Ice Cube
O’Shea Jackson, a.k.a Ice Cube, was born on June 15, 1969 to Doris Jackson, a hospital clerk and custodian, and Hosea Jackson, a grounds keeper at UCLA.
. He’s always been a family man, and his father taught him to be a leader, not a follower. As a kid, he lived in LA. He lived in a peaceful neighborhood, but in the 1980s, his neighborhood became a war zone. Drugs and gangs started to form and the police were around all the time.
In 1981 his sister, Beverly, was murdered at 22 by her boyfriend a few blocks from his street. O‘Shea was only 12 years old. After that, he started hardening his self to deal with all the violence around him. Cube didn’t become involved with b-boy culture until his late teens. At 16, Cube started to like hip hop music. He began writing raps in high school at William Howard Taft in their Keyboarding class.
In 1987, he went to the Phoenix institute of Technology in fall, and studied Architectural Drafting. In 1988, 19 year old Ice Cube formed a rapping group with his partner Sir Jinx called NWA meaning Niggers With Attitude. They performed at parties that Dr. Dre had. People said that Ice Cube had the voice that fit the raps it was angry, hard, tuff. Young Cube was 14 when he met Dre, who was 19.
Dre soon entered the recording industry and worked with the World Class Wreckin’ Cru. Dre saw how much talent Cube had him help with writing Wreckin’ Cru’s big L.A. hit track called “Cabbage Patch”. In 1987, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre released “My Posse” under the alias CIA.
After that, Cube showed Eazy-E the lyrics to “Boyz-n-the-Hood. Eazy-E didn’t like the lyrics at first, but eventually recorded the song for NWA and the Posse. The debut album for the group NWA included Cube, Dre, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. Cube was a full-time member of NWA by this time also, with Dr. Dre and MC Ren. Cube wrote Dr.
Dre and Eazy-E’s rhymes for their landmark album “Straight Outta Compton” witched was released in 1988. While everyone was partying and having fun, Ice Cube started to settle down with Kimberly, who soon became his girlfriend. As 1990 came up, ice cube rejected Jerry Heller’s, the group’s manager, proposed contract terms. He left the NWA and went solo in December of 1989. Because of this, the remaining NWA members attacked Cube on the EP “100 Miles and Runnin'” and also on their next final album, “Efil4zaggin” (Niggaz4life spelled backwards). In the late 1989s, Ice Cube recorded his debut solo album in Los Angeles with Public Enemy’s production team (the Bomb Squad).
In May of 1990, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” was released and was an instant hit. It rode and contributed to the rising tide of raps popularity in mainstream society. Sadly the album was charged with controversy and was accused of racism. After that Ice Cube appointed female rapper To-Yo (who appeared on AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted) to the head of his own record label and then he helped produce he debut album, “Make Way for the Motherlode”. “AmeriKKKas Most Wanted” was the first rap record that went platinum and gold.
This was followed by a critically acclaimed role as ‘Doughboy’ in John Singleton’s hood-based drama, “Boyz n the Hood’ After dating Kim for 2 years, in 1990, they got engaged. Then in February 1991, O’Shea Jr. was born. After having O’Shea Jr., Kim and Cube wanted to buy a house.
Ice Cubes was denied his bonus money he was supposed to get, so he took a bat and tore up the producer’s office. Later Ice Cube got his advance in money. In August 1990, he got an opportunity to be in “Boys In The Hood”, a movie based on one of the songs he wrote. Ice Cube played Dough Boy and then the movie was released in 1991. Ice Cube started to become a movie star. Cube was at the top of the rap game, and started looking into the religion Islam, later he became Islam.
People said he started becoming a gangster politician after he changed his religion. In 1992 Predator came out and after, he married Kim. Surprisingly he ran into Eazy-E, and talked about getting NWA back together. They kept in touch, but sadly Eazy-E died 4 months later. Cube said “I didn’t go to his funeral. I didn’t want to remember my last visit with him of him in a coffin.
I wanted to keep the image of him walking away. That one’s more peaceful.” Ice Cube started doing more movies. By the age of 25, he has had major success by releasing 3 platinum albums. In 1994, he made a script; in 1995 “Friday” came out. He played the leading role.
It took $3,000,000 to make it and got more money out of it. Ice Cube Founded Cube Vision, which is now a major company. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre got together and remade the NWA., With Snoop Dogg filling in for Eazy E. Later they decided that their fans would never accept the new NWA and that the NWA would never be the same without Eazy.
After that, they broke up. That was the last of the NWA for good. He made the kids movie “Are We There Yet?” in 2005. And his fans saw his softer, family side. He proved to people that he’s not just a hard core rapper.
Now he has 4 kids, O’Shea Jr., Darryl, Sharif, and Kareema. His two oldest sons are on some of his records and have some of their own. They go on tour with him and sing sometimes too. “This is my dream,” Says Ice Cube.
“To have my two sons up here singing with me and seeing them do their thing and having fun doing it.” After 2 decades, he still continues to surprise us. And he said he’s just getting started. After his hard battle through the rap game, he went from a kid on the block with a dream, to a man who fulfilled his dream and now is making history.
