Ice Cube Releases Exclusive Autographed Artwork

Hip-hop artist and occasional actor Ice Cube, 42, is embarking on a different kind of art project these days — one that's not about making music or movies. Instead, he has teamed up with artist Mark Sgarbossa and RareInk in the release of a limited, exclusive line of Cube-inspired pieces that will be autographed by the music legend himself.

"I've wanted to consolidate my memorabilia for a long time," Ice Cube told the Huffington Post. "RareInk said they had really come out of the baseball card game, and that they wanted to do something interested with a great artist. It was pretty much a good way to give something back to my fans and let them know it was authentic." The rapper considers it important to give his fans something they can hold onto that's neither a knockoff nor a fleeting experience. "Some fans, all they want is the movie, some want a CD, but some fans want to buy the T-shirt, some want a nice piece, not just an autographed pictures. It's really to feed those Ice Cube connoisseur fans, who want to do a velvet Elvis, but I want to kind of have to do my own thing, I don't want to have no velvet Ice Cubes out there."

A percentage of the net sales from the pieces will go to the Minority AIDS Project (MAP), which has provided support services to L.A. for the past 26 years. The idea of giving back to the charity has special significance for Ice Cube, since he has worked with MAP for the past 20 years.

All this shop talk hasn't kept Ice Cube from focusing on his favorite pastime — basketball. As a diehard Lakers fan, he had a thing or two to say about the team hiring new head coach Mike Brown. "What I'm most excited about is what are the new Lakers going to look like? You know, what are the new offensive and defensive schemes? I've been watching that triangle for 11 years or more, it seems like. It's going to be interesting and exciting to see the new pieces we put in play and how they work."