Rapper and actor Ice Cube has been a vocal critic of the entertainment industry for years, and in a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, Cube spoke about the alleged gatekeepers in Hollywood, sports and music. While acknowledging his lack of familiarity regarding the specific identities of these “gatekeepers,” the 54-year-old accused the industry of hindering the progress of Black creators.
“There’s people that try to make sure you stay in your line, and if you look like you’re getting out of your lane, you know some times they’ll watch you, sometimes they’d put guard rails up, and sometimes they’d actually put a gate up and make sure you go no further. And this is just my testimony,” Cube said, alluding to the NBA’s alleged efforts to sabotage the BIG3, a 3-on-3 basketball league that he co-founded.
“And we all got ‘em and we all gotta figure out who they are. We don’t have to let them know that we know who they are. We just gotta figure out how to get around that gate,” Cube added.
His comments about trying to figure out who the gatekeepers are in the industry prompted Charlamagne Tha God to inquire about the existence of the illuminati. Although Cube asserts that he lacks awareness of any secretive society, he does imply that such a group could potentially exist.
“I don’t know one, none of them tell me ‘Hey, I’m Illuminati,” Ice Cube quipped. “I don’t participate in none of that, so, I don’t know about it. Seem like its there, but who knows?”
Hip hop illuminati conspiracies have been around for decades, but there is no evidence to support them. The likes of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kanye West and Eminem have all been accused of having ties with the underworld. In a 2008 letter to URB magazine, the late Prodigy alleged that Jay-Z “promotes the lifestyle of the beast.”
“J.Z. KNOWS THE TRUTH, BUT HE CHOSE SIDES WITH EVIL IN ORDER TO BE ACCEPTED IN THE CORPORATE WORLD.” Then he added, “J.Z. CONCEALS THE TRUTH FROM THE BLACK COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD, AND PROMOTES THE LIFESTYLE OF THE BEAST INSTEAD.”
In his interview with The Breakfast Club, Cube noted that the only way to beat these “gatekeepers” is to be persistent.
“You persist, you don’t let ‘em stop you. You know, they there… it’s to keep things working the way they are, to keep a certain people relegated to the bottom of the pyramid. That’s why the gatekeepers are there.”
Do you agree with Ice Cube? Watch the snippet video below.
