Washington Post music-beat reporter Sean Daly enjoys the idea of rapper-actor Ice Cube going all mainstream with a new kiddie film, but late in the piece, he reminds the reader that some of Cube’s lyrics on past albums were seen as anti-Semitic or anti-Asian. Daly quoted one song threatening Korean grocers to “pay respect to the black fist or we’ll burn your store, right down to a crisp.”

Ice Cube says he regrets it, but he also won’t retract it: “Some things, some facts were a little skewed. I don’t want to point [specific songs] out, ’cause all the fans that love the records, I don’t want them to think I didn’t mean what I said.”

So is he “mainstream” now, or not? It seems the Hollywood liberals don’t really care what he won’t retract, as long as he puts fannies in the theatre seats. He wouldn’t want the fans to think he’s not for burning down Asian grocery stores any more…