Ice Cube Born: N.W.A. Lyricist Conquers Rap and Film

Ice Cube co-wrote "Straight Outta Compton" as a founding member of N.W.A., channeling the rage of South Central Los Angeles into lyrics that forced mainstream America to confront police brutality and systemic racism in ways that news coverage had failed to achieve. Born O'Shea Jackson on June 15, 1969, in South Central Los Angeles, he wrote much of N.W.A.'s debut album while still a student at the Phoenix Institute of Technology in Arizona, where he studied architectural drafting. He returned to Los Angeles and recorded "Straight Outta Compton" with the group in 1988. The album sold over three million copies despite receiving virtually no radio airplay or major media coverage, propelled entirely by word of mouth and grassroots distribution. The FBI sent a letter to the group's label warning about the song "Fuck tha Police," one of the earliest examples of federal law enforcement attempting to suppress a musical recording. Cube left N.W.A. in 1989 over financial disputes and released "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" in 1990, a solo album that was both more politically articulate and more musically ambitious than anything the group had produced. He worked with Public Enemy's production team, the Bomb Squad, to create a dense, aggressive sonic landscape that matched the intensity of his lyrics. He transitioned to acting in the early 1990s, starring in John Singleton's "Boyz n the Hood" in 1991 and then writing and starring in "Friday" in 1995. The "Friday" franchise and the "Are We There Yet?" series demonstrated a versatility that expanded his audience. He built a media company that included film production, music, and a professional basketball league.