Is that really Ice Cube talking about architecture on YouTube? That's a joke, right?
—K.A., via the inbox
That's really Ice Cube, really driving around Los Angeles, really, really talking about the Eameses, one of the greatest home-and-furniture design teams of the 20th century.
The video is the third in a series pairing stars and artistic types, all to promote a six-month celebration of L.A. art called Pacific Standard Time.
As for just how real Cube's appreciation of that Case Study house was:
It was really real, bitches. In the video, Cube says that before his seminal rap band NWA broke big, "I studied architectural drafting."
And that's true. In fact, a spokesperson for Pacific Standard Time tells me that Cube "was pretty much up to speed on Eames before we came to him."
In other words, in the video, when Cube stands in front of an Eames Case Study home and declares, "this is going green, 1949-style, bitch," he knows what he's talkin' 'bout.
"Nothing was written for him, that's all him talking," confirms Patrick O'Neil, executive creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day\LA, the firm that created the videos.
"Most people are really surprised that he would know so much about architecture, but he studied it, and if you listen to his music, it's all about places, and relating to places; it would make sense he would know about this."
Before this project launched, Pacific Standard Time introduced a similar video featuring Red Hot Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis riding around L.A. with artist Ed Ruscha, discussing small words such as "if" and "so." A second video shows Jason Schwartzman having a paranoid conversation with a giant projection of artist John Baldessari.
"You should probably go to a psychiatrist," Baldessari tells Schwartzman.
Or, maybe we should all go to more museums.