Twenty-five years ago, Ice Cube was a gangsta-rap icon who struck fear into the hearts of Middle America. Now he makes cameos in “Sesame Street” and, thanks to the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton” getting a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination, he’s part of the Hollywood elite (although he expected more noms).
“I think America’s getting more comfortable with guys like me because I’ve been around for a long time — they’ve gotten to know me,” he tells The Post. With his new comedy “Ride Along 2” (co-starring comic Kevin Hart) in theaters Friday, we caught up with the 46-year-old Cube (real name: O’Shea Jackson).
Kevin Hart’s well-known for his high energy. Do you ever wish that he had an “off” switch?
“Not at all. He comes with that life-of-the-party spirit. It’s not an act; it stays on when the camera goes off. He always makes fun of me being old-school, saying things like, ‘Cube’s got bad knees.’ I come back with the little man jokes: I call him ‘Baby Gap’ or say he got ‘infant nuts’ [laughs]!”
Given N.W.A. had a song called “F–k tha Police,” do your old friends in Compton make fun of you for playing a cop?
“No, they understand it’s all show business and it’s meant to be comedy. Even if I actually was a cop, they’d probably still be laughing.”
You get to drive some cool sports cars in “Ride Along 2,” but what’s your own preferred ride?
“I love my Corvette Stingray. It’s fast and fun to drive. You need that, especially in that LA traffic.”
The recent skit on “Conan” where you smoke weed and eat fried chicken with a student driver has become a viral hit. When you get baked, what do you crave?
“I gotta have Round Table Pizza. It’s in California, not out East. The sauce is a little tangy, but they also put pastrami on it, and it’s … crazy! If you’re ever out West, that’s what you need.”
“Straight Outta Compton” is now the most successful music biopic of all time. What was the most gratifying part of its success for you?
“The fact that it made a cross-generational impact. A lot of younger people knew who I was, and who Dr. Dre was, but had no idea we were in a group together. On the other end of the scale, people my parents’ age finally got to understand why this volatile music was created at all. A lot of older people in the [African-American] community hated hip-hop at first.”
Warning: Graphic language
What did the young, pre-fame Ice Cube think of the Oscars?
“I didn’t pay it much attention at all. My mom and sisters would be watching, but I’d be outside playing basketball. I started paying attention when Whoopi Goldberg won for ‘Ghost’ [in 1990]. That was when I started thinking, ‘Oh wow, we can win one.’”
Are N.W.A. going to re-form when they’re inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Barclays Center in April?
“I talked to Dre, and we want to perform. It’s up to Dre on who takes [the late] Eazy-E’s spot, because Dre is the producer for N.W.A. We’re still putting it together, but it’s going to be top of the line.”