, you know, at that time, I mean, you wasn't getting airplayed because of it and stuff like that. What made y'all go that hard when we really hadn't seen anybody do it consistently like that? Um, we just felt like that was our path. We didn't think that we would ever get radio play or that, you know, a group like ours would ever hit the national stage. So, we just started doing records that we felt were working our neighborhood and that was our path. That's what we felt. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Favorite rap group other than NWA, I guess would it be Public Enemy? You mentioned? It would be Run DMC because they showed us how to be pros. I mean, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five is there and Public Enemy is there, but Run DMC really took it and made it, I think, worldwide music. You got a favorite rap song other than One Young? I'll probably say The Message or Rebel Without a Pause or Fight the Power, One Girl Songs. What's your favorite Ice Cube song? I don't really have a favorite one. You know, I never like, I think about them as my kids. So, you know, they all got their own place in my heart, but I don't have a favorite. Do you have a favorite R&B group? I guess it would be, you know, between Ozzy Brothers, Parliament Funkadelic, which has funk and maybe Jackson's, you know. Favorite movie? Wow. My favorite movie is Jaws. Really? Yeah, it's my favorite movie. Wow. You were young when that came out, too. Yeah, I was. You know, it's just to me, a movie that is, it's the reason why you go to the movies. It's perfect on all levels. Storytelling. You know, Fear, Adventure. Yeah, I think it's perfect movie. Favorite sports movie of all time? My favorite sports movie of all time. Wow. You know, I just saw a few movies, you know, recently that were great. I wouldn't call my favorite of all time. It's hard to say, but Draft Day was great. Moneyball was a great movie. But, you know, I go back to movies like All the Right Moves, which is a great movie. Tom Cruise did it years ago. You know, it's been a few great ones. All right. Favorite Laker of all time? Magic Johnson. Okay, okay. Favorite food? I guess steak. I guess that's what I get most excited to eat. Favorite sneaker? Chuck Taylor's. Really? Yeah. Okay. You got a ton of those? I got so many pairs of Chuck Taylor's. It's crazy. Better actor, you or your son? It seems like he's better. Yeah, it seems like he's better. You know, he, you know, he's gotten off to a great start. Did you, when you, because my girl, I got girls now they're 20 twins, but they grew up, you know, we took them to see Are We There? Yeah, and all those movies, football movie. Yeah, yeah. It was long shots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they remember you, they know you from that. And I'm always like, man, this was one of the hardest rappers. Even the innovators are gangsta rap. Yeah. When you started doing those types of family, friendly movies, did you ever think, sit down and say, you know what, okay, this doesn't fit my image. Could, how could this affect my image and hip hop or anything like that? Or what was that process like if there was any to it? I don't really care about no image. You know what I mean? I just be myself. And I figured, you know, my fans who have been down with me for years, got kids. And, you know, I don't, I don't want them saying, that's Ice Cube. He's a rapper. He, you know, trying to tell them who I am. I'd rather do something and they know who I am. So that's when I decided movies like, you know, started off really with Barbershop. You know, that was my first like PG-13 comedy that wasn't really full of like R rated content. So I was like, yo, can we push it to PG? That's what I did over there yet. Long shots. You know, these are movies that I think, you know, kids can get into, you know, instead of maybe the Friday movies, you know what I mean, which are for kind of for older fans. So it was just a calculated decision to make sure that I stay relevant in the same households as I was relevant before and by connecting with the youth in those households. And, you know, at some point, I'm going to say, my fans got grandkids and I'm going to do another one. You know what I mean? So it's really, that's really what it's all about. Now you also doing, of course, the owner of the Big Three, creator of the Big Three, of all the retired players ever, if they all could play, who would your ideal Big Three team be? Oh man, I would go with, I mean, Magic, Kareem, and Jordan. I don't think you can beat that team. Yeah, that's a pretty good team. I can't beat that. That's pretty simple. Yeah. In five years from now, where would you like to see the Big Three? Um, I'd like to see it as, I would like to see people looking forward to our season, like they look forward to the NBA coming on the NFL. I would like people to be like, man, here we go with Big Three basketball. So I would like to get the fan base up and get people excited. I would like for us to be, you know, on the world stage. We're trying to create, you know, on the under, you know, a world cup of three on three basketball. So we're, you know, we go to China this, this month and we're trying to start Big Three China. No, we're trying to start a Big Three China. Just players from China? Yeah. Well, Asia, China, try to get players a league going there where maybe their champion is good enough to come play in our summer league here. Same with Brazil, same with other countries. Just make this a worldwide thing because, you know, three on three is in the Olympics. Everybody's going to have to step up the game and, and, you know, Big Three, you know, is the standard for professional three on three basketball. You know, FIBA got their thing going, but, you know, their, theirs to me is a more amateur game. This here is a more professional version. So we think people can, can really cut their teeth in our league and get ready for the Olympics. Do you ever think about a Big Three league in America, you know, just regular dudes that didn't play in the NBA? Have you thought about that? Well, you know, we were always looking to see, you know, the natural progression of the league and, you know, it could get to that point where we're just saying, yo, you can ball, come ball. But we're not there yet. You know, we're still trying to turn people on to the sport and what it can be. And so, you know, we feel like this formula is the best formula for now, but you never know. Now, T.O. last year, Terrell Owens, he wanted to play any thought to letting nine, you know, like other pros that weren't in the NBA, NFL, baseball, anything like that. No, you know, I promise the guys that they'll play with their peers, you know, not saying that T.O. can't play in the Big Three. I don't know, you know, I would have to see him, you know, really go up against this kind of, this competition, you know, going this, at this level. So I don't know, but, but, you know, I promise the guys that they'll play against their peers, I think we have to be careful to not look like a gimmick, but look like a actual pro league. And these guys are getting paid. They're not playing for free. So it's really all about maintaining integrity of the league and making sure that three on three basketball grows in a healthy manner. And it doesn't turn into, you know, some sideshow stuff. That's good. That's smart. A couple of quick questions about your rapping. I read on the internet, you started rapping. You wrote your first rapping typing class? Yeah. That's how it started. Typing. You know, I was one of those type writers, you know, who wasn't even electric. Yeah, you know, we would get these assignments to do, and I started to actually be able to type pretty fast, you know, so I would finish fast and be just sitting there. And one of my homies named Kitto was like, we was talking about, actually talking about L.L. Newt record, because we was trying to get a hold of it because we heard he was going around on bootleg. Was that radio? No, it was a bigger endeavor. Okay. He kept saying he knew somebody had it. I didn't believe him because back then, you know, bootleg stuff wasn't just everywhere when it came to music. So anyway, he was like, we just got off. He said, you ever write a rap before? I was like, no, I never wrote a rap or even tried to rap. He said, you write one and I'll write one. We'll see which one's the best. Wow. And I just started typing out a rap. So you hadn't thought about rap, even though you was big in the hip hop, I guess. I was a fan. I was just a fan. I just thought we were going to be, you know, the Wrecking Crew were DJs. So you were down with them already before you start writing? Yeah, I was real cool with Dre. I wouldn't say down. They weren't letting us hang with them. But we were cool. But they were just DJs. So I thought that was the extent, because all I saw was DJ crews like Uncle James' Army, which Egyptian lover came in front was a DJ crew. Wrecking Crew was a DJ crew. So I felt like, you know, we can be fans and play the music, but none of us was really good enough to do it. Wow. Wow. So who came up with the name NWA? I want to get a credit to Easy, but it's between Easy and Dre, because they just came to pick me up one day and they had that name like, like they had been talking about it all day. So they just told me the initials, and I was like, just the dumbest name I ever heard of, you know, just initials NWA. What does that mean? When they told me what it mean, I was like, oh, okay, that's dope. I like that. And so I was with it. But not at first. I was like, that's, that's just letters. Nobody was doing that as much back then. So when you left, you know, then they went at you and you came back with no Vaseline. Last time you were here, you told me that you wrote that, or I don't know if you wrote it, but you on a fishing trip, or you were fishing, you decided to do it. Well, the owner of the label, one of the owners had kept telling me he wanted to take me on, take me on his boat. And, you know, I was ducking him, ducking him, ducking him. And he just was like, yo, you can't duck me no more. We got to go out. I got, I got something to tell you. So we went out on the boat, you know, we're fishing. I'm really like bored, like ready to go anyway. But I'm entertaining it. And it's like, man, I want to play your record off the new NWA record. So he played it. So I was hot. I was mad. I'm ready to go now. So at that point, though, you thinking y'all, you didn't have any beef with them at that point? Well, I didn't diss them on America's most wanted. So I felt like, you know, there's no reason for them to diss me. It was a business decision. So when they did, I felt like, okay, they taking it there. And that's when I really just waited for the trip to be over. But when I got home, I like wrote it in like 90 minutes. And then just went to the studio. And I held it for a minute. I was just trying to figure out what's the perfect track. And when I when I found the perfect track, I was like, yo, I mean, that's one of the best, maybe the best, this record of all time. So you deal with a lot of police brutality in your lyrics, NWA with NWA and after that. And to see it still happening, obviously. We've seen town halls with athletes and the president and police commissioners and all that. What do you think needs to be done to just end this? I mean, it's it's that's 20 years ago, you were writing about it. And it's still going on. I think it's got to be a lot of retraining going on. I think I think police should should have to do mandatory psycho evaluation. It should be mandatory. It shouldn't be if I got a problem, I got to go talk to somebody. It's like, no, you scheduled to talk to somebody every Wednesday at this time about what's going on. And it should be off the record. So it's not going to go in your files, not going to go in this. It's just somebody to talk to somebody to let to help you dissect all the stuff that's going on with you. You know, those type of things need to happen. But, you know, the police changing the way they do things is not going to happen because their objectives are different than our objectives. Our objectives is civil rights. Our objectives is treat people fair. Their objective is make it home tonight. Period. Win and make it home tonight. So it's two different objectives going on here. So they're trained to win. Confrontation, situation, make it home tonight. And sometimes rights, sometimes humanity gets in the way of that. Do you understand? I mean, because you're right. I mean, they in any moment, I guess they could lose their life. Do you understand I guess the tension there? Because like you said, there's tension because both sides got different objectives. I understand the tension, but I don't understand the bullying. I don't understand a dude going to church kill nine people. And nobody's beating his ass on the way out. They're actually protecting him, putting him in, you know, bulletproof vests. But a kid mouthing off at the mall, y'all want to choke him out and beat him down. Kid going to the prime, he gets choked out. I mean, it's enough real suspects out there. It's enough people doing bad. You know, it's like, that's the part I don't understand. It's the bullying, which goes beyond, you know, these are situations where you know your life is not in danger, and you still ramping it up. So it just becomes simple, good old American bullying. Do they ever like have police commissioners or the police in general ever asked your opinion because of your history dealing with this, you know, lyrically and stuff like, you know, because that's, I think that's a great idea that I really haven't heard from any people. I think, you know, I don't know if they would care about my opinion. You know, I think they, you know, they have to change the way they look at the public and understand the job that they've chosen under oath to accept. Nobody's forcing you to be a police cop. Yeah. If you don't want to deal with this stuff, you shouldn't deal with it. But if you decide to, you've got to take them all to the restraint that the job entails because you're supposed to serve the public, not prey on the public. What's your feeling on the Kaepernick, the way he's dealt with it and obviously the repercussions that he suffered because of it? You know, I felt, you know, of course I feel for Kaepernick and, you know, I always felt that there was never a good outcome to this because you're taking a knee because of something that has to do with the outside world. You're taking a knee on the football field with something that has to do with the outside world, that the people that control this game can't fix that. So what's the end game? What was ever the end game to that? So it was always going to be a place where it never, it was never a solution to that problem. So I always felt like, you know, bringing awareness to the situation is cool. Falling on your, falling on the sword or being a martyr for the situation. I don't know if that solves the problem or gets us any closer to solving the problem. So that's why I feel for him, you know, because he's in that situation. Last thing before you go, I know we got to wrap up. What's one thing about Ice Cube that would surprise people? People don't know. I don't know, you know, because I don't really know everybody's perception of me. But, you know, I think, you know, what you see is what you get. And I try to be the same exact person I was before this music and before all this. You know, I don't know if that's surprising, but, you know, it's who I am. Man, I appreciate it, brother. Great stuff. And thank you for everything, man. You know, letting me come on here and do this. No, this was good. This was good. Pumping the big three in any kind of way. Oh, yeah. We're looking forward to the big three. And I know that I've been talking to the players. They all into it now. My man, Olden Palanese was on. He's had one of our best podcasts and he got cut. By the way, he was killing the big men. Well, he came out there. I wouldn't say killing it. He came out there, you know, and we gave him a shot. You know what I'm saying? What was cool is the players pick who they want to play with. So, I had nothing to do with it.