His father’s interest in cinema was handed down too, and Jackson decided to pursue screenwriting, studying it at university. My older brother has done it with him, though.” The pair changed “Kim” to “her”, to make it marginally less weird. “That’s way more awkward than us both getting down to Dopeman!” Have you done that one with him? “Ha ha! No, we haven’t done Good Day. If you listen to the lyrics of It Was A Good Day: ‘I got a beep from Kim, and she can fuck all night.’ Kim is my mom.” He cracks up.

I found a clip of them doing NWA’s Dopeman in El Paso last month, and was hit by the absurdity of father and son rapping in unison: “I don’t give a shit if your girl kneel down and suck my dick.” I haven’t done that with my dad. Soon enough, they were performing onstage together. His dad was all for it, so long as it was good. The thing my father’s rapping about isn’t just happening in Compton, it’s global.”Īside from the politics, his father’s musical skills also influenced Jackson, who started rapping in his late teens. We still have family who live in the city. It’s all completely relatable, everyone feels NWA. “There was nothing he shielded from me, because it doesn’t matter how you grow up, those who oppress will oppress. How did Cube’s history sit with him when he discovered it? “The trials my father went through were things most young black males have to go through,” he says. “People might have their idea of what this movie’s gonna represent,” says Jackson. The film’s release further illustrates that contrast: at last week’s premiere, the surviving members of NWA were catered for by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck but also flanked by security indeed, US police fearing gang violence are increasing patrols around cinemas showing the film. The incongruity surely hit home, which for Cube’s children was the markedly more comfortable climes of LA’s San Fernando Valley. I was well-watched on that tour.” When he hit his teens, Darrel introduced Jackson to NWA proper, and their dad explained where he and his friends came from: the drug-dealing, the gunfights, the relentless police harassment. “We would be on a platform where they worked the lights, in the middle of the arena, watching the shows, and randomly my older brother Darrel and our road manager would stand in front of me! I was like: ‘What the hell are y’all doing?!’ When I was older I realised they were blocking my eyes because there were too many topless women. How old was Jackson at the time, nine? “Yeah!” he laughs. It was a controversial cornucopia of incendiary rap music and projected raunchy videos, clouded in a fug of weed. In 2000, that took in the notorious Up In Smoke tour, a riotous roadshow starring a litany of hip-hop greats: Cube, Dre, Snoop and the up-and-coming Eminem, among others.

“He’s been taking me on tour since I was one,” he says of his dad. He likes to say he’s been researching it for 20 years. Jackson himself hadn’t acted before, but this character was, well, in his genes. It loses a little traction as story strands splinter, but still hangs together and is surprisingly emotional, largely thanks to some excellent performances by those playing the group’s members – many of whom are virtual unknowns.

Focusing on the trials and tribulations of Cube and his fellow NWA cohorts including Dr Dre and Eazy-E, it hurls you into the eye of their storm as they rise up from the streets, get shaken down by the police and the FBI, then battle each other as money rips them apart.

Now, down the line from San Francisco, he is fizzing with pride over the biopic’s release. Jackson was born in 1991, the year his dad hit Hollywood with John Singleton’s acclaimed drama Boyz N The Hood.

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