Ice Cube: From NWA Drama to 2 Billion Streams 🏆 | SWAY’S UNIVERSE

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one one one one we good we good we good what's up
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y'all feel great to be alive today right hold up it feel great to be alive today
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right this see we even need this is this on y'all can hear this all right listen
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this is a celebration number one we do a series now it's a new series here at SiriusXM in Pandora called the garage
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series way in the morning with Heather be and Tracy G so you're going to see a lot of this kind of activity happening in this
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Hub moving forward in 2025 so we just want to bring people who
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really about Community people who are really about Community people who are really about Community I have to say
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that three times people people who are really about culture and we have access
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to some of the most iconic people to come out of the community Through the culture they're human before that
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celebrities are before they're famous they no they're no different than we are right I shook everybody hand in here
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today so we are all connected all right we are all family so we going to treat
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this like a family function I really want y'all to be excited for Q I mean he
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been in our lives everybody's lives for different eras different points of Our Lives from childhood to adulthood and he
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been successful ever since so to me he's a role model in that sense of how we could break some of the gener AAL curses
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that we that we deal with right so we going to show him a lot of love but before we do every morning I'm
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surrounded by royalty some of the most beautiful powerful intelligent women in
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the game today okay I want I'm going introduce them I want y'all to show them love these beautiful black women that's
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about to step to this stage right now she's so eloquent I call her a vocab vix and give it up for the one and only Tracy
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G Tracy G
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[Applause] all right now the the next person about
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to come on stage she's she's the First on many for many reasons first ever africanamerican reality TV star you
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might have seen her on the big screen you might have seen her rocking with bdp you might have heard her Nike commercial
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you might have seen her on Luke Cage you might have seen her on what else was you on S okay yeah everything
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give it up for the legendary Heather [Applause]
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be absolutely God bless everybody ear all right so since the days of
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NWA uh I've been I'll tell you a quick story before I bring them out but uh what I started in De Bay with my partner
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King Tech we used to do everything in our we couldn't get a record deal so we let me start with that and we would do
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everything in our power to just kind of raise money and and bring awareness to our our record well our production
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company at that time and I remember we threw a party in Hayward California and it was the same day that NWA was
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performing and we we dreamt of man what if Dr Dre and Cube and Ren and all them coming to our party somehow these dude
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showed up to our party I don't know how and we was charging $20 at the door and
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remember they came to me and keing Tech and said yo NWA is here they at the door
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what you want us to do that's $2 a piece wow we charged them $20 you know
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and then they came in and Dre actually got on the turntables and I remember if whenever you meet somebody for the first
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time somebody you really look up to and idolize you stand next to them you kind of looking at them and just trying to
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see what's different about about and what I loved about them dudes they was just like me you know so all of his
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success and the inspiration he's created uh I knew that at some point we can do the same thing we can all do that cuz
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I'm just like y'all right we all just like each other so man down is the name of the project I want to set the tone
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real quick before I bring them out one of my favorite songs on the project is called Ghetto Story We G to set the tone
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for this conversation we're going to have with Cube and at some point I'mma ask all of y'all to get involved so if
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you got great questions nothing offensive you know that ain't what this is you know nothing derogatory that
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ain't what this is I will kindly walk you out myself you know but think about the questions we're going to let you
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engage in this too this is Ghetto Story sit down let me tell you a
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story about a young man trying to find his
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glory he did everything you can do in the streets to get his b yeah but if
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never stop for love life can be a [Music] stone more money more problem every
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since we got this money we continue squabbing I remember we used to be steady mobing everybody want to be
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Batman [ __ ] robing now when them things get the popping Choppers get the chopp L ones
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get the dropping when them Hearts get to stoping nobody cares about all the money that
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you clocking a bully on that [ __ ] got a bull I forgot he said he on demon time I'm on
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God's time this is oil and water your ass is with the devil I'm with the Holy Father you'll probably shoot your mama
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or extra Comm over marijuana pirana everybody say they want the bag yeah I
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want to get it but not that bad not that
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b about a boy trying to find his glory Glory
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Glory he did everything you can do in these streets to get a B everything but
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you don't stop be I'm trying to get dropped up
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without getting locked up I'm trying to lay in the cut without getting mopped up I'm trying to stand on my own and never
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get propped up the pirate class the flow can't get stopped up [ __ ] love money
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money love me please don't make me have to do ugly I'm trying not to be like a
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[ __ ] Thug be look at the sky this [ __ ] day is lovely I'm trying not to hate you F this little Caper why you
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[ __ ] trying to pull me out my nature when you a Laker everybody hat your [ __ ] [ __ ] on the internet always
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trying to bait you and if you take the bait they try to regulate I'll bust on they ass like war gnate and if you slip
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they'll do you like they did NP [ __ ] from your own hood send you on a trip
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people my ghetto story all better me trying to find his
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glory he did it [Music]
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allet you never
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stop I can't trust them no more we used to roll six F I can't trust them no more
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oh no oh no I can't trust them no more we used to run these hoes I can't trust them no more oh no oh no I can't trust
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them no more we used to roll six FES I can't trust them no more oh no oh no I
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can't trust them no more we used to run these hoes I can't trust them no
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more yes indeed man come on man I'mma ask y'all to stand up for this one man
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if you know if you if you feel like I feel about it man coming up to the stage he's iconic for so many reasons mostly
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because he's kept us inspired uh co-founder of the most influential rap group in history 30 million LP sell so
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worldwide he has a star on a Hollywood Walker fan he has a NAACP award he has a
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lifetime Grammy Achievement Award he's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ladies and gentlemen give
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it up for the one and only Ice Cube
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[Applause]
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where love go it's a struggle is this happiness [ __ ] [ __ ] but I'm slapping
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this with a [ __ ] is the do I can't overdose on no
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[ __ ] a minister this Pimp [ __ ] I've been a minister since an [Applause]
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infant nice Cube man it fce Cube
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man never enough Applause appreciate it you know one of the most important
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questions I want to start off with with you Cube I know you've been I've been interviewing you over 20 years man 20
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plus years yeah you know I've never in my life seen you drive until
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today yeah yeah man I even know what kind of cars you like bro uh you know I
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like a few different ones you know um I had to pull that one out CUA uh I got to
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get a smog check and [ __ ] and they was like before they check it you know it's been sitting up so they like it got you
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got to drive it uh 50 miles or 100 miles before they can smog check the [ __ ] so
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the computer got to restart or some dumb [ __ ] yeah yeah yeah you called the
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computer dumb yeah the computer is dumb if it take 50 miles to restart or reset
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what year is the car uh [ __ ] I don't know yo I can't wait to get to that point in my life I don't even know the
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year the car man get up CU what's the make of that car I couldn't even tell what that was you know it's a vet
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Stingray stingray yeah so you like the the the metal the chunky
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cars yeah I like all kind you know I got I got some uh foreign [ __ ] too you okay
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all right variety yeah I mean my wife you know I bought cars for her okay yeah
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but I end up driving you end up driving you don't strike me as a person who uh
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spends a lot of money on material things just things you like but you don't you don't do you need to live in the lap of
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luxury no yeah I mean I don't I can do it all you know I've done it all so I
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know how to do it all so you know it it don't take long
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for me to adapt M to my surroundings so you know I
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then been bottom to the top you know if I had
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to go back to the bottom you know what I mean I I'll survive you'll survive yeah I survive up man that's ice cube right
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there man I I played that song Ghetto Story I mean that was just my own personal
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reasons might have been a little selfish um because I really enjoyed that track and I feel like I I I don't know if it
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was autobiographical um um but I related it to um your life you know and your
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journey tell me about that is it autobiographical I think you know
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anybody come from any neighborhood MH can see they self in that
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story um you know it's it's the craziest thing when homies start to Rob homies
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homies start to press homies um and even set set each other up
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from murder um it's just it's sad I mean you know even
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people love Friday but that's one of the homies pressing everybody you know what
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I'm saying so it's been going on for a long time and um when I heard that
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music uh mixed by uh I mean produced by t- mix he's a uh swaave house uh
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producer out of out of Houston Texas and um when I heard that music it
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just you know it it just brought out that those lyrics cuz uh you know it's
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kind of a sad song um but it's very
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relevant um but I think a lot of people are feeling that way you know who do you
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trust who do you trust you talk about you know we used to be steady mobbing and I'm paraphrasing but once the money
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came in things start to change um in the song I'm not saying your life in the
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song and everybody want to be Batman nobody want to be Robin right y that's a
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great way to ruin a business right yeah it is you know
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cuz you know people don't go see uh Robin and Batman you know what I mean
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they go see Batman and Robin so if Robin start getting uh Jack in the Box so to
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speak MH um he left
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that then um it messes up the
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chemistry the magic um you know people want it a
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certain way so when you start messing with the formula M people don't want it
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no more you know so you know you got to when Robin starts Robbin yeah yeah yeah
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yeah start robing you know when Robin start robing you know it's you know you got
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to yeah you know you got to make adjustments that's crazy CU people forget [ __ ] Robin was a superhero too
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it's the difference yeah yeah got a rooll to play yeah just got a role to play still a superhero uh Cube you you
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like a superhero to me man I'mma go ahead and say it I don't have no shame in saying that man I you people like
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rock Kim folks who in my my my own age bracket but was doing things a little bit before me you know apprciate yeah
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man and showing me that I could do it you know uh there's nothing to it but when I remember when I first met you I
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told them about a story I told you this last time we interviewed when y'all y'all came to her you don't remember this after the concert in Oakland and we
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we tried to charge Y at the door to come in our party I like to repeat that $20 Cube um
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but one of the things I noticed man every time I see you I see you with the same team right see you with the same
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people over the over years yeah and every time you enter uh an Endeavor
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whether it's going solo you know your solo career whether it's Q Vision going
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into Hollywood whether it's the big three those same people are there for
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the most part how do you go about picking Partners what do you look for when you looking for p people to be
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business associates um their
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professionalism their uh Talent knowhow um their
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execution how they go about their business every day um their
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instincts do they see the punches coming do they recognize when things ain't
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going to go right and uh do they make a adjustments on the Fly and can they
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adapt because you know my team is great and
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everybody say man you keep the same team around you but they're around because they want to be around because they can
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easily they their own men they can easily be like you know K you too you too much man I can't can't do it no more
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you know what I mean you just too much and so they
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you know they're they're great at what they do like just like I'm a pro they're
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pros at what what you know specific things and jobs and they can collaborate
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with each other they can you know pick up if you know if one's not there they
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could do multiple jobs um you know nobody's nothing is
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above or below their um you know duty to make this thing keep moving in the right
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direction MH so you know I'm you I'm lucky man cuz cuz you know it's hard to
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find people that's dedicated and loyal and um and show up they show up to work
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every day now for other people might be a party might be a vacation it might you
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know wherever we are in the world whatever we doing you could get caught up in the atmosphere and not get the job done you
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know they always get the job done and if I got four of them with me seven 10 two
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three nine they all get it just get done you know no matter how many are there or
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not you know for whatever reasons and know different you know things that I do
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call for different you know parts of my team to to you know come together and so
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uh yeah you know we we got a great working relationship but I want to go
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back to you know you saying about coming in your party inwa did you know that not
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at that party just something different but do you know that uh we we they
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didn't even let us send our own listening party with end up wa what yeah for the first album first
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album Straight Out of Compton how is that possible it's possible what what did
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they say you was on the cover we we wern't dressed right uh-uh we wern't
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dressed right so they wouldn't let us in for one it was packed it was packed in
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there and we was kind of late but you know [ __ ] with easy you going to be a
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little late you know what I mean that's just you know he he he always you know
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just you know run it to the to the minute on time you know what I'm saying
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so we get there and they they at the door like for one not too many people
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know who we are and what we look like yeah you know it's no Internet it's just
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records and back then it was a lot of singles and you know on a single you might not have a couple that's true you
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know what I mean you might just have uh a sticker and the name of the song yeah
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just a sleeve you know what I'm saying label in the sleeve so the they wasn't
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they was like nah y' and khakis and hats and [ __ ] tennis shoes no no you're not
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getting in so we argue with these dudes you know Brian Turner comes out there um
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at the time Jerry hel comes out you know they're they're like screaming at these
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dudes man this is the group this is the band this is the reason why you here this is they pay for this you know it's
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like it was like No And then they called the sheriff's over there so Sheriff's come over there yeah the sheriff's come
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over there well they was kind of parked anyway outside the spot so they start they come over there and they like n
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y'all can't get in so we go in to some Bob's Big Boy type [ __ ] and go eat you
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know what I'm saying and they in there partying to your music to all to they
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partying to our album release party we at a
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restaurant Matt is a [ __ ] and still pay it and and we
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you know they you know Brian Turner comes over to the restaurant he talking to us and um yeah that's how our record
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release party went you know what I mean we never got in never got in we didn't put it in the
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movie cuz they only gave us two and a half hours but I was trying to get it in
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there yeah Bri Brian Turner was the president of the priority records right and Jerry hel was the manager for
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manager for uh for easy too and he um I think he ran ruthless too he ran ruthless records too well when you bring
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up EAS you know cuz we used to work together on the beat so we would come on after um after Westside radio with easy
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and Julio G would come on and I used to love his stories bro but I I swear I was just looking at him like how this dude
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become such a success like what is his traits and what So you you're you're a boss SL leer right yeah but what did you
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learn from e as a businessman if anything to do or to not to
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do um had your own Vision he had his own Vision he
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everybody talked him out of doing the kind of Records we do um
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we was all trying to get on the radio we was trying to be like the east coast rappers you know we was trying to be
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like EPMD and you know uh Rock Kim and
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and Run DMC and KRS um you know the greats we trying to
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be like that and we wasn't that you know what I'm
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saying we wasn't that and um
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so St start doing these mixtapes mhm for the rodium swap meat and um Steve Yano shout out rest in
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peace um now Dre doing these four track
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mixtapes and he's like Cube I want you to rap on front of these on top of these
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when they first come on and then he's like you can rap about anything so I
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start rapping about the neighborhood cuz we wasn't trying to make a record mhm it
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was just a tape um so EAS when he heard those tapes he start coming around and
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started saying y'all y'all messing up y' y'all
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y'all should be doing records like this and nobody was listening to him
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because they had start making a little money with the Wrecking Crew from record
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sales you know he's like man he just sold 50,000 copies man we got money coming in just sold 60,000 records we
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got money coming in he was like y'all [ __ ] up this is the kind of stuff he
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said when I do my record label this what I'mma have on there
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and he you know I'm hearing him talk but he just now coming around learning so
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I'm thinking he this dude ain't about to do No Label he making his own money in
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the game you know so I'm like ain't nowhere in the world he gonna stop that to get into this [ __ ] and he just
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want to be a label he don't have no artist no groups whatever you know so he
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came back he was like this what my label going to look like he had that he had drawing at a ruthless label how I
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look I'm like damn he's serious so he start grabbing
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groups around you know he could find cuz he would he would mul hop and just
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you know he he would have bags of you know he' come through with 20 shopping
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bags in his hand you know so he would mul hop and find these youngsters in
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there that look like B boys uhuh and he found his group called HBO I make a long story short found a
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group called HBO and they were from New York cuz they look like LL cooj all of
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them was like K go out you know buckles you know the big um shoelaces and all
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that right and so he thought since they was from New York that day was way better than all us so he he brought them
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in and they had the look but they didn't had a lyrics they had a voice but they
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didn't the lyrics were a little you know so he had me write a
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song for him and I wrote it it was boys in the hood and and um
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damn like he he wow they didn't like it cuz
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they didn't understand the lingo and I can you know looking back I could agree cuz they're from you know the East Coast
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so they're looking like what does gank mean and what is a sixfold man
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and we can't say you know I don't know what y'all talking about and you know
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then it got a little little back and forth and he was you know he was basically
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like man it's some Jerry C Compton [ __ ] that you know we we don't we we ain't we ain't
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doing it no so they end up leaving the studio easy end up doing the song but he
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was just a dude like I said he was a Visionary and he wasn't afraid of any kind of
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um you know like negative publicity or he didn't
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care about that he he he laughed at everything and he uh he wanted to use it
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like he saw everything as a good thing MTV baned our video straight out Compton
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he happy I'm like what you happy about why you
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happy he um said man this gonna make we gonna make us the song bigger it's like
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I didn't understand I was too young you know I'm about you know 18 19 too young
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to understand what he saw we got the letter from the FBI you know now with the letter I
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didn't really you know it was yeah I didn't I I didn't take it bad
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or good you know I was just like damn um cuz the FBI was like some [ __ ]
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you seen on TV you wasn't we dealt with you know Linux sheriffs
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you know what I'm saying we dealt with little LAPD but really the sheriff so you know they'd [ __ ] you up they wasn't
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they wasn't G to give you no letter you know what I'm
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saying so but but you know of course Brian Turner all the people at priority they
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freaking out like you know contemplating taking a
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record down is [ __ ] a little bit you know it never got serious cuz you know
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easy would have shut that down but but uh easy start calming them down like man
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look look let's just use this [ __ ] show what they like let's show the world that
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they trying to intimidate us from the records that we know are true we know the [ __ ] going on around here and
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instead of us getting involved with that we chose to do music about it and that's
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got to be more positive than what they saying yeah so he was just Fearless in his approach
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to the music so I learned a lot of that from E from E man that's amazing rest
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and power to e it's it's interesting because uh that
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same music nowadays when people uh reflect on it and um and I I want to see
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if how has that influenced you as a writer if at all when people reflect on that
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time period you know uh some perspectives are that that music
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was a detriment to the community that these songs this subject matter hurt the
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community you know uh uh created a vacuum that just led us down you know
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derogatory paths um when you hear that does knowing what you went through to
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get to get here does does like like e does that make you laugh
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it does a little bit CU you know if you look at the Inception
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of what they call gangster rap now we called it reality rap we called it
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Street knowledge you know and then the where gangster rap really was coined by
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the industry but everything that's happening
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now was happening before before even hip hop you know you
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know it was just a lot of stuff was done know out of the view of the public eye
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you know but everything that rappers talked about is what they experienced in
30:14
some kind of way whether they seen it heard it or went through it themselves but it's not like people are making
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up um you know these stories out of blue
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you know of course rap is it's a art form and it's a art form really around
30:37
just talking [ __ ] you know what I'm saying to be honest like it's just [ __ ] talking um to
30:44
a beat and whoever can talk the best [ __ ] and can deliver it is you
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know most time looked at as a great MC and so that's a part of the game but but
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in that [ __ ] talking sometimes people drop gems they drop Jewels they drop
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knowledge or sometimes they talk more [ __ ] they brag they exaggerate you know
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what I mean it's it's a braggadocious type of art form so you're not going to pull that out
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you're not going to be like well everybody need to be so-called
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real you know those records are you know
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um who you know you wouldn't even buy that [ __ ] you know what I'm saying if I
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told y'all you know if I wrote a rap about coming up here today you know what
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I'm saying getting up and you know I'm wear the I'm wear this I'm wear the the the
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the black shoes with the the gold Stripes you know what I'm saying it's like H you know it's it's it's
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you know it's theater it's theatrics it's it's a song it's a art form
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now you mean to tell me that
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um if I wanted to paint a picture on the wall of
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uh unicorn okay I wouldn't I wouldn't do no [ __ ] like that just
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say would you get mad like you ain't never rolled no [ __ ] unicorn [ __ ] you ain't even never saw a unicorn how
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you going to put that on the wall you fake it's like come on man this is Art this is a art form it's music you know
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what I'm saying all these dudes that say they all in the streets doing this and that they in the studio for hours and
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hours a day of course not they you know it's it's and it's it's a you know it's
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a way to do it so you know bringing it back The Hip Hop is the
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mirror to what's going on it's not the subject you know what I'm saying and I
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always say if you got blemishes or you ugly you can't blame the mirror you know
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what I'm saying you just can't do it you'll be you'll be lying to yourself and for
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people to say this music has caused more harm Med and
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good I think they lying to they self look we all wouldn't be in here without
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this music look how many people that eat off of this music look how many people
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we fed over these years off of this music think of how many uh people we
33:47
made Happy uh we helped them take care of they families they bills everybody
33:54
here probably got one or two people working for them so you provide uh you
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know uh income for for those people that work for you um you know it it it's it
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all trickles down you know we've created an amazing industry for ourselves out of
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nothing they had nothing for us you know it was nothing before hip hop it was you
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know it was it was the desert out here you know I used to see what my you know
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brothers and sisters used to go through through they older than me you know they they had to deal with you know slacks
34:32
and hard shoes all the time you know what I'm saying you know so
34:39
um you know it's just it's just the reality of it from my point of view people may disagree and of
34:47
course of course you know some people are influenced in different ways yeah
34:53
but it's a lot of different industries that we got to look at too you know we
34:58
we let the video gaming industry off the hook and you know me I can rap about
35:04
being a gang banger you can listen to it all man that's cute talking about gang banging in the neighborhood oh damn I
35:10
can rap it too you know but on some of these games you could be a gang banger the
35:17
whole eight hours a day you know 10 hours a day you you simulating it you
35:23
know you actually can be it so you know but nobody talk about that you know it's
35:31
all about hip hop and what we're doing um and to me it's
35:38
just I ain't gonna say hip hop is all great you know but what's great about hip-hop
35:44
is it describes The Good the Bad and the Ugly
35:50
and it's hard to get unfiltered truth nowadays and sometimes in Hip Hop that's
35:57
where it Li even if it's the Ugly Truth Ice Cube man come on man down that's the
36:04
project uh HB Tracy man go ahead that's Cube yeah um this is incredible such a
36:10
valuable way to use our time with you cube when you mentioned you're very welcome when you mentioned holding the
36:16
video game industry accountable as well or at least like throwing criticism that way or at least questioning I thought
36:23
that was really smart because I was also thinking about in your opinion professional
36:28
and psychologically what do you think is more influential music or movies cuz that's been a long time discussion as
36:34
well I would love to hear that from your Viewpoint um I think I don't think
36:41
either one is more influential than the other it's like whatever touch you whatever hits you you know sometimes
36:48
it's a song Sometimes a song you create your own movie which is way more
36:54
powerful than somebody telling you what to see um but then you'll see a movie that's
37:00
powerful and takes you through a journey of a character you know usually
37:06
character has to start in one place and by the end of the movie you want him to end in another place you know where he's
37:14
smarter wiser and he you know could you know help you maybe get
37:21
through a situation or two just by seeing it play out on the screen so
37:27
both of them are powerful and um you know it's it's great you know you
37:35
shouldn't want to harness any of them in any kind of way you know like let the
37:41
artist you know paint an ugly picture if that's what he want to paint um and you
37:48
know you can do it with music you could do it with movies and that same artist can paint a
37:55
a wonderful picture you know what I'm saying saying uh facts yeah when you've been wildly successful and not only
38:03
those two lanes but multiple and there's so much greatness that's behind you and
38:09
obviously so much greatness ahead of you do you look at your past self as
38:16
competition or in my opinion I feel like a sneaky form of comparison is your
38:23
present self to your past self and trying to recreate like a particular
38:28
time capsule instead of just being who you are now you said it exact you said
38:34
it perfect I don't never compete with myself especially compete with the past
38:41
you know it's all a time capsule it's all a moment in time
38:47
captured um but it's a new day it's a new time all that's in the rearview
38:54
mirror you know what I've done is cool but what I'm about to do I think is
38:59
cooler you know what I'm saying it's it's about you know what's next um and not
39:08
not jumping from thing to thing but you know what I could put quality
39:14
into and and you know complete um you know that's a that's
39:21
where I like to to spend my time so you know I'm always you know shining up
39:27
something M you know like a sculpter you sculpt it polish it and you put it on
39:34
display and then I'm chiseling up something else you know what I mean to
39:39
do the same thing with especially if I see the vision and I know I can make
39:44
quality you know that's what I really get off on is is quality um if I can't
39:52
um make it worth your time and worth your money then it might not be worth
39:58
putting out in the public you know all right man ice cube is here man I want to get to the to the music we brought up
40:05
the music yeah uh there's a track um that I find really interesting it just
40:12
made me reflect made me go back it's a track you did with be real yeah that in itself deserves a round of applause you
40:19
know when you look at there was a moment in time and that capsulated time where
40:26
be real and and Cube it seemed like it was FR it was friction between y'all right yeah okay and then y'all had to
40:32
come together at some point and resolve that friction and you got this track you've done it way years ago but when I
40:40
was listening to this track Let's Get Money I thought it was cool because one
40:45
of the things you said is I'd rather be friends than enemies right yes how did y'all become friends
40:53
again well you know
40:58
after you know dissing each other
41:03
publicly uh you know it it could get dangerous in
41:10
La if you if you dissing and you know we both
41:16
in traffic now you know I got a lot of black people coming up to me saying what's up I got
41:23
he got a lot of you know Mexicans coming up to him saying what's up it's it's
41:30
like starting to reach that type of um yeah it's it's um you know we hearing we
41:39
hearing inside the prisons that [ __ ] is about to blow up oh because of this and
41:46
um we got on the phone and we was like man you know whatever you know whatever
41:56
offended you I'm sorry whatever you know we just was Mutual
42:01
with it and we squashed it like you know we
42:06
wasn't going to put any more energy into it like um I even hate you know
42:13
mentioning it sometimes because we didn't want to put no energy in it and
42:20
um then we would see each other at the Laker games now we was like this we was real cool so
42:30
you know like what up B he like what's happening you know and then we just find
42:35
ourselves standing there talking about the Lakers you know and and then we started to you know see
42:43
each other a lot mm uh now we both gemin so we both oh that explains on the same
42:50
way I didn't know that far both on the same wave you know we both like
42:57
um we're on the same wavelength in way and so we just started to and I'm like
43:07
exchange numbers you know hit me up boom boom boom we hit me up yo that song you
43:12
did was dope I hit him up yo I saw this you know I see y'all all on the road you know we just start to tap in a little
43:19
bit and um then it was an opportunity for us to go on the road together and
43:27
I jumped at it they jumped at it and we went to Australia together and we had
43:36
one of them long layovers you know what I'm saying so it's like me and be go to
43:41
the side and we just talking it's like old times we just chopping it up talking it's just it's
43:49
cool as it's ever been and we on the road people loving the shows it's just
43:54
nothing belov then we end up doing Europe together and you know just brought us
44:00
back to where we where we were and um you know was like the next step is to
44:08
do some music together um and uh we got dope song together and you know I think
44:15
people going to dig it and here it is let's get money
44:22
together turn it up man what y'all doing we got to turn that up in the room turn that up in the
44:29
oo that go Harding
44:36
baby it feels good when you ball out after you fall out good when I want friends not enemies friends not enemy
44:43
and we can blow plenty weed spark that [ __ ] let's get money together let's get
44:49
money together let's get it let's get money together let's get money together
44:55
La is like a treasure let's get money together Jack keep it quiet and clever let's get money
45:03
together to the andos making themen ducking them green to the blacks and
45:08
Laos making themen ducking them green duck them [ __ ] yeah we sling
45:14
That Dope track trees like a smoke stack this West Coast and you know that all
45:19
brand new [ __ ] throwback [ __ ] it let's put our brains together put some things together we can change the
45:25
weather represent the 23rd letter I'm a gor let get
45:32
together get Mone together get it let's get money together get it let's get
45:38
money together now we can do more than low ride low with the V from your side
45:44
side we can pump up the green Pride that's right Dr Green Thumb get you high eat half of the set you about to feel
45:52
incredible insane to the brain no chemical what I prescribe is Way Beyond
45:57
the and Laos making them duck themen Laos them duck themen ding them
46:06
[ __ ] let's get money together come on let's get money together come on
46:11
let's get money together get it let's get money together do it quiet and
46:17
clever let's get money together La is like a treasure let's get money together
46:24
it starts with you and I this whole city UniFi put it all together like a union y
46:31
people unified can't be denied now can we do business can we hang out when the
46:36
business is finished you got barbecue and burritos I'm in the hood with the homies and Amigos let's get money
46:44
together let's get it let's get money together let's spin it let's get money together who win it let's get money
46:50
together to the blacks and Laos making themos ducking them greenos to the
46:55
blacks and Laos making them no stuck in them green let's get it let's get money
47:01
together get it let's get money together come on let's get money together my [ __ ]
47:07
let's get money together hell yeah yeah man let's get some money
47:14
together y'all stop playing I love that you like that I do I do um it's it's
47:19
kind of crazy CU because I've enjoyed all the versions of you like all of them
47:25
man and um it's been so incredible to watch and listening to this song reminded me I was telling sway recently
47:32
of a conversation I had with a relative who had to do some forgiveness and for whatever reason the energy that's in the
47:37
universe right now like forgiveness is heavy like it's just real heavy and I said to him you ready to do that and he
47:45
said you know what for years I've been going by this nickname let's just say
47:50
moo he's like I've been going by moo but he said moo was created to protect
47:56
Darren yeah I created moo to protect Darren and I I got to let that go it's
48:02
time I start healing Darren you know and I feel like I'm hearing pieces of that
48:08
today in your conversation you know like I'm not saying Ice Cube was created to
48:14
protect O'Shea but I feel like I'm just hearing so much healing and just
48:19
maturity like the maturation is crazy and I think that allows us to move in all these different spaces and places
48:25
successfully and peacefully you know so thank you for all these different versions and this the transparency today
48:32
with it and and just really just putting forgiveness on on the Forefront because
48:38
I think we need it universally without a doubt you know especially if
48:43
um you know it it's it's something
48:48
that it it heals you you know what I'm saying when you let it go you know you
48:54
hold the grudge and it starts to you know get a hold on you and the
49:00
quicker you let it go the quicker you you start to heal
49:06
and somebody wronged you it's kind of they problem you know it's not it's not
49:12
necessarily your problem cuz now they done lost a friend or lost somebody
49:19
close lost somebody loyal you know they they got a problem you know what I mean
49:24
like you know if you're a good person and somebody do you wrong it's like man
49:30
you just you messed up and um know you can forgive them on the spot
49:37
you know I think um you know it's good but but also you always got to be cautious you
49:44
know you can't yeah yeah run back in everybody arms sometimes let's walk back
49:49
and build this relationship up from the bottom back up know you can't just start
49:55
from where you were mhm you know just build it back up and then you'll find yourself if it's true right where you
50:01
were and um yeah forgiveness is powerful you know it's it takes a strong person
50:08
to forgive and weak people don't forgive you know weak people um that Grudge is
50:15
energy weak you know being mad give you energy sometime yeah and sometime people
50:20
think that's the energy that that that fuels them and that they need to roll with that right and you know mo can
50:27
always be pulled back up you know what I'm saying just cuz you put him to the side that don't mean you can't call on
50:33
him right don't call when you need them yep don't call on him on everybody you
50:38
know that's just you know where it's unnecessary um you know
50:44
because you know that ain't that ain't really how you do it um you know you just got
50:53
to definitely forgive but also be cautious just to you know what I'm saying don't don't
51:00
um don't you know get to the point where you're blindly forgiven you know
51:07
you still got to hold people accountable yeah
51:13
um lot of gems Cube you you uh you made up with everybody you had rap beef with
51:22
no he said pull out when necessary necessary
51:28
yeah yeah I mean you know it is what it is yeah yeah I'm not yeah some things
51:35
are you know some sometimes it's broke and you can't fix it yeah yeah you know
51:41
it's just the facts and um you got to be careful if you giving
51:48
somebody a few shots at you you see what I mean so be careful you you got a uh I
51:55
want to play another song from that album if y'all don't mind um it's a couple of them first off uh Cubo um I
52:02
went to I grew up with EA ski who got the first single my Eagle right he produced that yeah yeah EA ski EA ski
52:10
and I went to Junior High play We EA ski I play football with he I know you don't believe I played football no Sports
52:17
nothing I didn't really see nothing but a old track uniform bro and then you say in
52:22
football okay anyway that ain't the point of the question Hur to me so I was talking to ski and I
52:29
said um we never really like talk about like uh we'll talk about
52:36
the work and I always say if I see you y'all saw Cube yo man blah we get excited but we don't go into anything I
52:42
don't never ask him questions about you and now this time I said I'mma be talking to cube man what is something
52:49
that you noticed over the years that he has that stands out and bro he could not stop saying yo his work
52:57
ethic he said his work ethic he like sway you got to see him man sometimes I'm coming to the studios a song y'all
53:04
did I can't think of the name of it and Cuba is already back at the studio redoing his vocals because they weren't
53:11
they weren't right he said you work today as hard as you did in the
53:17
80s this ain't work this ain't work wow this fun this
53:24
fun right just fun man you know um getting into it like getting into the
53:30
music like first start rapping I never thought I was going to make a record I just was rapping um I couldn't rap on
53:38
beat because I didn't have no instrumentals so I was just rapping off air and [ __ ]
53:43
so uh Jinx had the instrumentals he lived down the street from me so I'd be
53:49
in his room playing all these instrumentals and then you know then I catch a flow um so it was always fun and
53:59
then his cousin happened to be Dr Dre so getting a chance to hang out with
54:05
him they was actually making records so you know they were professionals to me you know he was
54:13
just amateur so just getting a chance to be around that equipment and seeing them
54:18
get down and see them think of things from scratch and put it together and we
54:24
in there hours on hours on hours and uh back when you had tape and you had you we didn't have machines you had
54:33
to you know you wanted that hook four times on the record you got seen that
54:38
[ __ ] four times you couldn't Bounce It N when no
54:43
bouncing Samplers um so it was a different you know it was
54:49
all fun though yeah because it's a new world um I used to be like damn studios
54:57
are cold as [ __ ] it's cold as [ __ ] in here why I got to be so cold I'm asking
55:02
all these dumb questions and [ __ ] and um so it you know it was always fun so
55:11
it's still fun you know I don't look at it as um you know that that kind of work yeah
55:19
we do put in hours you know it do take you know
55:24
concentration but but uh compared to what my daddy had to do for the money he
55:30
make like this is yeah this is fun but you can lose it though is what I'm
55:35
saying lose what you could just lose that you know that quest to be that MC
55:41
to make music a lot of artists who've been around for decades they don't make music no more you know we see LL salute
55:47
to LL you know salute just releasing a project yeah um Snoop is coming Snoop is
55:54
coming salute to Snoop you know you know and we see you doing it you
55:59
know but y'all doing it at the highest level that you know that gorgeous song by Snoop is incredible right the that
56:06
the force album by LL is incredible like y'all still doing it at the highest level yeah you know how do you sustain
56:14
that when you first get in the game you you worried about charts and you know
56:20
people don't gave you an advancement more money you ever seen in your life you want to get get them their money
56:27
back cuz you feel like you don't want to owe nobody nothing and so you you know
56:33
you really worried about damn how my record doing is it is it moving is it
56:38
this is it that so you start playing the record company gang and you're making
56:46
records trying oh damn uh you know this dude just came out so this many maybe
56:53
the music need to go that is going in that direction you know you start to chase sounds and different styles and
57:00
[ __ ] and then if you lucky you get to a point
57:05
where you like man hold up hold up hold up I don't even sound like me no more
57:11
like I'm chasing all this [ __ ] I need to go back and just do what I like that's
57:17
what got me on in the first place just do the songs you like
57:23
and serve your fans like my day one fans are going to love
57:29
this record my day two fans and day three fans should love it cuz my day one
57:35
fans gonna love it so just sometimes you just got to break it down to its
57:40
simplest form do what you like and let that be good enough and you know of
57:48
course I want the record to do well and everything um but to
57:54
me people that that been following me for a long time they giving me they dapping me up
58:02
for it so it's already a success a it's a success man um I'mma play another song
58:08
and I'mma uh go to the audience to see if y'all got a few questions for cube which song You Gonna Play I was gonna
58:14
play No Cap which one you like that one huh I mean Mike EPS is on it bro did he
58:20
produce it or him and Z toin you know z z toen um d J funky okay couple people
58:28
uh got together and did that one which which one you want to play I don't know what what you got queued up I got your
58:35
whole album homie now I got um ego Maniacs the remix
58:41
oh yeah they heard that problem they heard that I got uh uh she
58:47
Sanctified that was that was go go okay uh what else I got got it I got it all
58:54
man since you don't like my sele no you can play it play No Cap what I like you
59:01
know what I mean play Play No Cap Let's Play No Cap we'll play one verse in the hook all right this is no cap Mike what
59:07
did Mike do with this though do the [Music]
59:12
be y'all see why I like this one yeah
59:18
man hey y'all V all fat [ __ ] dop dealers geek snack fed [ __ ] broke
59:30
[Music] pitch way we Mone No Cap take a shot
59:37
roll blind lay back we just trying to get paid we just trying to get paid bit
59:43
my face me she try to get [ __ ]
59:48
to bro just never want to be never want to be you doing B moves in aess pool
59:55
yeah you he test you before he bless you respect you before he select you this
1:00:01
truth will affect you nobody want to be the next sh everybody want my job nobody
1:00:08
want your job cuz your job's a blow job funny man on stage with the m try to
1:00:14
laugh when he talk about your life no hey' fat [ __ ] dopers geek snack fed
1:00:21
[ __ ] broke [ __ ] peret [ __ ] wet gun clip bch
1:00:28
bitchin all right man I just needed to get that off
1:00:34
man thank you thank you yeah man absolutely okay Tor W you get a mic for
1:00:40
us by the way that's uh our producer right there super producer torch torch in the building
1:00:47
Harlem who got a great question for Q up there go to the uh young lady first and
1:00:53
and then uh I said a great question too capital g hi Ice Cube um I want to find out if
1:01:02
there is anything in your career that you regret um that I
1:01:10
regret oh man let me see
1:01:18
um I mean I think I should have you know I started this record company called Lynch M records in the '90s
1:01:26
yeah ice a Lynch M you know I got to a point where it just was it wasn't fun
1:01:33
you know what I mean it was like just you know um the groups I had you know
1:01:39
nobody was extra happy about it because we was independent you know it wasn't like you know you you see Majors like
1:01:46
Death Jam moving numbers and then you got a independent label and then you know people looking at you like man you
1:01:53
ice cuute why you ain't moving the same numbers and so you know I shut it down
1:01:59
for years and then you know re you know revamped it in ' 06 but I regret ever
1:02:07
shutting it down you know I should have I shouldn't have let I shouldn't have let artist sour me on my label and I
1:02:15
should have kept it going yeah tapped into that Easy E energy yeah should tap
1:02:21
who who else got a question great question by the way yeah you might as well say your names too so
1:02:27
we all family yes what's up C my name is Isis I go by goddess of the
1:02:33
West that's powerful so um nice to meet you nice to meet you um so my question
1:02:40
um stems from so I know you've always uh had a knack for finding Talent specifically
1:02:47
like Superstar Talent especially in film is that something that you would be
1:02:53
interested in doing in music to find an upand cominging artist and sculpt them
1:02:59
and put them on the Forefront and be a platform I'm artist by the way yeah get
1:03:05
that
1:03:10
out you know I don't know you know what I mean it depends
1:03:16
on how how polished you are when you get to me like
1:03:24
you know making a superstar um is hard you know helping a
1:03:32
superstar make it that's easier so you know you got
1:03:39
to you know get to a point where it you know I don't have a bandwidth so to
1:03:45
speak the time to really you know work a artist from the ground up because I'm
1:03:53
still an artist I'm still doing a lot of different things you know and you know I
1:03:59
don't want to cheat artist out of their chance because I'm too busy to focus so
1:04:07
you know the less I would have to do to get you to the point where you know you
1:04:13
know promoting you putting you out there uh pushing great music is a lot easier
1:04:19
than uh creating great music creating an artist that's polished ready to go and
1:04:25
then put pushing it out you know that's just you know it's it's it's super time consuming and to be honest I just don't
1:04:32
have that kind of time no more that's real the artist is what do you do you sing or what do
1:04:40
you do ring you saying Tor give her the mic real quick
1:04:45
man come on goddess come here goddess come up here stand up face face and we
1:04:51
gonna give you 20 seconds Cube you cool with that yeah I mean is that enough time 20 seconds do your thing come to
1:04:59
the to the right here right here middle stage see that's see that's about being ready got it it's about being ready
1:05:07
uhhuh sing something to them just real quick they ask me how I do it I tell
1:05:14
them it's natural you can hear the influence organic and
1:05:20
natural I put it in the music no phers no GMO
1:05:26
a little unconventional cuz baby is natural all right I recorded that song
1:05:33
at your studio too I recorded that song at your studio I I think you got a you
1:05:39
know a nice voice um but I know you was a little
1:05:45
nervous you know that's what you got to get out of there the nervousness then the voices
1:05:52
come out better more confident you know it's no no reason to be nervous you know what I mean just you got to give it your
1:05:59
best shot and and the nervous could hinder that don't worry about what
1:06:05
people think just do what you know you need to do you know what I'm saying that'll help
1:06:12
you in the future than you that was that was awesome you're very welcome don't forget me when you get on that Grammy
1:06:22
stage well we go do like two more torch or three you know yo yo what up how yall
1:06:29
doing my name is Quenton what up ice CU Sway in the Morning them up um I just
1:06:35
yes I am you know that I wanted to ask um because you've done you know film from the writing perspective uh
1:06:41
producing and putting it out and then you've also done music you know from the same format as far as writing it
1:06:46
producing it putting it out I'm curious like what is your your favorite and least favorite parts of the
1:06:52
processes oh wow um my favorite part of the process
1:07:01
is of course the finished product you know when it's all ready to go for the
1:07:08
public um but each stage of that is a great
1:07:14
accomplishment you know when I finish a song you know what I
1:07:19
mean and I know that I've executed the lyrics is is is you know as I wanted
1:07:27
them to uh wanted them to come out I feel great finishing a script feels
1:07:34
amazing when you've um done a few passes and it's
1:07:39
just perfect and you ready to for other people to read it and you ready for you
1:07:45
know maybe a studio to do it um the the the worst part you know
1:07:54
sometimes is filming you know it depends on what's
1:08:00
In The Script but I've been in some like situations where I'm like what the [ __ ]
1:08:07
am I doing right now damn you know what I mean like why
1:08:13
am I this [ __ ] is dangerous I know we making a movie but you know death don't
1:08:19
care if you making a movie you know what I'm saying like um so you know sometimes you're on these
1:08:26
crazy locations and you with a crew you don't really even know and they like put
1:08:32
on this harness we gonna hang you over this [ __ ] building and [ __ ] you know what I'm saying so you
1:08:38
could be like this sucks you know what I'm saying but it's it's uh those type
1:08:45
moments um everything else is
1:08:51
like pretty pretty cool pretty fun um um
1:08:56
I hate doing what's called looping which where you got to overdub your voice
1:09:01
sometimes when say you you filming something like we filming something next to a train some action [ __ ] by a train
1:09:09
and the train is loud you can't hear the dialogue so you got to go back into a
1:09:15
studio yeah ADR and just Loop your damn near your same performance so you're in
1:09:21
a studio pretending like you running down the [ __ ] Street you know I'm saying after train so sometimes you got
1:09:28
to do all this crazy like breathing if you in a fight you damn near got to be in in a booth like reacting a fight so
1:09:37
it could be like you know crazy ass breathing if you uh know trying to and
1:09:45
then if you don't get it on time you got keep doing it till you get it perfect match the lips where it's going to look
1:09:51
like you know old um you know karate movie
1:09:57
so that [ __ ] can get tedious and it's like boring you know it's like man you
1:10:03
know and it's hours of that [ __ ] sometime you know so that's the that's the worst part to me okay this is what
1:10:10
we going I know we we we I'm sorry we we stuck on time guys so I appreciate you want to ask Cube questions but uh the
1:10:16
the name of the project first of all give Ice Cube Round of Applause this wasn't just a conversation it was an
1:10:23
education at the same time lot of that's really when I talk to cube I try
1:10:28
to activate the gems as much as I can um man down man down um you know to me like
1:10:37
I said day one fans gonna love it um you know the project the name of the project
1:10:43
is going to mean different things to different people you know it's not a manown song on there just the project
1:10:52
you know to me displays certain way is that men have to get up stand up and handle business and
1:11:02
um you know not not just leave it all to to the women in our lives to handle
1:11:10
some of the most important things men got to step up raising their
1:11:17
children they got to step up um with with giving guidance to the family um
1:11:27
a lot of little ways that we just got it we got to switch to the course and um
1:11:32
Step Up amen I like that man ladies and gentlemen give him a standing old man give it up for the one and only ice CU
1:11:39
man come on man thank you so play that angle Maniacs
1:11:44
anyway ice thank you everybody for coming out on behalf of Siri 6m and Pandora for all
1:11:51
the work that You' put in over the years we want to present you with this billionaire plaque for having over 2
1:11:57
billion US streams on Pandora y'all make some noise for ice
1:12:04
CU billion two billion with a B now turn the music now turn the music back up

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