Ice Cube has never been one to shy away from conflict. Following the announcement that he would be working with Republicans on his “Contract With Black America” initiative, the legendary rapper was faced with a seemingly endless wave of backlash, with many accusing Cube of working directly with Donald Trump and thus endorsing the controversial president. Despite the fact that he dispelled such notions during an interview with Chris Cuomo, many still failed to understand Cube’s reasoning for keeping the CWBA talks bipartisan.

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As he explained to Cuomo, both parties expressed interest in working with him, though the Biden campaign expressly asked to do so following the election; the Trump campaign, on the other hand, offered to work immediately. “I’m going to whoever’s in power and I’ma speak to them about our problems specifically,”  he explained. Ice Cube. “I’m not going in there talking about minorities, I’m not going in there talking about people of color or diversity or none of that stuff. I’m going there for Black Americans. The ones who are the descendants of slaves.”

Unfortunately, no matter how clearly Cube breaks things down, the critics have remained extremely vocal in their frustrations. It’s gotten to the point where Ice Cube had to fire off a retort on his Twitter page, addressing everybody questioning his qualifications and education. “I hope all these people with podcast and radio shows telling the world I’m too unqualified and uneducated to talk about a document I created, don’t get asked to pull out their Communications degrees and show you they are qualified and educated enough to speak to you over airwaves,” he writes, challenging people to take a look in the mirror. 

Check out Cube’s latest response, and sound off — do you stand with the N.W.A. icon?