Ice Cube talks architecture for L.A. art event

Rapper-turned-major Hollywood player Ice Cube is also an architecture buff, and he's applying his knowledge to a video tour of Los Angeles that celebrates the work of architectural and furniture design team Charles and Ray Eames, reports the New York Times.

"A lot of people think L.A. is just eyesore after eyesore...they don't know the L.A. that I know," Ice Cube says in the video, rattling off the sights to see in the City of Angels.

The clip is intended to promote a six-month L.A. art celebration called Pacific Standard Time. (Jason Schwartzman and Anthony Kiedis have also done video promos for the series on artists Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari, respectively).

Ice Cube also expounds on the Eames Home in Pacific Palisades, noting that they incorporated nature in its aesthetic. "In a world full of McMansions, where the structure takes up all the land, the Eameses made structure and nature one. This is going green 1949 style, b-–."

But while he admired the resourcefulness of the designing duo, he admits to the Times that you won't find him constructing any homes of his own anytime soon.

The 42-year-old, who studied architectural drafting prior to hitting it big as a rapper, says, "I haven't been on my architect game in 25 years...You don't want to live in nothing I draw. I got a certificate. For a year. In '88. I don't think I picked up a T-square since."

Nonetheless, at least one lesson still shines through.

"Everything has to have a plan to work," he tells the paper of what he learned from those classes. "You just can't wing it. I can't get all the materials I need for a house and just start building. Whether it's career, family, life - you have to plan it out."