Ice Cube’s Truth To Power tour hit a tense moment in Portland when one of his crew buses caught fire outside a hotel. Firefighters quickly contained the blaze and confirmed that no one was injured and no equipment was damaged. Authorities have not yet announced the cause, though they are reviewing surveillance footage from the area.
Speaking with local outlet KGW, Ice Cube did not hesitate to call the act intentional. “I’m not taking this incident as a personal attack. A coward like that would burn anybody’s property that was out there at the time,” he said.
The rapper later took to X to set the record straight after rumors began circulating. “Wasn’t my bus. It was a crew bus. Parked in front of the hotel. Everybody was upstairs sleeping. Nobody hurt. No equipment damaged. A coward set fire to the bus. My bus was actually in Oakland getting serviced,” he wrote.
Speculation online suggested the bus may have been mistaken for a government vehicle, specifically one used by immigration enforcement. While there is no confirmation of that theory, it gained traction given Cube’s outspoken criticism of federal raids earlier this year. In August, he condemned officers for what he described as aggressive tactics in Los Angeles, including storming schools and places of worship. “To see people disrespected like that, and the federal government being too heavy handed, going to churches and weddings and grabbing people out of schools, it’s like, come on, man, y’all just overdoing it,” he said at the time.
For now, investigators continue to look into what led to the fire as Ice Cube keeps his tour rolling across North America.