04.17.07
Hall of Shame: Cube, Ice
Ice Cube
Rapper/Actor
 Ice Cube (left) keeps it real with Tommy the Clown |
“Every time I wanna go get a fuckin’ brew/I gotta go down to the store with the two Oriental one-penny countin’ motherfuckers.”
In March 2006, FX premiered Black. White., a reality series that examined the touchy subject of black-white race relations in America by spray painting a black family, white and a white family, black. Although the show’s gimmick was absolutely ridiculous, its intention –a plea for racial tolerance — was honorable. How incredibly hypocritical was it then that the program was executive produced by none other than Ice Cube (birth name: O’Shea Jackson) who, in 1991, released the album Death Certificate, which featured the unabashedly hateful and racist track “Black Korea”.
On the 46-second rant/song, the one-time Color Me Badd music video director airs out his grievances about patronizing Korean-owned (or Asian-owned for that matter since he doesn’t make the distinction) businesses: “Every time I wanna go get a fuckin’ brew/I gotta go down to the store with the two Oriental one-penny countin’ motherfuckers” — and those are only the first two lines.
 Ice in a moment of introspection before doing his Chinese guy impression |
The sneering rapper’s sentiments grow even harsher and downright violent as he begins to spout threats like, “So don’t follow me up and down your market/Or your little chop suey ass’ll be a target”.
And if Mr. Cube’s lyrical venom isn’t enough, interspersed through the song is dialogue from the controversial Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing (that features stereotypical Korean storeowner characters), which includes such witty zingers as “Look you little Chinese motherfucker!” By the end of “Black Korea”, the star of such box-office blunders as xXx: State of the Union and Torque leaves us with a stern warning, “So pay respect to the black fist/or we’ll burn your store right down to a crisp!”
 Ice cube acting all hard ‘n shit |
Great credentials from a guy who, these days, is trying to pass himself off as a family comedy actor, huh?
Following Death Certificate’s release, the Asian American backlash against “Black Korea” received limited media play and the album went on to sell over two million copies. Although Asian community leaders feared the song might incite violence against Asian small business owners, the general public gave this argument little attention and credence. The Ice eventually made a half-assed apology, but only after the Korean American Grocers Association stopped selling St. Ides, the brand of malt liquor he endorsed. Company execs pressured him into apologizing and the black community got one more brand of cheap booze back on the shelf. Here is a commercial featuring the Are We There Yet? star extolling the virtues of St. Ides). Gee, what a role model that Ice Cube is.
 Ice places an order at Kim’s Deli |
Exactly six months after the release of Death Certificate, the fears of “Black Korea” critics were sadly realized when the Los Angeles riots broke out, resulting in nearly 2,000 Korean-owned businesses being looted, robbed and destroyed. When the dust settled, it was estimated that more than half of the estimated $1 billion in damages caused by the riots were incurred by Korean-owned businesses.
Now, you must be saying to yourself, after all these years and that whole Black. White. show, Ice Cube musta learned something about racism and the dangers of stereotyping others, right? Well, no, not really. In the September 2006 issue of FHM, Ice said he didn’t regret any of the controversial statements on Death Certificate and when responding to the offense Koreans took to “Black Korea”, he defiantly replied, “If it’s still a problem, it’s their problem.”
JimmyConnors! said,
April 30, 2007 at 10:26 pm
shouldn’t you guys be worried about like…people who kill asians? Not just a rapper? How is he a threat to the community. J****s you guys offend easily
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May 1, 2007 at 2:07 pm
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C***G C***GC***G said,
May 1, 2007 at 2:08 pm
G C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***GG C***GC***G
Kyosuke75 said,
May 3, 2007 at 8:00 am
I think he should stick with family movies, cause his career is gone the poop shoot…
“Are we done yet?” yup, we all done with his half-a**ed career.
Jay said,
May 14, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I think it’s really sad when another minority is racist towards another.
And it’s sad that Ice Cube can’t understand that.
Lynn said,
May 20, 2007 at 4:14 pm
yes, we ARE concerned about violence and hate crimes that are committed. and the s**t that condones this is described in this post. what, you think the media and people’s attitudes are isolated cases or something?
Westcoast said,
May 23, 2007 at 8:59 pm
It was social commentary and an aspect in his life where Korean Immigrants were making money in black community and no one was making life easier for each other. He’s an hip hop “artist” in a genre of music that talked about social discourse and he was being honest. He’s no more offensive and racist as Michael Moore and his “stupid white men” boo.
Onion said,
May 30, 2007 at 6:54 am
It was “social commentary” when Korean Immigrants tried to make a f**king living in the poor blighted areas of town where f***ers like Ice Cube “burned their stores to a crisp.”
Sh**f**ker!
Onion said,
May 30, 2007 at 6:56 am
Shove it up your a** cracker
Westcoast said,
June 5, 2007 at 4:58 pm
***** your **** out of your *** ***, *********. Don’t make it seem like the koreans were the victims.
Flipsoul said,
August 7, 2007 at 12:24 am
To bring this age-old light, back into the light as he produces a show which tries to promote inter-cultural competence. Albeit, in an extremely silly fashion.
This article fails to the inter-ethnic tensions in LA of when Ice Cube released the tracks. The anger and hate between the Korean American, and Black American communities are understandable.
Both communities were scrapping by for a living. And if anyone remembers Latasha Harlins, you probably know the source of Ice Cube’s anger.
Unfortunately, both ethnic groups were victimized by each other, and other groups at the same time. and I personally would say that the black community received a much harder blow because of things like this.
However, it is important keep in mind how isolated the Korean American shop owners had felt from their communities the were working in. And due to long strings of items being stolen from their stores, and also a lack of confidence in the Police force, took their own action by arming themselves.
And today, I’m sure Ice Cube is long past his Korean hate days. He may have only written his lyrics with such anger to bring attention to those songs. Because at the time, something needed to be done — cause god knows the law enforcement wasn’t doing anything.
Yochanan said,
August 29, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Did you ever take the time to investigate why he wrote that song? If you did, then you would know that Cube wrote that song following the Murder of 15 year-old Latasha Harlins at the hands of a Korean shopkeeper in South Central L.A. If you haven’t heard that story yet, PLEASE google the name. Latasha was shot in the back of the head by a gutless Korean woman after being accused of stealing. Despite, video evidence clearly showing that Latasha was not stealing. However, the Korean woman never served any jail time.
That has probably never happened in your neighborhood, to one of your own(race). So I can see why you and many others are insensitive to the way we felt after this horrific crime against a child. Let an African store-clerk shoot a 15 year-old white or Korean girl, there would be an uproar throughout this country. Walk a day in the shoes of Cube or any of us who had to deal with this tragic event without seeing ANY justice, before you ridicule someone for being emotionally effected by those events.
Marie Stefanie Martinez said,
October 25, 2007 at 10:28 pm
A 17-year-old Catholic school student tells the Post she was beaten on the B82 bus for looking “Chinese.” Marie Stefanie Martinez, who is from the Philippines, says that when she boarded a bus last Friday, a group of black teenagers laughed at her and refused to let her pass - and then they pulled her hair, opened her book bag, and punched her in the mouth.
The Post has a picture of Martinez wearing the coat she wore during the fight, blood and all. Another passenger intervened and helped her, but the bus driver did nothing, simply telling her to go to a priest. Martinez filed a report with the police and a lawyer, who says Martinez will sue the MTA, said, “How did the bus driver let this happen? You have 13 kids making a commotion. This guy just turned a blind eye to it. He shirked his responsibility to this child.”
JustAGal said,
April 9, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Ice cube or whatever the hell he’s called is irrelevant.
Let him make his crappy nihilistic music. Let his supporters buy his crap. Let them continue to wallow in their collective perceived victimization at the hands of whites and Asians.
People like ice-whatshisface do not have a sense of personal responsibility. Everything is always somebody ELSE’S fault. Or perhaps it’s a result of “the man” holding down the black man.
His mentality is exactly what is holding blacks behind in this nation. The reason that blacks are overrepresented in jail, have more teen pregnancy and STDS is because they idolize people like ice-whatever. He should give himself a pat on the back for his good work. Instead of helping black america, he is convincing his people to continue their vicious cycle.