Ice Cube Quotes

I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat.

Embrace what makes up you. Some stereotypes are true - I love chicken, but that's a stereotype, I love f**king basketball, but that's a stereotype, too. But who cares? Embrace it. Be who you are, and don't be ashamed of what that is.

I could do an interview or just as well not do one. It's not like I'm looking for extra publicity.

I don't consider myself ever joining. But I have affiliations, for sure.

Most of the problems that we have are brought on by the government and not by music. Music is a mirror of what we're going through, not the cause of what we're going through.

It's always been jewelry, clothes, appearance. Those are things that compete with the car. But the car is the ultimate. Get that car right and it doesn't matter what you got on or what you wear once you step out of that car.

I'm just an entertainer, man. I don't like to pigeonhole myself to anything. I love to do it all.

You can't boycott something you never went to anyway,so why put energy into it?

I think [director] Malcolm Lee is a real master at being able to make you laugh while bringing serious subject-matter, so the movie doesn't hinge on silliness, but on real life.

A lot of people have a misconception of what the ghetto is all about. You know, it's only a small percentage of the people that are bad. Everybody else is good.

My thing is, I know kids cuss, they do their thing, but I tell my kids, 'Don't do it in earshot of any adults, or you're in trouble.'

South Central is just who I am.

There's rumors in the Twittersphere. If I find out that any of my officer is giving out drug and alcohol I send their ass to prison with a snorkel duct-taped to their mouth and me s***ing down that Snorkel

Sometimes guys just want the girl and want to drop the kids off anywhere they can. Guys it’s a package. You like a woman, she’s got kids, it’s a package. You can’t just go in one-sided. It’s pretty cool.

I don't get nothing but love. In every ghetto all over the world. Nothing but love. They respect that I came outta there and I'm doing it the right way. You can't do nothing but respect that.

I always said that what I do is street knowledge, you let the street know what the politicians of today are doing, and if the politicians are listening, let them know what the streets think.

Run DMC brought us out of that underground-only feel. They brought rap above ground and made it respectable as an art form to mainstream music.

You can measure films on box office success, or people lovin' the movie whenever they see it. That's what I measure my movies on. How much people love these movies after they get a chance to see them, no matter how they get a chance to see them.

Music has done a lot to enhance the emotions of sports. It's played in arenas. Whenever there is footage cut together they're always using music. And it goes together, you know.

It's easier for me to get comedies made because of my track record. Everybody needs to find their niche. I love dramas, but I understand that I am still just a young man in moviemaking. I know there will be some time to get back to that.

I'm not actually from Compton - I'm from South Central Los Angeles, and my father still lives in the same house I grew up in, so I'm there all the time.

Well, for the transition from rapper to actor, I was fortunate that director John Singleton pursued me for about two years to be in Boyz 'N the Hood. I really wasn't even thinking about acting at the time, since I was singularly focused on being the best rapper in the world. So, that was really a blessing, because I wasn't really taking him seriously.

"Are We There Yet?" was the perfect title, because it's such a common saying. And having made the movie with the same name kinda locks it all in.

Cinderella hoein' for the fellas, Mr. Roger was getting kind of jealous.

I think my fans respect me for bein' as truthful and honest as you can be and still be Rap music and not be opinion music. It's still Rap, its still style, flavor, flair, and people just kind of like how I present myself and the things that I do.

The devil made you a slave. Your waitin' for the devil to come from the ground. Take a look around. Just look at the cross that the priest is holdin'. A beast, in sheep's clothin'. You are the prince of darkness. Hell born, demonic.

I was ready to get out of the box and play something a little different than what everybody has seen.

I get freedom out of hip-hop. I get to be a true artist without any shackles or harnesses.

Gangsta to us didn't have anything to do with Al Capone and stuff like that. It's just about living your life the way you want to live it. And you're not going to let nothing stop you.

I definitely support cop acting more than cops, but all of them ain't bad, just some of them.

I'm always the "less is more" guy when it comes to a scene. So I'ma be the one who will keep it grounded. Even if I let it go off and go crazy, I'm still the voice of keeping things grounded in reality.

If you love what you do, and you believe in your talent, there's nothing better than breaking through. There's no better feeling than breaking through.

We have to step up as adults and try to guide our youth.

Keep everybody out your business, that's how you do it. And I mean everybody. It ain't about having a relationship outside of the house. It's about having a relationship within each other. When something go down don't be calling your sister or your mother; I'm not gonna be calling my brother or uncles. We're gonna work it out.

We're in this entertainment business really to give the audience what they want.

I like to tell the streets what the political climate is, and I like to tell any politicians that's listening what the streets think. And sometimes people get nicked up and bruised up, but I usually have a lot of good medicine for that.

I figured, when I make a movie, especially earlier in my career, one thing I was going to make sure was that the movie doesn't cost a lot and that it has potential to make a lot of money. That's how you get respect in Hollywood.

You can do anything in the world if you say "Hey man, don't blame me, the devil made me do it. It's an easy way to escape responsibility."

The '80s was wild compared to my real small childhood, which was late '70s.

Can't step from one movie set to the next. Only Samuel L. Jackson can do that. All us mere mortals can't do that!

You don't have to be super clean to be a super star

You can't pussyfoot around. When you're talking to lions, you can't meow like a pussycat.

I love performing. I'll never get that out of me.

You wanna be remembered for making an impact and changing things.And I guess for the good or for the bad, it don't matter. But I guess you just wanna be remembered when it's all said and done.

I believe our society has fell into a pyramid system where there's people relegated to the bottom of that pyramid and there's people that feel like they're entitled to the top of that pyramid.

My son, O'Shea. He looks like me, and he can rhyme.

The '80s was brand new. It was AIDS. It was gangbanging. It was starting to become big dope-dealing, and crack was starting to flood the neighborhoods. And then you had hip hop, which was something new, other than what we were doing, which was sports, playing football, basketball, baseball. And I was excited.

Our records, if you have a dark sense of humor, were funny, but our records weren't about comedy. They were about protests, fantasy, confrontation and all that.