The Vault: Ice Cube, March 2013

The Vault takes one MAFIA Magazine cover off the shelf at a time and looks at it closely. First up: March 2013.

The cover

A black fedora, a stare that doesn't blink, and a wall of weathered wanted posters behind him. The March 2013 edition doesn't dress Ice Cube up. It frames him like a legend of the West and lets one line carry the weight: The Incomparable Ice Cube.

That wanted-poster backdrop is the whole idea in one picture. Ice Cube spent his career being the name everybody had an opinion about and nobody could pin down. Rapper, writer, actor, producer, director. South Central to the big screen without losing the voice that got him there.

Why it still holds weight

MAFIA stands for Making A Future In Art, and that's the question every cover answers. Ice Cube's answer is one of the clearest in the culture: turn your own story into the work, then own the work. Records first, then films with his name on the writing credit, then a business built around what he made. For a magazine with roots in South Central LA, putting him on the cover was a statement about where that future starts.

What else was on the newsstand

The rest of the cover reads like a snapshot of that moment: the return of Chi Ali, mega producer Bigg Von, ATL's Bone Crusher, the soulful Neyah Sohle, CTCDesigns, and Hollywood Husband Kevin Hart. One issue, a whole cross-section of hip-hop, film, music and design.

Read it in full

The March 2013 edition is in the digital archive now, cover to cover.

Read the March 2013 Ice Cube edition · See every cover in The Vault

Next in The Vault: another cover from the archive, every Tuesday.