Ice Cube: Comedy's my thing

Ice Cube thinks comedic improvisation has become his niche.

The hip-hop artist-turned-actor has starred in numerous comedy films including 21 Jump Street and Are We There Yet?.

At first he found improvising hard, but gradually more of himself is coming out in the roles he's portraying.

"I just think that's my niche. It's gotten easier and easier, over the years, but I think that's just me in a lot of ways. I'm able to counter. I'm a good counter comedian. I can just work it off with looks, or have something crazy to say back," Ice Cube told Collider.com.

"It seems like there would be a long line of straight men in the world, compared to comedians, but it's something you have to embrace. You can easily feel like you're losing the scene, or you're not holding up your part of the bargain in the scene. You also can't be too funny and cancel out the great comedian you're playing with. If I support what he does, it in turn supports what I do."

Currently starring in Ride Along, 44-year-old Ice Cube plays a cop who wants to see if his sister's fiancé is worthy of her hand in marriage.

The film has the classic buddy comedy feel to it, which is something that Ice Cube strived for along with director Tim Story.

"To me, in a perfect world, you have the flavour and the magic of movies like 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys. I knew we had a movie that had the potential to be that, but we still had to find our own voice and not copy what worked for those movies. We had to find the movie that would give this new audience that old feel. That was more important than to copy what they did.

"We wanted to bring it up to date and give people that experience that I got when I watched 48 Hours, for the first time. Our angle is that we're not really partners. We're trying to be partners, throughout the movie. It's a different take on it, with the gaming aspect of it. There are all different angles that are more up to date," he added.