Ice Cube recently sat down with Bill Maher for his "Club Random" podcast, where Cube raised suspicion about label owners also having ownership in private prisons.
Around the 16:15 mark in the above video, he explained, "The narrative is really kind of structured and really made into what the record company wants the record to be. Like follow the money. I don’t know their names, but if you go high enough you begin to see this is an industry."
Cube then used hip-hop as an example, stating, "[The] same people who own the labels own the prisons. It seems really kind of suspicious—if you want to say that word—that the records that come out are really geared to push people toward their prison industry."
When Maher stated that no one is making artists write certain lyrics, Cube explained that labels do tell artists what to say on records.
"It’s not about making somebody write the lyrics. It’s about being near as guardrails to make sure certain songs make it through and certain songs don’t. Certain flavors are exposed on the record. Some records are made by committee. Meaning record company guys sit around and tell the artists 'This is hot, say that. Do this, we gonna have this guy write lyrics.'"
