Cube Squared

JILL GREENBERG FOR TIME
O'Shea Jackson, AKA Ice Cube

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He can laugh all the way to the bank now, because he didn't go Hollywood. Hollywood got Cubed. "We don't need notes from studio bosses to know what the movie needs," he says of himself and his partner, Matt Alvarez. "We make sure it's ready to be shot for the amount of money we have so that by the time they get it, they just say, 'That's good.'" Cube Vision plans more comedies, and some dramas too. But Cube's not greedy. "I'm not trying to conquer Hollywood," he says. "I just want people to respect my name enough to give me the money I need to make my films."

The angry young man has become a Valley Dad, with wife Kimberly and their four kids. "I don't have no beef with anybody," Cube says. "I'm just working hard to provide for my family." That makes his own father, who was a UCLA grounds keeper, pretty proud. "He never missed work," Cube says of his dad. "I got a strong work ethic from him. He also made me see there's a time for everything. Now I can put things in perspective. That's what I've taken from him to become the man that I am." Like father, like son. A Cube off the old block.