Ice Cube Calls Black Hollywood’s #OscarsSoWhite Boycott ‘Ridiculous’
Rapper and actor Ice Cube is the latest celebrity to weigh in on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Cube and his Ride Along 2 co-star Kevin Hart appeared on the Graham Norton Show on Friday, January 22, and he explained that the Oscar boycott and all the fuss surrounding the lack of black nominees is “ridiculous.” When Norton asked Cube if he was attending the 2016 Academy Awards ceremony next month, the Los Angeles native laughed and replied, “I never use to go anyway.”
“You’re not boycotting?” Norton asked.
“You can’t boycott something you never went to anyway,” Ice Cube told the talk show host. “That’s kinda weird. I look at it like a horse race. Once your horse loses the race, you tear up the ticket, go home. Back on out. It’s nothing really to put that much energy into. We don’t do movies for the industry. We do movies for the fans, for the people. And you know, the industry, if they give you a trophy or not, if they pat you on the back or not, it’s nice but it’s not something you should dwell on.”
Check out Cube’s full response via the short clip below.
Hilarious Ice Cube and Kevin Hart tell us why their ‘Ride Along 2’ characters don’t get on https://t.co/C6lNtgL2wK pic.twitter.com/eN04f5XHxS
— NME (@NME) January 23, 2016
Ice Cube and Kevin Hart hit up Graham’s show to promote Ride Along 2, the sequel to their 2014 comedy about a security guard (Hart) who wants to impress his girlfriend’s brother, a top police officer named James (Ice Cube). Ride Along was met with negative reviews but earned a worldwide total of more than $153 million against a budget of $25 million.
Ice Cube, who rose to fame in the late 1980s as a member of the controversial rap group N.W.A. before enjoying success as a solo artist and actor, told TV host Wendy Williams that he wasn’t at all surprised that his record-breaking N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, which received only one nomination for best original screenplay, was snubbed by the Academy.
“I’m not pissed, I’m not surprised. It’s the Oscars, they do what they do,” he said. “The people love the movie, the people supported the movie.”
Since it’s release last August, Straight Outta Compton has racked up numerous accolades and earned $200 million worldwide. Many have concluded that the reason why the film wasn’t nominated for any of the major categories is because it — along with Will Smith’s Concussion and Ryan Coogler’s Creed — didn’t portray blacks as slaves, thugs, whores or any such role that mainstream audiences seem to be entertained by. Cube certainly agrees, as he told Power 105.1’s The Angie Martinez Show.
“I think we deserve Best Picture, especially by them leaving two [movies] out. They usually pick 10 movies. They only picked eight this year…I do what I’m supposed to do to promote the project. I ain’t gonna kiss no a** for nothing, so maybe that is the problem,” he told host Angie Martinez, E! Online notes.
“Or maybe we should’ve put a slave in Straight Outta Compton,” he said. “I think that’s where we messed up. That’s where we messed up. Just one random slave for the Academy members to recognize us as a real, black movie.”
“I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes,” said Cheryl in the statement. She stressed the importance of the Academy “turning this narrative around,” while on the red carpet at the King Legacy Awards & Benefit Gala in Los Angeles last Monday night.
Will Smith, his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, George Clooney, Mark Ruffalo, Tyrese Gibson and Spike Lee have all blasted what Spike called the “lily-white Oscars,” set to air Sunday, February 28. For the second year in a row, Hollywood is being criticized for failing to nominate artists of color in any of the major categories, and Donald Trump has even suggested that perhaps the reason behind this is not racially motivated but perhaps because of the lack of Oscar-worthy performances from black talent last year.
Ice Cube says that black Hollywood and activists calling for a boycott over a repeat of #OscarsSoWhite is like “crying about not having enough icing on your cake. It’s just ridiculous.”
[Photo by Omar Vega/Invision/AP Images]
