sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ���

Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson, began his rap career in 1986 at the age of 16. He’s still going strong 40 years later. On Saturday, April 18, the iconic rapper will perform live at sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ���’s Isleta Resort and Casino in support of his 12th studio album, “Man Up,” which he released last year.

“We just completed a tour last year, called the ‘Truth to Power Tour: Four Decades of Attitude,’ and we didn’t get a chance to go everywhere we wanted to go,” Ice Cube said. “So, we wanted to do more shows, get in front of people and let them know why I’ve been here for 40 years.”

Ice Cube was a founding member of the influential hip-hop group N.W.A., whose 1989 debut album, “Straight Outta Compton,” dealt with the social and political realities of police brutality, gang violence and the crack cocaine epidemic, among other themes.

“What I tried to kick in my music was street knowledge (because) I felt like nobody really knew what was going on where I lived and where I was from,” Ice Cube said. “Even as a young teenager, I was trying to understand all the different layers of social situations that created gang banging and made people want to do that, and to stay in it and feel like they belonged to something. … So, it was always art to me. And it was always done in a way to just bring light to situations that the world may (otherwise) never know about.”

Some politicians and government officials at the time believed N.W.A’s music was not merely reflecting gritty inner-city truths but actively promoting violence. An FBI agent even sent a warning letter to their music label, Priority Records, which contributed to the group’s outlaw mystique.

“We called it ‘reality rap’ right when we started, and then the media coined the term ‘gangsta rap,’” Ice Cube said. “An LA Times writer (music critic Robert Hilburn), I believe, coined that phrase. The industry ran with it, and that was the description (they used) for what we were doing. But in my heart, it’s really street knowledge.”

Ice Cube still prefers the term “reality rap,” although he said it’s been hard to insist on that term after everyone else started using “gangsta rap.”

“It’s hard to say, ‘Yo, this is actually not an apple. This is a peach,’ you know? I felt like I would have to spend my whole career screaming that,” Ice Cube said.

While on tour in Portland, Oregon, last year, one of Ice Cube’s tour buses was . Initial reports speculated that the bus had been mistaken for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle and had been vandalized by protesters.

“There’s nothing on the vehicle that says ‘ICE’ … but because my name is Ice Cube, they think I got ‘Ice Cube’ on my bus and somebody mistook it for ICE,” he said. “I thought the story was real TMZ-ish — just throwing a bunch of (sensationalized) narratives together.”

The fire was put out quickly and no one was injured, and the rapper said he didn’t take the incident personally since there was no evidence that he had been personally targeted.

“I don’t know what (the arsonist) thought. I don’t know if it was just a guy who don’t like buses,” Ice Cube said.

As for ICE, the rapper is pointedly critical.

“I’m never down with the Feds f***ing over people. That’s well-documented in my career,” Ice Cube said. “I’m never going to be down with the government over the people.”

Ice Cube made his film debut in the 1991 crime drama, “Boyz n the Hood,” and starred in the groundbreaking 1995 inner-city buddy comedy, “Friday,” which he co-wrote. Over the years, the rapper has appeared in many family-friendly comedies, including the “Barbershop” franchise (2002–2016).

His music albums, meanwhile, have remained politically charged. Ice Cube said he’s always avoided compromising his artistic vision.

“I’ve always been an independent artist, so a lot of my stuff is being done underground, outside of the mainstream, so to speak — which is cool, because we didn’t start off in the mainstream. We started off as an underground group,” he said.

sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ��� fans can expect upbeat, high-energy show, the rapper promised.

“I’m giving you the hits and celebrating 40 years in music,” he said. “We’re going to party.”

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ���. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at .