Ice Cube

Out of N.W.A

O'Shea Jackson was born in Los Angeles on 15 June 1969 and began writing raps in ninth grade. In 1986, at 16, he began rapping in the trio C.I.A. with Sir Jinx, and he helped Dr. Dre write the World Class Wreckin' Cru hit Cabbage Patch. He also sold his first song to Eric Wright, soon known as Eazy-E, who was forming Ruthless Records and N.W.A. Cube wrote most of the lyrics on Straight Outta Compton, released in January 1989. He left the group at the end of that year. In 2016 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of N.W.A.

For his first solo record he wanted Dr. Dre to produce, but Ruthless vetoed it, he said. He flew to New York, ran into Chuck D in the Def Jam offices, and was invited to Greene Street Studios, where the Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's production team, were working. Hank Shocklee said Cube turned up with about ten composition notebooks of rhymes, and that he wanted to do the whole album so it would not be a collection of singles. Sir Jinx, who lived on Cube's block, came east with him.

Three records in three years

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted came out on Priority on 16 May 1990 and debuted at 19 on the Billboard 200. The Bomb Squad had Cube fill two milk crates with records before any studio time, which took ten days, and he later called the paperwork on samples homework. He wanted it to play like the mixtapes of the day, with skits and songs running into each other. Cube said Jinx kept it sounding like a West Coast record. Pitchfork's Eric Harvey called it groundbreaking. The Kill at Will EP followed in December 1990 and was certified platinum.

Death Certificate arrived on 29 October 1991, split into a Death Side and a Life Side. It debuted at number two, with over a million advance orders, and was certified platinum two months later. It ends with No Vaseline. Harvey called it Cube's most important album, if not his best.

The Predator

The Predator came out on 17 November 1992, months after the Los Angeles riots, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 193,000 copies, his first US number one. Its producers were DJ Pooh, DJ Muggs, Sir Jinx, Torcha Chamba and Cube himself. Its songs deal with the Rodney King verdict and the police, and its three singles were Wicked, It Was a Good Day and Check Yo Self. Cube said the idea for the middle one came in a hotel room in the summer of 1992: he had rapped about the riots, so what about all the good days he had? It reached 15 on the Hot 100. Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A minus and called it his strongest, most cohesive work yet. It was certified double platinum in 2001.

After

Lethal Injection followed in December 1993, debuting at number five, and was certified platinum. It borrowed from G-funk, and some critics at the time felt it toned down the sociopolitical content of his earlier records. Its standing has risen since.

Cube played Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood in 1991 and in 1995 co-wrote and starred in Friday. That year he also joined Mack 10 and WC in forming Westside Connection, whose first album, Bow Down, followed in 1996. In 1997 he worked with David Bowie and Trent Reznor on a remix of Bowie's I'm Afraid of Americans. In 1996 Korn covered Wicked, and in 1998 Cube joined their Family Values Tour and appeared on their song Children of the Korn. He had already played Lollapalooza in 1992, as its only rap act. His solo albums continued with Man Down in November 2024, and in 2025 he toured under the title Truth to Power: 4 Decades of Attitude.