Rap icon Ice Cube dishes on his love for Glasgow and why he can’t wait to be back – Yahoo News UK

RAP icon Ice Cube has revealed the Glasgow audience is “etched in his mind” as he gears up to perform in the city later this year.

The renowned West Coast rapper shot to fame in 1988 as a key member of NWA before taking Hollywood by storm in the nineties with films Boyz N The Hood and Friday.

Comparing the city to New York, the It Was A Good Day artist said: “I haven’t been to Glasgow a lot but the show we did there was so memorable that we still talk about it to this day.

“Every time I hear Glasgow I just think about how much energy the crowd had when we played.

“It’s always set a bar as far as energy, audience and excitement. Just the feel throughout the whole show is one of those shows that’s etched in my mind.

“I’m looking forward to coming back and reliving those moments. It’s going to be real fun to be back.

“When we think about some of the best crowds from around the world, Glasgow is always up there because of that show we did.”

Set to play the OVO Hydro on December 5 alongside hip-hop heroes Cypress Hill and The Game, Ice Cube added: “It’s a place that you can’t bring no bulls***, you got to come with the real deal.”

Dubbed the High Rollers: Volume 1 Tour, crowds can expect “30 years of music from Straight Outta Compton to Everythang’s Corrupt,” says Cube.

With a devilish flicker, the 57-year-old added: “Me and B-Real do have a song together called Let’s Get Money, and we may do that, you never know.”

Fans can look forward to a show that gets back to the basics of what hip hop is all about.

He said: “In seeing all the hip hop that’s gone on from when I started and to see where it’s gone – I think in a lot of ways it’s losing a little essence of what it’s all about.

“And the fact that I actually rap, I actually do lyrics live – I think that’s outside the norm for a lot of hip hop now.

“In a lot of shows, guys are rapping over the track and sometimes not even rapping, you know, it’s very strange.

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“I want to take it back to the essence and I think it’s something real about the MC who can deliver without all the hoopla and bulls*** bells and whistles, you know.

“I’m a grip it and rip it MC, I don’t need too much but the mic.

“We have visuals, but at the end of the day, it comes down to 30 years of music and us delivering that music in a powerful way where we celebrate all these years of love and hip hop.”

Something of a Renaissance man, Ice Cube was gifted a plot of land near Aberdeenshire in 2020 which he claimed upgraded him from a “West Coast War Lord” to a “real Scottish Lord”.

He told the Glasgow Times: “I might go over there and check it out.

“It’s funny, I was gifted that and so it’s pretty cool to know that there’s a small piece – if you step too fast you might step over it – but a small piece with my name on it that is my domain, so to speak.

“If I needed a place to stand and rule, that’s where I would be.”

As someone who has ruled both the music scene and the film industry for more than three decades, Ice Cube says the key to success and longevity is being unequivocally himself.

He said: “People call it gangsta rap, it’s really street knowledge. I think that’s the reason why I’ve been able to have longevity.”

He added that it’s only when entertainers do what they feel in their heart, rather than what they think they should do, that they are satisfied with the outcome.

The rap giant said: “If I do a record from the heart and I don’t sell one copy but I just like the song, I like how I put it together, I can live with that.

“I’ve seen people have hit songs that were not really them – they kind of did a lil pop thing but they’re stuck with this big hit – and they hate to perform it.

“So here they go, they got this successful song and everything you should want, but the song feels bubblegum to them so they hate to perform it.

“But they have to perform it so now they’re successful but still unhappy.

“I just say do what you feel and let the chips fall where they may.

“And what you don’t get in success, you’ll gain in respect, in self-gratitude and self-esteem.

“And you’ll get true fans that really love you for what you do and not for some image that was put together for you.”

The High Rollers: Volume 1 tour comes to the OVO Hydro on December 5. To find out more, click here.