Shooting the $118 million "XXX: State of the Union" has been a different sort of movie experience for rapper Ice Cube.

"This movie's taking up a lot of time," the rapper said during a break at a soundstage last week.

Between training for the role and shooting all summer in Baltimore, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Cube has had little opportunity to work at his other job. An album planned for late ''04 is now looking like a fall 2005 release. In the meantime, Ice Cube has found the time to do one track and hopes to do another before his "XXX" sequel hits theaters.

"I did a single with Lil Jon. He from the dirty dirty, so it's gotta be gutter. He flew out here and we put it down. I think he's doin'' a rock version of it. It's called ''The Real N---a Roll Call,'' so we had to do it right."

The song, which has been called "Roll Call" on mixtapes, will be featured on Jon's Crunk Juice, due November 16 . Cube and Jon are also talking about teaming to do a song for the "XXX: State of the Union" soundtrack.

"I want something hard," Cube said. "So we been kinda putting our brains together trying to come up with it."

But while Cube's been hitting it off with Jon, talks regarding teaming up with Dr. Dre have fizzled.

"I don''t know if that situation is gonna work out, but who knows," said Cube, who was poised to record with Dre and sign to the producer's Aftermath imprint. "Dre got real busy last year, and the year before that he dropped 50. So I''m doing my thing, he doing his. I''d love to [work with] him."

On the movie front, Cube can next be seen alongside Jay Mohr and Nia Long in "Are We There Yet?," opening January 28. "I play a bachelor who don''t like kids, [and I''m] trying to get with their mother, and of course they don''t like me," Cube said. "So we kind of meet in the middle and by the end of the day we''re at each other's throats."

"XXX: State of the Union" follows a few months later, on May 13.

Source: MTV