OK so he’s a knob now. But back when Ice Cube still thought his name was a good idea, he was cool. So for argument’s sake we’ll refer to ‘young’ Ice Cube as just that and ‘now’ Ice Cube as Ice Square.

But when you’ve just come out of a Wendy’s with a square hamburger in one hand and a bag of nazi crank in the other, there ain’t nothing better to listen to than Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. Urban beauty at its finest, the album is a kick in the balls in the rain while waiting for a bus.

In the days immediately after NWA, Ice Cube flourished. Amerikkka’s Most Wanted came out in 1990. There must be a dozen different samples running through some of the tunes alone. And those samples come from everywhere – music from all genres as well as TV and radio. So much effort. There’s none of your Dido singing some pants bollix with a tit rapping about his pointless and uninteresting childhood over it. Yes, I’m talking to you Skittles.

Ice Cube lyrics are filthy, informative and sharp - the perfect combination. “Once upon a time in the projects, Yo, I damn near had to whack a ho. I knocked on her door: ‘Who is it?’ It’s Ice Cube come to pay a little visit to you.”

In fairness, who doesn’t need to whack a ho every once in a while? I was out planting autumnal rhododendrons in my garden the other day and I’m telling you, I whacked my ho all afternoon. You better recognise… my ho. It’s a green 8-inch Huzqvarna.

But I always think rock stars who give themselves cool names when they’re young must really regret it when they’re older. The Edge, Puff Daddy, Sid Vicious, Ice-T. If I was in my fifties and people still knew me as, oh I don’t know, ‘latté weasel’, I’d be pretty annoyed with myself. I imagine it’s like that tattoo of the millennium falcon you got when you were 18 and thought it was ‘soooooo’ retro. Now it looks like a melanoma cake smeared onto your upper arm and you can’t wear short sleeve shirts to work because people might think you’re Tom Hanks in Philadelphia.

While the young Ice Cube certainly had some infectious beats, he was an altogether non-cancerous dude. In fact he was all about cleaning up his neighbourhood with the unconventional sweeping brush of South Central LA – the ak-47 assault rifle.

Those days are gone but his legend lives on in every freezer in America. Which came first the rapper or the rhyme? In this case, definitely the rapper.