Ice Cube popped up at our virtual meeting wearing an Ice Cube hat with the name of his new album, Man Down, emblazoned on the front. A framed poster for Cube Vision, his film and television production company, and another one promoting WC’s 2007 album, Guilty By Affiliation, loomed behind him. As the interview began, he cracked a half-smile, enough to make anyone feel like a million bucks. After all, the N.W.A co-founder’s signature snarl combined with his tough, gangsta rap persona has defined his nearly 40-year career.
On Man Down, Ice Cube’s follow-up to 2018’s Everythangs Corrupt, Cube occasionally cracks his hard exterior to reveal what dwells inside the accomplished polymath, particularly on the song “Ghetto Story.” Produced by T-Mix, who also sings the hook, the stirring, soulful song finds Cube reflecting on soured friendships and a dwindling sense of loyalty within his community.
More from Spin:
The Professor Will Now Unpack — Player’s ‘Baby Come Back’
The Fab Four Conquer America With Gusto In ‘Beatles ’64’ Doc
Michael Stipe, Flea, Kim Gordon To Salute Patti Smith At Carnegie Hall
“I love that song,” Cube tells me. “It’s timely. It’s kind of a sad song, but it’s real. People are robbing their own homeboys and setting their own homeboys up. It’s a lot of infighting. That’s hard when you can’t trust your own people. I had been thinking about that subject for a long time and how to put it in a song. With the subject matter and the music, the lyrics just started to come out.”
Ice Cube’s gift for penning lyrics has been serving him well since 1986, when he started his first rap group, C.I.A. One year later, he linked with Dr. Dre and Eazy-E to form N.W.A, a group that would forever change the hip-hop landscape. As the lead ghostwriter, he wrote several of Dr. Dre and Eazy-E’s verses for the pioneering outfit’s seminal debut, 1988’s Straight Outta Compton, as well as most of Eazy-E’s solo album, Eazy-Duz-It.
After branching out on his own in 1990, he released AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted crafted by Public Enemy’s production team, the Bomb Squad. The album was a hit and inadvertently bridged the West and East coasts, something that was unheard of at the time.
Thirty-four years later, Ice Cube is a modern-day renaissance man. Not only is he one of hip-hop’s most revered MCs, he’s a bona fide movie star, having starred in dozens of films—including the Friday franchise—owner of the Big3 basketball league and a member of Mount Westmore alongside fellow West Coast rap icons Too $hort, E-40, and Snoop Dogg. He was the Recording Academy’s 2024 recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The inaugural single from Man Down, “It’s My Ego,” is the biggest solo debut of Cube’s career, which he admitted was a bit of a shock.
“I wasn’t worried about charts on this record,” he says. “I was worried more about pleasing my day-one fans. Then the visuals were entertaining, funny, and fun. I think that always helps when you have great visuals, and we have a great video to go with the song. Nothing beats the marriage of that.
“So I was pleasantly surprised. It’s funny, when you reaching for charts and shit, you don’t go where you wanna go all the time, but when you just doing great art, you end up getting your biggest hit of your career.”
Man Down, released November 11, boasts 19 tracks with guest vocals from Snoop Dogg, E-40, Too $hort, Killer Mike, Busta Rhymes, Xzibit, Cypress Hill’s B-Real, Kurupt, and the Lench Mob’s J-Dee. The concept revolves around “real men standing up” and not backing down due to societal pressures or the threat of being “canceled.”
“For the men, that ain’t cool,” he says of the album’s theme. “We have to uphold a standard and give a fuck about our country, so to speak. We had a few great generations in front of us that kept everything going, and now it’s our turn. We can’t be just caught up in bullshit and not doing what a man is supposed to do when a man is supposed to do it. And also not always take a backseat to raising our children and what’s going on in the household. We can’t be caught up in just what we want to do. We got to fix shit that’s broke.”
Even with his breadth of experience, the 55-year-old still takes the “exact same approach” to songwriting as he did in his N.W.A days and never fails to rap at a high level.
“It’s always ‘would this subject make a great song and could you do it in a cohesive manner where it’s not just braggadocious brag rap?’” he explains. “‘Cause then anything goes. But when you’re trying to convey a message, you want it to make sense, you want to drop gems where you can, but you also gotta bust a rap. At the end of the day, it’s still art. It’s an art form. And there’s rules and regulations, so to speak. There’s guardrails.
“There’s things you need to do to rock the mic, because that’s the ultimate goal. It’s not to teach anybody shit. The ultimate goal is to rock the mic, and if you can’t rock the mic, or if you don’t have lyrics, metaphors, inflections, and tones that flow, then it don’t matter what you’re saying.”
Songs like “I’mma Burn Rubber,” “Facts” with J-Dee and “Let’s Get Money Together” featuring B-Real prove Ice Cube’s prowess on the mic and evaporates the idea that hip-hop is a “young man’s game.” If anything, the OGs are coming back in droves; Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre are dropping Missionary on December 13, Xzibit has Kingmaker coming at the top of 2025 and Tha Dogg Pound delivered magic on W.A.W.G. (We All We Got) in May. Plus, A Tribe Called Quest was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, another signal that our hip-hop elders are among the most respected.
“It’s a great thing to see amazing creatives and people that love hip-hop get one of the highest recognitions in the music industry,” Cube says of ATCQ’s induction. “It’s cool. It’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s a great time to be alive. Kill that ageism shit.”
That’s not to say Ice Cube isn’t acutely aware of the ticking clock. Just in 2024, hip-hop has lost a slew of legends prematurely, including Organized Noize production genius Rico Wade, Bo$$, DJ Mister Cee, Fatman Scoop, Chino XL, DJ Clark Kent and, most recently, Oakland underground rap staple Saafir.
“It’s rough,” he says. “I hope everybody, with each passing of a superstar, hip-hop icon, that they go get [themselves] checked out, I get myself checked out. It’s something that you should do. Nothing’s more important than that. You can’t be too busy to be alive. Take the time out and go get yourself checked out, make sure everything is cool, and also try to live a healthier life. You got to slow it down and be smart. Not take so many chances with your health. Them days is over.”
And retirement? That’s a concept that doesn’t even register with Ice Cube.
“If I keep living, I should keep coming up with ideas,” he says. “I got a million things running through my head. And it’s all about, can I execute them at a high level and give people something that they cherish, dig, use, and enjoy in some kind of way, shape, or form? So, every day that comes along, I’m gonna attack it because that’s what I like to do. I want to stack a lot of great projects before I’m no longer here.
“I’m going to keep at it as long as I’m doing it. I don’t know what retirement look like, so I never heard that word. That doesn’t make any sense to me. What am I gonna do? Fish?”
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
