Ice Cube: the N.W.A writer who took his stories to the big screen | Ultimate Hip Hop Reunion

Why fans still care

Few rappers have told a story as clearly as ICE CUBE. Kendrick Lamar called him a “storytelling genius” when N.W.A entered the Rock Hall, and that gift carried him from Compton records to a long career in film.

He’s one of the rare artists who wrote hits, acted in them, then wrote and directed films of his own.

Early years

O’Shea Jackson was born in Los Angeles on 15 June 1969, according to Encyclopedia.com and Britannica. In the mid 1980s he was in a group called C.I.A. with Sir Jinx, a story he told Crack Magazine.

The breakthrough

His first big moment came as a writer. He wrote “Boyz-n-the-Hood” for a New York group who passed on it, and Eazy-E, Who’s Who number 21, recorded it instead, a story told by both HotNewHipHop and Crack Magazine. He told HotNewHipHop that Ice-T, Who’s Who number 25, and his “6 in the Mornin’” were part of the storytelling style he had in mind when he wrote it.

Career chapters

1. 1988Straight Outta Compton with N.W.A
2. 1989leaves N.W.A to go solo
3. 1990AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
4. 1991Boyz n the Hood, his first film role
5. 1992The Predator debuts at No. 1
6. 1995Friday
7. 2016Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with N.W.A

N.W.A to 1989

He wrote for and rapped in N.W.A alongside Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, Who’s Who number 1, before leaving in 1989 to go solo, the year Encyclopedia.com and Biography both give.

New York and the Bomb Squad 1990

Early in 1990 he recorded AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted in New York with Public Enemy’s production team, the Bomb Squad, first at their Hempstead studio and then at Greene Street Studios in Manhattan, as XXL and Complex both tell it. It came out on 16 May 1990.

The solo run 1991 to 1993

Death Certificate followed in 1991. The Predator came next, and in December 1992 it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 193,000 copies in its first week, according to The A.V. Club and The Source. Lethal Injection followed in 1993.

Film

John Singleton wrote the part of Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood for him, his first acting role, as both XXL and Vice report. He went on to co-write and star in Friday (1995) and to direct The Players Club (1998). He was also a producer of Straight Outta Compton (2015), the film of the N.W.A story.

Basketball

According to the Amsterdam News, he co-founded the BIG3, a three-on-three basketball league, with Jeff Kwatinetz, announced in January 2017.

Craft, sound and the studio

Words first

On AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted he arrived with the lyrics and the Bomb Squad built tracks around them, as Hank Shocklee told XXL. He told Complex he wrote rhymes every day back then, and Hank Shocklee recalled him arriving in New York with about ten notebooks of material.

Learning from Public Enemy

“Public Enemy taught me how to put a record together,” he told Complex. The Bomb Squad’s Eric Sadler told XXL the skits on that album felt “more like a movie than a skit”, a hint of the film work to come.

A good day

According to Songfacts, he wrote “It Was a Good Day” alone, built on a sample of the Isley Brothers’ “Footsteps in the Dark”. Many people call it “Today Was a Good Day”, but the official title is “It Was a Good Day”.

Stories people still tell

1. The song that went to someone else.

   “Boyz-n-the-Hood” was written for another group. It ended up as Eazy-E’s record and helped start a label.

2. The part written for him.

   Singleton has said he couldn’t picture anyone else as Doughboy.

Legacy

N.W.A entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, inducted by Kendrick Lamar, and received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024. ABC7 reported his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2017.