“We said, ‘You’re about to witness the strength of street knowledge,’ meaning you are about to witness a knowledge coming off the streets or out the streets that you may have never witnessed before.” These are the words that Ice Cube used to describe N.W.A and whether or not they considered themselves a political act when they first started, in an interview with Bloomberg Politics’ John Heilemann recently.
Following on from the group’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, and the fact that Ice Cube does have another movie coming out in Barbershop 2, Cube has been quite vocal about the group, the group’s influence and what they still stand for. He also brought them out at Coachella recently, so they could be reunited on a stage for the first time in many, many years, capitalising on the huge success of Straight Outta Compton last year.
He went onto say to Heilemann about the group’s starting out, “We just wanted to be real. We just wanted to honest. Street knowledge is a term to me. It means letting the streets know what the government, politics, police, whatever authority figures are doing up to exposing them and also if the politicians, if they’re listening, letting them know what the streets think and how it’s going. Hopefully, there’s some understanding that could be made in all of this.”
The interview touched on a range of topics, including the current presidential race, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, with Cube saying, “I think the fact that you even have to say Black lives matter lets you know how bad the problem is.” Showing he’s as on the ball as ever, the interview is an extensive chat that covers issues that will never lose importance for Ice Cube and N.W.A, and shows that although the work they did changed lives, there is still much to be done. Check out the full interview below – it’s a lengthy one, but very much worth your time!
Image: HipHopDX