Ice Cube knows a thing or two about the sports business. Not only does the longtime rapper own BIG3, the 3-on-3 pro basketball league, but Las Vegas recognizes him as the “President of Raiders Nation,” honoring an NFL fandom that dates back to the silver and black’s 1980s championship days.
Now that Tom Brady, future Hall of Fame quarterback, is set to join the Raiders as a minority owner, also sparking undying rumors of another return to the field, Ice Cube may not be the biggest celebrity attached to the franchise. But he’s not so sure Brady’s role will be as sizable as some expect, at least early on.
“He’s a rookie with the Raiders, so he might have to go get donuts,” he joked to CBS Sports. “(We) might need him to get coffee, grab a couple luggage, grab a couple bags, you know what I’m saying? So we’ll see how his rookie year goes, and if he’s Raider worthy, he’ll get a spot on the squad. But right now, he a rookie. And he better remember he a rookie.”
Ice Cube, meanwhile, is embracing the ’80s and ’90s aesthetic of his Raiders upbringing as a rookie for the upcoming “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” movie. Out Aug. 4 from Paramount and Nickelodeon, the flick features the rapper and actor in his first leading voice role for an animated film, alongside Jackie Chan, John Cena, Seth Rogen and others.
“Seth called me,” Ice Cube explained, “and was like, ‘Yo, I’m producing the ‘Ninja Turtle’ movie. I got a character named Superfly. You think you might wanna take a look at him?’ I’m like, ‘I’m on my way.’ … It was a no-brainer. I think I said yes faster than he got the question out.”
Fitting for his ties to the notoriously rambunctious Raider Nation, Cube says his Superfly character — literally a superpowered fly — has even more swagger than himself: “I mean, he’s a super villain, you know what I mean? I’m a nice guy. I do entertainment. I do my thing. I’m not tryin’ to blow up New York, I’m not tryin’ to tear down the skyscrapers. He ignant, man. He takes it to the next level, he don’t calm down, he can’t hold his liquor. He’s just one of those dudes that you don’t wanna see get out of pocket.”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” doesn’t figure to be the last big-screen endeavor for the President of Raiders Nation, either. In addition to six projects currently in development, Ice Cube tells CBS Sports he’d be interested in producing a movie about Raiders great Bo Jackson, whose dual NFL and MLB stardom was the talk of the ’80s and ’90s sports scene.
“I would definitely love to do something on him,” he said. “I mean, Deion Sanders is actually my friend, so I would probably wanna do a movie on Deion before Bo. And both of ’em were amazing athletes, but Deion, he’s played in a World Series and a Super Bowl, so I think the movie should go to him (first).”
This content was originally published here.
