Ice Cube: Stories behind iconic songs & films, ‘We’re all humans’, Big3 League & legacy

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Ryan, Channing and Fred visit Cube in his studio as they go down memory lane from the infamous movies, to the songs to the commercials to everything that make O'Shea Jackson an icon in the entertainment and business world. We get into the lessons of growing up in the industry, staying off the streets, to getting into film and music, to being a father, to entrepreneur and his passion for starting the Big3 League. Cube shares how his vision for the BIG3 was to create a league for basketball to live on beyond the NBA giving the game's past and future legends a chance to be apart of a sport they love while still making a living doing it. He expresses his frustration with the NBA's lack of support and says that this could be a stain on the legacy of Adam Silver for not helping this organization be successful. Fred asks about maintaining business relationships and always being on the up and up while Ryan gets into any of the controversial movements Cube has been associated with as he explains why it's important for him to treat all people the same no matter the title or affiliation because at the end of the day it's about progress not perfection. Of course the conversation is filled with some laughs and memorable stories that will have you talking for days as we go inside the life of a legend who's impacted the culture more ways than we can count. Tap in every Tuesday at noon eastern for our premiere episode of the Pivot. Special seasonal drops on Friday afternoons at 3:30 pm. We are your one-stop platform for all your sports and entertainment content. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming Pivot special episodes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 02

  What's happening?

• 0:31Ryan Clark?

  What's up, Reggie?

• 0:32Speaker 02

  What's happening with you?

• 0:33Fred Taylor?

  Good, how you feeling, man? Very good. What's up, man? What's up, boy? Love, bruh.

• 0:37Speaker 02

  No wonder you used to blast to them hoes like that.

• 0:39Fred Taylor?

  Free TV, bro. Free stand.

• 0:42Ryan Clark?

  Here big ol' dude, bruh.

• 0:43Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, man. I had to put that pressure on them. Man, I used to see.

• 0:47Ryan Clark?

  Whatever, free TV.

• 0:49Fred Taylor?

  What you mean, whatever?

• 0:50Speaker 02

  Damn.

• 0:51Fred Taylor?

  See.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  Damn.

• 0:52Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, man. But you know what? I'm about 10 pounds heavier, though. But I used to, I used to duck out, man.

• 0:58Speaker 02

  That's why you just go from tail to fullback or something.

• 1:00Fred Taylor?

  Nah, shit, nah. That's why I didn't want to play in the West Coast system. I went with that three-point shit.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  You went with that?

• 1:06Fred Taylor?

  Nah, man, I couldn't put three in the dirt.

• 1:08Speaker 02

  Oh, shit.

• 1:08Ryan Clark?

  Hey, you got a pass block, too, man. Differently.

• 1:11Fred Taylor?

  Oh, yeah, I can do that. But that wasn't no pressure. I could do that.

• 1:14Speaker 02

  Appreciate you having us in the, in the spot.

• 1:16Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 1:17Speaker 02

  Oh, man, man. Thanks for coming. I appreciate you guys, you know, flying out and, you know,

• 1:24Speaker 02

  doing it a little different than y'all usually do it. You know what I'm saying? I wish I was, could have met y'all at y'all spot. You know what I mean? But I appreciate y'all coming.

• 1:33Ryan Clark?

  I'm gonna say, it's different for you. That's what it's supposed to do. When you got an OG. You know how it work.

• 1:38Speaker 02

  You know, I appreciate it, though. You know what I'm saying? I ain't gonna take nothing for granted.

• 1:41Fred Taylor?

  Would you have a Raiders fan for real?

• 1:44Speaker 02

  Hell, yeah, man. I'm the president of the Raider Nation.

• 1:47Fred Taylor?

  To this day?

• 1:49Speaker 02

  Man, are you lis- I'm the president of the Raider Nation.

• 1:53Fred Taylor?

  Okay.

• 1:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:54Ryan Clark?

  That doesn't sound like an official position.

• 1:57Fred Taylor?

  So?

• 1:57Speaker 02

  What you mean?

• 1:58Ryan Clark?

  It sound like something you made up.

• 1:59Speaker 02

  No, it's nothing I made up. I was anointed.

• 2:04Fred Taylor?

  We had a couple of your boys on. Tay Adams.

• 2:07Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:07Fred Taylor?

  Max Crosby.

• 2:08Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 2:08Fred Taylor?

  What happened last year? Because the expectation was big. I was rooting for them.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  It was big expectations, but, you know, new coach, you know.

• 2:20Speaker 02

  Can't always expect it to come together like, you know, Phil Jackson or something, you know what I mean? So, takes a minute for everything to really gel. And look who we, look who the West is dealing with. You know what I'm saying? Look, look at that AFC West. I mean, you got the champs in the AFC West.

• 3:03Ryan Clark?

  OG, man, welcome, um, for us, man. This is, this is an honor. I feel like we've watched you in five or six different phases of life, and you've excelled at the mall. It's Chan, Freddie T., I'm RC. I mean, Ice Cube, y'all, you don't really need an introduction. It's always fun, though, when we get an opportunity to sit down with someone you think you know because you feel like you've watched their lives play out before you, and then the things that you can learn from just having a conversation. I kind of want to start in, in the place that brings us back to kind of where you're from, but also shows how you've grown.

• 3:43Ryan Clark?

  You said that you and your homeboys popped up at somebody's house in the hood because they tricked your mom out of $20.

• 3:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:53Ryan Clark?

  And when y'all went over there to settle it, he wasn't home. Explain a little bit about where you think your life would be had the dude you were looking for, for been home over $20.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  Probably California State Penitentiary. My friend Greenfield, he had just bought a shotgun. Bought a shotgun from Western Surplus. So, he was just turning 18, and, um...

• 4:27Speaker 02

  I I heard about, you know, I go home, this is days after he had got it. Go home and uh my mother tell me what happened, that a classmate had came by. And I knew he was smoking, you know, I knew he was, you know, not the same person I went to school with. You know, he had just kind of turned into a fiend. So I knew he lied, tricked her. I wasn't even close to this dude, I just knew him. So I knew where he lived. I went down and um we we jumped in his car. Had shotgun.

• 5:10Speaker 02

  Went to it, went to dude's house, knocked on the door and he wasn't home. So thank God he wasn't home, cuz

• 5:21Speaker 02

  I was mad, I wasn't thinking, I didn't really like the dude at all anyway, so I I felt violated cuz he did that to my mother.

• 5:31Ryan Clark?

  Mm hmm.

• 5:31Speaker 02

  So I was extra on one and um he wasn't home, so

• 5:39Speaker 02

  we we we left and it just gave me time to cool now. And my mother was like, it's only twenty dollars, you know what I mean? I would have gave him twenty dollars. You know, if he, even uh if he didn't come with that story, if he asked, so you know, it's the moments that I thank God that uh you know, obviously he's watching my back.

• 6:01Fred Taylor?

  Usually, we ask all of our guests the biggest pivot in their lives. So thirty six years ago, you were eighteen then.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 6:09Fred Taylor?

  Um, would you say that particular moment when he wasn't home, uh would that be your biggest pivot?

• 6:16Speaker 02

  Nah, not at all. You know, that was, you know, a moment in time. You know, I think my big, my biggest pivot was, I used to play football too. For position. Fullback and linebacker, outside linebacker.

• 6:32Fred Taylor?

  Mm hmm.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  And I stopped playing that to hang out with Dr. Dre. You know, uh I I quit the team. Well, it wasn't fun no more. Because I wasn't trying to

• 6:45Speaker 02

  I wasn't thinking about I'm playing football to go to college.

• 6:50Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 6:52Speaker 02

  To play in the pros. I was playing football because it was fun. I like to play football. The coaches was just way too serious, you know what I mean? They was just way too serious for me. They were so worried about their job wasn't fun. So I was on the fence and then I got into the music. I met Dr. Dre. We just hit it off, you know, always running creative ideas by each other. And, and we was both serious about hip hop. And so I chose to quit the team in 11th grade and, and go hang with him. And that's my biggest pivot.

• 7:28Channing Crowder?

  It's funny sitting down with you, man. It's an honor because you were OG. Like it's some stuff like you, you know what I'm saying? Through your music and what you did, like you, you taught me growing up, you know what I'm saying? How, how, how a G moves, you know what I'm saying? How, how dudes think about it. When you telling that story, it's remind, it was doughboy. You mess with my brother, I'm about to go, I'm about to go get you. And then we watched the N W A movie. And then you checking everybody in that movie with that same energy. Like, nigga, you ain't, you ain't about to mess with me like that. My family, my people, or especially you, you ain't about to try me.

• 8:00Channing Crowder?

  Was it God that got you where you are? Because the way I've seen, not talking to you, I seen you move. He was supposed to be in that penitentiary a long time ago.

• 8:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, it's definitely God, but you make the decision at the time, you know, you, you make the decision like, yeah, he's gotten me out of some dumb decisions and I've been able to sidestep other things. You know, I, I ain't always had the courage all the time to do the right things or basically making impact at the moment of truth. You know what I'm saying? Like everybody else had the moments in my life when I said, man, I should have did this. I should have did that. Or, you know, next time I'm not gonna let that happen. And I've learned from the moments and I've just decided that it's better to.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  You know, to stand up for yourself at the time, then go to bed regretting you're not doing what you should have did, what you knew you should have did at the time that, that you should have did it. So, I've always been aware and always wanted to make sure people knew where I stand. Been assertive.

• 9:19Channing Crowder?

  Assertive, that's what you call assertive?

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Assertive, you know, and I made a promise to myself that I would do everything to make sure I didn't end up in the penitentiary. You know, it was like, I was just working to make sure they didn't get me.

• 9:33Ryan Clark?

  I was talking to your oldest son when we pulled up and we were talking about the phases of your life and he was saying that your kids feel like they were born in different eras of who O'Shea Jackson is as a man, right? That there was, there was a hip hop, there was a hip hop era and then there's movies and then there's business and he said he feels like as the kids, they've kind of grown up and their experiences into who they are today were based off of where you were in life. Like he was talking about your youngest and he said, he's a numbers guy because he grew up with you being in the business.

• 10:12Ryan Clark?

  How have you been able to use your creativity, whether it starts with being the, the lead writer and vocalist of NWA, getting into a solo career, West Side Connection, then writing movies, like, I mean, you're the same dude, the same person, like, part of your legacy is going to be the same person gave us Novozilem and are we there yet? That don't seem like that should be the same man. How have you been able to use your creativity and move into all these different realms and be so successful?

• 10:47Speaker 02

  You know, I recognize that it was art. You know, at the end of the day, it's, it's art and when you're an artist, you can paint anything you want to paint. You don't have to stick to a script and you don't have to be what, what they...

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Say you are, or what people perceive you as. You know, you can be who you wanna be and do it how you wanna do it. And just because, I remember, you know, dudes in the studio told me not to do It Was A Good Day.

• 11:18Channing Crowder?

  Really?

• 11:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, they was like, "Q, you do hardcore music, man, you, you know, you do that, you do that real shit." You know what I'm saying? This, "Good day, what you mean, what you talking about, man? You supposed to be talking about the shit." And I'm like, I said, "No, homie, it ain't like that, you know, I ain't just popping off, you know what I'm saying? If, if I'm having a good day and I'm a reality rapper,

• 11:43Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  goddammit, I should be able to say that I'm having a good day."

• 11:47Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  You know what I'm saying? I shouldn't have to be, "No, I only do it this way, I only talk about this, I only can say this, 'cause this is how I started, you know? I started hardcore and everything gotta be hardcore." And it's like, that's not even reality. You know, the reality is, you can't judge a book by its cover. And I've proved that, I've proven that over and over and over again. You just can't judge a book by its cover, so, so don't try. And that's what it's really all about. It's like, you see me, people see me, they have different perceptions, but you don't know, you don't really know what's going on with me. You don't know what I know and what I don't know, and what I can do and what I can't do.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  And so, you know, I've just hopefully been an example

• 12:39Channing Crowder?

  Really?

• 12:40Speaker 02

  Uh, of, of that one fact, yeah.

• 12:45Channing Crowder?

  And talking about that, bruh, did success breed success? Like, without rap, would there be movies? Without rap, would it be producing? Without, like, did you, did you need that side to see that I'm talented? Like you're saying, I have my artist with the rap and now I can move on?

• 13:02Speaker 02

  You know, the better you do in one opportunity, the more doors open for you.

• 13:06Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 13:07Speaker 02

  If you squander your first opportunity, sometimes the second and the third ones don't even, um, present theyself. So it's really about recognizing opportunities, um, taking advantage of them, because that's what they're here for, you know, doors don't stay open. So when they open, you gotta go through it, not doubting yourself because an opportunity may present itself as something you ain't never did before. Being willing to learn on the job training and know that you just can learn, but you gotta be great at it at the same time as you learn it. So being committed, you know, and, and yeah, I think,

• 13:52Speaker 02

  you know, if you're successful in one thing, other opportunities present themselves. I know the gentleman that invented Hot Cheetos.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  And his story is he was a janitor at the company.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  And his father taught him, wherever the area, they should know that, that a Jackson did this. You know what I mean? And the bosses recognize, hey, hey, man, who, who the one cleaning up the area around here? They want to talk to him. Say, man, you take initiative, you know, like how you do your job, man. Any ideas you got for the company, let us know. He let them know. Now he a billionaire and, and uh, it's all because he did it. He did the, his, his one opportunity to work for the company.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  He did his job like he cared and he got an opportunity and he took advantage of it.

• 14:58Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, we had an opportunity to talk to Notre Dame's football team. And we were speaking about Plan Bs. And that was something I tried to tell them. I was like, look, the best way to get to your Plan B is excel at Plan A. Wherever your feet are, be the best you could possibly be in that spot. And that usually leads to other opportunities.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, you have to execute every day. If you try to be, you know, as good as you can possibly be every day, then the things you want to do get done in an excellent way. That's really what it's all about. It's about planning, pre-planning.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  And on the day, you know, execute and try to be the best at it, you know, and uh, and then other things, you know, good work is recognized, you know, you don't have to say a lot.

• 15:54Fred Taylor?

  Always. We like, he kind of dippin' dabbin' to your journey. And you know, you mentioned dodging bullets, not being in prison, but you face a lot of challenges, right? I want to know like, um, within those challenges, what were the most difficult challenges? Was it from the, the industry itself or um, the streets? Like what, what told you, look, I gotta get my shit together? You know, I'm not taking no for an answer. I'm here to do my thing. Like what was the most difficult time that said, nah, I'm gonna pivot and make myself, you know, what I think I can be?

• 16:32Speaker 02

  I mean, you know, growing up in a, in a neighborhood, you know, where um, you know, gang banging is, is pretty much all around you. You know, even though my street was more than all for sports. Like on my block, on Van Wick, you had to know how to play something. Or take your ass, take your ass, you're gonna get ran off of here, you know what I mean? Cause we, football, basketball, baseball, you know, we, we uh, go karts, mini bikes, motorcycles, um, you know, it was, it was that kind of neighborhood.

• 17:15Speaker 02

  So you had to be able to be athletic, um, you know, a few gang bangers here and there, but, but that wasn't really the block for that, you know? The block for that was, you know, more up close to western. So, you know, that's the biggest obstacle, you know? The music industry ain't shit, you know what I'm saying? The movie industry, that's, you know, I give you a headache, it's frustrating. It ain't, it ain't nothing, it ain't, you know, it ain't shit, you know? But you gotta handle your business.

• 17:45Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  It could be a nightmare if you just start signing your name on shit and you don't, um.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  Handle your business, you don't have nobody looking at your paperwork. You so worried about that little money they giving you upfront. And, and you know, you wanna put on the chain and all that shit. You know what I'm saying? You gotta handle your business or you gonna be crying when you get mature. Uh, and everybody, you know, they like, I don't even see why some of these dudes uh sign these youngsters to bad contracts. Cause they know one day this dude gonna come back and be like, man, you had me sign some bullshit.

• 18:32Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 18:33Speaker 02

  It's gonna happen, it always happens, so like, I don't know why they do it. But usually, you know, people with no talent taking advantage of people with, that has a lot of talent.

• 18:47Fred Taylor?

  Were you, were you, were you always heavy into, to paperwork? Because, you know, when you left the group, you came back and, and you did your, you went fucking crazy and did your thing. Were you always privy, you know, aware of this is how I gotta handle my business within all these contracts? Cause you would, I would assume, like, somebody that come from that sort of demographic, you know, in the hood, or what, what have you, like, you don't really pay attention to that. You're like, you're more enamored by, you're impressed by the fame or the potential of having that fame and the, the dangling silver, you know, sparkly thing. So, the paperwork, like, when did you develop that business acumen?

• 19:29Speaker 02

  Well, you know, what was, you know, what was cool about my career is I didn't, and I wasn't hot from the jump. You know, I sat back and watched Dr. Dre, uh, Grandmaster Lanz, uh, Yella.

• 19:46Speaker 02

  Clientele, I watched the Wrecking Crew. I watched their trials and tribulations and stuff, so I knew.

• 19:53Speaker 06

  Here's your report.

• 19:54Speaker 07

  Oh, thanks, Jane. I wish I could hire someone just like you.

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• 20:14Speaker 07

  Let's do it. You're irreplaceable, Jane, but another you would be great.

• 20:18Speaker 06

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• 20:24Speaker 02

  Somewhat. How hard it is to struggle in the game. So I had, kind of went through it. You know, I was in a group called Stereo Crew. And we were signing Epic Records, so we went through that process of... And you know what was cool about Lonzo, he... We did it right, you know what I'm saying? He didn't take advantage of us. We was young, you know, we were so young. Our parents had to sign for us, and so we were still like 15, 16. I kind of knew what was up. But who really put me on it was Pat Charbonnet. If y'all look at Friday, it'll say "Produced by Pat Charbonnet."

• 21:09Speaker 02

  She was my first manager. And she really, you know, taught me a lot about the game and things to look out for. You know, I wish we could have highlighted her in the movie. But it was just a lot of politics behind, you know, who went in the movie and who didn't. But, you know, at the end of the day, she was just, you know, telling me to look out, be careful. She connected me with a lawyer, a guy by the name of Michael Ashburn. She was helping me navigate behind the scenes. You know, I appreciate that she was there.

• 21:49Ryan Clark?

  What you talking about? Navigating behind the scenes and contracts. And it makes me think about... Some of the backlash you got for negotiating, or even talking about negotiating a contract with Black America.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:03Ryan Clark?

  Right? You went from being the guy that was NWA and F the Police to your own people, your own community, who you supported through movies, through music and all of this, calling you a sellout, where you had to step out and say, "Look, this is what I was doing. This is why it mattered to me." You really had to be in the frame of mind of saying, "You know what? I don't care how this looks. I have a mission. I have a passion to help people, and I don't care if it's with the people. I'mma talk to the party. I'mma talk to the folks who want to help me move things forward." How did you get that passion? That you wanted to give back to the community, what you felt they deserved and what they were owed? But also, how did you get to a point where you didn't care what table you sat at?

• 22:48Ryan Clark?

  Because you dealt with a ton of backlash for doing that and talking to the former president.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  If you know that you can make a difference, other people might not understand it, but, you know, I feel obligated to try. And I felt like people understand it in time. You know what I'm saying? Due time, people understand. You know, so I'm used to being able to take the bullets as they come, in the moment, understanding that, you know, as time go on, people will understand the move. Now, you know, with that situation, with any situation, what I want people to understand is, you hear about the institutions, you know, you got Democrats, you got Republicans, you got, you know, Congress, Senate,

• 23:40Speaker 02

  judges, doctors, lawyers, blah, blah, blah, police, huh, firemen.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  They are just people, man. All these titles and shit don't mean nothing. I don't care about no white title.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  That's something people usually get they self. People cherish they little title. You know? Fuck your title, I don't care, you're a person. I'mma talk to you. You, you know, and I don't get hung up on what you think you are. You know what I'm saying? I get hung up on, can I communicate with you? If you're going in the right direction, I'mma cheer you on. If you're going in the wrong direction, I'mma try to turn you around. And that's what it's all about, man. We so hung up on people's titles and we don't understand. It's just people.

• 24:38Speaker 02

  You know, we put too much, you know, people scared to talk to their doctor. Why? He's a fucking doctor. Like, he's not even, I mean, he's a doctor, but he's a man or a woman with the answers or not. Ask the questions, you know what I mean? Don't get hung up on, on all these, all this stuff. So, I learned that, you know, as I matured, that not to get caught up on nobody title. And I'mma talk to somebody like a man or a woman. That's my approach. The Contract with Black America. Everybody, you know, after the George Floyd murder,

• 25:23Speaker 02

  all of America pretended like they wanted to do something different and make amends for,

• 25:33Speaker 02

  you know, really cutting us out of the financial flow and system of things. And, um, so,

• 25:44Speaker 02

  but they, everybody was really focused on police brutality. I wanted it to be a broader conversation and talk about everything that is plaguing us in America. And so, that's where The Contract with Black America came from. Now, I put it out, you know, July 1st. Everybody wants to talk to me, you know, I didn't call. Democrats and say, did you see what I dropped?

• 26:14Speaker 02

  Check for me. I didn't call the Republicans. It's like, did you see that contract, Black America? It wasn't really for that. It was for everybody to look at it, dissect it, add to it, subtract from it, debate it, understand it. And wherever they can use it, they could to better a bill or get grant money. Or whatever that you needed this for, you needed this information for, you could use it. Like you could use a dictionary, you know? So, everybody called me. I went to talk to the people that wanted to talk to me, and that's all that was done.

• 26:55Channing Crowder?

  And that's the, uh, think for yourself. Was that that, that concept?

• 27:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:00Channing Crowder?

  Like, don't get a part, that's how I took it. Don't get a part of parties and sides. Think for yourself, see the whole picture. But everything has to be motivated. You know what I'm saying? What's the motive, the motivation? Because it's funny, you're looking at, you need to help everybody. You would just help people. But like you said, the black community attacked you because why are you, why are you writing something to black people and not to everybody? If that's who you want to help?

• 27:26Ryan Clark?

  They were, they were upset. No, they were upset because they felt like he was sleeping with the enemy.

• 27:31Channing Crowder?

  But that's what I'm saying.

• 27:31Ryan Clark?

  You gotta realize that, at, at that time, like he's talking, he's talking about George Floyd and us being focused on police brutality and now him trying to get this broader, this broader bill passed or a broader look at the entire community and how we elevate, especially financially. He had to do that because the Democrats were not offering or not giving him the seat at the table that we felt like it deserved. So now you're with Trump and the Republicans put it out and say, Ice Cube was very vital in helping us with this part of what we want to push through legislation.

• 28:07Channing Crowder?

  But it, it's the thing about Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter, and everybody says, but all lives matter? But then you look at it and say, the black lives are the marginalized lives. They're the ones that are working 400 years behind. And so that's the thing. It's that same concept of that, I understand everybody's important, but.

• 28:24Ryan Clark?

  We, we need to concentrate on us, George Floyd and all the situations.

• 28:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a situation where um, there's nothing wrong with us focusing on our own community to fix our problems. And asking the country to focus on them too, you know, um, nothing wrong with that, everybody does it, you know. I think that's the smart thing to do, um.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Can't help everybody, like, we drowning, you can't help everybody till you get yourself on the boat.

• 28:56Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 28:56Speaker 02

  And so, we need to get on the boat and, and then we can throw a lifeline. We, you know, we willing to help everybody.

• 29:04Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  So, it's really about us getting a lifeline and we're the ones that's being systematically discriminated on. You know, through the, you know, financial um, system that's in place, you know, it's, it's, it's a dead end um, in most, you know, most avenues of, of gaining financial um, capital to, you know.

• 29:34Ryan Clark?

  Do you feel like the NBA is doing that to you with the big three as well? Because you've spoken out about that relationship and what, what you've done with that league. Stack came out and made a statement and, and you were in support of, of Stack's statement, Stephen Jackson, obviously. And the way that he supported the big three, I believe he won the championship as a player, coach.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:59Ryan Clark?

  In the first year.

• 29:59Speaker 02

  Back to back.

• 30:00Ryan Clark?

  Back to back, and you've given guys opportunities to go show that they can hoop again.

• 30:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:05Ryan Clark?

  But, it's not one of those things where you see like, and Channing was talking about it before, the NFL speaking with the rock, trying to make sure the XFL has the sort of visibility and sort of opportunities, taking guys straight from the XFL to the NFL. You talk about the guys being systematically pushed down financially. Do you feel there is some sort of negative relationship between the big three and the NBA, or what you have found?

• 30:29Speaker 02

  For one, the, the NBA, um, I, you know, I really don't understand their position. Um, they're considering us competition.

• 30:42Speaker 02

  And if you look at the big three compared to the NBA, it's not competition.

• 30:49Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 30:50Speaker 02

  What they're not understanding is we do a lot with our game for, for the mental health of, of athletes who've honed their skills. From little kids to grown men to maturity. Some of them, you know, we start as young as twenty-two, but, but, guys still being able to play the game that they love and make money. That's what it's all about, you know, it's not about Ice Cube and, and, you know, they can hurt me, you know what I'm saying? It's gonna hurt my feelings if, if the big three don't survive.

• 31:29Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 31:30Speaker 02

  But it's gonna crush a lot of athletes. It's gonna take a lot of jobs away. They don't have a head coaching job for the Iceman. They don't have a head coaching job for Rick Barry. You know what I mean? They don't. Or, or Rick Mahorn, or, or Michael Cooper. Or Nancy Lieberman, or Lisa Leslie. So to crush this league and to do the things that they're doing behind the scenes, it's gonna hurt Adam Silver's legacy. This is gonna be the sting. Uh, mark my words. It's not gonna matter if he put Black Lives Matter on the court. If, if, if black lives don't matter in his heart.

• 32:13Speaker 02

  So it, this is gonna be what, what to do it if he don't turn this around. It'd be a shame because it's so easy for him to say that we're not a competing league. And let his owners invest into the big three and make sure, you know, there's a place, you know, every team could have a, NBA team could have a three-on-three team, you know, it's like, well, why, what are we doing here? Uh, it's a great idea. We took it to him first, so it's not like we just showed up on the block. We took it to him first. We came bearing gifts. Offered him ten percent of the league for free. You had to pay a quarter.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  And she said, thank you, but no, thank you. And we proceeded to do our thing. But, you know, encouraging networks not to run the big three, it's not cool. You know, you virtually hear nothing about the big three on mainstream sports media. Why? You know, it's like, what's cooler than the big three right now to going on in the summer? It's not the summer league NBA.

• 33:26Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 33:26Speaker 02

  You don't even know half them kids. Some of them dudes ain't even gonna make the team.

• 33:30Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 33:31Speaker 02

  It's, you know, unless you love golf or mid-season baseball. You know, what else is cooler? What else benefits, um, their former players more than the big three? So, something's gotta give.

• 33:48Fred Taylor?

  So, the, the idea and the concept from paper pen to fruition, like, what were, what were you doing? Like. How in the fuck you say, I'm finna start a big three. They gotta be smoking, watching people, who? Yeah, it's like.

• 34:02Speaker 02

  I wasn't smoking nothing.

• 34:04Fred Taylor?

  Like some of that chicken coop, man. That chicken coop?

• 34:07Speaker 02

  Nah, I wasn't in the chicken coop. It, it's, it's a, you know, it's, it's been there. It's, it's been, uh, three on three been the little cousin of five on five from day one. It's something we all usually play. We probably done played. We started in twenty seventeen.

• 34:25Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 34:25Speaker 02

  We spent twenty sixteen discussing rules and, and, and business motto.

• 34:32Fred Taylor?

  Fireball.

• 34:33Speaker 02

  Twenty fifteen, we were, hmm, man, you know, could we, I don't know, you know, Kobe scored sixty points in his last game. I'm not there. I'm, I'm shooting a movie, I think it might've been either Fist Fight or Barbershop. They might, might've been Fist Fight. So, I'm not there, I'm pissed. I missed Kobe's last game and he scored sixty. My son, O'Shea Junior, my wife, kids going crazy, you should've been there, you missed it.

• 35:10Speaker 02

  So, I'm like, man, I cannot see this dude play no more.

• 35:14Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  This, this, this ain't right. I'd, I'll pay money. There's nowhere I could pay to see this guy play. And then that's when I called my guy Jeff and uh, we gotta do this shit, man. And he was like, let's, let's, let's figure it out. And then that's when 2016, we started to churn. 2017, we had Iceman down to do it. We had uh, Kenyon Martin, Jermaine O'Neal. Down to do it Chauncey Billups, Dr. J to agree. And once we got Allen Iverson, we was like, man, we gonna announce. Cause people gonna wanna see this.

• 36:00Fred Taylor?

  Right, right. Was it hard convincing those guys?

• 36:02Speaker 02

  Some harder than others. They, you know, some of them was right away on it. Some of them needed a few phone calls. You know, I think we had to meet Clyde Drexler a few times. They saw the concept was great. And then they said, Q, we believe in you. You know, how could we tell you know, if, if you believe this is gonna work? I said, uh, you know, it'd be my mission to make it work.

• 36:28Channing Crowder?

  You a businessman. Fred talked about the contracts earlier. Is it, is it a sound business model that you have set up? Are you, are you making money? Can you really make money off this? Or is it just a passion? Like, I love to fish. I don't make no money off fishing.

• 36:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can make money off this. You know what I mean? It's, it's just hitting the inflection point. We're almost there, you know? To run this league is dudes' contracts can fit into this league, you know what I mean? It's like, some dudes making three times what it take to run this league. So we, we're close. We just close to being over the hump. And then we're all down here. Our business model works better than the NBA where the top teams have to pay money. Top 10 teams have to pay money. Middle 10 teams make about 10, 15, 20 million.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  The bottom teams make about fifty million a year. Top teams gotta pay money because they usually into the luxury tax.

• 37:31Ryan Clark?

  You've been able to make money doing a lot of things and I think that's what makes the question interesting about the big three. Like you didn't spend a ton of money to make Friday. And obviously became, you said you wanted it to be a hood classic. I think it's more than that. It's just a classic movie, period. It's given us more sayings, quotes, memes than any movie that, you know, we've had an opportunity to watch. But I want to sort of ask you about the people you keep around or the people you get to work with. You are like, I thought it was fake. Like I didn't think you was gonna be this chill. You actually are that damn cool. And so you're in all these movies. You in All About the Benjamins. You got Next Friday, Friday at the Next. You got Ride Along.

• 38:15Ryan Clark?

  You hang out with funny people, Cube, but you don't laugh.

• 38:19Speaker 02

  I do.

• 38:19Ryan Clark?

  So when you, um, so.

• 38:22Speaker 02

  That nigga, that nigga chuckled once.

• 38:25Ryan Clark?

  No, so when you, when you were on Mike Epps, Chris Tucker.

• 38:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:30Ryan Clark?

  Kevin Hart, man, all these people, do you act like this? And which one of them is the funniest to be, you are, when?

• 38:36Speaker 02

  Laughing all the time with them dudes, man, because they crack me up. You know, growing up, all my friends was funny. All my friends was funny.

• 38:44Ryan Clark?

  Is that how you got to be like this? Be serious as hell all the time?

• 38:47Speaker 02

  That's just my personality, you know, but you know, I laugh, you know, crack jokes with the best of them.

• 38:55Channing Crowder?

  I got one then. I was gonna save it because I needed this from you because you jaded me as a child. I was born in eighty-three.

• 39:03Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 39:04Channing Crowder?

  So today was a good day, came out, I was what?

• 39:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 39:07Channing Crowder?

  Ten?

• 39:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, you was probably about nineteen.

• 39:10Channing Crowder?

  Nine, ten, right?

• 39:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:11Channing Crowder?

  Kim was the name.

• 39:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:13Channing Crowder?

  You got a call from her?

• 39:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:14Channing Crowder?

  And I'm gonna paraphrase, she can have sex all night.

• 39:18Speaker 02

  I knew this was good.

• 39:19Channing Crowder?

  Right?

• 39:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:20Channing Crowder?

  So I thought that was a thing.

• 39:22Speaker 02

  Trying to go all night.

• 39:24Channing Crowder?

  As a grown ass man, I need to know, because you taught me this.

• 39:28Speaker 06

  Here's your report.

• 39:29Speaker 07

  Oh, thanks, Jane. I wish I could hire someone just like you.

• 39:32Speaker 06

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• 39:49Speaker 07

  Let's do it. You're irreplaceable, Jane, but another you would be great.

• 39:53Speaker 06

  Hire right the first time. Post your job for free on LinkedIn today at LinkedIn.com/quality.

• 39:59Channing Crowder?

  Having sex all night, does that mean after the club at 3 a.m. that's to 5 a.m.? Because, bro, I'm telling you, I can give a motherfucker, my, ask my wife, I can give a motherfucker two and a half hours.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  Listen to the lyrics.

• 40:11Channing Crowder?

  But, but if you go to dinner at 6 and get out of dinner at 8, I can't have sex from 8 to 6 a.m. That's 10 hours, Q. That's too fucking long.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  I said she can have sex all night. I didn't say I could.

• 40:26Channing Crowder?

  So who's she having sex with?

• 40:29Speaker 02

  You know, if I needed to go, you know she ready to go.

• 40:34Channing Crowder?

  But what, what's that window? What, what, what show, there's a bigger conversation. What's showing out time-wise for, for a man? What's showing out?

• 40:41Speaker 02

  I mean, showing out time-wise?

• 40:43Channing Crowder?

  If you just, you about to tear it up.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  I guess till skin come off, that's.

• 40:48Channing Crowder?

  You gonna get chased?

• 40:50Speaker 02

  That's showing out. That's showing out. You said showing out.

• 40:54Ryan Clark?

  This is rough after that.

• 40:55Speaker 02

  You said showing out.

• 40:57Ryan Clark?

  We're not trying to get chased, though.

• 40:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, what are you talking about, man? How long, what, is showing out?

• 41:03Channing Crowder?

  How long is it? Because, you know, everybody say the, the two-minute man.

• 41:06Speaker 02

  You trying to ask how long I have sex?

• 41:08Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, I'm asking you.

• 41:09Ryan Clark?

  He has some weird.

• 41:11Channing Crowder?

  I just need, I need to know from my OG how it, my timeframe is, I hear, if we start at midnight, if I go to 1:30, be happy, motherfucker.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, she better be good. You go that long.

• 41:25Ryan Clark?

  You go to, you go for 1:30?

• 41:28Channing Crowder?

  Well, then it's, but it's four players, a lot more to it, too. You gotta show, you gotta, you gotta have games and toys and cosplay.

• 41:35Speaker 02

  Next question, man. That dude on your shirt might be getting to you.

• 41:40Fred Taylor?

  Robin probably gonna catch up with him. He tried to get Kevin Hart to go to. You're talking about till the skin fall off, what'd you say?

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Nah, he said, what is showing out? I said, that would be showing out, like going, you know, too long.

• 41:55Fred Taylor?

  You know, he was talking about no Vaseline and shit, too. That'd take some skin off, too.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  Nah, nah.

• 42:01Fred Taylor?

  That was back in the day.

• 42:02Speaker 02

  Nah, it was serious, like. Just rap lyrics.

• 42:04Fred Taylor?

  A lot of your songs iconic, classics, so many damn classics, man. And I know you did E Y L with the guys. You spoke about diss tracks, right? And having the hardest diss track out, and I agree with you on that. But what, you have so many, what's your baby? Like, what song do you consider your baby? The one that they didn't want you to do?

• 42:27Speaker 02

  One they didn't want me to do, you know? It was just a little debate. It wasn't like, it wasn't, it was, I had to tell them, this is gonna be the shit. Like, you know, I'm Ice Cube, y'all not. But, shut up, just sit down. And so, that's my baby, cuz, for one, you know, shout out to the Isley Brothers. You know, especially Ryan Isley, who let me use it, you know? And didn't say, nah, Cube, you know? That's our shit. You know what I mean? That's my baby. So, you know, I think, it was a hit before, you know, I even touched it.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  So, putting the lyrics on top of it, just kinda, you know, you got a cheeseburger, and you got a double cheeseburger. You know what I'm saying? So, that just put the second little layer on it to make it, you know, an all-time rap classic. But, uh, that's the one, uh, because it's, it's taken my career, my rap career, further than I think any other song would have.

• 43:35Fred Taylor?

  Mama really cooked the breakfast with no hog?

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, if she was cooking for me, then I'd prove.

• 43:42Fred Taylor?

  So, no pork?

• 43:43Speaker 02

  Nah.

• 43:44Fred Taylor?

  None of that?

• 43:45Ryan Clark?

  I'm with that. I do miss bacon sometimes, though. I do miss bacon sometimes, but Chance called you the OG a ton, um, you know? And when you said, it's just lyrics, you're obviously talking about something different, but it's like. You mentioned being assertive. And there was NWA, then there was your solo career. And obviously Dre was a part of that. Whether it was diss tracks and that was just music or whatever it is. You know, you come back 2016, perform at Coachella with Dre. You've shown for whether if I'm watching or a younger kid is watching, that men can disagree, that business is business. But it doesn't have to end in what we think the hood says getting respected.

• 44:30Ryan Clark?

  Or in what we sometimes grow up thinking respected is. It can be a mutual respect for the rest of our lives for what we did for one another. What do you think or how have you evolved as a man in relationships like that? Because I feel like we've gotten to watch you in different phases of it. And now you're at the point where people do look to you for how you've put people on, how you've mended relationships that people thought were broken.

• 44:55Speaker 02

  You know, sometimes time heals wounds, you know. It don't heal all wounds, but it do. And I think us coming, all coming from neighborhoods where you can get killed just going to the store or standing out in front of your house. That we, you know, we recognize we're in a blessed position to be able to make music and sidestep some of that heat that's in the neighborhood that we all grew up in. Now, the ones that really are serious about making a better life for theirself, they realize, okay, this beef is going on. It could get real physical.

• 45:37Speaker 02

  For one, I don't want to get none of my people hurt. And I don't want to get hurt. So you start to figure out how to quell it, stop it from getting to that point. But you know, it's different phases. Like when you beefing the street, you beefing with you. And everybody know it.

• 46:07Speaker 02

  A third party can always come in, do something to you, and then they gonna blame it on you.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  Or do something to you, and then they gonna blame it on him. Ain't nothing he gonna be able to say to make people think he had nothing to do with what happened to you. So now, somebody who hate both of y'all could come in, do something to one of y'all, you gonna get blamed. And he gonna get both of y'all in that time that y'all beefing in the street. So realizing that, you realize, okay, try to squash this as fast as possible, or let it pass. Communicate if you can to the person you beefing with or to their team, let them know, we'll keep this on wax.

• 46:58Speaker 02

  Y'all don't put out another one, we won't put out another one. Y'all won't do that, we won't do that. Try to squash it. Beef with Cypress Hill, we realized it was turning into a, it was going into the penitentiaries and this black on brown thing going on. And we knew, we didn't wanna add to that. So we squashed it, cuz we didn't want that happening in the streets. Common, you know, we got a mutual person helped us squash that. Minister helped us squash that. And we ended up doing a movie together, you know what I mean? He was a, and a song, and, and you know, we good friends,

• 47:44Speaker 02

  you know, since that beef.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  So, and me and B Real, you know, we toured together now. We went to Australia. We went to New Zealand. Few seasons in the country, and then we do the UK, December, got records that's gonna come out together. It's important, man, to-

• 48:06Speaker 02

  Leaving on wax, you know, it's like football.

• 48:09Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  You know what I'm saying? Try to take my head off between the lines, you know? But at a certain point,

• 48:19Speaker 02

  it's just a game, game over, man.

• 48:21Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 48:21Speaker 02

  You got me this time. I'll get you next time. Shake hands. And, cause battling is part of rap. It's like sparring. We all battled. It's part of sharpening your skills. And, and, you know, sometimes it go to wax. You know, the thing is, is you don't want to get physical. People get hurt. You know, we, we've had beefs to get physical too, you know, all of them don't, don't, you know, we got physical with eight, with Above the Law. But, we squashed it, you know? Now, now we cool and, and did records together.

• 48:59Fred Taylor?

  We had Snoop on the show and we, we all forgot to mention that we was down in Nashville when y'all came through for the Mount Westmore. We totally forgot to mention.

• 49:09Ryan Clark?

  Bro, that joke was hard though.

• 49:10Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 49:11Ryan Clark?

  It was one of the greatest nights of my life, actually.

• 49:13Fred Taylor?

  We were just getting going and we like, we just, we didn't even know y'all was gonna be there. We caught wind, we was like, we gotta rock with this, we got some great tickets. And the show was amazing.

• 49:22Ryan Clark?

  It was.

• 49:23Fred Taylor?

  It was, I'm talking about, it was super dope. Do y'all, like, do you guys miss that energy? First of all, how did it come about? You got two guys from the Bay, two guys from this side. Like, how did that come about? Who put the, the, the, what is it? The four-headed monster together?

• 49:40Speaker 02

  Oh man, you know, we've been, been knowing each other forever, you know, over thirty years and torn with each other, with, with each other at, you know, the same amount of time, but just different ways, you know? Sometimes me and Too Short. Sometimes Snoop and Short. Sometimes Forty and, uh, Short. It's me and Forty, you know? So it's different configurations of us torn together, uh, all these years in, uh, you know, during that, that, uh, plandemic. You know, E40 was like, uh, yo, you know?

• 50:19Speaker 02

  First he did a wellness check on me and you know I'm still alive, you know I'm still here. And he said, uh, we should do something dope. I'm like, what? Just do some music. So what? So we should start a group. Group, who? First I want to know who when you say start a group. Um, because if I ain't rocking with you, I'm gonna be like.

• 50:38Ryan Clark?

  Who at the party?

• 50:40Speaker 02

  Who that? So he was, I was like, who? He's like, me, you, uh, Snoop and Schultz. I was like, hell yeah. You know, that's just the perfect,

• 50:54Speaker 02

  the perfect ingredients for something big. And, um, so it was all about, uh, you know, naming the group. And I was like, Mount Westmore.

• 51:06Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  Just fit perfect.

• 51:09Channing Crowder?

  Is there a out? Do you have a date, an age that you, you, you done? I know you got plenty of money and all that, but like you, you want to chill.

• 51:17Speaker 02

  There's no such thing as plenty of money.

• 51:22Channing Crowder?

  Everybody got a finish line. You don't got a finish line?

• 51:24Speaker 02

  I want to do it longer than George Burns.

• 51:27Ryan Clark?

  That's forever.

• 51:30Speaker 02

  I want to do it longer than George Burns.

• 51:32Ryan Clark?

  Well, with, with that, I, I've been fascinated when you start really digging into your career, you start to see how much you've actually done, been a piece of, whether it's directing, producing, writing, performing, acting. When it's all said and done, you've already gotten your star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What do you think you want people to remember about you? Whether it's, I remember he was doughboy. Either they don't know, they don't show, or they ain't never been to the hood. If it's Friday, if it's, today was a good day. What's the thing you want people to say about Ice Cube and be like, I remember that and that makes me feel this way?

• 52:14Speaker 02

  Haven't really thought about that, but you know,

• 52:18Speaker 02

  if you, if you put it that way, I would want them to think that many people

• 52:25Speaker 02

  can do it. But they can't do what Cube can do.

• 52:34Speaker 02

  And many people can sell more records than me. They could do a lot of different things, but they can't do everything I could do in the game.

• 52:44Ryan Clark?

  Hell, that's a bar. That's a show.

• 52:47Fred Taylor?

  It kinda sound like everybody can podcast.

• 52:52Ryan Clark?

  What was, when you saw, when you watched Friday Back for the first time, did you know y'all had a hit like that? Like?

• 52:59Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, yeah, cuz it had me, you know, it still make me laugh, like.

• 53:05Ryan Clark?

  That's y'all so good, man.

• 53:06Speaker 02

  I seen it so many times, but it still make me laugh.

• 53:10Channing Crowder?

  I was, I was D-born in high school. Stop being a bitch.

• 53:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Stop being a bitch, come on.

• 53:40Speaker 08

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 53:51Speaker 09

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