On Sunday’s episode of the Club Random podcast, host Bill Maher sat down with Ice Cube to discuss everything from media bias to vaccines.
This episode was released a week after Ice Cube lit up social media with a video he posted to Twitter where the rapper began by stating “some of you may not have realized that I’m not part of the club.”
He went on to specify that he was referring to “the club of gatekeepers that we all got to deal with” and which he has undoubtedly had to work with over the course of his multifaceted career. He elaborated by stating that what makes the “gatekeepers” mad is “when you don’t want to be in their club” and announced that he would now be embarking on a “f*** the gatekeepers podcast tour” which he knows will ruffle some feathers.
One of the first stops on the rapper’s podcast tour was Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, which now seems to have become the perfect place for so many to say some of the things they appear to feel unable to say elsewhere. Maher has become a champion of free speech and free thinking in recent years. During a period of time when so many became more afraid than ever to speak their minds, Maher seems to have only grown stronger and more popular by speaking his.
Unlike many, Maher understands that too often what we see being pushed by the liberal media today is actually the opposite of the liberalism so many once followed. It is almost as though the divisiveness and distress of the last few years took the kind of toll on many that caused them to completely abandon some of their prior beliefs and convictions. When discussing his time in the music industry, Ice Cube said he stayed away from a lot of the manipulation that exists because “he is an independent artist and always has been.” He also stated that he is “as independent as they come” politically and spoke harshly about the lack of progress seen in our own country because of partisan politics.
Ice Cube witnessed these partisan issues firsthand in 2020 after he released his “contract with Black America” prior to the presidential election. After putting out the contract, both parties reached out, with the Democrats offering to address the contract after the election, and the Trump campaign instead adjusting their own plans right away. This led to the release of President Trump’s plan for Black Americans called the “Platinum Plan” and an onslaught of criticism towards Ice Cube for working with the administration in any way.
Ice Cube’s recent revelations tell us a lot more than the fact that the rapper may now have some enemies of his own. His words tell a tale too many across the world can resonate with. He certainly is not the only person who has ever had to admit to themselves that they were not a part of an elite club. Though his circumstances may be different from many, the meaning behind his words is not.
Ice Cube and Maher are two of a handful of individuals now fighting to bring back the power of independent thinking. And if two individuals of their stature are facing pushback, one can only assume what that might mean for the rest of us.
Maher and Ice Cube probably disagree with each other on a lot of things, but that’s exactly the point. They agree that disagreement and debate are acceptable and should even be encouraged, the only thing any of us should ever have to agree on.
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