The American Rap Music is one of the most controversial yet popular music of all times. The industry is on a persistent rise with new rappers joining in daily. Some of the top rappers of all times include Wiz Khalifa, Eminem, Snoop Dog, and others as well. Among some of the top rappers stands O’Shea Jackson, Sr. who is also known as Ice Cube.

Who is Ice Cube?

Ice Cube is an American rapper come actor who had his first solo song produced in the year 1990. Initially, Ice Cube did not have much success in his career unless he joined the American hip hop group “Ni–az With Attitudes” commonly referred to as N.W.A.

The group was a major source of fame to Ice Cube who later on started his own successful career in the industry. Today, Ice Cube is considered to be one of the most influential rappers and a great television and movie star as well. His rap music surrounds different controversial subjects such as sex, drugs, and alcohol etc.

Early Life

O’Shea Jackson was born in the Baldwin Hills District of Los Angeles USA in 1969. His mother was a hospital clerk while his father was a groundskeeper at the University of California.

When he was just 12 years old, his half-sister was killed by her boyfriend. His father was very strict on him as well. O’Shea Jackson had to change multiple schools as his father was concerned about his well-being and considered some schools to be not providing his son with a good company.

In an interview, Cube said that his stage name is because of his brother Clyde, who threatened cube to put him into a freezer until he actually turned into an Ice Cube. The singer did not have a very good youth and faced a number of serious emotional challenges through the traumatic events.

Time with N.W.A

Cube was interested in hip-hop music in his early age and also used to compose music and write his own lyrics as well. During his time at high school, Cube performed his first song “The Boyz n The Hood” and sold it to the company Ruthless Records and the rapper Eazy-E. This was a major success for Cube who then joined the group “Ni–az wit Attitudes” having Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and DJ Yella as the members of the group.

During his time with N.W.A, the band performed multiple raps and songs which included “Boyz in the Hood”, “8 ball”, and “Dope Man”. In 1988, the album “Straight outta Compton” was released by the group featuring some of the most famous raps by Ice Cube.

Of the 13 original tracks by the group, nine of them had full or partial writing credits under the name of Ice Cube. Moreover, he performed vocally on six of them on which the critics said that it is one of the most transformative albums in history.

Controversies with N.W.A

During the two song releases, Cube even left the group for having a degree in architectural drafting at the Phoenix Institute of Technology. In addition to that, wIth most of the work done by Ice Cube in the group, he felt that he was not being rewarded in the right manner.

In an interview, Cube said that he felt cheated by the group manager Jerry Heller as he was not paying the right royalties to him for his exceptional work. The dispute went on to the next level and Ice Cube left N.W.A in the year 1989 although the court settled the dispute one year later in 1990.

Throughout his career, he has still reunited with the members of N.W.A off and on. Most recently, in the year 2016, Cube and a few other members of the N.W.A were inducted in a group called “Rock and Hall of Fame”.

Solo Career

Cube started his solo career in the year 1990 and launched his new album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, in the same year as well. The album turned out to be an impressive debut and critics gave much of the positive reviews stating that Cube had rightly highlighted the sociopolitical controversies related to Black African Americans, and urban black culture as well.

In the start of his career, Cube faced much hate and resistance by N.W.A who performed raps on Cube and how he splitted the group apart. However, in 1991 and 1992, Cube released consecutive albums among which two of the songs turned out to be highly controversial namely “No Vaseline” and “Black Korea”. The song “No Vaseline” was a reply to N.W.A for the insults that they did in their raps when Ice Cube left the group.

During his Solo Career, Ice Cube became much more successful because of the collaborative ventures which also helped him gain fame in the industry.

Film and TV Career

Perhaps the most interesting part of his career was the one where he engaged himself in the film and TV industry. He has performed in more than 30 films among which the best ones include “Boyz N the Hood”, The Friday Series, The Barbershop Series, 21 Jump Street, and 22 Jump Street.

For the many films he performed, he has the partial writing credits as well. He acted in a television adaptation of “Are we There Yet” and was also the executive producer. Cube is known to have worked with famous hollywood actors as well such as Jennifer Lopez, Vin Diesel, and Bernie Mac etc.

Conclusion

Ice Cube still stands as one of the best rappers of all time and is an inspiration especially for the black community. With much controversy in his career and heated sessions over his songs, Ice Cube has still managed to become successful.