Ice Cube Speaks On Conspiracy To Take Conscious Rap Off Of The Airwaves

Today's Ice Cube is a cuddly pitchman and producer of family programming.

But Straight Outta Compton reminded everybody that wasn't always the case.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Cube spoke on the conspiracy by the "gatekeepers of the airwaves" to keep the rap acts that took on N.W.A.'s legacy of being political off of the radio.

“[Political/conscious rap], it’s not rewarded at all. It's not rewarded on the radio. If you go political and hardcore with it, you just really kinda set yourself straight into the underground. Back in about 1993 gatekeepers of the airwaves started to say, ‘That kind of political rap, really not gonna play that. Not really our style.’ They started to play and promote the escapism type of rap. Sex, drugs, money, cars, women, clothes, clubbing. Just all of the excess became more popular and more exposed. So, you have new Hip-Hoppers saying, ‘How do I get famous?’ Well, It’s not like Public Enemy or Boogie Down Productions, because I’m not seeing their stuff as much anymore. It’s the new stuff that'coming on, that mafioso kind of rap started taking over ... there was a ten year window --85-95 -- of just variety and greatness."

The entire interview is below. Cube starts talking radio conspiracy at about the 5 minute mark. Cube's remarks about the gatekeepers trying to kill the conscious movement are very similar to what Too Short said earlier this year.