- MTV VJ Maz Gets The Inside Word On Ice Cube!

He was one third of one of the most influential rap acts of the 1980s NWA, and Ice Cube headed 'straight outta Compton' and into Sydney-town to tear up the stage and perform hits from his successful career spanning twenty years.

On tour with Snoop Dogg, the West-Coast War-Lord himself was relativity chilled backstage, and was pretty happy with a red bull in hand to have a casual chat about all things rap and then some. Assuring me first up that I didn't have any reason to be nervous,(well the guy is huge), Ice Cube admitted that before a gig, backstage he and his crew crank a bit of Method Man's 'Black Album' and some old school stuff to get fired up. During the day he tends to kick back and get focussed, and as the moment gets closer and closer, he gets more and more into the mood.

From all the music he has made, Ice Cube tries to sprinkle a variety of hits from NWA all the way up to the current album 'Raw Footage', the main point is it is all about partying, and partying hard. As for his hit single, 'Gangsta Ra Made Me Do It' being coined, THE rap song of 2008, Ice Cube says it feels good to have a song like that in this world of pop hits. He says that for one of his songs, and a very controversial one at that, to be named as 'one of the best', to which I interrupted with, 'No Cube, 'THE BEST', and in response he chuckled and continued, it's encouraging. To then went on to say that in the music climate today, people usually tend to recognise the rookies, but he is stoked that he has been around for so long and still able to make ground-breaking tunes.

Ice Cube is a fan of Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco; he thinks that these two are the goods and are really starting to come up the ranks in the music world.

There is a rumour that Ice Cube is joining a certain team in 2009 - if you believe the whispers, Ice Cube is the hot favourite to score the role of Mr T in the A-Team movie. At this stage, he is not confirmed; he hopes to get the gig but it's all up in the air at the moment. I wonder if the reason why the original Mr T turned down the role is becasue he is too busy doing Snickers commercials? Ice Cube let me in on the scoop -none of the original cast members were going to star in the movies. He hopes to be a front-runner for the gig and my money is on him.

Strait from the interview, Ice Cube literally went on stage, and I am pleased to say that froma birds-eye viewing platform side of stage, he tore it up and got an insanely positive response from the Acer Arena crowd.

By Maz Compton

Catch Maz's weekly update on all the MTV goodness every Thursday in the Citybeat section of mX newspaper!

Maz can be heard on Sydney's Nova 969 from 6pm weeknights on The Nova Top 10 with Maz & Kerley. For more info click here!