Ice Cube, a true L.A. icon and legend joins us on air today from 94.7 The WAVE, of course always ready to talk basketball, music, movies, the culture, and so much more.
LISTEN NOW: Ice Cube talks with Liz Hernandez
For those heading out to the Honda Center in Los Angeles this Sunday for Week 5 of The Big3 -- or watching on CBS -- Ice Cube dropped by to talk with host Liz Hernandez about exactly what fans and newcomers can expect from the event.
“Three on three in Anaheim, man… Great hoops,” says Cube. “You know what's great is, you get six games for the price of one so you get to see the whole league. And we got some great matchups… this is week five, we have an eight week season, so everybody's jockeying for the playoffs. Doors open at 11, first game starts at noon.”
Aside from the on-court action, he says, “We got DJ Quick and WC performing. If you can make it down to the Honda Center, that'd be great. If not check us out on CBS, Paramount +,” and he reveals, “some of the games are gonna be on X.”
With all of the hard work that he’s put into developing and launching The Big3, Ice Cube says he’s actually not at all surprised at the league’s success. “I would hibernate during this time of year because no NBA, no NFL yet,” he says. “What do you do as a sports fan if those are your favorite sports? I knew that there was a void and if I could fill that void, I could really wake up fans like myself who have a basketball hangover when the finals is over… I could serve that. And I knew that there was millions of fans who wanted more basketball.”
Stepping into movie territory, Ice Cube has his fourth Friday flick in the works, although right now he says, they’re still ironing out the deal. “Once we finish that, then we can kind of go full speed ahead,” he says, “and make the movie that people have been waiting to see. I just think we're going to cook up something that's special and can't wait to start.”
“When we did the movie, we wanted to do a neighborhood classic,” he explains, not worried about industry acclaim. “We just wanted the movie to be a classic amongst people that dig it or understood the life. We was like, you know, ‘Only the cool people are gonna get this movie,' and we didn't realize there was so many cool people in the world because everybody loved it and everybody quotes from it. It's one of those, just a feel good movie at the end of the day.”
New music is also on the way from Ice Cube, and he has a target date of around September for the drop. “Hopefully we can get it out sooner, but we'll see,” he says.
Touching on the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar that has been on everyone’s minds lately, he explains, “To be honest, I like beefs. I like the back and forth on wax as long as it stays on wax. The minute it goes to the streets or it's physical then that's just simple crime that has nothing to do with music.”
“When people were saying Rap was boring and it wasn't really nothing that was moving the needle, here comes this,” he adds. “You got two heavyweights going at it and, you know, like I said, as long as it stays on wax, it's fun.” And for the record, Kendrick’s “Not Like Us,” he says, is “banging.”
“You know, I talked to my guy WC when the beef first started. I was like, ‘Whoever comes out with that mega-hit is gonna win.’ And Kendrick did it,” he says, taking it to another level where he created unity. “It reminded me of when Mike Conception did “All in the Same Gang” back in the day when there was the gang truce in ‘92 after the L A riots. This was kind of one of those moments, where, you know, it was all love.”
Listen to Liz Hernandez' full interview with Ice Cube above, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite stars and artists right here on 94.7 The WAVE.