O’Shea Jackson, Jr (Ice Cube) grew up hard.

By the time he was 21, he’d lost over a dozen close friends and his half-sister to violence. That was the life he knew, and the fate many would have assumed he was meant to share. But instead, he managed to take that tumultuous path and emerge from it as the celebrity rapper known as Ice Cube.

It is said that O’Shea chose his professional name as a nod to the times his older brother would threaten to slam him into the freezer and pull him out when he was an ice cube. Those of us with siblings- especially older siblings, can relate. It even makes many of us laugh, and feel some sort of camaraderie with him. But for a large part of society, that is where the sense of camaraderie ended.

Ice Cube went on to create rap packed with violent lyrics that glamorized the very life he worked so hard to emerge from. That gained him another kind of audience – the kind who hate the police, blame everyone but themselves for their adversity and pain, and either engage in or simply endorse street violence as a way of life. 

Of all the interviews and media the rapper and actor has done, it seems fair to say it would have been hard to predict he’d ever appear in an interview with a host his fans hate with the level of loathing Tucker Carlson has received.

And yet, these are the times we are in when one by one, the rocks we all hide our true feelings and values under are being flipped over, and we are forced to choose..scurry underneath a different rock, or step out into the open to defend those values. 

Ice Cube’s proverbial rock was flipped over when he was told he must take the COVID vaccine before working on the film he was to be paid 9 million dollars for appearing in.

He refused to comply, and subsequently lost the role and the paycheck. His attempts to remain a quiet objector were foiled when news of his choice leaked to the media. Instantly, he gained new fans and new enemies.