Ice Cube on N.W.A’s Rock Hall Induction: ‘It’s Hard to Sum Up in Words’

Do you think you guys are going to perform at the ceremony?
I want to. I think we can get Ren, Yella and Dre together. I think Snoop might do an honorary Eazy. I can’t speak for him, but we’ll ask him. We’ll probably ask a few people.

They’re doing it at the Barclays Center. If you guys get on the stage, you’ll just destroy the place. It’ll be incredible.
It’ll be great on all levels. We’ll see what ends up happening, but I’m definitely down.

Did they tell you the other inductees?
No.

It’s going to be Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, Chicago and Steve Miller.
Wow. That’s a nice lineup.

Are you fans of those groups?
Not really, but I know they’re big [laughs]. I’ve been hearing their names all my life, though.

There tends to be a big all-star jam at the end of the night. Will you want to take part in that?
I don’t know [laughs]. It’s all about if we can do something cool. If we’re doing something and it’s feeling kind of corny, I won’t want to do it. If we can do something cool … I think the audience wants to see something cool. They don’t want to see some forced medley.

Do you see hip-hop as an extension of rock & roll?
I think that just like any new music, it borrows from the music that’s already there. Rap is a piece of rock & roll, but there’s also a piece of soul, a piece of R&B, a piece of blues — all of that music that comes before it. I think rap captures the spirit of rock & roll just like rappers and guys who do rock & roll capture the same spirit, but they might go in different directions with it. But it’s the same spirit.

“I think [Eazy-E would] be real excited because he was always fighting for legitimacy.”

There’s only a handful of hip-hop acts in the Hall of Fame. It’s you guys, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. That’s good company to be in.
My God. That’s like the cream of the crop when it comes to groups that made an impact. What’s funny is that the hip-hop group basically started to fade away with Wu-Tang Clan. It went from groups, groups, groups to solo, solo, solo artists. I would be interested to see who is the next solo rapper that makes it into the Hall. That would be interesting.

Do you think Eazy would be happy about this?
I think he’d be real excited because he was always fighting for legitimacy, whether it was trying to get out of the dope gang and become a legitimate, productive person in society. Also, the industry talked a lot of shit. This would please him I think because the music that we did is a force to be reckoned with. We got some of the most creative, talented people in N.W.A that’s ever been compiled in one group. It’s just exciting that the group as a whole gets recognized by the whole industry as Hall of Fame worthy.