Rapper crosses mediums

By Nicole Rodriguez

Recording artist and up and coming actor Ice Cube settles himself comfortably on the hotel room couch in San Francisco. It has been his first day fielding interviews for his upcoming movie "The Friday After Next," and already he seems tired.

Not that he lets his tired demeanor dampen his excitement. As he discusses his new movie with the four college students before him, Cube does his best to keep up his stamina and not focus upon his impending flight to Dallas in three hours.

"The rap game to me is the like NFL," Cube reveals when asked about his absence from the recent rap scene. "It's a young man's game and the older you get in the game, the more injuries you get. So, to me, it's a natural progression to try to do something different."

And the something different to Cube, most people know, is working in the movies. Following his critically acclaimed debut as Doughboy in John Singleton's Oscar-nominated "Boyz in the Hood," Ice Cube has starred in over 20 films and has begun his own production company, Cube Vision.

With his last release (MGM's "Barbershop" which he starred in and produced) earning rave reviews and millions and the box office, Ice Cube is busy promoting the Nov. 22 release of his latest film "The Friday After Next."

"We never expected [the original 'Friday'] to be such a big hit," Cube reveals. "We figured only our friends would like it, and only a few people would understand the world of Craig and Smokey. And everybody got it, everybody understood. It is a cult classic. And what makes me proud about this movie is that people see it over and over again. It's not one of those movies where you look at it once, and then it stays on the shelf."

And it is this success that inspires Cube to keep writing, acting in and producing additions to the series.

"I just try to keep it funny," Cube explains of his latest script. "We go over the top, but it's a good over the top. With our jokes we hit you and set you up for the next one, then we hit you and set you up for the next one."

Of course, although he does put a lot of thought and effort into his scripts, Cube does admit that a lot of the lines the audience sees in the "Friday" films are improvised.

"Everything is structured," Cube explains. "When I write it, I don't overwrite it, I underwrite it because I know if I give him ("After Next" co-star Mike Epps) one or two lines he can take it and run with it and then we can pick back up with the act. I'd say about 35 percent [of the movie] is ad-libbed."

"These are the people that make me laugh," Cube says of his co-stars. "I love to be around them because who wouldn't want to be around eight or nine comedians that make you laugh all day. Plus, I get the chance to make a movie and make some money."

In particular, Cube has developed a successful working relationship with his co-star Mike Epps, who plays Craig's cousin Day-Day in the last two "Friday" movies.

"I respect what he does and respects what I do and we do it together," reveals Cube. "I want to make sure that no matter what we stay friends through making the movie."

"I've just been a student of his," Epps said. "I just sit around and soak it up. He shows me all the little things people don't notice from being an actor. He shows me how to take my comedic skills and put it inside myself as an actor."

However, there are some drawbacks to the film industry, Cube notes. Specifically, he still sees the existence of a color barrier.

"Not from the audience," he said, "but from the studios. They're the ones with the blinders on, they always choose to target [Cube's movies towards a solely black 'hood' audience] . The people who make those decisions are not smart enough to see that it's a different world out there now. People just want to be entertained, they don't care what color the people that are doing it are.

"Then we had a movie like 'Barbershop' come out and, not to take anything away from MGM, but that was a mistake. MGM had never made any of those kinds of movies and didn't know how to target, all they knew how to do was put it out like all of their other movies. And look at the return."

As for what the future holds, Cube's next project, a motorcycle flick entitled "Torque" is currently in post-production.

And whatever comes after that, Cube assures audiences that he plans to stay in the same genre that made him a Hollywood star.

"Those are the kinds of movies that I like to do right now. I think there's still stories to be told. I don't want to do anything overnight, I want to try to gradually progress. This isn't the time for me to move to bigger movies. I want to get better as a company and put a few more pieces together before we start taking on 40 and 50 million dollar projects. In the future I want to do bigger movies, but right now the timing is just right for these."