Ice Cube’s Vacation Hot Spots

03.05.2024 - 13:43 / forbes.com

Rap careers, much like in any other musical genre, are fleeting. You can have a viral hit today and be the subject of a “What ever happened to…” podcast tomorrow. All of which makes what L.A. native O’Shea Jackson Sr. (that’s Ice Cube to me and you) has accomplished over his career so amazing. A member of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A in the ’80s and an influential solo artist in the ’90s, Cube had a wall of platinum plaques up by the time Drake was in kindergarten. N.W.A was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. He’s still selling out arenas today.

“It’s where artists want to be,” the 54-year-old Cube says. “Some people want to be feared and all that goofy stuff, but to me, love is stronger. I appreciate it. I try to give people quality no matter what I do. People will reward you if you give them quality.”

After conquering music, Cube moved on to movies (Boyz n the Hood, the Friday series, All About the Benjamins) and other businesses. One of his most fruitful ventures has revolved around sports. A die-hard Lakers fan, Cube co-created a three-on-three basketball league back in 2017 where retired NBA players who still had some bounce in their knees could keep playing. Big3 has been a rousing success, filling venues around the country and broadcasting on national television.

The Big3’s next season tips off with new players and new cities on June 15. Cube’s also touring Canada (through May 10) and hitting a few U.S. festivals over the coming months. The antithesis of “fleeting,” the entertainment icon sat down with us to talk about touring, taking his league to new heights and vacationing with his family whenever time permits.

What can fans look forward to this Big3 season?

What’s great about the Big3 is, over these seven years, we’ve calibrated the league and we’ve done a lot of things to make the game fun to play and fun to watch. We don’t have to tinker with the rules. We can just concentrate on the style of play, which I think everybody really appreciates. Now, if you look at how people are looking at the NBA and the style of play, people are really disappointed in the defense.

In the Big3, you can’t help but play right. I think we’ve done a lot of things that are aesthetically pleasing to the sports fans, especially the basketball fan. We let guys be themselves. We let personality shine through without being over-restrictive and policing the competitiveness of the guys. If they want to trash talk, if they want to stare somebody down after a dunk, let them do it without a technical. We’ve taken the game and let the players determine the outcome.

How do you decide which cities will host games?

Well, a lot of things come into play. One is venue availability. We go for 10 weeks