It Was a Good Day

It Was a Good Day

Ice Cube

Ice Cube describes his ideal day: a pork-free breakfast, Yo MTV Raps!, gambling, a sexual rendezvous, and no murders in his neighborhood. By juxtaposing miraculous events (like constantly winning at craps or having “Ice Cube’s a Pimp” on the Goodyear blimp) with situations that seem rather normal to the average person (like not having to use your AK), he paints a picture of what his everyday life actually looks like: Murder and police interventions are daily experiences for him.

In 2012, a blogger calculated the exact day that Ice Cube describes in the song: January 20, 1992. The post generated a ton of publicity, eventually inspiring an internet campaign to put Ice Cube’s name on an actual blimp. The campaign was successful, and on January 20, 2014, Goodyear flew Ice Cube’s blimp over South Central, raising $25,000 for charity in the process.

“It Was a Good Day” peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart on its way to gold certification. The song has been featured on several “best of” lists and it is featured prominently in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The song’s sample from the intro of The Isley Brothers' “Footsteps in the Dark” has become synonymous with “It Was a Good Day.”

Ice Cube has said in interviews that he liked to end his shows with this song. People would get riled up during the concert with his more aggressive songs, and he didn’t want them to leave the venue with that mentality. So he’d end with this mellow song to chill them out and reduce the odds of them doing something violent.