Ice Cube says black Americans like him grew up with only three choices in life – a boring job, prison or death.
The 54-year-old former NWA star, who has gone from music to building a business empire and film career, also said his haunting “It Was aa Good Day” was about his real-life struggle to try to escape the killers perils of ghetto life in Los Angeles growing up.
He told Hunger about the brutality of the US establishment: “For a long time I would only take the back roads. I didn't want to walk down the Avenue and face the attitude of a cop.
Ice, born O'Shea Jackson Sr, continued: “The police in Los Angeles will kill you. they will set you up and murder you right there on the spot. After (NWA's) 'F– Tha Police' dropped, we felt like we had to be extra careful about how we moved.
“I remember Ice-T telling me, 'Don't let the LAPD catch you on a roll!'”
When Hunger asked Ice if he felt like he needed “eyes in the back of his head” when working on his reputation, he added, “Sure. Remember: America has an avenue for guys like us! Either you get a 9-to-5 and work for someone or you have a jail cell. They also have the cemetery for you.”
Ice is behind a fast-growing 3-v-3 basketball franchise (The Big 3), as well as being a mainstream political pundit who appears regularly on everything from Fox News to CNN.
He was also the voice actor behind the villainous Superfly in this year's hit animated film 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtle Mayhem'.
Ice added of his 1992 track 'It Was a Good Day', in which a narrator imagines a dream 24 hours before he remembers being in a harsh ghetto: 'When I was avoiding the things I was trying to escape from, it was terrible. if it happened to you.
“If I could (successfully) navigate a day with the police looking for me, cowards on the corner waiting to shoot me and people wanting to take me out in my car, then that was a good day.
“It meant I was doing something right.”
