Ice Cube joins the hype, backs Ottawa Redblacks of CFL - "That's a hard name"
The 2024 CFL season is here, and Ice Cube already knows which team he will support. On Wednesday, the rapper and Big3 co-founder appeared in a brief video proudly holding an Ottawa Redblacks jersey with his name and the No. 24, a reference to the song "24 Mo' Hours" from his 2000 album "War & Peace Volume 2 (The Peace Disc)."
He says in the video:
"Redblacks? Goddamn, that's a hard name!"
This comes off the heels of a concert he had last month at The Arena at TD Place, the second of two shows in Canada. The first was in St. Catharine's, Ontario. Speaking on his decision to tour across the border, he said:
"The love, getting a lot of love on the first leg. And seeing the generational fans, from the guy who's been a Day 1 fan... to the 20-year-olds, I was seeing so many generations and audiences. I was like, 'Oh, this is dope. We gotta keep just going.'"
Ice Cube's support of the Raiders in the NFL explained
Ice Cube has been an unabashed supporter of the Raiders ever since his youth. When he entered adolescence, they moved to Los Angeles, with his support especially being the strongest when he was a member of the hip-hop group N.W.A. Even as they moved, first back to Oakland, then to Las Vegas, his loyalty seldom wavered.
Shortly after the 2023-24 season, he gave insights on the team's personnel decisions on "The Pat McAfee Show," even offering to call owner Mark Davis:
"I think we need to hire [then interim head coach Antonio Pierce]. When it comes to the NFL, the athletes are pretty even at the end of the day. And you need somebody that the players listen to, who they'll play for, run through a brick wall for, and when you find that, you can't let it go.
"And the Raiders have that in AP. They really want to play for this guy, and you got to respect it, and let's roll with it, man. What are we waiting on?"
The Raiders did hire Pierce and Tom Telesco as full-time head coach and general manager. Two and a half months later, Ice Cube alluded to the Chargers' move to the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood on "All the Smoke":
"They should just, you know, as they go down to Inglewood, keep going, hit that 405, get back to San Diego, take the Chargers with you!"
The Chargers had moved to the area for 2017, exercising their option to join the interconference rival Rams, who had returned a year prior from St. Louis, Missouri. The move was heavily condemned by fans.