Did you ever think to yourself how Ice Cube got his rap name? Just as well as wondering what Stephen Colbert’s hip hop moniker might be? Those arisen questions and more were answers when N.W.A legend appeared on The Late Show this past Tuesday (June 20th) to talk about his 3 on 3 professional basketball league, his 25th-anniversary reissue of his Death Certificate solo album and the ridiculously funny, but true story of how Ice Cube was first called Ice Cube.
The familiar story to most fans was retold and Cube said he got his name around the age of 13 years old from his brother, Clyde. “I used to try to talk to his girlfriends when they called and he got tired,” he said. Back in those days when you wanted to throw out an old refrigerator you’d dump it on the curb and someone would come pick it up, he explained. “Well, my brother was like, ‘Yo, that refrigerator down the street? I’m gonna take you down there, I’m slammin’ you in the freezer and when they pull you out you’re gonna be an ice cube.'”
Now that right there is how hip hop legend names are made. Cube being who he is and always paying it forward when Colbert asked if he could gift him with a rap name he was more than willing too.
“You gotta lean into it, you can’t play with it,” Cube counseled. “Most guys, when they do a rap name, guys like yourself, they’ll say ‘my name is SC,’ or something real weak like that. But I’mma call you Daddy Colbert. Daddy Colbert, that’s dope. And if you really wanna lean into it, you go to Pimp Daddy Colbert.”
Watch the whole exchange below:
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