Ice Cube cut right to the chase when he appeared on “Real Time With Bill Maher” Friday night telling the host, “I knew you was gonna f–k up sooner or later.”
The rapper was referencing, of course, Maher’s use of the n-word while interviewing Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska on last week’s show. Cube was there to promote the release of his album “Death Certificate” for its 25th anniversary and also to talk about Maher’s transgression.
“I love your show. You got a great show,” Cube said. “You know, but you been bucking up against that line a little bit. You got a lot of black jokes. You know what I’m saying? You do.”
Maher replied, “Against racists.” But Cube wasn’t in total agreement.
“Sometimes you sound like a redneck trucker,” Cube said, generating laughter in the audience. He accepted Maher’s apology, but dug deeper into the meaning of the slur.
“It’s like a knife,” he said. “You can use it as a weapon, or you can use it as a tool. It’s been used as a weapon against us by white people, and we’re not going to let that happen again. By nobody because it’s not cool. Now, I know you heard, it’s in the lexicon, everybody talking. But, that’s our word now, and you can’t have it back. … When I hear my homeys say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feels like that knife stabbing me, even if they don’t mean it.
“So, I like your show and it’s a great show. I just don’t know sometimes. Is this a political show or is it a show about jokes?”
Watch the full interview above.