There aren’t many artists who can go from gangster rapper to movie star, but Ice Cube has carved out quite the career for himself. Cube earned his stripes by becoming an N.W.A. standout in the late 1980s into the ’90s, but his career took a meteoric climb as a solo artist. Once he dipped his toes into the acting and directing game his visibility would only increase, making his reach go farther in the mainstream direction. Now, he’s known for spitting hard rhymes and making family-friendly or action-packed films.

It seems that having a diversified portfolio was something of importance to Cube, as he recently expressed during his appearance on The Guest List podcast. While there, the Rap legend said he passed over a role in 1993’s Menace II Society because he wanted to avoid being pigeonholed into a certain type of character.

Kevin Hart, Ice Cube
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“I would say Menace II Society. I had a shot to do O-Dog, even though I think Larenz Tate killed it,” said Cube as he named the passed-up project as one of his regrets. The character was a hot-headed gangster which closely resembled his portrayal of Doughboy in John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood.

“I just didn’t wanna be typecast. You know what I mean? I was like, ‘I just did Boyz N the Hood and they just gonna have me be the L.A. gangbanger,’ you know what I mean? Every damn movie. I was like, ‘Nah I don’t wanna play that… [But] that was one movie that when I saw it I was like, ‘Ooo that role is cold.’”

It would have been interesting to see Cube in that role, but as he said Larenz Tate helped create a classic. Check out Ice Cube‘s interview in full below.

[via]