"I remember listening to Cube's music when I was like 14 years old, my friends listening to it up in Toronto"

Scott Speedman’s reflection on his memories of listening to “Cube’s music” as a 14-year-old—with friends in Toronto—captures more than just nostalgia; it reveals the potent influence of music and popular culture during adolescence. Music serves as both a soundtrack and a context for growing up, and referencing “Cube” likely points to the influential hip-hop artist Ice Cube, whose music resonated far beyond its Los Angeles roots. For a young person in Toronto, engaging with Ice Cube’s tracks would have provided an auditory link to experiences, struggles, and perspectives different from his own, yet recognizably universal in their expression of youth and identity.

The act of listening to music with friends especially amplifies the sense of belonging and shared discovery. In teenage years, these communal experiences help shape values, tastes, and worldviews. Speedman’s recollection emphasizes how pop culture acts as a bridge—across geographies, social backgrounds, and life stages. Toronto in the early 1990s was a melting pot of diverse cultures, and American rap music, with its raw narratives and energetic beats, found a receptive audience among Canadian teens seeking authenticity and self-definition.

Moreover, the specificity of the memory—being 14, gathering with friends, and replaying Ice Cube’s tracks—invokes the powerful role of music in identity formation. Those early encounters with provocative lyrics and unfiltered emotion could have played a role in shaping Speedman’s open-mindedness or creative sensibility, qualities valuable in his later acting career. The mention of listening “up in Toronto” also subtly acknowledges a sense of distance from the culture Ice Cube represented, yet underlines the universality of music’s reach; teenagers everywhere look for ways to connect with something bigger than themselves.

Ultimately, Speedman’s reminiscence emphasizes how formative pop culture moments—shared between friends, set to the backdrop of an urban Canadian landscape—continue to echo in our memories and shape who we become.