“I think he’s the same kind of artist: a thought-provoking artist.”

Ice Cube is checking himself so as not to wreck himself.

After comparing himself to Kendrick Lamar in his new song “It’s My Ego,” the “It Was a Good Day” rapper defended calling himself “Kendrick before Kendrick” in an interview with SiriusXM’s Rock the Bells Radio.

“Just, you know, a provocative artist,” Cube, 55, explained. “An artist that said what I felt, put it all out there, very critical of the system and the government and what we have to go through as Black people in this country. I think he’s the same kind of artist: a thought-provoking artist. I was that before he was.”

Younger listeners might be confused as to how the star of Are We There Yet? and onetime Donald Trump ally Ice Cube could have any claim to the hip-hop throne. But true fans of the genre should be well aware of N.W.A.’s place in rap history and Cube’s subsequent solo success, cementing his status as one of the most dominant hip-hop stars of the late ’80s and ’90s, with seven consecutive albums that hit either No. 1 or No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B charts and nine singles in the top 10 of the rap charts.

 

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This isn’t the first time Cube has commented on Lamar, 37. The Friday star also expressed his admiration for the “King Kunta” rapper’s beef with Drake earlier this year. “I approve of the beef,” he said. “I always approve of rap battles. That’s the essence of the game… As long as it doesn’t get physical, ’cause that’s not rap. When it get physical, that’s just street crime.” He also said he sees Lamar as the winner of the battle so far: “I think Kendrick is up, I think he’s landed the more hard and effective punches, so to speak.”

Elsewhere in “It’s My Ego,” Cube compares himself to a titan of a different genre, rapping, “Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, like Jimi Hendrix.” The hip-hop legend makes several other pop culture references throughout the track, name-dropping Al Green (as the song samples his song “Love and Happiness”) and shouting out one of the most memorable moments in Oscars history (“I’ll smack your ass, like Will did Chris”).

“It’s My Ego” is the first single from Ice Cube’s upcoming album Man Down, which drops on Nov. 22. The album will be his first solo record since 2018’s Everythang’s Corrupt. His most recent full-length project came in 2022’s Snoop Cube 40 $hort, the first album by supergroup Mount Westmore (consisting of Snoop Dogg, E-40, Too Short, and Ice Cube). That album was originally released via blockchain — a fitting move for Cube as a mogul always looking for his next business venture.