Carlos Miller (0:00)

The new year is here and I'm trying to keep things simple this year. One thing to help me keep things simple is Amazon Prime. It's the cheat code to stay in, locked in on whatever you need. It's not just fast delivery. Prime's a whole experience. From Prime Video and Amazon Music to Prime free one day delivery. It's got everything to keep my year stress free. Watching Thursday Night Football. Prime's got you with the same day snack delivery. Want to chill after the game? Find a movie on Prime Video and kick back with some Amazon music. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com prime now. Taking control of your career is empowering. Just don't tell my boss I said that. Just kidding. I am the boss. This is Carlos Miller from the 85 South Show. And building a career isn't just about a job. It's about creating a path that impacts our community and future generations. Whether you're starting out or even making big moves, State Farm is here to support you with resources to help protect what you're working hard to achieve. They've got your back every step of the way. Because like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Find out more@statefarm.com the more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well being@sounditouttogether.org that's sounditouttogether.org brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. I'm Maura Ahrensmiele, host of the Anxious Achiever on the Show. Business leaders and experts unpack the intersection of mental well being, neurodiversity, leadership and career. We offer tools and strategies to enjoy better mental health and find the best way to work for you. Listen to the Anxious achiever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I can't count that much. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You know what's that? Okay. Yeah. What's up? Know where it's happening. Got the motherfucking OG in it. Legendary one. Yeah, man. Come on. Yeah. Hey, man, welcome Back to the 85 South Show. Now look over here at the 85 South Show. We have made it our business to invite all of the ghetto legends. Oh, we want to speak to all the ghetto legends hall of famers. This man right here is definitely a certified ghetto legend by himself. Yes, sir. And talking big city rap game. Part of one of the biggest groups in rap history. Yes, sir. Movies. The big Three. Yes, sir. TV show. Yes, sir. Big producer. Teenage Mutant Turtles. Come on. Educated nigga in high learning. What? Hey. Hello. How y'all do it? That's how y'all do it. West Coast West. Yeah. He hit it without having to twist his fingers. Yeah. You know, that's the letters. We do it like this. You put it on the side. Okay. Okay. First of all, we gotta say thank you. Yes, sir. For all the work you put in, all the game you put us up on, all the movies, all the. Everything you contributed to the culture, man. Thank you, man. Thanks. Inspiration. Thanks for checking it out. You know what I'm saying? Thanks for absorbing it and, you know, making it part of the culture. All right, first thing I gotta say before we even start anything, first shit, I gotta. Cause I know you be online. I know you done seen the fans, been making posters putting DC in Friday for the last 10 years. What we gotta do to get DC in there, man? Not too much. Not too much. You know what I mean? Once it come around, we gonna make it happen. I bet. Let's make it happen. Speaking of Friday, like, you always talk about the executive side, and I think that's something that is important to talk about. Like, what made you so understanding of that side of the business, being an artist so early, you know what I mean? You came in and was already a superstar, so you could have had people around you take care of all of that. What made you want to be so involved in that side of the game? Oh, that's the fun part, you know, creating, you know, being able to, you know, touch every aspect of the project. You know, this is what we get off on. At least me is the creative part. You know, I love the finished product, you know, but I'm just addicted to the journey, you know what I'm saying? Addicted to, you know, putting it together. The meetings, creative input, you know, people coming in with their talents and the pressure of getting it the day, you know, do all this planning. But you usually only got one day to shoot these scenes. So that's the day we need you to be the shit. You know what I'm saying? We need you to be, you know, on your top level. So to me, all that's fun. And then the finished product, you know, we show it to the people, they love it, and, you know, I'm usually off to the next. Now, you've been in the. You've been in the game for quite some time, and that's not something to say to be like, oh, now you old school. No, young Buck, you want to be in the game, of course, for quite a long time. Which period was the best? Because you. You are icon. You are a staple. You, every era, president, when it was when, when, when. Yo, the beginning stage the shit that y'all like. That NWA shit. Yeah. It can't be recreated. It can't. It can't be duplicated. You dig what I'm saying? So which one was the most? Oh, man, you know, the beginning is always the most vivid. You remember the beginning more than, you know, the whole journey. So, you know, just starting off as locals and, you know, being underground, you know, we didn't even know. Yeah, you said rodeo and swap meet. We didn't even know the music we was doing was gonna make us big, right? We thought we was just gonna be local underground ghetto stars. That's what we was trying to be, you know, get people in our own hood to really dig it. Cause they was fans of, you know, what we considered the pros. You know, they was fans of the run DMC's and the rock Cams and, you know, everybody doing it on a major level. And so we figured if we can just, you know, make noise in our own neighborhood, then, you know, we can get a little bit of. Cause y'all ain't Run. DMC ain't coming around here. You know what I'm saying? Rakim ain't coming through here, but we are. So that was our plan to conquer Compton, Watts, South Central, la. And then as soon as we put our mind to that, it went the other way. It blew up. Instead of going more underground, it went up. Now, let me ask you this. As a hood nigga, right? Last week you around and got a triple double. Yeah, just as a. As a gangster rapper, nigga. Just fucking around, like, just in the hood around. Jumped out to 6, 4, triple double on these niggas right quick. And who was keeping the stats right? Well, you know, I kept my own stats. You know what I'm saying? They keep their own stats, keep track. I know I got 10 points, you know, playing n's been missing. I know I got at least 11 rebounds, you know what I'm saying? So I used to play basketball all the time, you know what I mean? It was like we'd be at the studio shooting hoop. You don't play with Cat Eastwood. He the best. Nah, he never played with Cat. Never played. I probably retired by the time he came. Cat gonna call me. I can't believe you really asked. Kidding. In the video, Cube shot a hook. Yeah, I had A hook shot. I said, man, what's up with this? He was dribbling the wood like this. I used to play with a lot of big niggas when I was little, so I had to develop a shot to get it over they ass. I developed this, you know, kind of like going to the basket, but I'm not going for a layup. I'm actually going wider to throw that fucking hook up. Hey, kill him with that shit. That was what I'm looking right now. Going over the go. Today was a good day for a black man. That was a hell of a day. That was a great day. A hell of a day. That was amazing day. Freak been trying to dig into 12th grade. Come on, man. Come on, now. That shit had to be. Come on, man. Then when you woke up and, hey, hey, get up. Went outside and read the lights of the Goodyear blimp. What is it? Ice cubes are blimp. Blimps are illegal, my nigga. It's like 11 blimps in the world. He said it was a good year. Blimp. Who's who. Good day, man. You know, I just wanted to. It was a trip because when I did that song, you know, N in my crew was like, what is this, man? What you. Before I laid it, I was just wrapping it on the paper. Motherfuckers like, what you talking about, Q? You a hardcore rapper, nigga. You can't be having a good day and shit. Having a good time, nigga. What's wrong with you, man? You folks be depressed, nigga blasting. And I'm like, nah, you know, I'm a reality rapper. And, nigga, I'm having a good day. I'm a rap about it. It's okay to feel good. It's okay. That right? That crazy, though, to go from your basketball line that you just said to the big three. Like, your love of stuff show. Like you saying that you enjoy creating. I'm like, oh, okay. That's why you wrote the movie. You know what I'm saying? That's why you. The basketball thing. That's why you got the big three. And that ain't no easy shit to do, man. Any stepping out of any sport, man, and you facing a lot of opposition with that. So I just gotta tip my hat to that. Thank you. That's good. Nigga got his own knee, man. These niggas out here balling. It's the hardest. This is the hardest shit I ever had to do. I'm gonna try to do in entertainment because, you know, hip Hop was already here when I started. You know, rap was there. Movies was gone when I started. You know, they got basketball, but they don't have three on three. And then to try to elevate it to the professional level and get, you know, first people to take it serious, and then for people to become fans, you know, that. That's been a. You know, that's not been the hard part. The hard part is going against this opposition from other leagues. They don't want new leagues to come in because you start, you know, cutting up that sponsored dollars. There's only so many dollars to go around in the sponsor world. NFL want it all. NBA want it all. MLB want it all. NHL, you know, all these other established leagues, they want all their money and they have a new league coming in, siphoning those funds into our league. It's just a lot of people hating on that and trying to stop it. And, you know, you gotta be down to fight for what you believe in and can't be scared. You gotta be down to. To go after the big boys. You should be used to it. You said, fuck the police. Yeah. I mean, you've been going against the system since you came in the game, man. Yeah, that's the only way I know how to do it. Cause like I said, we thought we was gonna be locals, and we didn't know, so we was just being real. And then when it started to blow up, now you have, you know, reporters in our face. You got people, you know, coming at us with all kind of opposition, you know, from the FBI to, you know, Billboard and all these established music, you know, publications is. Everybody's coming after us. Even music industry, rap industry, the government, you know, pmrc, which was the parent music resources, Some shit like that and shit. To us, you know, we was like, yo, better than, you know, Crips coming after you. Better than Blood's coming after you. You know what I'm saying? This is easy, like, to deal with these people, they just talking. Ain't nobody gonna pull out no pistol, you know, it's just gonna be a bunch of questions. And. And then we went through that storm and realized, you know, hey, we. We pretty unscathed, you know what I'm saying? Like, keep going, you know, don't. Don't let nothing stop us. And that's been my attitude in entertainment. Don't let nothing stop. So to go from fuck the police now, you talking to presidents and shit like that, man, what was that transition like to cover that much ground? To go from fuck the police? Like, I got a plan. I need to go holla at somebody. Yeah, you know. Well, the plan was really a plan for us, like, for us to have a 30,000 foot view of the big problem, you know, after 2020. George Floyd Everybody was saying, this need to change, this need to change. And they was coming from all angles. It was mostly on police brutality, brutality and law enforcement and all that shit. But then I was like, man, this problem is bigger than just police brutality. It's an economic problem, it's social, It's a wide issue. So I got with a bunch of scholars and started to research how did we get here? Why? Why do we have it so fucked up in this country and came up with a plan that I thought could help us get out of it if the country was serious about making a turnaround. And I put it out there. And just to be clear, these people came to talk to me. They was asking, could you come in, talk to us about your plan? Democrats and Republicans. So I was like, man, no problem. Shit. What you want to know? Here's what we thinking on this, here's what we thinking on that. And some people ran with it, some people didn't, you know what I'm saying? But to me, I felt like I had the resources and, you know, I had the. Just the energy and the passion to take a long look at it. Cause nobody was doing that, you know, it's like, man, out of all these people that been through office, ain't nobody came up with a plan for us, you know what I'm saying? Nobody, you know, from, you know, going back to Jesse Jackson and Thurgood Marshall and all these, like, nobody came up with a plan and went to the government and said, this is what we need to do for black people to start, you know, gaining the rewards out of this country that we putting in. Putting in a lot of tax money and shit, but I ain't getting no benefits of it or just bullshit benefits. And then, you know, it became controversial because one side looked at it, one side didn't. And now they was trying to use me as a political football. Like, you with him, you with them, you with that, you with this. And I'm like, I ain't with shit. These motherfuckers called me, you know, I was minding my own business. I did this plan for us to look at, and now everybody thinking I'm this or that or the other, and it wasn't true. So to be honest, it's just giving a fuck, seeing an issue and trying to address it. And the best way we can to get the government to look at it and fix it. So that's how you go from, you know, doing movies, music. You get in a position with people, respect your opinion. Did they say some shit you could use? Did they give you some insight? Who the people you was talking to with the plan? Did they say any good shit, man, you know, it's all a game at the end of the day, everything in that plan, them niggas knew. It wasn't like I was coming up with bringing up something they didn't know. They know what's going on. They know they not giving us what we need, you know what I'm saying? That's part of the plan. And, you know, that's what you realize when you get to them levels that people just capping to get a vote. And then when they get the vote, they gonna go do what the fuck they want to do. You seeing that? That's the game. You know, you see hip hop now with all of the, you know, the way that people are affiliated with all this different type of stuff and niggas is going to jail and all that. You come from the city of gang banging, but you never was affiliated with anything. How did you manage to navigate that? And what advice could you give to new artists to how they can navigate it? And being able to become as successful as you are without associating yourself with something that you know you might come from, but you don't have to be a part of. Just make up your mind, you know, everybody in LA affiliated with something. You can't be from LA and not be from somewhere. Cause every neighborhood is somewhere, you know what I'm saying? Every neighborhood you in is somebodyhood that you part of. And it was no different from me. It's just, you know, making up your mind. Like, I saw something in music and being creative that took a lot of my time, took a lot of my attention, took me off the street and I was in the studio. So in them years, 14, 15, when you making a decision on what you want to do, you know, you're gonna be a writer and you're gonna be a regular guy, you know what I mean? That age, that's when you start making those decisions. And thank God I was hanging with Dr. Dre and making music. And, you know, in them years, I'm thinking about something creative and positive and just bringing in money and, you know, it was just good time. We were talking about this shit for a long time with like, sellouts and the black people who Just black on the outside who don't really give a fuck about the black community. Even in the music with the, like, who's the Mac and shit like that, where you always made fun of the sellout black people, bro. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a thing where you can't forget where you come from, of course. And you gotta look to help people that's ready, right. Everybody ain't ready to ride. Everybody ain't ready for, you know, they're not ready for prime time, so everybody can't go. But, you know, always reach back, you know, I've always reached back. Talent or people or just, you know, people from a neighborhood that could help, you know, help me, you know, on my journey. And, you know, the people that's serious, that's down, that's willing to change their life, they get to go. The people that's still on that bullshit got to go. Yeah, they got to stay. And speaking of giving back, like, you always going to get people. It don't matter. I don't hear the bullshit that coming from a lame who don't know nothing about nothing. I can tell off the. The projects that you bring. You don't have to put niggas in the movie if you don't want them in. Yeah, yeah, that's true. You feel me? Yeah, yeah, straight up. Yeah. You have made so many movies with other niggas in it that it put them on. Yeah. You know, it's. Look, somebody put me on. John discovered me, right? I didn't know, you know, he just was like, man, I wanna put you in a movie, man. I know you could do it. And when I see people and I know they can do it, be like, I can't wait till I got something for this person or that person or that felt something pointed at me. And the key, the key. Just make sure y'all saw this shit. The key is to set em up for success, right? You know, not to just put them in anything with any role, but to give them that perfect role where they can get busy, they can like, you know, steal a scene or two and then from there continue to, you know, to show the world what they got. It's like I was happy that I had a way to show the guys that I thought was funny and good that wasn't getting, you know, to shine, that I had a project or something that they was right for and they, you know, was down to do it, trusted me and, you know, busy, went crazy. You have a defining role, like for yourself and one that you wrote. Do you feel like you have? Not really. You know what I mean? I'm not like looking to play anything, you know, I was just like, you know, whatever's dope, you know, and I don't have to be the one to think of the idea, you know, sometime. I like Barbershop. That was. Somebody brought that to, you know, Tim's story and them dudes brought that to the Cube vision and we did it. And so, you know, I'm up for that too, you know, Ride along was another movie that was dope, brought it to us. We put the polish on it and end up doing it. The new year is here and you want to stay locked in on whatever you're into. Amazon prime is a cheat code. See, a lot of people think Amazon prime is just about getting those packages delivered faster than you can say, I forgot to order that. But really, prime is not just one thing. It's all things. A place to stream movies and shows with Prime Video, Amazon Music, and that free one day, same day delivery is everything you need to make the season stress free. 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And that has given birth to my podcast, the Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing. French dressing. Exactly. That's good. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and lots more. Listen to the Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That, that's awful. And I should have seen it coming. What about Are We There Yet? Yeah, that was another movie. That was. Adam Sandler was supposed to do that. For real? Oh, for real. They ain't had cable during that time. I watched that movie 3,000 times. That TV show when she get busy, I was like, well, I had a sequel, no cap. So yeah, he was supposed to do the movie. He couldn't do it. And then they was like, yo, would you consider doing a Movie for kids like that. And I'm like, I was the kid. I said, yeah. I said, yeah, I want to do it because for one, black kids don't get movies done, you know, in that way. Special effects and the stunts and just a big movie for black kids, you know. And so. Cause I had little 5 year olds coming to me saying, you, Craig, you got knocked the fuck out and all this like you like little ass going watching that movie. So I said, I need to do something for the little bitties. You got tired of getting knocked the fuck out. My fans got kids and I know they watching Friday when they should be watching some shit like over there yet. Every day. No, Friday, Friday, every day. I wanted to ask you. They know I love the car. You always got a dope ass car, bro. Is that in the contract somewhere? You got a nice ass ride. Six folded doughboy had that shit was so the gold on gold. Yeah, yeah, that was hard. The 96 buckle. Yeah, yeah. I definitely requested that Impala right there. I had that Impala, you know I had one for real. So I was like, man, this ain't, this ain't been in a movie yet. So put this one in a movie. Yeah, you know, I try to make sure my shit is right in the movies. I know a lot of people got fly ass cars and call them up, man. You want your shit in the movie? They like, yep. Who I need to give my number to over there, right? Cause they would give keyboard right there when you did Friday and they wanted to come with the secret, right? Yeah. And when OG wanted to go do his thing, how did you managed to transition and say, you know what, I ain't even tripping. I can respect both sides, but I still got to be me. I got to go find new talent and we got to keep this franchise going. Well, I knew like, okay, everybody got a crazy friend, but everybody got a crazy cousin too. So I'm like, well, since Smokey not gonna be in the movie, I gotta take it off the block. Cause everybody's gonna be like, where's Smokey at if we still in this room, still on the block, Right? Right. I said, okay, I'm gonna take Craig off the block. He worried about Debo fucking him up and he gonna go live with his cousin. And you know, finding Mike Epps was like a jewel. Like when I first seen him, I knew he was dae dad. First seen him on stage and just was checking him out and I was like, this nigga is hilarious. Like his comedy was all over the place. It was here, there, everywhere, and it was just hood and funny. He was funny and I said he could play my cousin. And you know, to me, you know, I wanted Chris to be in every movie, but I'm glad Mike Gabbitz. Me and Mike Gabbitz, we done did some great movies together. Jackie Promoters, man. I'm about to Benjamin I'm about to Benjamin got the mine of mine Jack promote all about the Benjamin got when your fish died. Oh, yeah, that boy Jelly Roll. Like I said that would happen without probably, you know what I'm saying, somebody else getting the opportunity, man. So. No, but you work well with comedians though. You do ride along. Kevin Hart one. Yeah. You know, some of my. All my buddies are funny. Like everybody that's. We look serious. Everybody, you know, melee and do our shit, but niggas be laughing our ass off over shit. But could that be the thing? Like all your characters, you want to play the serious role, but they end up saying some funny shit where you like. You make them like. They make you like them at the end of the movie, like you. All right. Yeah. You get your shit off in there too, amongst the great comedians, right? Definitely. You know, the key to me is, you know, not trying to be funny. You know what I mean? Just, you know, let the situation ride. Let the comedians or whoever I got, that's they job. But my job is to support and throw them jabs in the middle of, you know, the comedian I'm working with getting busy. You know, it's a comedy and you know, it's really the cast and the people around that's really making the movie super funny. I don't have to be, you know, I'm not a comedian. All you gotta do is play your part that straight, man, and let him get busy. One of my favorite Ice Cube characters was from higher learning. Yeah, Fudge. Fudge. You played. Played the woke serious. But you still had, you know what I mean? Still kept it real street and hood. Yeah, but with throwing the education shit in there too though, right, Right. You know, you know, it's. It's one of those probably on every campus, you know, dude who been there five years know the campus inside now, but also know all the games and, you know, trying to spread that knowledge which we all need. Players Club is another one, man. Like just Players Club, you know, with. With Bernie Mac. Like, was that. Did you have a hand in that? Hell yeah. I wrote, directed that movie. I mean, I'm saying, I mean, as far as casting specifically picking specifically wrote dollar bill for Bernie Mac, that's hard. Yeah, that's one of the greatest of all time. Yeah. Bernie, you know, tell him, cut. Your boy nothing. Yeah, like, nothing. He done been in a lot of movies, but it's hard to me for anybody to mess with that. That's defined for sure. I just let him get busy. I was about to say, how much of it did you write? Or how much of it did you just say? Action. And then let Bernie do what he did? Well, you know, I wrote. No, I don't start with a wax script, right? The script gotta be funny out loud while you reading it, before I even start. So if I. If I have a script that's funny out loud while you reading it, I know when I give it to, you know, somebody like, y'all, you gonna go, you know, you. It's the. It's solid. It's funny. If you just said it how it is, it'd be funny. But I know when I let dudes add they little flavor to it and stick with the script, but also add those, you know, curve balls in there, that it just take it to another level. Now when you take it to another level, like Anaconda. Yeah. Playing some shit. I know y'all was in a swamp, so you was like, I can't get in there. Well, you. Hell, yeah. Hey, Hell, yeah. That's got snakes in there. He got snakes in there. In there. The reason I did Anaconda was cause, like, the nigga didn't die. I was like, yo, yeah, that's on. I saw Jurassic Park. I saw Jurassic park, nigga. Listen, N died in the first five minutes of the movie. So I'm like, if y'all want me to be in this movie, I can't die, right? And I want to help kill the snake. Right? Right? And they was like, all right. And they rewrote it. And I was like, okay. Wasn't there Angelina Jolie, Daddy, that crazy Halo. We shot that in Brazil now, not Rio, right? I was in the Amazon. Manaus, Brazil. In the middle of the Amazon? Yeah, in the middle of the Amazon. And that was scary for me. I know that. For real. You see a mosquito with a mustache out that movie, what you say? Shitting Amazon don't care. We doing a movie, right? You know what I mean? They, man, it was like. It was a part where you had to go in the water. They told me, you gotta get in the water. What? The Amazon water, nigga. This one, it's like, back then, I didn't really know all the special effects. I'm like, man, just do some special effects and shit when I'm walking through the water. It was like, nah, man, you gotta get in, right? Everybody getting in, man. You know, it's a part where I'm like, well, where the fuck I gotta go right now? The Amazon. When it rain, it rises. It rises 30ft. God damn. So you at the top of trees, you on a boat, but you seeing the tops of trees, right? And so I'm like, wait a minute. How we gonna get in this water, man? So the water's supposed to be ways high. So he said, we made a plank where you can walk on this plank and it'll keep you waist high, but if you step off the plank, you can. I'm like, it took him two hours to talk me into that scene. Two hours, man. I ain't going. I ain't doing it, man. I don't give a fuck. Shoot it without me. Shoot it without the aiq, you know what I'm saying? I'm looking at where I can cut. If I cut this out, I ain't gotta go. I don't go in the water, right? But it was like, man, we need you, we need you, we need you. So after a while, man, I put on scuba gear and all kind of shit, right? Like, God damn, man. It's some real shit, right? It's some real shit. I'm ready to get out this water, man. You know what I mean? Fuck this movie shit, man. It's. It's real anaconda out there. It's, you know, piranha. It's all kind of shit in that water, man. And so it was, it was. That was the part. Yeah. I was like, man, what the fuck am I doing with my life, right? You know what I'm saying? I'm in the middle of the Amazon doing a goddamn movie, and in this bullshit water, you know what I'm saying? So it all turned out cool. You know, we was actually really scared of the electric, the. The mechanical snake. They had a mechanical snake that these fucking college kids built. And that motherfucker went haywire one time, almost fucked up Jennifer Lopez. It malfunctioned. And that shit just started to tear up the set. Oh, she lookin real, swung it, almost hit her in the face and shit. And they had to grab her out of there. So in the middle of Brazil. So we after that, everybody looking at this fucking snake like, God damn, we scared of this motherfucking thing. For real. Cause it was like this metal skeleton, the black one, but it was wrapped in this like a tire. Damn near. So this shit was hit. You fuck your face up and we acting with this shit and we like, man, this motherfucker malfunction. Just pop a right in the mouth. So we scared of this thing for real. Right? Right? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it definitely brought out reality. Can't tell Ice Cube here ain't a gangster. Ain't never did that. No matter how many Drive Bys, you ain't never been in the Amazon fighting a snake. You did Triple H, Yeah, yeah. You did do Triple H. Yeah, yeah. Hold on. Which one was the best one? Where you like, damn. All about the Benjamins, all about that. That would make me smile. He like, that went crazy. Yeah, that was. That was fun. You know, we shot that in Miami and, you know, it was like, you know, to try to make, you know, this action comedy. That was my first time going after the action comedy. It was cool. You know, we didn't have a lot a big budget, but we made it work. Don't you make all your great movies with the low budget shit? I wouldn't consider low budget. I mean, 3, 4 million ain't low budget, but yeah, yeah. Yes. You know, in Hollywood it is. Yeah, low to them. That ain't no low budget. Actually, 25 is low. In Hollywood, they make movies. Yeah, give us a low budget. 300 million. Yeah, give us a low budget. We ain't building no snakes. We'll build something, though. 25. We'll use your money for sure. And back to the music, man. Like, you are literally one of the greatest to ever touch a microphone, man. What? After all these years of being at this high level, what makes you still want to do that part? The rapping. I love it. When we first came out, we didn't think we was gonna make no money. We just was having fun being able to do something different. A lot of people wasn't rapping when we started, so it was unique, you know what I mean? You come in, you bust everybody, you know into it, and it's always been fun, you know. Of course, it got serious when I started getting deals and having to pay back budgets and all this kind of stuff. But now I do my own records. I've been doing my own Records since 06. And that shit is fun. Cause I ain't gotta worry about paying nobody back. I just do your thing. Do my thing. Let me ask you fun with it. You know, the game done changed. Everybody done heard about some of the terrible record deals and, you know, the snakes in the game. So when young Artists come up to you or ask you for advice on the music game or contracts. What you tell them when it comes to contracts and stuff like that? Like, you know, everybody has a different situation. You know, some people can make their own music and, you know, before they even try to shop a deal. And then some people, you know, need that budget to even make a record. So it depends on where they coming from. You gotta know this. You got your own music, you got your own record. You can do content, visuals, you own 100% of that. So you basically signing to go give somebody a piece of. Yo, What? You own 100% of. You're signing to give somebody a piece of that. And so, you know, you gotta look at it on that level. Like, I could see if you had just discovered somebody say, yo, I want to do a record on you. You sound good. Okay, it's cool for them to get a piece of that. But if you create and do everything, you should be trying to look for ways to put it out and keep everything if you can. If you can't, then make a deal. But don't go give up your whole project for little 10, 12 points or whatever when you own 100% of it off the jump. So, you know, we just gotta look at it in them terms. You know, you do your own content, you own that until you go give it away straight outta country. How much of that is true? All of it's true. All of it's true. You went in there and demanded your shit. Yeah, I went in there with a bat. That's documented. Yeah, that's why they wanted you to get in that water. Nigga, we saw the clip. Get in the water, Cube. With a movie like that, when you making a movie about real life and you trying to squeeze 10 years into two hours or three hours or whatever, what you end up doing is a summary of what happened. So certain things might have happened in a month, you know, certain situations, but you gotta get it out in two scenes. So you try to figure out how to create a scene where all these. All this information can get out. That makes sense. So, you know, everything is true, but everything might not have happened in that one scene. You see us in the studio one time, and I'm like, yo, Jerry, what about the contracts? You know, that probably happened over two or three weeks of, yo, what the fuck? You know, boom, boom, working. You know, talking shit, working. But in the movie, everything is, like, just crunched and summarized. So it's all true. It's just, you know, timeline is closing into Two hours when things should actually be stressed, be stretched a little bit. Somebody never heard Ice Cube before. Somebody never heard your music. This is. What song is Ice Cube playing for a person that never heard Ice Cube. Oh, man. Never heard Ice Cube song. I definitely play. It was a good day. That's the one. Definitely play. I gotta ask you this. No Vaseline? Yeah, man. That's one of the hardest songs. It's the hardest. Glad y'all set it off, man. Like, what was that day like, recording that? I had to rap. I didn't tell nobody the lyrics. I didn't want nobody to even hear what I was saying. Cause I wanted to get back to them what the record was. So just kept it in my book. I knew what I wanted to rap over, which was Dana Dane had a record called Cinder Fella. Cinder Fella. Dana Dane. And they used that dazz beat to get to. I'm like, man, he used that a long time ago. I'm about to flip this shit. So I had DJ Poole, couple of the producers I was working with, just flipped the beat and it was just rolling. I was like, all right, I'm ready and put the beat on. I went in there and rapped that shit. And they was just quiet when I came out the booth. They was like, God damn, Q, you putting that out? Like, yep, I'm up for going on the end of the record. It was like, God, Nick. Everybody just was like, eyebrows up. Like, man, hold you. We better get ready. It's coming. You know what I mean? This shit about to get crazy around here. So, yeah, it just blew their mind. Everybody was just tripping that I was going that hard. And you know. Yeah, somebody asked me, man, you gonna put that out? Like, yeah, that's going out. That's going out. The new year is here and you want to stay locked in on whatever you're into. Amazon prime is a cheat code. See, a lot of people think Amazon prime is just about getting those packages delivered faster than you can say, I forgot to order that. But really, prime is not just one thing. It's all things. A place to stream movies and shows with Prime Video, Amazon Music, and that free one day, same day delivery is everything you need to make the season stress free. Picture this. You're watching Thursday Night Football and Prime Video and the friends are coming through. You need the last minute snacks and drinks. Prime's got you. 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Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. But I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and lots more. Listen to the Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That. That's awful. And I should have seen it coming. Another one. Another one you went crazy on though. Jacket for Beats Jack. That's another one of my favorite ice cubes that year. And Once Upon a Time in the Prime. What's that? What's our favorite one? We be everybody. Like when the girl check something, break nothing. We buing. That's my. Yay. Yay. What about the one with you? You and Matt 10? It was your number head pause. What's that one with you? Matt 10? And the other one? Yeah, it was Gangst make the world go round dope song. Yeah, Summer vacation, man. With what was the first one you said before? From once, from Time to project in 89, so many dope beats came out. Like all these records came out with all these beats and I was just going crazy like, damn, I wish that was my shit. Damn, I wish that one was mine. And one day I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do a song with all these niggas beats just cut em up every beat I like. I'm a rap over that shit. Was you the first to do that at that time? I mean, I'm the first one I know to. To put it on the record. Might have been rapping on other people beats in the projects, but to put it out like you put that out, see, how did you get that clear, man? That was a headache. I was about to say, how you get that clear? You around? I'm a rapper. I had Ice Cube rapping on my beat better than me that he can't put this out, man. They, they, they cleared it. But what, what was hard? Like I would sample like D Nice is the first record. They call me D Nice. It's the first record on Jack of the Beats, but that nigga has sampled it from another record, so I had to pay him. How that works, nigga? This ain't even your check. Let's go to him, man. It was on a few different beats. They had used other people's shit, so I had to double pay. Damn, you must have really liked it. Yeah. So it was. You know that song, you know, it's only 100% of publishing. I think that motherfucker's like, a thousand percent. Goodness gracious, man. But you've always been known for being the writer, too. Like, you wrote a lot of raps for other people. People, man. Yeah. You ever be in that bag where you just. You knocking them out and you like. No. I don't even know if I want to get this. This one had a song called A Gangster's Fairy Tale. That was supposed to be a Easy E song. That was so hard. They was tripping, talking. I'm like, y. Y, till we resolve this what's going stand in my notebook? I ain't going to talk to y'all about this. And then we broke up, and I was like, this motherfucker mine. I changed little boys and girls they all love me Come sit on the lap of Eazy E and let me tell you a story or two I just changed it. Come sit on the lap of ice Let me tell you a story or two and just kept on rolling, nigga, nice with it. Now, you've been writing rap songs 35, 40 years. This how long it take you to create some shit now? What's your process? It depends, you know, if I love the beat, if I got the concept, if it's been. If I've been sitting on this concept for a minute, then, you know, I can write. I usually write two verses, you know, off the rip. Just. I don't leave till I got two verses and two hooks, and then I'll go think about that third verse. Like, how do I sum this song up? How do I put the bow on it and wrap it up so that third verse might, you know, just take me another time to go back in there and just work on the beat. Were you always nice with words? Like, did you read? You know, back then, motherfuckers didn't read. When I was young, niggas wasn't reading, man. It was illegal. When I was young, I used to, you know, my teacher tell us, you know, just got off Christmas vacation. What did y'all do? I'd be able to write, you know, vividly what we did. And one day, it got into. She read it, and it was so cool. She put it in the school paper, like the little elementary newsletter so I'm like, damn, that's my name. That's my. I wrote that. So it got me where I was like, oh, like, people dig what I write. And. And then when I graduated from the sixth grade, they asked me to write a speech to, you know, speak to my graduating class. And so I was. I did that. I got up there and I delivered the speech. And everybody was feeling it. They was clapping and shit. So I'm like, damn, I can write it and I can deliver it. You know what I mean? I can articulate it. So that's where I knew, okay, I got something here. And then rap came into my life about two years later when I was 14. And it was a trip. Cause me and my homie Kiddo, we was in a typing class. That's when they had typing. Kids don't know nothing about typing. Yeah, typing class. Typing class. Just young freak punks. We didn't want to be in there. Yeah, we don't belong in this class, you know? It's just we didn't get our electives. We was late. So this is all they had left. So looking at this nigga, I'm like, man, what the hell? I don't want to be no secretary come in here. So he looked at me one day, he was like, man, you ever write a rap before? I was like, nah. He said, you write one, I write one, we'll see which one's the best and shit. So I was typing out a rap and shit. You know what I mean? Thinking of shit typing. And my shit was better than his, though, right? Right. He was biting people's shit. I'm like, I heard the fat boys say that. You know what I'm saying? Like, mine was original. And I just never stopped after that day. Just be trying to tell my raps to people. Motherfucker was like, come on, man. I was all off beat and shit. Didn't know how to, like, flow it. I could write it, but had to learn how to flow. And fucking with the homie Jinx from down the street. Only nigga that had DJ equipment and instrumentals and shit. He was like, man, come to my house. Cause you gotta rap that to a beat. We gotta find the flow on this shit, right? So throwing the instrumental, and then I started to figure out, okay, the cadence. And I'm like, oh, this shit is fun. Bouncing on this beat. And I was just down there every day, was clowning me in my neighborhood. Why you going down here, man, hanging out with this dude, man? You run DMC now, Curtis Blow And I'll be like, man, y'all went out here. We be in there hours, man, right? DJing, scratching, and watching him, you know, try to. You know, we was all trying to get good, and he just kept on. And then one day, he was like, you know, my cousin is. I said, nah, nah. He said, Dr. Trey. I was like, Dr. Trey listening to them. And I'm like. He said, yeah, he made a record. I said, you got a cousin made a record? So, yeah, he pulled out a record. It's Dr. Dran's surgery. He put that on my phone. I said, nigga, that's your cousin. I don't even meet this man. This nigga is actually know I'm a fan of rap music. This nigga's actually doing music. He's doing record on. Got a record. So I was just addicted. I was like, man, when he coming over? Man, when he coming over? That would never come over. I'm like, going. And then one day, the called me. They was having a barbecue or some, and they called me. He here, nigga, come on down. Yeah, I'm grabbing no books running down there. And last thing this want to do is hear us rap, right? You know what I mean? He enjoying the barbecue in there. He in there with, you know, Amy and cousins and everybody, and we just in the garage with the equipment. Like, man, when is this going to come back here, right? I'm seeing Trey. You coming back? Yeah, he said, he coming right back. We in there another hour. I'm like, man, come on. Finally came back there. All right, let me see what y'all got. So we start busting. He was like, laughing at the shit I'm saying. I'm like, okay. Got this dude. Then I started. He ended up coming over a lot after that. Then we just was hanging out. And then he was like, man, you want to go to the studio? I said, hell, yeah. Took us all to the studio. And then that was Lonzo Williams spot in Compton. He ran the Wrecking Crew. And, man, these niggas had equipment. They was doing beats and shit. And I'm like, damn, this is a dream come true. I don't want to go home. Right? Yeah, Lonzo, you might spend a night here. We could do this shit all day. That's still got a thousand questions, man. We got another project. We got a new album coming out. New album coming out? Yeah. Man down. Man down. November 22nd. Let's go. Man down. I got that song out right now called It's My Ego. It's My Ego video Is real. It's my ego. Video is looking real movie like. It's like you getting back in a movie bag. We wanted to do a big video and not just. Just a visual. Yeah, just a thank you. Come on, everybody doing just visuals. You know, I wanted to do a real video, and it's got a lot of traction and shit. And we got a remix called Egomaniacs that's out. Killer Mike is on it. Me, Buster Rhyme. Okay. Got a whole town that thing. Yeah. Let's go. And so the album will be out, you know, on the 22nd. Quintessential ice cube. You know, if you've been an Ice Cube fan, you gonna love this record more. Definitely. I ain't trying to be nothing I'm not, you know, I'm just trying to, you know, give you a fastball right down the middle. You brought your pastor with you then? No, that's Stanley, nigga from Friday. That is Stanley. That's Stanley. Nigga, you ain't Stanley. I been looking at that nigga the whole time. I'm like, bro, I think that's Stanley, but I want to walk on this grand. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You a real bro. He from Stanley. I got CW here, too. Pinky Driver right there. The in the door right there, man. You. I know this. This your first time in the trap. Don't let it be your last, man. 85 South Show Ice Cube. Very entertaining, man. Check engine light on. Take the guesswork out of your check engine light with O'Reilly Varaskan. It's free and provides a report with solutions based on over 650 million vehicle scans verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we can recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. O'Reilly Auto Parts. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well being. @soundedout together.org that's sounded out together.org brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. You don't need another podcast. You've got too many already. But if you're looking for one that actually changes something, a way to take control of the chaos and find meaning, well, then maybe the one you feed is for you. I'm Eric Zimmer, and I bring real conversations with real people to help you feed the best part of yourself. No hype, no fluff, just wisdom that works. Listen to the one you feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Maura Aaron's Mele, host of the Anxious Achiever on the Show Business leaders and experts unpack the intersection of mental well being, neurodiversity, leadership and career. We offer tools and strategies to enjoy better mental health and find the best way to work for you. Listen to the Anxious achiever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.