The ongoing row about the lack of diversity among this year's Academy Awards nominees is gaining momentum, with high-profile stars Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee boycotting the ceremony, and Dustin Hoffman and George Clooney calling for change.

Among the discussions about those nominated - it's the second consecutive year the committee have unveiled an all-white shortlist - many have held up Straight Outta Compton as a shining example of where non-white actors have been overlooked.

Charting the rise of seminal hip hop group N.W.A. - who held power to account in the Eighties and Nineties, with their stirring lyrics and anthems, F**k Tha Police, Express Yourself and Straight Outta Compton - the film's solo nomination came for the white screenwriters.

But N.W.A.'s Ice Cube, and Kevin Hart, who join forces for new action-comedy Ride Along 2, think people need to look at the bigger picture.

"You're talking to two guys who couldn't care less," says 36-year-old comedian and actor Hart, known for his roles in Get Hard and The Wedding Ringer.

"We hate that we say it like that, but it's honestly a shrug of the shoulders. I think people are making it bigger than what it is. At the end of the day, if you're not happy with something, you just don't have to support it."

Working as a shoe salesman before launching a hugely successful career in comedy, Hart judges success by his audience's reaction - and not by the Hollywood awards circuit, while Ice Cube tweeted 'Who cares about SNUBS when you getting STUBS?', in reference to Ride Along 2's ticket sales success in the US.

"My personal feeling? I didn't get into the business to win Oscars," reasons the father-of-two, who is fresh from a stand-up gig in Manchester. "I've never had the urge to say that's what I need as justification to show I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.

"I'm in it for fanfare. I'm in it for people," Philadelphia-born Hart adds. "People support your content, your product; that's the biggest applause you can get. So in my particular case, I feel like I've had six number one movies so far, that's six Oscars to me. It doesn't get bigger or better than that."

Ice Cube, who, post N.W.A. went on to sell more than 10 million albums as a solo artist and starred in Three Kings and Barbershop, nods in agreement.

"You make movies not for the industry but for the people," says the 46-year-old, whose son O'Shea Jackson Jr. played him in Straight Outta Compton.

"And when the people come out in droves and support your projects, how can you be mad you didn't get a trophy? You know what I mean? You're like, 'Damn you want everything?' So it's the Academy's issue to me. It's not our problem, it's their problem."

Likewise, Hart thinks we need to address the membership of the Academy, which a 2012 LA Times study revealed was made up of 94% white and 77% male members.

In the last few days, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has spoken about the outcry, saying she is "heartbroken" by the lack of inclusion and is calling for "big changes" in the membership.

"I think people are making it our problem," Hart continues. "You're looking at six to seven older men that have been on this committee for I don't know how long, and they judge the movies and some people send in votes and they dictate this and that... That should have no power over you, your drive, your career.

"You're making movies for people to be entertained. I'm not entertaining the Oscar committee, that's not my fan base. I think there's a whole matter at hand that's much, much bigger than that, that hopefully people change and open their eyes to."

Currently, the duo's fan base - including Hart's 25 million or so Twitter followers and Cube's 2.67 million - have made Ride Along 2 number one in the US box office, even knocking Star Wars off the top spot.

Once again, the sequel, which also boasts Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong and Benjamin Bratt among its cast, shows enthusiastic rookie cop Ben (Hart) going all out to impress his surly future brother-in-law James (Ice Cube), a detective in the squad.

When James is sent to Miami to bring down a drug dealer, he begrudgingly brings accident-prone Ben with him - and it isn't long before he's causing chaos.

Overtaking the hugely successful Star Wars is a big call, but the duo have an inkling as to why their film has been such a hit.

"It's fun," says Ice Cube, who is wearing his Ride Along 2 promotional T-shirt today with pride.

"It's called Ride Along and you want to be in that car with James and Ben. Our dynamic and our chemistry is seamless, and people like that."

While acknowledging that the plot has been "done several times before", Hart thinks there's plenty in the film for fans to relate to.

"F or us, it was about making the action and the comedy fit for today's society," he explains. "That guy that wants to be something and is always dreaming of getting there, and there's always something in his way, there's a roadblock. Cube's character James acts as Ben's roadblock.

"Getting that approval from that roadblock is what drives this movie and this story," Hart continues. "And adding the other ingredients in, with Olivia Munn, Kevin Jeong, Benjamin Bratt, just adds to that and gives stability, to take our platform, elevate it and to become that multi-cultural situation we want it to be."

:: Ride Along 2 is in cinemas now