--- description: Also discusses how to get kids to clean up their language. title: Ice Cube Explains How to Rap About Being Poor When You’re Rich as Heck image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4be20da3e3820ed7/6986973af983e78bad04e5d4/long_640.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [10 Questions](/tag/10-questions/) ## 10 Questions Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Ice Cube Explains How to Rap About Being Poor When You're Rich as Heck  by [Belinda Luscombe](/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Jun 12, 2014 10:20 AM CUT  TIME  by [Belinda Luscombe](/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Jun 12, 2014 10:20 AM CUT Rapper-actor-producer Ice Cube, one of the stars of this weekend’s _22 Jump Street_, has a new album in the works, _Everthang’s Corrupt_. When Cube visited Time for our 10 Questions page, we asked how the N.W.A. alum managed to rap about what it’s like to be poor when clearly he’s so successful. While Cube, as he likes to be called, doesn’t give much money to political campaigns — “politicians not going to do more with my money than I can to help whatever cause or whatever situation I want to help”—he uses his music to do his own form of campaigning. He’s an Obama voter, too, and is happy with the President, despite the fact that Obama “reminds me of the black kid at a white school that don’t nobody want to play with. That’s fine—he goes in there and does his thing, does what he can.” A longer version of the interview, in which Cube discusses some geometry and gives parenting tips, is below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2861391/ice-cube-explains-how-to-rap-about-being-poor-when-youre-rich-as-heck/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2861391/ice-cube-explains-how-to-rap-about-being-poor-when-youre-rich-as-heck/"},"headline":"Ice Cube Explains How to Rap About Being Poor When You're Rich as Heck","datePublished":"2014-06-12T10:20:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:27.435Z","description":"Also discusses how to get kids to clean up their language.","url":"https://time.com/2861391/ice-cube-explains-how-to-rap-about-being-poor-when-youre-rich-as-heck/","keywords":["10 Questions","Living","Parenting","rap","Obama","Wealth","Ice Cube"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4be20da3e3820ed7/6986973af983e78bad04e5d4/long_640.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Belinda Luscombe","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4be20da3e3820ed7/6986973af983e78bad04e5d4/long_640.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"10 Questions with Ice Cube","caption":"","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/10-questions/","name":"10 Questions"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2861391/ice-cube-explains-how-to-rap-about-being-poor-when-youre-rich-as-heck/","name":"Ice Cube Explains How to Rap About Being Poor When You're Rich as Heck"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions with Ice Cube","description":"Rapper, writer, actor and producer Ice Cube talks to TIME's Belinda Luscombe about the upcoming film 22 Jump Street, why he raps, and why his name suits him.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/AjkWTLZg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-11T21:52:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AjkWTLZg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2861391/ice-cube-explains-how-to-rap-about-being-poor-when-youre-rich-as-heck/","duration":"PT4M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2861391/ice-cube-explains-how-to-rap-about-being-poor-when-youre-rich-as-heck/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```