Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
I bought the first and second NWA albums when I was in college, and to me those albums were like listening to a documentary about a time and place I knew nothing about. I was never one of those kids who ran around pretending to be from the streets or someone who knew anything about the lives of the people on albums by Public Enemy, Ice T, or NWA, but for some reason I could not get enough of these albums. A big part of it was the production and soundscapes that these acts brought to the table, so when Ice Cube used Public Enemy's production team The Bomb Squad for his first solo album "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted," I just about lost my mind. There isn't an Ice Cube album I don't own, and there isn't an Ice Cube movie I haven't seen.
At first, it was easy keeping up with him since he was doing such great works as BOYZ N THE HOOD, TRESPASS, THE GLASS SHIELD, FRIDAY, ANACONDA, and what still might be his best work, THREE KINGS. The two BARBERSHOP movies are also highly watchable and incredibly insightful, but once Cube started making "family" films like ARE WE THERE YET?, FIRST SUNDAY, or even his latest LOTTERY TICKET, it was hard to stay true. What would the Ice Cube from 20-plus years ago say about the man today? But the one thing Ice Cube knows how to do is make money through his 10-year-old production company, Cube Vision, which has managed to be hugely successful with every movie and paved the way for the modern black-owned production houses like those run by Tyler Perry and Queen Latifah. Cube Vision puts out about a movie per year and has released such films as two of three FRIDAY films, both BARBERSHOP movies, ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS, THE LONGSHOTS, and is about to embark on its first live-action television series "Are We There Yet?" for TBS.
Clearly, there's a lot to talk to Ice Cube about, and there's no way I could do so in about 13 minutes. But we still managed to cover some ground in our brief chat here in Chicago last week. He was an incredibly cool dude, and I had a great time getting to talk to him. Enjoy Ice Cube…
Ice Cube: What’s up? Have a seat.
Capone: Good to meet you. So let’s just jump in, since we’ve got a limited time here. So let’s talk first about your director choice, because he’s a first time feature director. Why did you go with Eric [White] on this film? What did you like about him?
Ice Cube: Not just the fact that he was ready from his previous work [on music videos], but you know Alcon [Entertainment] came to us with this film. They contacted us and they said “Yo, we’ve got this interesting thing we think is ready in our wheelhouse. Would you be interested in taking a look at it?” They had Erik in mind, and you know, we were fine with working with a first-time director. That’s our specialty, so…
Capone: That’s true.
Ice Cube: So, we knew we could do it and we knew he could do it, because of just sitting down and meeting with him. We like to see where our first-time director’s heads are, and his was in the right place, and we just basically worked with him to pull it off.
Capone: Right. I know you pulled directors from music videos before, and music videos are a real nice shorthand to a person's visual style. Do you feel comfortable doing that a lot??
Ice Cube: Yeah and when you’ve got a niche so to speak with these 'hood comedies, you want to protect that. So you want to work with people who are willing to listen, willing to kind of do it the company's way. So when you get a first-time director, they are usually very talented in what they know how to do, but they are very receptive when they get in deep water and they don’t really know, and as a producer, this is when you want your director to listen, and you say “Hey, we should probably do it this way” “We should probably do it that way because then it’s cost efficient, and we can still get it done." When you get with more directors who have done films and have films under their belts, they tend to be stuck in their own ways of doing things, and we might not get the finished product that we want. So we basically want directors that are very receptive to our ideas and how we do things.
Capone: Cube Vision is now about 10 years old, is that right?
Ice Cube: Yeah.
Capone: And now you're getting into TV for the first time and you’re producing about a movie a year. Does that sound about right?
Ice Cube: Yeah, about that.
Capone: Tell me about that vision that you had initially, and is it where you wanted to be and where does it go from here?
Ice Cube: You know, it’s been a real fun ride. We’ve been constantly trying to grow our brand and get in a position where people trust us to the point where we can be on a little bit more cruise control as far as hustling for projects. I've come to realize that in Hollywood it’s always hard to get movies made, no matter how successful your company is and it’s always a challenge--from me to Steven Spielberg--to get movies made, and so you know you always wish you could get more movies made faster, and the process is always a lot slower than you want. But I’m happy with the position I’m in right now. We just got picked up for TBS, so this is 90episodes--automatic syndication.
Capone: I didn’t know it was that many, wow.
Ice Cube: Yeah. So, you know, it’s definitely taken our company into a new frontier and it’s cool, and I think we will end up doing more TV.
Capone: I love that Terry Crews is in it, that’s all I know.
Ice Cube: Yeah, definitely. We are going to let him loose, you know. We kind of had him in harness, because we wanted to make sure we got picked up, but now we get to let him loose.
Capone: I’ve seen him in three movies in the last week, too, including LOTTERY TICKET. Now I’ve heard you talk about this before, so if you don’t want to talk about it now that’s fine, but what happened with the last film that you did?
Ice Cube: THE JANKY PROMOTERS?
Capone: Yeah, I know you got in some stuff with the Weinsteins, but it blew my mind. It was like your first R-rated comedy in a while, plus it's you and Mike Epps together again. And pretty much every film that Cube Vision is involved with is a success, so how do they not just say, “We’ve got to put that out?”
Ice Cube: I don’t understand. It’s like the Weinsteins are an enigma of the industry. I don’t know why they wouldn’t cash in on that. I knew they were having financial issues, especially when things went crazy a couple of years ago with the stock market, so they lost their funding. But when we sat down with them they said “Look, we can’t put the money behind the movie to put it out in a big way.” So it was like, “Okay, well let us go sell the movie to somebody who can put it out,” and they were like “Okay, that’s fine. Sell it. You guys do that.” So while we are in the process of selling the movie, they go finish the movie and put it out on DVD and just kind throw it out like a Frisbee.
Capone: That’s just an outright lie.
Ice Cube: Straight up! And it was just a nightmare, because the movie was unfinished. If you ever see it, you will see that. It needs a few more days to lock in a few loose ends, and they just kind of threw it out there, and that’s the first time it ever happened to me--hopefully it will be the last time. And it was terrible, because I think that movie could have had a chance to do some business.
Capone: Back to LOTTERY TICKET, it is a message-heavy film to a certain degree, but it also seems really critical of people that get a lot of money in a hurry and then just blow it. It’s a cautionary tale. “Don’t spend it all at in one place” and “Give something back.”
Ice Cube: I think with a movie like this you can have a lot of fun, but if you don’t figure out a way to bring it together and give it a reason why, then you start to just figure out “What am I doing here?” So we wanted to have these little benchmarks through the movie where we can throw in a nice cool message along with everything fun that’s happening, and you know, it’s cool. I think people like it, you know. It might seem corny at times, but I think ultimately that’s what people really are looking for, “What is the message?” And it’s a message of, of course, “More money, more problems,” but also “Don’t forget who was there in the beginning.” Basically dance with the person that brought you.
Capone: And you’ve got Loretta Devine in here, who I know you have worked with before, and she is just like a gift in anything really.
Ice Cube: Exactly. She’s our anchor. We have a lot of 20 year olds in the movie, and she’s our anchor to let people know, “Okay, all generations can enjoy this movie.”
Capone: Do you see some of the newer actors gravitate to the veterans on your movies, like just for the stories or for advice?
Ice Cube: Always, always. I think people are in awe of people that have done work that they like or respected. Me and Bow Wow had a chance to talk a lot about acting, because we were in that room together for a few days. I’m happy when they want advice. You feel like, “Okay, if they want advice, maybe they are on the right track.”
Capone: Yeah, they don’t act like they know everything.
Ice Cube: Yeah, exactly.
Capone: Over the years as an actor, you have been able to work in just about every genre that there is out there. Are there still some things you would like to try as an actor?
Ice Cube: More dramas. I’m ain't gonna to say that my talent is being sucked with these comedies, but I think I’m leaving talent on the table by not doing more dramas and not showing my chops in that direction. When you are successful doing a certain thing, that’s what people want from you, and when I go into a movie meeting, they're like “I know about the drama you want to do, but have you got any hood comedies?” Do you know what I mean? [laughs] “We'll take two of those first.”
Capone: Do you have any dramas lined up right now?
Ice Cube: Yeah, we’ve got a movie--I’m not producing--but a movie that I’m going to be in called RAMPART.
Capone: With Woody Harrelson, yeah. I've heard about that.
Ice Cube: So that’s going to be cool.
Capone: And you play a police officer in that, right?
Ice Cube: I play a homicide detective.
Capone: Is this the first time you have done that?
Ice Cube: No… well, I kind of play… I’ve played military. This is the first time I think I’m playing a cop. I’ve played a bounty hunter, but this is the first time I’m playing a cop, but it’s cool because I’m going after dirty cops.
Capone: Still though, based on your musical background, that’s a little wild. I’ve heard you talk about yourself and your achievements in comparison to some of the old-school musicians who have turned to acting and producing like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.…
Ice Cube: I’m not comparing myself to them, I’m just saying…[laughs]
Capone: Right, I mean it’s like the opportunities that you’ve built for yourself, not in terms of your music or your acting, but in terms of a business. Is that kind of who you model yourself after?
Ice Cube: I think I was making a point that I’m not the first guy to ever do it, that it’s been done for years. People are so amazed that you come from music and you can act and do all of that, but if you remember old Hollywood, you had sing and dance and do all of these things before you can even get on the screen. So I was just letting people know that it wasn’t far fetched that from Bing Crosby to Nat King Cole to Sammy Davis Jr. to Elvis Presley and on and on, people have always come from music to films.
But I don’t really model myself after that. You know, you’re a writer--you don’t think you're a writer, you’re not trying to be a writer--you are! So you're doing what you do, and that’s how I feel when I get into Hollywood that they might look at me like “Oh, this rapper came over here to direct.” But no, I’m a filmmaker just like anybody else and approach it that way.
Capone: Great. Cube, thank you so much, man.
Ice Cube: No problem. Thanks for coming.
Capone: When’s that new album coming out?
Ice Cube: September 28. "I Am the West" is the title.
Capone: Okay, I‘m looking forward to that too. I’m a huge fan of the music too.
Ice Cube: This record is dope. It’s a nice California, feel-good, West Coast gangster rap.
Capone: Excellent. Alright, thanks.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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