Ice Cube

Image credit: Boyz N the Hood: Kobal Collection

REAL NAME O'Shea Jackson

RAP PERSONA Gangsta — he helped invent the hardcore-rap genre with his group N.W.A

SCREEN CHARACTER Cube (right) plays Doughboy, a slacker in South Central Los Angeles driven to violent vengeance by the gang-related murder of his brother.

WHY HE'S GREAT In a story not far removed from those he told on his own records, Cube offers a chilling portrayal of hopelessness, futility, and fatalism.

IF YOU LIKE THIS In later movies, Cube went beyond his persona as a scowling tough, becoming the genial pothead of the Friday movies, the working-class striver of the Barbershop films, and, most recently, the grim action hero of XXX: State of the Union.