Rapper turned filmmaker Ice Cube went from rapping “F—k the police” to portraying a well-to-do family guy in several Hollywood blockbusters.
His ability to transition from one facet of the entrainment industry is a testament to his range as a creative, but his ability to avoid the pitfall of being typecast has everything to do with the content he wants audiences to consume.
Cube, real name O’Shea Jackson, burst onto the scene with iconic West Coast rap group N.W.A. in the late ’80s. From there, the rapper transitioned to a solo act and ultimately landed his first movie role in the highly acclaimed “Boyz N Da Hood.”
“Playing Doughboy was kind of parallel to the music we was doing, it didn’t feel like; it was just a natural progression,” Cube explained of starring in director John Singleton’s debut film. With movie producers eyeing him for more projects, Cube steadily picked up offers. “And then my next movie after ‘Boyz N Da Hood’ was ‘Trespass’ so playing Savon, which was another street dude; it kinda fell in, you know, into place, but then you know I was offered if I wanted to play O-Dog in ‘Menace II Society’,” he revealed to Kevin Hart during an interview for the “Hart to Heart” show.
But despite the influx of interests he received from Hollywood, Cube was clear that despite playing “street dudes” for other films, it was not a role to which he wanted to be pigeonholed.
“I felt like I was playing the same character. You know it was like from Doughboy to Savon now to O-Dog [which he ultimately turned down], I felt like I was gone be trapped in this you know L.A. gang bang,” he added.
“I just knew about typecasting.” Despite regular offers for various movie roles, Cube explained he wanted to do more. “I wanted to do stuff that was not you know just the normal ‘hood movie because there were so many coming out.”
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