Ice Cube Quotes

When I started out playing live, it was different. I felt good about it. Nobody knew who I was. I just opened for so-and-so. Now, I'm playing to people who are coming out to see the band. There's too much attention on the band and me.

I think [the spotlight] is a lonely place to be. Everybodys wanting something from you, pulling at you.

Hip hop has been an integral part of my life and my whole career. I started off doing videos with Ice Cube, and Dre, and Mary J. Blige, and TLC. So I've been involved in hip hop since the beginning.

The rap game has to save itself. Everybody's saving it. People like Lil Wayne is saving it. He's bringing energy to it.

I know I'll be under a spotlight, I know I'll be under the microscope.

Hip-hop is making a lot of noise. It should get some more spotlight.

You play for a club like Real Madrid, the people outside start talking.

The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence. And they'll tell you if you ask.

I love my fans in Philadelphia, but this is the hardest place in the world to play in. And I think it's the hardest place to play in to be a superstar. Just to be the No. 1 guy. All eyes on you - because everybody wants you to be perfect, but not themselves.

The problem is, the more famous you get, the more people see you who didn't choose to.

I wait for death and journalists.

All those rappers, they're the only glamorous people working in music now. They dress up in these chains of gold, cars, girls and this and that, high-heeled shoes.

Being in the limelight has its minuses.

You can't compete with hip-hop. That doesn't mean I don't want to be as big as a rap star. I do - I'm always competitive. But there's this weird perception of me as someone who's sitting around plotting like a devil. It's not like that.

Hip-hop is a way of life. It isn't a genre in truth in 'American Idol.'

As with all the other rappers I've worked with, Biggie and I shared common ground. Even though Biggie grew up in Brooklyn and I grew up in Chicago, we came from the same 'hood.

I'm not just a hip-hop artist; I feel like I'm a rock star.

I do hip-hop music, and I've gotten famous off of hip-hop music, and I know that I'm successful, and I've created my own definition of success, what success means to me. So the hip-hop world is all just really fake to me.

I actually met The Game in my hood on Crenshaw and Slauson. I was outside on the block with 20 of my homies. I see the Range Rover, and we all walked up to his car. I handed him my CD.

I have never spoken to Eminem. I've never even spoken to him once.

If we're evaluating cool to the way other rappers appear to be cool, then I'm not cool at all.

I know I'm going to be the next big hip-hop artist. I just want to save hip-hop... that's my job.

A lot of rappers are stars, but people like Drake and Lil Wayne, those are superstars.

Honestly, as a rapper, the Freshman list is definitely the biggest milestone. Culture-wise - anything-wise - that's the biggest stamp.