Joe Rogan Experience #2004 - Ice Cube

Ice Cube joins Joe Rogan on a podcast tour to promote his Big3 three-on-three basketball league, alleging the NBA quietly pressures networks and sponsors to ignore it. The conversation ranges across boxing and MMA (Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Crawford-Spence), the wealth and pressures of fame, and a long stretch on COVID-era mandates, including Cube turning down a $9 million movie role rather than get vaccinated. He recounts NWA's origins, the FBI letter over 'Fuck tha Police,' police running the group off stage, and how MTV's ban broke them nationally. Cube closes on his pivot from gangster rap to family films, the 'Ice Cube vortex' that builds lifelong fans, his father's influence, and a philosophy of making what you love over chasing money.

• Ice Cube claims the NBA works behind the scenes to discourage networks from airing and sponsors from backing his Big3 league.
  00:04:07
• His son O'Shea Jackson Jr. plays him in Straight Outta Compton; Cube secretly tested his commitment with extra coaching and auditions.
  00:33:33
• Cube turned down a $9 million movie role rather than take a COVID vaccine, and says his private medical status was leaked to the press.
  00:54:36
• The FBI sent NWA's label priority records a letter over 'Fuck tha Police'; the band made it public and it blew them up.
  01:25:11
• Detroit and Cincinnati police ran NWA off stage mid-set for the song, then demanded autographed photos for their daughters.
  01:32:29
• MTV banning the Straight Outta Compton video is what catapulted the group from a niche bin to the front of record stores.
  01:38:49
• The 'Ice Cube vortex': kids discover him via Are We There Yet, graduate to Friday, then to his hardcore early rap.
  02:00:24

• Snoop Dogg reportedly pays a full-time professional blunt roller around $40,000 a year.
  00:00:33
• The Big3 idea was sparked by Kobe Bryant scoring 60 in his final game, with nowhere left for fans to see him play.
  00:07:50
• Cube's first car bought with music money was a roughly $20,000 black Honda Accord, paid in cash.
  00:28:46
• Straight Outta Compton sold about 2 million copies while Cube was still in NWA and likely 4 million-plus today.
  01:39:54
• After leaving NWA, Cube attended Phoenix Institute of Technology (1987-88) to study architectural drafting.
  01:40:24
• As a teen he'd ditch school and hop fences at rival high schools to stage rap battles.
  01:43:33
• John Singleton, then a USC intern, pursued Cube for two years to cast him in Boyz n the Hood.
  02:01:26
• Singleton pushed Cube to buy screenwriting software Final Draft and start writing, which eventually led to Friday.
  02:02:00

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