Ice Cube

You know that feeling when you look at someone and think to yourself, I know them from somewhere and then your brain riffles through your internal address book trying to match the face to a name and some kind of indication of where or why you know that person? Walking out of work yesterday I spotted someone sitting outside a bar I thought I recognised so my brain started to do that internal shuffle; perhaps from London days, perhaps from Radio Cardiff. As I got closer I tried to place them before saying hello completely unannounced. Thankfully just a few metres my brain actually clicked in as on the terrace was Ice Cube. Not the everyday person you expect to see chilling in Cardiff seemingly minding his own business and having a beer by himself.

I knew he was scheduled to play Cardiff at some point but since the closure of the Music Hall I had forgotten to get tickets or find out when or where the gig had been re-scheduled. I resisted the urge to go and say hello because I figured it can’t be often he gets the chance to hang out without people like me pestering him for an autograph. However a quick search and a ticket later I watched the hip hop legend tear down Cardiff Student Union, Solus. He was enigmatic taking the crowd ‘Back to the beginning, Right back to the beginning, the NWA beginning’. He had us in the palm of his hand with all our West Side W’s in the air. Brilliant.