Ice Cube reveals his nerdy college ambitions after NWA

Ice Cube is a highly renowned West Coast rapper and actor. As one of the founding members of the gangsta rap group NWA., he significantly impacted the culture. However, after the collective’s dissipation in the early 1990s, the lyricist turned to acting and, while holding out for a role, took an interest in another more intellectual discipline in case his career didn’t work out.

Ice Cube first hit the big screen in 1991, featuring in the Oscar-nominated crime film Boyz N the Hood, directed by John Singleton. However, this was not the film that catapulted Jackon into the heights of Hollywood. The movie that sent shockwaves through the film industry was Friday, the 1995 motion picture that Ice Cube co-wrote and produced.

Starring Chris Tucker, the comedy led him to join several movie franchises. However, before the success of Friday, Jackson decided to make sure he had a Plan B, and decided to enrol in an exciting college course. 

In an interview with Architectural Digest, Jackson revealed that in the early-1990s, he studied architectural drafting at the Phoenix Institute of Technology. Speaking to the journalist, Jackson revealed, “I missed the deadline to register for my elective, and there were two open classes left: architectural drafting and cooking.”

He continued, “I didn’t want to take cooking. The principle behind building anything starts with a plan. That helped me design a career for myself — it all happened with a plan.” However, this career path was ultimately discarded when Friday was released.

In an interview for Billboard magazine, Jackson explained why he loves Friday so much, divulging, It’s really a slice of life that’s fun, but it takes things that are pretty tragic in a lot of ways. You got the ice cream man selling dope, the crackhead dude running up and down the street. You got all these crazy things — you take a gun or you fight with your hands — it lets us laugh at them and takes the pressure off a little bit. I think those are some of the reasons I will always love that movie.”

Since 1995, Ice Cube has appeared in a number of films, including Friday sequels, Barbershop, Ride Along, Are We There Yet? Higher Learning and more. You can watch the trailer for Friday in the video below.