Ice Cube, the former NWA rap group member who co-founded the Big3 basketball league, posted a video to his Twitter account on Sunday taking aim at gatekeepers, the NBA and mainstream media.
Ice Cube, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson Sr., posted the video on the opening weekend of the Big3’s first games of the 2023 season. It is the sixth year the Big3 has been in existence. The video also came after Ice Cube expressed disappointment on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” about how The Big3 was being covered.
“Some of you may not have realized that I’m not part of the club and a lot of you listening to me right here, right now, you’re not part of the club either,” the rapper and filmmaker said Sunday. “And what I realized with the club is what makes them so mad is when you don’t want to be a part of their f—ing club. It pisses them off. What club am I talking about? I’m talking about the club of gatekeepers that we all got to deal with. You know who they are and they definitely know who they are.
“Ever since I put out the contract with Black America, you know they been f—ing with me. Here and there, this and that. But it’s cool, you know, I expect that. You know I’ve been working on the Big3 for a long time. You know how they’ve been f—ing with me. I’ve made it plain, simple and clear what they’ve been doing. The NBA’s been f—ing with us.
“Now, a lot of people might be saying, ‘Well, Cube, you might want to work with the NBA.’ Really, I don’t give a f— about working with the NBA. What I want them to do, when I say ‘work with us,’ is to stop working against us. Stop doing that bulls— behind the scenes. Mainstream media, you know, they ain’t f—ing with us and that’s cool. We can do it ourselves. We still on the rise without these motherf—ers. We don’t need them, you don’t need them.”
Ice Cube vowed to go on a “f— the gatekeepers podcast tour” to spread his message. He did not specify exactly what he wanted to talk about on his proposed media tour.
He said last week with Le Batard and Stugotz that he does not believe NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is a fan of the Big3.
The Big3 is an innovative three-on-three basketball league that featured veteran professional basketball players on the men’s and women’s side. Michael Beasley, Rashard Lewis, Cuttino Mobley and Royce White are just among the former NBA players who participate. Nancy Liberman, Lisa Leslie, George Gervin, Julius Erving, Gary Payton, Rick Barry and Rick Mahorn are among the coaches.
