Artists and trends come and go, but Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson) remains a significant figure in entertainment since he left gang-infested South Central Los Angeles to launch “the world’s most dangerous group” in 1986. Along with newly minted almost billionaire Dr. Dre, Easy E, MC Ren, and DJ Yella; N.W.A became one of the most influential musical groups in any genre. Such a breakthrough seminal group that its story is chronicled in the new feature film “Straight Outta Compton,” opening August 14.

Ice Cube was instrumental in the group’s rise, penning the most memorable lyrics on groundbreaking songs “Straight Outta Compton” and “F*** Tha Police.” After payment disagreements, he left the group at the peak of its popularity to launch a solid solo career – selling more than 10 million albums – while remaining one of rap’s most respected artists.

Beyond music, Ice Cube has established himself as one of entertainment’s most reliable, and prolific figures. In the film arena he’s an accomplished producer (“Friday,” “Barbershop 2: Back In Business,” “Are We There Yet?”), writer (“Friday,” “The Players Club,” “The Janky Promoters”) and director (“The Players Club”); but he’s perhaps best known for his acting work. He has managed to create franchises as the lead in the profitable “Friday,” “Barbershop” and “Are We There Yet?” films. And starred as a conflicted teen in “Boyz N The Hood,” a greedy soldier in “Three Kings,” an elite government agent in “xXx: State Of The Union,” and a police captain in “21 Jump Street,” and its sequel “22 Jump Street.”

In television, he took the “Barbershop” and “Are We There Yet?” series to successful network runs and also enjoyed success with the controversial “Black. White.,” among other programs.

Most recently, Cube found major success with the box office hit “Ride Along,” which his company Cube Vision produced. The film was #1 at the box office for three consecutive weekends and was the highest grossing movie in history over Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. “Ride Along” has been greenlit for a sequel, maintaining Cube as franchise master.

While he loves making movies, Cube’s first passion will always be music. His latest album, “Everythang’s Corrupt,” is his eighteenth release as a solo artist or a member of a group (N.W.A, Da Lench Mob, Westside Connection).

In an intimate conversation with HOMBRE, Ice Cube reveals all.

HOMBRE: What is it like seeing an N.W.A movie?
IC: It’s the same feeling I had when I did “Boyz n the hood.” I wrote the song Boyz n the hood, and I look four years later and I’m on the movie set of “Boyz n the hood” which is basically talking about what the song talked about. And I’m on the set and I wrote that. I couldn’t write this script of my career. It’s too unbelievable. It’s chance, its divine intervention…
H: …Talent
IC: But there’s a lot of people with talent who don’t get their shot, or things don’t fall in place. But everything has fallen in place for me and I feel blessed.

Seated (l. to r.) are O’Shea Jackson Jr. Jason MItchell and Corey Hawkins. Standing are Ice Cube (l.) and Dr. Dre (r.) with the film’s director F. Gary Gray

IC: Going back to your question, the N.W.A movie is a dream project. It’s been hard to bring together because we’re trying to tell five stories in one, and we’re trying to tell the story of an era and the story of how the neighborhood forged N.W.A, and how did the creation of N.W.A change the neighborhood. In a lot of ways we’re like Frankenstein, we built a monster that had its own legs that we had no control of. Now people call it “Gangster Rap” or whatever, but it’s beyond our control. All these things have to be summarized in a way, and presented so that people can see the whole spectrum of what we went through to become “The worlds most dangerous group.”

H: Did you ever imagine your audience would be so big?
IC: When we started I thought our records would be in the comedy section with the Richard Pryor’s, the Redd Foxx’s; you know the section where you had the dirty records. That’s where I thought the N.W.A records would live, they would never see the light of day. We really were doing that music for the neighborhood only. We had no expectations that the world would know or care what we were saying. It was just too raw for most people, even in hip hop. I always thought my audience would be niche, it’s a trip. Now you have grandmothers coming up to you saying they love your records. (laughs)

This is strange, but it’s welcome. When you create art, you paint a picture, you put it up there, you don’t know who’s going to see it. But somebody’s going to see it and have a feeling about it. I think it’s cool that people still look at what I do, and have opinions whether they love it or hate it. It’s art, they can have their opinion. As long as they don’t ignore it. The worse thing you can do to an artist is not look at what he creates. Criticizing is cool. It’s part of it. You want to provoke, not the same thought, but different thoughts from different people on the same subject. That’s why I feel I’m blessed that I’m still doing stuff and people are checking it out and loving it or hating it.

H: Do your kids think you’re cool?
IC: Yeah, they know I’m cool. I have four kids, 27, 22, 20, 14. They reap all the benefits from being my kids so they know the flavor, but they’re good kids. They don’t abuse it. They’re trying to figure out who they are. I’m trying to pull them into the industry. I want them to seek out their calling. It may not be in front of the camera, it may be the DP (director of photography) department, maybe set design. What you into man, cause I’m gonna need help. Cube Vision, I’ve been running it for ten years and I’ve been waiting for them to get older so they can help me keep it moving.

H: What can you tell us about “Ride Along”?
IC: “Ride Along” is a great team. Will Packer is a great producer, and Matt Alvarez and I have worked with since we started. It’s different because with “Ride Along” I’m involved with everything that’s going on from top to bottom. When I did “22 Jump Street” it’s like a vacation. I can just come in and be an actor. I don’t have to think about that producing stuff. I ask a couple of questions, but it’s not like I’m up at 2 o’clock in the morning thinking of why we don’t have posters here or billboards there.

H: Speaking about producing, are you making a new sequel to “Friday”?
IC: We’ve been trying to push for “Friday.” I guess it’s the case where New Line has not made the right argument to Time Warner for them to release the kind of money we need to pull this movie off. It’s not 1995, we can’t do the movie for two and half million dollars anymore. All these dudes that have been a part of this franchise they want to get paid, I want to pay them. We’re at a stand still on what this movie is gonna cost to make. You can’t go to the store and say all I got is this, can I still get this good shit for twenty dollars? NO. You gotta pay what it costs.

H: And “Barber Shop”?
IC: Yea, that’s in the works, we’re doing all the deals with the producers and it’s about figuring out what that movie needs to be now, because we are a long way away from the first “Barber Shop.” The first “Barber Shop” explained what it means to the community. We need to see what the barber shop means to the community now. It may not be the same.

H: What advice do you have for aspiring producers?
IC: As a producer, you should raise money outside of the Hollywood system to get something produced, it don’t have to be a feature, it can be a short. You never know what’s going to spark a bigger opportunity. The thing is to get something on screen. Something that people can look at. Because everybody has paper and they want to meet with you, but you have to be in it to win it. So you have to get your ideas shot, or somehow get your concept presented in a way that people can see your vision. And do what you know, shoot what you know, because sometimes that is the more compelling story that happened to you or to a family member, something you really understand and can explain. A lot of people have fantasies of the movies they want to do and they should just start with that internal story that captures an audience.

H: What ambitions did you have as a kid, what was your internal story?
IC: I wanted to play sports. I had the football dream. And I played all the way up to high school and met Dr. Dre and my focus started to shift. Hip Hop was new. I just wanted to be a respected MC. And the MC’s I respected were the ones who had something to say. I felt hip hop was our only weapon to combat what was going on. The things that were happening in the neighborhood. Crack was taking over everything. AIDS was new and scary, and gangbanging. The LAPD was pretty much making South Central a police state.
So all these things were going on and that’s how I could sum it up, that’s how I could tell the world what was going on, to rap, that’s how I kind of fell in love with creating on that level.

H: How do you approach writing music, writing a screenplay?
IC: Usually I want to talk about what I went through in the past. I’m trying to figure out what’s new and what needs to be said, what irks me about what’s going on in the world that sparks songs for me. I’ve always gotten good grades in school with my writing. So I knew that I had a talent to just write, and music just honed that talent. And then John Singleton challenged me to write a movie. He said if you can write a hit record, you can write a movie. It sparked my mind to see if I could do it. I tried it a couple of times and my third try was “Friday.” I didn’t study screenwriting but now I developed a formula so if I get an idea I can write it pretty fast, which helps.

H: How do you feel being considered a musical icon?
IC: I’ve been on this journey for a long time and people give me a lot of respect. I always stay humble with it because it’s about the work. If I do terrible work it would be like “Cube you’re f****** up your legacy.” It really goes back to what have you done lately. Even though you’ve been around, you have to prove yourself every time. You have to deliver something so that people don’t feel like they wasted their time or their money. That’s when people start resenting that you’re still around. Or if you’re just out there with nothing to share. You may not see me for six months but when I pop up it’s going to be with something, movies, records; it’s not just gonna be me at an award show. It’s not just gonna be me at the red carpet.

H: What inspires your success?
IC: I learn from different people who are successful. I see how they do their thing, and I learn how I can apply the stuff that they do to what I’m doing and still keep my flavor.
It’s just cool to still be here and still be relevant. To not be a foul tip, to still swing it out the park.

Ice Cube with HOMBRE Magazine’s Francisco Romeo