A judge has denied a motion by best boys and grips who sued rapper/actor Ice Cube for alleged state Labor Code violations and wanted the singer put into a possible default.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brock T. Hammond issued his ruling Feb. 4 after having heard arguments the day before. The plaintiffs in the case are Hermexial Drexilus, Adeshola Adigun and four other plaintiffs who allege they were not fully paid according to the Labor Code when they were released from working on a video production in 2024.
The 56-year-old Ice Cube’s real name is O’Shea Jackson. The plaintiffs sought the drastic measure against Jackson for allegedly failing to provide code-complaint answers to form interrogatories under a June 2025 court order. Known as FROGs, the inquiries are standardized, check-box written questions that one party sends to another to be answered under oath.
The terminating sanctions sought by the plaintiffs, if granted, could have resulted in a possible default judgment against Jackson.
“After reviewing Jackson’s further responses, the court finds terminating sanctions are not warranted,” the judge wrote. “And, contrary to plaintiffs’ position, the vast majority of Jackson’s further responses are code compliant.”
However, the judge did order Jackson to address those responses that were not code-complaint. Hammond declined to issue monetary sanctions that both sides had sought against each other.
In a separate motion, the judge on Tuesday took under submission a request by the plaintiffs for documents that Jackson has allegedly failed to produce and which the plaintiffs’ attorneys said are “entirely relevant to the crux of this action.”
According to the lawsuit, Jackson hired the plaintiffs for the production of a video entitled “Ego” that concluded on July 3, 2024.
“Defendants have, to date, failed to fully compensate plaintiffs for the work they performed on the production,” the suit filed in August 2024 alleges.