From left: Phillip Daniel Bolden, Nia Long, Ice Cube and Aleisha Allen in a scene from 'Are We There Yet?'
WASHINGTON:
FOR RAPPER-turned-actor Ice Cube, the 15-year transformation from pariah to family entertainment hero begins and ends in the same place: below the belt.
Only now, instead of delivering manly blows, he's taking blows to his manliness. Over and over and over again.
In the new slapstick flick Are We There Yet? the former mouthpiece of late '80s gangsta-rap progenitors N.W.A. a man whose braggadocio about women, guns and racism once had conservatives and rock critics condemning his rhetoric stars as a ladies' man who drives a would-be paramour's bratty tykes on a road trip through the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, his new Lincoln Navigator takes a kid-style beating, but that's nothing compared with what his character's groin endures. A young boy kicks him, a runaway horse jostles him and, in perhaps the most inventive entry in cinematic emasculation, Paul Bunyan's ax wallops him.
"Kids love that stuff,'' says Cube (just Cube, never Ice fair warning), sitting in a hotel suite. "And this one is for the kids.''
Never thought you'd hear the man who infamously hollered "(Expletive) tha Police'' ("They have the authority to kill a minority'') and later threatened to burn down Korean-owned grocery stores say that, did you?
Dressed in jeans and a black shirt adorned with the movie's title, the 35-year-old is clamping down on a big cigar. He's also flashing a wide grin that has become just as well-known as the scowl he always wore under that black Raiders cap back in the hard days. He's a handsome dude, more chiselled than his pudgy rep, with an easygoing manner. And not once does he apologise for the crotch jokes.
"Kids love Friday, kids love Barbershop,'' Cube says about the two blockbuster comedies he starred in that spawned sequels and helped him establish a film production company, the increasingly influential Cube Vision. "But those movies aren't geared for them. Are We There Yet? is tailor-made for kids. If you want longevity in this business, you have to entertain the new generation so they can be on your team for the long haul.''
He waves through a cloud of smoke. "Listen, I'm not trying to take Eddie Murphy's spot and be the family man,'' he says. "I'm still gonna do hard-core movies, R-rated movies, mix it up.''
The man born O'Shea Jackson is a family man now, however. In the late '80s and early '90s, he was considered by some to be anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-women and, well, just plain anti. Now he's a suburban dad with a great job. Cube has been married for 14 years, he has four children, and he lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, "a great place to rejuvenate. It keeps me focused.'' He says moving from the party life to the Land of Lawns had a lot to do with his becoming a power player in Hollywood.
"I want to be like Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise," he says. "I want people to hear the name Ice Cube and know (the movie's) not going to be a waste of their money.'' He craves access to the 'Spielberg formula' that is, "do the movies that will make the studio profit, then do the period piece or whatever and they'll give you the budget you need.''
GRANDIOSE GOAL
It's a grandiose goal for sure, but Nia Long, his love interest in Are We There Yet? says Cube is entirely capable of achieving it.
"He has a natural ability and talent for making movies that show and reflect everyday people,'' Long says. "You feel part of the world he's created. He makes movies that are real.''
Long, who starred in last year's Alfie remake with Jude Law, says Cube's ability as a romantic leading man shouldn't be underestimated, either. In fact, in a fit of giggles, she admits that the rapper was a far better smoocher than the Brit: "Hands down, Cube is the better kisser. His lips are softer, fuller.'' (Cube never asked Long whether he was a better lip-locker than Law: "I know I am. I ain't got to ask her.'')
In April, Cube a consistently engaging screen presence ever since he made his debut as Dough-boy in John Singleton's 1991 urban odyssey Boyz N the Hood officially takes over for Vin Diesel in the XXX action franchise.
"One thing I thought was missing in Hollywood was the black leading man who's an everyman,'' Cube says. "The only one we really got is Denzel. That was a niche that I knew I could fill.''
From hated man to Everyman, from loner to lover. To Cube, his acceptance at the cineplex and in the hearts of some who once despised him makes perfect sense.
"If you really think about America, they love an outlaw,'' he says. "They love a guy who plays by his own rules. The records I did back in the day weren't done to pour salt in the wound or inject venom. They were done to inform, to bring to light things that aren't talked about enough. They weren't done out of being controversial. They were done because no one was saying it, nobody's gonna say it, and nobody's gonna say it like I'm gonna say it.''
And he plans on saying it again. This summer, Cube will release a new album, which he's been working on with such hip-hop heavyweights as Lil' Jon, Pharrell Williams and Timbaland. It's his first collection of new material in almost five years, but he's not worried that his rhymes have rusted since he's gone Hollywood. He's still more comfortable in a recording studio than on a movie set.
"The microphone is my love,'' he says. "I'll always do that. Whether I sell records or not, I'll always do records. I'm always writing, always getting beats, always thinking of rhymes in my head. I'm always thinking about what people will respond to. That's always clicking. I'm a beat boy at heart.''
He's also confident that his brand of rap rhymes and rhythms that are more concerned with grabbing you by the lapels than making you dance are about to come back in style.
"Rap goes through its eras,'' he says. "It started off with the DJ era. Then came bragging and boasting, talking about girls. Then you have Melle Mel and Grand-master Flash bringing 'The Message' and talking about survival. Then Run-DMC. And then Public Enemy comes, and right after them, here comes N.W.A., with what we call reality rap, before it was called gangsta rap. That's the title we gave it: reality rap.'' He says the 'consciousness' in the music of current hip-hop kings Kanye West and the Roots will soon give way to a Cube revival.
STYLE OF RAP
"You know the phrase 'Sell no wine before its time'," he says, smiling. "Well, you sell no rhymes before its time. We're coming to an era where my style of rap is coming back to the forefront."
Cube says that the movies and music are separate worlds, and he won't tone down his lyrics just because of his cleaned-up Hollywood image. "The bravado, the ego, the bragging, the boasting, being ironic: That is the foundation of what we're doing,'' he says. "To come out and say, I'm a household name, let me start doing albums like (DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's comical) Parents Just Don't Understand and try to be more pop is definitely the worst thing I could do. I'm coming out both guns blazing."
This time, though, there's a good chance the transformed man will be applauded for his efforts. After all, he's beloved now and he knows it.
"God bless America," Cube says, flashing that killer smile.
LA Times-Washington Post.
