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Ice Cube's ‘Check Yo Self’ T-Shirts Raise Money For Underfunded Hospitals, Including In South LA
Rapper Ice Cube performs at the ACL Music Festival in Austin, Texas, on October 7, 2017. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)
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"Check Yo Self" is one of rapper Ice Cube’s biggest hits. Now the L.A. native hopes it can do some good during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ice Cube announced this week that he's created T-shirts with the song's refrain: “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self.” The net proceeds will go to help underfinanced hospitals and nurses in inner cities and rural areas — including Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South L.A.
He talked today with our newsroom in an interview with Nick Roman, who hosts KPCC's All Things Considered show on 89.3 FM.
Ice Cube told us he designated that the hospital because it's in the heart of the community where he grew up.
"They’re always understaffed and underfunded. And I'm pretty sure [there’s] a lot of medical centers across the country that [are] in the same position,” he said. "So I wanted to make sure the money went directly to those kinds of hospitals, the ones that really need it."
Let’s help the real Heroes. 100% of the net proceeds from these custom “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self” t-shirts will go to the frontline healthcare workers. Pick one up here: https://t.co/1uzZTkG3aq pic.twitter.com/JqKS4HRqxq
— Ice Cube (@icecube) April 9, 2020
Ice Cube also talked about growing up with family members who worked at UCLA as patient escorts and groundskeepers.
“I've seen people come home from those jobs. And they're pretty stressed because they do care about the people that they're trying to take care of, and when they lose those people, it’s very [stressful].
So, you know, I understand what a lot of the workers are going through right now, when they're trying to keep people alive, and they just can't, but they gotta go back in and gotta go do it all over again. These are the real heroes.”