“Straight Outta Compton’s” O’Shea James Jr laughs about his "Irish roots"

"Straight Outta Compton" is one of the summer’s biggest box office hits, and one of its stars, O’Shea Jackson, Jr., has done a bit of research on the origins of his very Irish name.

Jackson, son of Ice Cube, the pioneering hip hop artist and founder of the group N.W.A whose story is told in Compton, spoke to The Irish Times about the movie, and he appreciated the chance to chat about his moniker.

“The guy with the Irish name gets interviewed by an Irish newspaper,” laughs O’Shea. “That’s awesome.”

Ice Cube is O’Shea Senior, but his son isn’t clear as how the name landed in their family.

“I looked it up once. It said it means ‘son of Shea.’ Well, that’s kind of . . . broad. I’ll have to set up a Facebook group or something,” said Junior.

“Dad was the first O’Shea in the family. I don’t know where it comes from. But I know it was between O’Shea or Orenthal. So thank God I’m an O’Shea.”