Actors - Ice Cube

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	Actors - Ice Cube

Ice Cube (born O'Shea Jackson on June 15, 1969 in South Central Los Angeles) is an American actor and rapper. He began his career as a member of the controversial rap group N.W.A, and later launched a successful solo career in music and cinema. In recent years, Ice Cube's acting career has taken center stage in his life, and he has taken much time off from rapping. Regardless, he is considered one of the most influential and iconic figures in the hip hop industry. His most significant and influential work will likely remain the Politics rap songs that brought him stardom and displayed to the world his lyrical talent.

Rise To Fame

Ice Cube was raised in South Central Los Angeles by his parents, both of whom were employed at UCLA. He began writing raps while attending school at William Howard Taft High School. Cube and a friend, Sir Jinx, rapped as a partnership called C.I.A. at parties hosted by Dr. Dre. After a brief stint in a group called "HBO", Cube showed Eazy-E "Boyz 'N Da Hood" and the pair, plus Dr. Dre, and MC Ren formed N.W.A. Cube took one year off to earn a degree in architectural drafting in Phoenix in 1987 but returned in time to help create N.W.A's debut album, Straight Outta Compton. The album earned the group serious notoriety, from the FBI and concerned citizen and parent groups. Ice Cube's contribution to this status was significant, as he performed the lead verse for the album's infamous track "Fuck tha Police."

Solo career

During 1989, Ice Cube felt he was not being treated fairly by the group's management (Eazy and Jerry Heller). Consequently, Cube left N.W.A due to these and other financial and personal conflicts in 1989. With Da Lench Mob and the Bomb Squad (Public Enemy's producers), Cube recorded his debut solo album in New York City. AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted was released in 1990 and was an instant hit, riding and contributing to the rising tide of rap's popularity in mainstream society. Racist lyrics in his material have provoked controversy: "Black Korea" was a song against Korean shopowners, which helped inspire the rise of Korean rap group Drunken Tiger, and songs such as "Enemy" and "Cave Bitch" were songs against "devils", which was a popular derogatory term at the time for white people. As much as Cube thrives on the shocking and the profane, it becomes clear upon listening that he isn't glamorizing the harsh urban realities he raps about, but protesting them. Cube takes some controversial stands, referring to certain types of African-Americans as "Oreo cookies", implying that they appear to be black but are actually willing participants in the racial hierarchy that keeps the majority of African-Americans living in poverty-stricken and drug-riddled ghettos; specifically, this is aimed at soft-pop-R&B radio stations broadcasting a watered-down sound.

Arsenio Hall is specifically mentioned as being such a "sell-out". The titular song on the album directly parodies the television show, "America's Most Wanted", exposing the perceived racism inherent in watching largely African-American men being arrested for entertainment. Partially to help deflect criticism, Cube appointed a female rapper named Yo-Yo (who appeared on AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted) to the head of his own record label and helped produce her debut album, Make Way for the Motherlode. That was followed by a critically acclaimed turn in Boyz N the Hood
, a movie by John Singleton. The film turned Cube into a Hollywood star, as he garnered critical praise for his role as "Doughboy".

Cube's 1991 follow-up, Death Certificate was even more controversial. It shows an angrier and very more aggressive side of his than that expressed on AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. The album itself has many racist, homophobic and discriminating slurs throughout the songs and demonstrates Cube's "freedom of speech". It is widely known as Cube's most focused and best political work and is considered his best album by many fans. The album is thematically divided into the Death Side (a vision of where we are today) and the Life Side (a vision of where we need to go). A few songs in the album featured Cube's hate for "Uncle Sam" and American politics, and a bonus track named "No Vaseline" was his diss track aimed at his former N.W.A bandmates and his manager Jerry Heller. The album was re-released in 2003 with another bonus track from 1991, "How to Survive in South Central," which came on the Boyz N the Hood
soundrack. Cube toured with Lollapalooza in 1992, which widened his fan base. Also during that that year, he converted to the Nation of Islam.

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Actors - Ice Cube

Rise To Fame

Solo career

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