Gangsta rap founder Ice Cube at the luxurious Park Hyatt in Sydney. Picture: Jonathan Ng

I think you can’t really beat our chemistry, it was very funny all the way through — full of jokes, full of laughs. The action was pretty nice and the stars we had around us were stars in their own right. So the movie was very and entertaining and that’s what you go to the movies for.

Has the way you work with Kevin changed since the first one?

Not really. We both know how to set each other up to shine. That’s what we do and it’s great. He is super professional — he respects what I do. I consider myself professional and I really respect what he do. So we make sure that we both come off great.

What did you make of Kevin when you first met him? You both have a lot in common in that you are not just actors but very savvy businessmen and producers too.

I think he is extremely talented and smart and innovative. I have learned a lot from him, especially in the social media spaces. How to package up what you are doing and deliver it to your audience and keep them engaged and motivated. He’s a smart dude, man. He’s going to be around for an awful long time. He’s broken new ground when it comes to stand-up and I just can’t see him not making the right moves.

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Two of a kind: Ice Cube and Kevin Hart at the Australian premiere of Ride Along 2. Picture: Julie KiriacoudisSource:News Corp Australia

Straight Outta Compton was a fantastic reminder of your music career but what prompted your move into acting? Were you hooked right from the start with

Yeah that was my first acting gig and the first time I even thought about doing a movie and it was such a great experience that I just couldn’t wait to jump in and do it again. I got bit by the acting bug early. It feels good — it’s interesting to create on this level after doing so many records and trying to make them visible and visual. It’s cool to work in a medium that’s totally visual.

What do you get out of acting that you don’t get of music?

Three dimensions. Music is audio but with a movie the whole medium is visual and you can do anything you want. The biggest canvas an artist can have is a movie screen, so to me it’s creating on an unlimited level. All the other arts are kind of limited but with movies, there’s no limit.

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Young and old: Ice Cube (back left) with NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton director F Gary Gray and bandmate Dr Dre.Source:Supplied

Do you still get a chuckle that the guy who wrote F*** Tha Police has ended up playing a bunch of cops in movies?

It’s a pretty cool. F*** Tha Police is a real song and obviously movies are make believe so I don’t really equate the two. It would be really crazy if I turned into a real cop. Then I’d be like ‘this is hella ironic’. But this is make-believe cops and robbers — it’s on a whole other level. People understand the difference between ‘Ice Cube is gonna f*** tha police’, and Ice Cube playing a cop in a movie.

You have been in a lot of funny movies and helped a lot of comedians by casting them in your movies — do you consider yourself a comedian.

I consider myself funny. I know what’s funny, I can be funny and I can make people laugh. I can think of witty things to say and I have great timing. But I don’t consider myself a comedian because I think some dudes are just naturally funny and then they work on their craft — and then they can label themselves as a comedian but I don’t really label myself as that.

People forget how funny some of the NWA songs were too — was comedy a big thing for your growing up in South Central LA?

Yeah — it was part of the neighbourhood. You gravitate towards those people in your neighbourhood who were funny. Every black neighbourhood has multiple funny people who live there. It’s astonishing how many people you come across who are funny — but have no aspirations to make it show business. They are just funny people when they come around. They are everywhere in the ‘hood.

So were they your comedy heroes rather than Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor or other comedians?

There are guys I grew up with who to me are just as funny — or funnier. Most of my friends who I hung with were funny. The guys I gravitated towards either laughed all day or made people laugh all day.

Improv improve: Ice Cube and Kevin Hart find the funny in Ride Along 2.Source:Supplied

There seems to be a lot of improv in the Ride Along and

Yeah — but it’s been that way since day 1. Whenever I start a movie I have always had the pleasure to be able to ad lib a little and to be able to tailor make the dialogue to fit me and my character. For me that’s just always been a part of making movies.

Is there another Jump St on the horizon?

They have been talking about it but I haven’t heard anything solid. I’m not sure.

How do you reflect on the success of Straight Outta Compton now — had you any idea it was going to be such a hit not just in American but around the world?

I was hoping it would. Everything on this project has been a dream come true. Everything we tried really worked and we know that people appreciated the movie we put together.

Obviously there’s no sequel to that movie as such — but would you be interested in doing another movie set in that world? It raised the stories of Tupac and Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight for example …

Sure. There are a lot of great stories to tell, especially in hip hop. If the project was right I would definitely consider doing something like this again.

What in hindsight do you think Straight Outta Compton’s greatest achievement was?

Letting people know who we really are and explaining to people the forces we were up against to be able to do and say what we ended up doing and saying. If they had stopped us back then, who knows if some of the shows we have come to love would have made it to the mainstream? They were really trying to stop us from being who we were and we weren’t going for that. To me, we made it OK for all artists to be themselves.

Like father, like son: Ice Cube and son O'Shea Jackson Jr who played him in Straight Outta Compton. Picture: Jonathan NgSource:News Corp Australia

You must be very proud of your son for playing you in Straight Outta Compton — would you like to work with him again, but on screen this time?

Oh yeah — definitely. He is definitely a star out here and people gravitate towards him, so it’s only right that we do a movie together.

SEE: RIDE ALONG 2 OPENS TODAY

SEE: STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON IS OUT NOW ON DVD