Ice Cube Took Tucker Carlson to South Central, Explained Why He Declined COVID Vaccine

Ice Cube made an unexpected appearance on the latest episode of Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show, which debuted on Tuesday (July 25). The 54-year-old rap veteran carpooled with Carlson, driving the conservative political commentator through LA’s South Central.

Carlson asked the Barbershop star why he declined to take the COVID vaccine, mentioning that Cube had a “direct order” to do so, originally planning to take on a $9 million movie deal. “Yeah, I’m not real good with direct orders,” Cube responded, adding, “No, it wasn’t ready. You know, it was a six-month kind of rush job and I didn’t feel safe.”

Carlson responded, “But they told you you were safe,” to which Cube added, “I know what they said [laughs]. I know what they said, and I heard them. I heard them loud and clear, but it’s not their decision. There are no repercussions if they’re wrong, but I can get all the repercussions if they’re wrong.”

Since Dec. 2020, more than 670 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were given in the U.S. Of all vaccinations administered, there have been nine deaths directly linked to a rare blood clotting issue caused by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. To date, the World Health Organization has attributed over 1.1 million deaths due to COVID-19 in U.S. Researchers at Brown University and Microsoft AI Health recently released an analysis that determined the number of vaccine-preventable deaths to be 318,971 for the main vaccine rollout period of January 2021 to April 2022.

When asked whether the decision was tough to make, Cube said, “No, it wasn’t a tough call. I wanted to be an example for my kids, really make sure they wouldn’t take it either, show them that I want to stand on my convictions and that I was willing to lose $9 million and more because we’ve probably lost more since then.”

Elsewhere in the 12-minute conversation, Cube explained that he didn’t intend for his choice to go public. “I never told anyone not to get vaccinated publicly. That was never my message to the world. I didn’t even want people to know whether I got vaccinated or not,” he said. “I was pretty upset that that even came out, because I was just gonna quietly, you know, just not take it and deal with the consequences as they came.”

The interview comes eight months after Cube appeared on podcast Million Dollaz Worth of Game with fellow Mount Westmore members E-40 and Too $hort. On the show, Cube made it clear that his decision not to take the vaccine was final, while adding, “I don’t know how Hollywood feels about me right now.”

Cube last starred in 2020’s The High Note, and his next film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, releases on August 2.