Life for O'Shea Jackson better known as Ice Cube has been something straight out of one his Hollywood movies. The now 52-year-old Cube 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?
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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."
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"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."
