Thirty-five-year roller coaster ride that hasn’t stopped yet.” Late director John Singleton unleashed a force on Hollywood: Ice Cube, the thespian, seen here performing earlier this month. You know, it’s like being on a roller coaster. It was amazing to see that it took off that big again and then we was on the ride. And were, you know, were not underground, you know, artists. “Not too many people was doing hip-hop in that style. You know, so we were basically amazed as everybody else at the success of NWA, because at the time, it was just against the grain,” he told me. So I had to go back to his roots and early fame, which he said, shocked even him. Just take a second and think about how this man went from rapping “F–k tha Police” to making family film “Are We There Yet?.” He is the master of evolution.
And since then, that Doughboy has been bringing home the bread from movies, business and now hoops with his Big3 - a three-on-three hoops league.īefore his mainstream success, he was a rap pioneer as part of one of the earliest super groups, NWA. The comedy-loving rapper had a runaway hit with his quotable classic “Friday,” which turned into a franchise and then “Barber Shop.” It solidified one thing: Whatever Ice Cube touched, turned to gold. He went on to star in many other films, including Singleton’s 1995 film, “Higher Learning,” and the director encouraged him to start writing his own movies. But with that film, he also unleashed a force on Hollywood: Ice Cube, the thespian. Singleton introduced a new raw genre that would be imitated but never duplicated.
BOYZ N THE HOOD DOUGHBOY MOVIE
When the movie premiered 30 years ago, it was a revelation. To prepare, the budding actor did a lot of ad lib work and Laurence Fishburne took him under his wing, dishing out advice. You know, John is an interesting cat, but I’m thinking he going to hire somebody else, whatever actor that was popping … But he was adamant that, ‘It’s you.’ … So he believed in me before I did because I thought you had to be trained to act and by the time this movie come out, you gonna hire Todd Bridges or something.”īut Singleton might as well have said, ‘Whatcha you talkin’ bout, Willis?’ because Ice Cube was his guy. I could see it.’ … I’m listening because I’m very interested. “They got, the East Coast versions of what this is, you know, but nobody’s done our version like our ‘Do the Right Thing.’ So he just kept saying, ‘Man, you Doughboy, you Doughboy, man. And, you know, his whole thing was like ‘the film version of what you are doing and, you know, nobody is showing that,'” Ice Cube told me of Singleton. “He was just adamant about the group, NWA, the kind of music that we were doing.
Late great director John Singleton approached him because he wanted to make a movie about the NWA lifestyle and ethos. But initially before he went Hollywood in “Boyz n the Hood,” he wasn’t so certain the name Doughboy would be forever linked to his body of work.
We all know my “Renaissance Man” guest as Ice Cube or O’Shea Jackson Sr. Tamron Hall looks back at her origins with Jalen Rose
BOYZ N THE HOOD DOUGHBOY TV
Nate Burleson tells Jalen Rose about his NFL days, new morning TV gig Neal Brennan tells Jalen Rose what it was like working with Dave Chappelle Omarion talks to Jalen Rose about growing up and moving on Mayim Bialik and Jalen Rose talk child fame, mental health and why she returned to acting