Watch Ice Cube tell the story of his first fist fight at age 6

In the movie Fist Fight, teacher Ron Strickland (played by Ice Cube) challenges his colleague, Andy Campbell (Charlie Day), to a fist fight when Campbell gets him fired.

Ice Cube was able to draw from his own experiences for the role; as he mentioned on Entertainment Weekly: The Show, he has been in actual fist fights before. In fact, his first real tussle was when he was only six years old.

“I was fighting my friend Floyd. I was six, he was seven. He kicked my bike over,” explains the “Check Yo Self” rapper. “My friend was like, ‘You going to let him do that? You better fight him.'”

Cube says that’s when he learned he could fight. Only he did not expect his own emotional response. “I was so mad that I had to fight, that I started crying,” he says. “Everybody was like, ‘Why are you crying? You won.'”

Watch the interview above and catch this full episode of Entertainment Weekly: The Show, available now on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Go to PEOPLE.com/PEN, or download the free app on your Smart TV, mobile, and web devices.