Thirty years ago in 1995, when Friday starting Ice Cube and Chris Tucker came out, it almost immediately had a huge culture impact. So huge, in fact, that it helped make Ice Cube a crossover star after years of being one of the hip-hop scene’s most talented and popular artists.
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Friday is one of the most endlessly quotable movies of the ’90s. If you’re of a certain age and you claim you’ve never told someone, ‘Bye Felicia’ or ‘Playing with my money is like playing with my emotions,’ you’re a liar and Michael Jordan just isn’t one.
Ice Cube was on the Games with Names podcast this past week, and he mentioned that he met Jordan a couple years after the movie came out, and his Airness himself told him that Friday was his favorite movie.
The It Was a Good Day rapper recounted to Games with Names host Julian Edelman, “I said, ‘What’s up MJ?’ He said, ‘What’s up?” He said, ‘You know I told people Friday was my favorite movie and that s*** got me in trouble.'”
Cube couldn’t believe it, and so he asked, “How it get you in trouble?” Jordan responded, “You know all the w** you [are] smokin’ in that damn movie.” Cube remembered the rest of the exchange. “I was like, ‘S*** funny,’ he was like, ‘S*** funny.'”
Maybe MJ saw himself as Craig, Cube’s character, who had finally taught Deebo, the town bully, a lesson after years of torment. Deebo carried himself a lot like the Bad Boy Pistons once did before MJ ended their run, so that could make sense. Overcome the hard fouls of Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn, save the neighborhood. You got knocked out.
Cube also made a hilarious observation about his meeting with Jordan, saying, “I remember he shook my hand, that s*** felt like baby foot or something. It was soft as f***. Like, ‘You ain’t never did an inch of work in your g****** life.’ My daddy hands feel like a cheese grater, your f***** hands feel like a baby wipe.”
He wisely kept these thoughts to himself until now, but he remembered, “It just felt like a pillow grabbed my hand. I said, ‘Damn, you ain’t did nothing but bounce a basketball your whole f***** life. That’s what I thought to myself, I don’t know why, but I just thought that.”
Cube’s entire podcast appearance was really entertaining and highly recommended for anyone looking for some laughs. He’s also staying busy with his Big3 basketball league, which began its eighth season last month.
