Ice Cube: N.W.A. changed society

Ice Cube is convinced his rap group N.W.A. "definitely changed the trajectory" of society.

The 46-year-old rapper-and-actor made it big after N.W.A. released their legendary album Straight Outta Compton in 1988.

Songs from Straight Outta Compton were banned from mainstream radio stations initially, but despite the bar, the record still sold 10 million units.

And upon reflection, Ice Cube believes their work altered culture tremendously.

"You know, I think we definitely changed the trajectory of music and a lot of things. We, to me, go beyond music," he explained to Noisey. "We gave a lot of artists the free themselves and to not feel like they had to be a certain way. That they have to be clean. We made it OK for you to say what you wanna say, be who you wanna be, and still be famous.

"We opened it up. To me, we gave freedom to a whole new side of entertainment. Without NWA, there's no Eminem. Without NWA, there's no shows like South Park. Without NWA, do we have any reality shows? Would you be bleepin' out the cuss words when you say 'B***h I kick your a*s.' Those come off the NWA records. All that set that in motion to not be so scared of human nature, human interaction, human communication. Made it OK for all that to be accepted."

N.W.A. was comprised of Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, the late Eazy-E, MC Ren and Ice Cube. The group will be performing at the BET Awards this weekend and Ice Cube thinks they're going to put on a rocking show, even though the musicians haven't performed a concert together in 15 years.

"Getting on stage with those guys is going to be just like riding a bike," Ice Cube noted. "We're N.W.A. We're going to make it as ferocious as we can."