The driving lyrical force that helped put West Coast gangsta rap on the map, O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson grew up in South Central Los Angeles and while still a teenager teamed with Eazy-E and Dr. Dre to form the groundbreaking N.W.A., writing "F*** the Police" for their debut album "Straight Outta Compton" (1989), a song which won him no friends among Policeman's Benevolent Societies but endeared him to his target audience. After leaving the group in a dispute over money, he made two extremely explosive solo albums—"AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" (1990) and "Kill at Will" (1991)—angry accusatory records that decried social conditions. But Ice Cube was also ready to prove that the man behind the trademark scowl was much more than the message. He had always stood out among his peers as a great natural storyteller with a tremendous presence onstage, and filmmakers recognized his potential in spite of the unruly outlaw image. And with several additional acting, writing and producing projects in the works, it looked like the rapper with little pop appeal would prove a different and far more rare crossover—a musician who could make his mark both in front of and behind the movie camera.
Ice Cube made his celebrated feature debut as Dough Boy, the sensitive, doomed ex-con gangbanger in writer-director John Singleton's South Central masterpiece, "Boyz 'N the Hood" (1991). The title for the film was taken from Cube's N.W.A. song of the same name and the part of Dough Boy written for him by Singleton. He followed with Walter Hill's "Trespass" (1992), playing a hotheaded subordinate to fellow rapper Ice-T's crime lord, and though he played a man unjustly accused of murder in "The Glass Shield" and reunited with Singleton for "Higher Learning" (both 1995), Ice Cube had his sites set on being more than just an actor. With musical cohort DJ Pooh, he wrote the screenplay for "Friday" (also 1995), a comedy about life in the "hood" that owed much in tone to the lunacy of the old Cheech & Chong movies. The low-budget movie, which first-time executive producer Ice Cube almost directed before F. Gary Gray became available, became a cult favorite and brought in more than ten times its original investment.
Ice Cube acquired experience at the helm of thirteen music videos, including ones for Prince and Color Me Badd, and viewed a lot of Scorsese and "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) with his mentor Singleton before tackling "The Players Club" (1998), his solo screenwriting and directing debut. Focusing on Diana, a lovely African-American single mother who lands a job stripping at a club to pay for her college tuition, the director convincingly evoked the seedy strip joint milieu in an episodic comedy-drama that made up in vigor what it lacked in polish. Despite its lack of crossover appeal, "The Players Club" demonstrated Ice Cube's command of the medium, guaranteeing his return behind the camera. He also co-starred in the corny horror film "Anaconda" and, in a departure from his usual street tough roles, played Vusi, a South African living in Los Angeles who returns to his homeland and finds his missing brother, in "Dangerous Ground" (both 1997).
In 1999, the rapper-actor reached a larger audience and proved quite a talented actor with a challenging role as one of a group of disenfranchised US soldiers in David O. Russell's acclaimed Gulf War comedy-drama "Three Kings". The following year, his success as a screenwriter, producer and star of "Friday" proved no fluke when his humble follow-up "Next Friday" brought in $19 million in its opening weekend—without the help of its predecessor's co-star Chris Tucker, who was replaced as sidekick by lesser-known comedian Mike Epps. Ice Cube again turned in a solid straight man performance in the often very funny sequel. The soundtrack featured the single rack "Chin Check" by the newly-regrouped N.W.A., with Dr. Dre protege Snoop Dogg standing in for late original member Eazy-E.
Though the misfire sci-fi thriller "John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars" marked Ice Cube's only acting outing of 2001 (the same year the rapper released his long-awaited "Greatest Hits" collection), he would more than make up for it the following year by writing, producing and starring in the comedy releases "All About the Benjamins" and "Friday After Next"—both films would reunite him with Mike Epps, with the duo playing a bounty hunter and bumbling criminal in the former and reprising their "Next Friday" roles in the holiday-themed latter. Cube's next effort, "Barbershop" (2002), which cast the rapper as Calvin Palmer, the inheritor of a downtrodden South Side Chicago barbershop where colorful local characters gather to exchange gossip and opinions, proved to be a runaway hit and spawned the 2004 sequel "Barbershop 2: Back in Business." Cube also provided one of the few precious merits of the lame videogame-like motorcycle action flick, "Torque"(2004). In “Are We There Yet?" (2005), Ice Cube toned down his hard image by appealing to moms and dads in this family-friendly road comedy. Though he was charismatic and watchable per usual, the movie failed to warm the hearts of critics—which, in the end, mattered not: “Are We There Yet?” opened number one and subsequently took in a hefty sum at the box office.