and joining me right now is the latest
high-profile voice speaking out about
helping black america
rapper actor director ice cube
ice cube great to see you this morning
thank you so much for joining us may i
call you cube
yeah call me q thank you so much cube so
you had a contract with black america
indicating different things that you
want to see in terms of
opportunities you try to work with the
trump administration you also tried to
work with the democrats
president trump responded can you tell
us what happened
after the death of george floyd um
i saw a lot of activity a lot of people
talking about
you know um you know uh
police reform criminal justice reform
uh not too many people talking about
financial reform
and the reason i came on your show was
because i knew
that i'd be talking to the financial
leaders in this country
uh and you know the fact that
black people you know make up 13 of this
country
but we're living off of you know 0.5
percent of the wealth
you know not even a percentage point of
the wealth in this country
should let everybody know that should
alarm everybody
and and everybody should know that
that's not sustainable
so that's the reason why um you know
after coming out with the contract with
black america
i really went hard at uh both
campaigns to see what they were going to
do financially
for the black community specifically so
that was the quest
president trump is talking about
extending lending he's talking about
40 billion dollars in new lending and
then that
times 10 in order to allow
the black community to create businesses
start up business
did you help him with his platinum plan
in terms of that item helping
black america create business
what i tried to do was emphasize that
you know we've been under a a small
cloud of words
like minority uh people of color
diversity urban all these trick words
that really puts us under all of america
we only get
two percent of those programs so i
wanted to
um basically tell
the uh administration that look
black people have paid an enormous
debt i'm talking about the descendants
of slaves in this country
have paid an enormous debt there's an
enormous debt owed
some estimate that the country has lost
about 16 trillion dollars due to racism
so with these things in place i wanted
to make sure that
anything being done that we need to be
at the front of this line
the black people who've been here for uh
centuries who suffered here for
centuries need to be at the front of any
line
when it comes to helping businesses you
know over the pandemic over 43 percent
of our businesses
have shut down uh nobody's talking about
that
and so i just want to make sure that
you know all these political people uh
understand
that we have to help a specific
uh group of americans to stop all this
stuff that's going on in the streets
because the country is coming apart at
the seams
i don't know why people don't see the
real problem you know it's not just
police
it's financially
of course it's absolutely financial and
you know you heard candace owens
as we led into this uh segment and she
questions why it is possible that the
party of historically
slavery and segregation gets 90 percent
of the african-american
vote are people starting to understand
that it hasn't happened given all of
these promises
do you believe that you are going to see
change
uh i don't know you know i mean you know
what i don't want to be is clumped up
with other people you know they've
they're clumping me up with with uh
people like kanye west and 50 cent
i'm my own person we've come up with
this plan right with a lot of great
people
and and and so we just want to be taken
seriously
you know there's a lot of people that
just want you to kind of shut up and rap
and all this kind of stuff but that's
not the case what we
what we know is we've been part of both
parties
at some point in american history and
our situation hasn't changed
so we have to do something different and
so
you know whatever that is you know i'm
i'm really pleading to not only the the
uh
government but the but the private
sector
to come up with a solution that can help
america
they know the numbers that i just gave
out are not sustainable
and that's why we have all these
problems in the street
and so um and you know yep i feel that i
feel
people want want something different
other than empty promises
you know right now these are just
campaign promises that's all they are
so until somebody do something they're
just
they're they're just words on a piece of
paper you know we really need help
i'm sick of playing this political game
and trying you know every
both sides are trying to use me to gain
points with the black community
that's not going to happen yeah unless
you come in with real solutions
but i will say this ever since you tried
to work with the trump administration
and gave the administration ideas on
their platinum plan
you've gotten slammed congressman cedric
richmond he serves as a co-chair for the
biden campaign
he's denying claims that you were told
by them to wait
until after the election to make demands
for the black community
you also are seeing pushback from joe
scarborough on msnbc the other day
decides to comment on your career i mean
what is he talking about cube the
president's platinum plan is aiming to
produce three million new
jobs your reaction to what you just
heard
well you know it's just a a guy popping
off you know at the end of the day him
and donald trump used to be friends
you know they fell out over whatever
reasons who cares you know at the end of
the day
you know they're mad because i'm just
willing to work with anybody that's
willing to work with me
to uh see some of these things uh
that's in the contract with black
america come to pass
now um i've been getting pushback ever
since i came out with the contract
with black america you know from from
everybody who really don't want us to
to have a real ass to have real demands
for people who just want us to basically
shut up and vote
and i'm not gonna do that you know i'm a
citizen of this country
just like everybody else and i can say
what i want to say
i'm not aligned with anybody's uh
personal views i only
only care about what they do in public
and as far as helping the public and you
know empty rhetoric
empty talk everybody's popping off at
the end of the day
we need to get what we need in this
country to survive
if we don't get that this country won't
survive and that's what i'm saying
i've always been a messenger my whole
career
i've always been able to say things and
see things that that that ends up
happening
uh and look i see the writing on the
wall
this is not sustainable um you know and
and look you can take me for my word for
it or not
or we can just keep pretending like you
know
it's just police brutality or it's just
uh we don't have you know we're getting
stopped at the polls
but that's not it you know it's a it's a
major problem
that hasn't been solved and everybody
got blinders on
but i don't cube what do you think is
most important i mean this
administration has taken on
criminal justice reform they are funding
historically black colleges and
they universities seeing declines in
black unemployment even pledging to make
juneteenth a federal holiday what do you
want to see
done in terms of real action you've been
able to create an incredible life for
yourself through hard work
you continue to reinvent yourself and
create
wealth and opportunity for those around
you i know the other day you were on the
phone with college students
trying to take them to the next level
what is it going to take
what do you want to see out of this
administration or
whoever is listening to you do you feel
that you're being taken seriously
i mean definitely you know i think you
know without
uh you know me kind of pushing this line
um you know our concerns kind of would
have been
you know in everybody's back pocket and
they would have been on you know
everybody's trying to get
you know uh white suburban housewives
now you know that's the
thing to go after for these candidates
but at the end of the day
until you solve these problems you know
i want to see more i want to see people
actually
doing things to solve the problems now i
understand there's a process
and i'm going to be watching the process
you know i'ma see what happens you know
after this election
and i'm gonna be on whoever wins to
implement some of these things that
specifically help black americans
because right now we're we're being
you know kind of uh engulfed by this
you know broad minority brush that we
don't really get our needs taken care of
and i'm just trying to break through all
that and make sure
that the country pays the debt to the
people that is
old and you know the history
states that there is some dead oh there
it has been
you know very uh you know crazy
unscrupulous pack uh practices put
together
when it comes to dealing with us
financially
it's just been you know if you read the
history
it's sad to see the things that's been
done to the black community
financially in this country and that has
to stop
cube let me let me ask you how important
school choice is to you
and i also want to get your sense of
what's most important how you did it
you have been able to create success and
wealth
for yourself how did you do it
well i mean you know it's like the the
the the issue with how i did it it's the
same old role you know it's
you see the music or it's sports you
know what i mean so that's how i did it
music and sports you know big deal
it's really about how does the average
american do it
how does you know a black kid who's not
going to be ice cube
who's not going to be lebron james how
do they do it that is the key
because you know these these you know
so-called success stories
um are the same old stories you know we
want new success stories
we want people to be you know business
superstars
and not just rappers or entertainers you
know
you know we got enough do you like the
president's platinum plan do you
do you like the president's platinum
plan he says it's aiming to produce
three million new jobs for the black
community over the next four years
you know i like that it's aimed towards
uh black americans you know that's the
key
you know i just think whatever we do got
to be aimed towards black americans
all right ice cube good to see you this
morning thank you so much cube great to
see you this morning