But in Friday - which Cube co-wrote with his longtime friend DJ Pooh - the hood wasn’t so unnerving. The hood and all of its faults (as presented in dramatic fashion, often with someone beloved dying violently in the end) had been a box office moneymaker: Menace II Society earned nearly $28 million in theaters, and Boyz earned almost $58 million and also was nominated for an Oscar.
NWA touched on South Central street life (“Gangsta, Gangsta”), police brutality (“Fuck tha Police”), and censorship (“Express Yourself”) - and their music resonated in urban areas all across the country. Through his music, he told street tales of everyday black and brown people living in one of L.A.’s most violent neighborhoods, and the scene was unpleasant. This was the rapper’s chance to, in a way, mute some of the narrative that he was instrumental in giving the world. This comedy was Ice Cube’s passion project, so much so that he paid the actors - most everyone remembers it being a payday of $5,000 apiece - out of his own pocket. (In fact, NWA member Eazy-E’s solo debut was a track called “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” which was co-penned by Ice Cube.) Friday, which has established quite the cult-like following since its release 20 years ago this month, will screen in nearly 400 theaters for one night only: 4/20. It was a different twist from his acting debut in 1991’s Boyz n the Hood, a film set in South Central, L.A., that was wholly inspired by the music his rap group NWA - Niggaz With Attitude, for the ill-informed - created in the 1980s. Clearly, the pride of the L.A.-based notorious gang was undeniable they came to set daily, engaged with the actors, and wanted their children to witness the energy building around a film almost no one wanted to make.įriday, released on April 26, 1995, was a bona fide laugh-out-loud comedy, and was a stark departure from the work Ice Cube had done before. They were so nice to us.”Ī native son was documenting their neighborhood on one of its better, less violent days, and this was noteworthy. “They had bandanas over their faces, but would want us to take pictures with their kids. “The Crips - they wear the blue, right? - they would come every day and watch us shoot,” actor John Witherspoon, who plays Craig's father in the film, recalls in an interview with BuzzFeed News. The two encounter a neighborhood filled with some over-the-top characters, and there’s laughter to be found where we hadn’t exactly seen before. And his best friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) is a small-time weed dealer who’d rather smoke it than distribute it. But in this movie, Craig (Ice Cube) gets fired on his day off - and made fun of because of it all throughout. And it wasn’t lost on anyone.įriday is about almost nothing - refreshing, really, after a string of movies set in South Central, Los Angeles, that focused only on strife. But his drunken sentiment was dripping with genuineness. He was incorrect, of course - Friday, the stoner comedy with a limited release and an even more limited budget, grossed more than $27 million at the box office, and had a bigger life in video and DVD rentals and purchases in the years since. 'Cuz they wouldn’t be shooting it over here.” And several times, he’d yell out to anyone within earshot, “This ain’t no real movie anyway. He’d belt out Al Green tunes off-key and loudly every time director F. "We're always together in that truck that got wrecked, she's always my co-pilot.The telling moment happened nearly every morning of the 20-day shoot some 20 years ago.Ī neighbor - unhappy in spite of the $100 he was paid daily for the inconvenience of an Ice Cube movie being shot on his block - tried to disrupt the process in the most obnoxious of ways. Laundry said Tinsley never leaves his side. "We've had, you know, a lot of amazing stories with our trained K9s and stuff, but not for just a household pet to lead you down that road and play a role in saving some lives," Lebanon Chief Phillip Roberts told NBC 10. People who have consumed alcohol can be particularly vulnerable to hypothermia because it causes the blood vessels in the extremities to dilate, causing the body to lose heat quickly, so it was lucky authorities found the injured men when they did. "It definitely was a wake-up call," Laundry said in the interview, expressing sadness over the loss of his passenger's dog but noting he's glad he and his friend weren't hurt worse. He acknowledged in local interviews that he had some drinks but didn't believe the amount he'd consumed was too much for him to operate a vehicle. State troopers say Laundry faces a charge of driving under the influence.