Ice Cube is breaking down what he meant when he rapped that he was “Kendrick before Kendrick [Lamar]” on his recent single.
The West Coast legend dropped by SiriusXM’s Rock The Bells Radio to promote the song — titled “It’s My Ego” — on Wednesday (October 23).
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On it, Cube raps: “I minister this pimp shit/I’ve been a minister since an infant/I was Kendrick before Kendrick/Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, like Jimi Hendrix.”
When asked by host Torae to expound on the bar, he explained: “A provocative artist – an artist that said what I felt, put it all out there, very critical of the system and the government and what we have to go through as Black people in this country. And I think he’s the same kind of artist. Thought-provoking artist. And so, I was that before he was.”
“It’s My Ego” is the first track off Ice Cube’s forthcoming album Man Down, due out November 22.
On the film side of things, the multi-hyphenate recently teased new details about the next Friday movie, which he promises is on the way.
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Appearing on Gillie Da Kid and Wallo‘s Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, the rap legend said: “It’s coming back. We gonna do it. We gonna make it dope, make it funny, bring it up to date, introduce new characters, bring back old characters, create the feeling the movie gives you.”
Cube continued: “People love Friday because everyone experienced it. People love Friday because everyone’s lived Friday. Everyone has lived a thousand Fridays.”
The comments build on his recent announcement that he was finally getting the go ahead from Warner Bros. to make another sequel to the comedy franchise.
“We finally got some traction with Warner Bros.,” he said in an interview with Flavor Flav in June. “They have new leadership. My man Mike DeLuca, who used to be at New Line when I first started, when I first did the first Friday and Players Club and All About the Benjamins — Mike DeLuca was there, so now he’s running Warner Bros.”
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“It was like, ‘Yo, what the fuck is going on with Friday? Man, let’s get this back online,’” he continued. “And I was a little hot ’cause they had took so long because John Witherspoon passed away. Tiny passed away. A.J. Johnson passed away.
“Like, man, we keep losing people and y’all keep dicking around not doing the movie the way it need to be done. They want to do it, but the key is it gotta be done, or we shouldn’t fuck with it. So they finally came to their senses.”