West Coast legend Ice Cube has certainly been busy lately. Finishing up his new movie Barbershop: The Final Cut, he also managed to sit down with Bloomberg Politics to talk N.W.A‘s recent induction in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, politics, hip-hop and everything in-between.
N.W.A’s recent induction was certainly well deserved, and despite this being the fifth hip-hop induction there were still those who questioned it’s place in rock ‘n’ roll. To this Cube responded, “Rock ‘n’ roll is a spirit. Blues has it, jazz has it, hip-hop has it.”
The interviewer later went on to say that despite the issues faced today, we have a shocking lack of social or political hip hop. Cube explained that it’s not rewarded now, especially not on radio, “If you go political, you just kind of set yourself into the underground…The escapism became popular…so now new hip-hoppers say ‘how do I get famous’, and they just see that new stuff taking over.”
As the interview branched into more political and social topics, the two touched on the important Black Lives Matter Campaign. “The fact you have to say ‘Black Lives Matter’ lets you know how bad the problem is,” Cube pointed out. “People need to understand, when the government is against you, who’s with you?”
Later touching on American politics, Cube weighed in on the candidates. “Trump is what Americans aspire to be: rich, powerful, he can do whatever he wants. Is he going to help the poor, no.” In regard to Clinton’s past actions for mass incarceration and drug wars he said, “She needs to fix the problem she helped create” And in reply to ‘feeling the burn’ (Bernie Sanders) he surprisingly replied, “Bernie has been in it for thirty years and what has he done?” – “All of them have to do work to get my vote”
Watch the full in-depth interview below:
Image: NME