Ice Cube talks to MTV.com about his new album and going indie:
“Going independent in 2006 really re-energized me. It rejuvenated me [and] my feelings for the game,” he said. “Being on [major] record labels is for the birds. It sucks all your energy out. Because the good ideas you come up with, a lot of times they don’t wanna do it. Especially on the promotional tip. They follow these same ancient formulas to sell a record. You gotta be creative in 2008 to sell a record. That’s the first thing. When I started doing it independent, it gave me my swagger back and made me feel like I was doing hip-hop and not just doing records for somebody. I just went back to the essence and stopped worrying about the hip-hop fans and started worrying about Ice Cube fans.”
Raw Footage is out August 19 on Lench Mob Records.
MP3: Ice Cube – “It Takes a Nation” (courtesy of allhiphop.com)
LA Times: Rapper Ice Cube talks about the 20th anniversary of N.W.A’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’:
“We were coming from a straight, pure place,” he said. “We thought our music was going to land on the shelves with the dirty comedy albums. The blue stuff. We never thought our music could possibly get above the underground. That wasn’t part of the plan, believe me. Did we expect to get rich or turn the industry on its ear? We were doing music we thought our buddies up the street might like.”