LOS ANGELES -- Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube knows what it's like to live with the threat of violence hanging over his head, having grown up on the meanest streets of south-central Los Angeles.

But he's still saddened and disgusted by the slaying of fellow rap pioneer and close friend Jam Master Jay, turntablist for seminal rap group Run-DMC, who is to be buried today in New York.

"Man, it just makes me sick to my stomach, because he's a legend," Cube said in an interview to promote his upcoming comedy Friday After Next. "I wouldn't be right here if it wasn't for Jam Master Jay. I was a fan and a friend."

The 37-year-old DJ Jam Master Jay, whose real name is Jason Mizell, was shot once in the head while playing video games in the lounge of his New York City recording studio last week. Police are pursuing theories of a music industry feud that may have led to the rapper's slaying, but no suspects have been identified.

Cube, the former NWA frontman who first crossed over from rapping to acting with his 1991 role in Boyz N the Hood, said he wouldn't be able to attend Jam Master Jay's funeral today because of commitments tied to promoting Friday After Next, opening in theatres Nov. 22.

He did say that his friend's murder doesn't make him any more fearful for his own safety, having been raised in L.A. neighbourhoods where drive-by shootings and gang slayings were a way of life.

"It's no different from how we grew up, man," said Cube. "You always duckin' and dodgin' bad luck, bad things from happening to you."

While Cube feels genuine sadness over Jam Master Jay's slaying, he's far less concerned about the small furore surrounding the sleeper fall hit, Barbershop, in which he stars as a Chicago man who inherits a struggling barbershop business from his dead father.

In fact, Cube has a message for the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton that befits the rapper-turned-actor's name: Just chill out.

"I would tell them to relax," Cube said when asked what he'd like to say to the high-profile activists, whose negative comments about the movie Barbershop have landed them on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed by the National Association of Cosmetologists in the U.S.

Jackson and Sharpton weighed in against Barbershop for remarks the cantankerous barber Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) makes about Martin Luther King's alleged promiscuity.

The character also says the only reason Rosa Parks became famous for defying segregation in the '50s was because she was connected to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Cube said Jackson and Sharpton have blown the issue way out of proportion.

"These people (King and Parks) are not above comment," he said. "The thing that we were accused of in Barbershop - tearing down heroes - that's fiction.

"But (Jackson and Sharpton) are kind of doing it in real life, going after people like Cedric the Entertainer and the filmmakers. They're tearing us down in real life. It's just unfair and disappointing."

The organization of U.S. barbers and beauticians filed a lawsuit last week against Jackson and Sharpton, claiming the activists' remarks about the movie have driven away customers.

The suit accuses the two men of intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and negligence stemming from their demand for apologies from MGM, which produced the comedy.

Cube pointed out that when the character Eddie makes the remarks - which include an expletive aimed at Jackson - the other characters in the barbershop immediately come down on him for being disrespectful.

"To me it's a non-issue. It's nothing that should even take up that much brain space, you know what I'm saying? That's just a footnote to what Barbershop is and what it was and what it means to people."