O’Shea Jackson, better known to us as, Ice Cube, has been entertaining audiences for decades. The MC-turned-Hollywood heavyweight actually attained a certificate in architecture from the Phoenix Institute of Technology but turned to music and joined the veteran hip-hop group, N.W.A. over 30 years ago.
Whether it be in music with hits like "Today Was A Good Day" or in movies like Are We There Yet?, Friday, Barbershop and Ride Along, Cube makes it a point to give his fans what they want. But with such a hectic schedule, it keeps him away from home and his wife, Kim Jackson. In April of 2020, the pair would have been married for 28 years (that's like a century in the entertainment business).
"The first thing I thought I was, 'Wow, she could be your woman,'" describe Cube. "The first time we met, she wasn't feeling me, she was NOT having it. She did not dig me. I think she was in a relationship, so she wasn't having it. But I ended up seeing her about six months later, and the next time, we had more time to get to know each other. She could feel my vibe and fell in love with your boy!"
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In a society where the divorce rate of those in the entertainment industry reaches over 70 percent, it's rare to find someone like Ice Cube and his wife going strong for over two decades. So what is his secret?
"It's a true partnership. I respect my wife and she respects me. I still get the butterflies when I see her. Romance and sex don't have to fade. I still want her to look at me and say 'this is the man I still want to be with.' So have to keep yourself up, your P's and Q's, and go for what you know."
"But sex isn’t overly important to me," Cube told The Guardian. "Respect and freedom and prosperity are what I care about. Freedom for myself, that is – you gotta start with yourself."
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When it comes to his schedule and day-to-day life, Cube is all about family first.
"I wake up at 5:30, 6 in the morning, but don’t head into the office right away. I like to hang out with my wife, talk about things, get some coffee, you know."
"I go light on breakfast. Sometimes it’s a yogurt, but a lot of times it’s leftovers from one of my wife’s dinners. She’s the best cook, so I don’t bother to even try cooking–it’d be like if she went to go make a record, we just both do what we’re best at."
"I’m trying to cut down a little on eating, on sodium, keep my blood pressure down, which is tough. Because I love food! I do, but it’s unfair how everything that’s bad for you tastes so good, and all the good stuff, veggies and green things, doesn’t’ match up."
Plus, when it comes to splurging on his wife, he knows what she likes:
"See I think the way to a woman’s heart is a funky purse. You’ve gotta get her a funky purse, something that she really digs. Man, (I’ve bought her about) 200."
Ice Cube continues to produce movies, television shows and was recently awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He's gone one record to speak at length about how his career has evolved over the years and how family and fatherhood are important to him.
Life for Cube has been something straight out of one his Hollywood movies. He sold his first song to Eazy-E at age 16. After high school in 1987,he enrolled at the Phoenix Institute of Technology in Arizona. Being passionate about architecture, he majored in architectural drafting. He completed his degree within one year and returned to Los Angeles to pursue a rap career. Not sure of whether his rap career would work out, he would turn to become an architecture draftsman as a career backup.
But after his first success with hip-hop pioneering group, N.W.A., the Compton native never looked back. And he had no reason too. Ice Cube to date has been in over 35 movies, produced 18 films, has multiple platinum records and one of Hollywood's "go-to" guys for creating quality, family box-office entertainment.
But how does he do it?
It's been said that Ice Cube works so hard so that he can create opportunities for his children. In 2015's box-office smash, "Straight Outta Compton" his son O'Shea Jackson, Jr was one of the stars and his other son, Darrell worked behind the camera and still does on Cube's other projects. "White people hire their kids all the time, why can't we?" Cube was quoted as saying.
Needless to say, fatherhood is important to this father of four.
"A lot of our father's, a lot of our Black males aren't stepping up like they should. And my generation is terrible," remarks Cube. "They want to be b-boys and hip-hop and want to stay there. Some want to still be in the 70's and stay there and not grow up. But we've got to change that. At some point, we've got to get serious."
"That's why I wanted to show two fathers in Barbershop 3 that are in their son's lives, making a difference. You can't make a difference if you're not there. All you gotta do is invest effort, time and wisdom. I thought it was important to show active presence in our child's lives. We've gotta be active and we've gotta be present."
"I look forward to seeing my parents now," admits Cube. "It’s kind of like, the more mature I get, the more I understand how important it is to be around my family as much as I can."
When asked what kind of advice Cube tells his own children, he gets straight to the point:
"Mind your own business and you will live longer. Don’t take (crap) from anybody. Stand up for yourself. Be nice. You don’t have to be mean."
For new dads, Cube had some keen advice:
"Don’t leave it up to the mother to raise your kids. You need to be just as involved. Just being there is not being there. You have to be...
...there and be involved. Don’t sit on the sideline and leave it for your wife to do."
"I don’t want to share my overall game, but this I can say: being true to myself as a movie fan is part of it. I’m not taking the role of “I’m Ice Cube, I know what people want.” Instead, I ask myself: “What films do I want to see as a consumer?” For me, that’s where you start. Of course, I’ve always recognized opportunities, from 1989 and N.W.A until present. I’m not holding myself back and I’m exploiting opportunities that are there, working hard and staying true to myself. This has translated well with the audience. It looks like people want what I want, and I give them that and it all works out.
"My wife and I come up with the ultimate game plan. I then give marching orders to my team, which is a really good team. They’re now starting to understand what makes me tick, what I’m all about and what I want, so now they bring things to the table that they know I’m interested in. For so many years I’ve been a self-guided missile, but now I’ve opened up a little bit more to suggestions from other people about what I should do with my career, what’s the next step. Some of the advice I take, most of it I don’t."
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