Ice Cube: It Ain't Easy in Nobody's Penitentiary

Ice Cube - Make The Right Choice

Ice Cube was raised in one of the worst neighborhood's in South Central Los Angeles and managed to avoid the gang life and blossom as a star.

Transcript:

And there’s times when I don’t want to get up and I don’t want to do it, but I gotta do it, because this is my life. I came from the same neighbor you guys come from. The same exact kind of neighbor. It wasn’t good for me, and I think everybody on the panel had adversity in their life, and they had to come from a place where you don’t have too many success stories.

You make your life how you want to make it. If you want to live your life and you feel that you got 100 choices out there to do what you want to do, be who you want to be. You can make good choices or you can make bad choices. There’s 24 hours in a day. You can waste them, like some of my friends did ... Most of my friends did. Or you could do something positive and productive with yourself and with your life. Because once you get grown, nobody cares about you. You’re on your own. You can make choices to worsen your life, or you can make choices to better your life

I came to all the forks in the road that you’re gonna come to. You got to make the right choices. If you don’t, the state of California has got a place to put you. And it aint easy in nobody’s penitentiary, and you gotta bring an effort to the table. You can’t look for the world to make your life better. You gotta make your life better. You gotta, you gotta do that work.

It’s hard work doing everything that we do. Nothing’s easy, not even rapper, movie, acting, whatever you want to do, it’s all hard. There’s 24 hours in a day. You can do whatever you want with it. Whatever you want. You can waste it, or you can do something that’s gonna help your life. Because no fairytale’s is no lie. It’s hard out there. And you guys are at that age where you got a lot of people who care about you, that’s looking out for your best interest. Take heed. You don’t know everything. Don’t pretend like you know everything. Take heed to some of these people who love you, and recognize those people that love you, and recognize those people that ain’t good for you. Get away from them, because they’re playa haters, and they’re gonna bring you down. You gotta get away them.