The year was 2009. I had just returned home after a bad day at school. I turned on the Playstation 2 in GTA San Andreas, got into my lowered Impala, and this song started playing: My day improved absurdly, as if there was a spell on the lyrics or the beat, you know?
But I had never tried to figure out why this song felt like it did, or what day it was that inspired Ice Cube to record this song. And if he was having such a good day, why does he have this angry face all the time, and what did he do that day to end up getting arrested at the end of the clip? Well, now there is DecifraHITS to find out all this, so I decided to investigate every detail in depth.
And my friend, get ready because this video will blow your mind. The story of this song begins in Los Angeles. It was the summer of 1992, and the weather was not good in the city.
After 4 police officers were acquitted after beating a black man, the population took to the streets and turned the city upside down. There were protests, looting and destruction of stores, arrest and death of dozens of people. It was in the midst of this turmoil that Ice Cube began production on his new album: The Predator.
Coming from the guy who had already been investigated by the FBI for writing a song called “Fuck The Police”, the black population expected Cube to express all the fury and revolt they were feeling with yet another aggressive anthem against the police and the government. But the first song he wrote for this new album brought a totally different feel to what everyone expected, completely blowing people's minds. Cube had just returned from a trip, and when he arrived in Los Angeles, he went straight home and recorded a demo of what would become "It Was A Good Day".
He liked the result so much that he scheduled a session at a studio called Echo Sound, together with DJ Pooh and DJ Muggs, from the group Cypress Hill. Cube showed up at the studio with a copy of The Isley Brothers' Go For Your Guns. And in it, there was this song here, see if you recognize it: In 2005, Ice Cube told Blender magazine: “I grew up listening to the Isley Brothers.
The beats bring good sensations. I heard this song and a complete story came to my mind. I thought: It's all here.
I’m going to make a whole song out of it. ” And DJ Pooh commented: “To be honest, I didn't do much. I just improved the bass and vocals of the song to bring a calm vibe.
It wasn't the heavy sound that Cube was used to, and I wondered what he would do with it. But then he went to the cabin and already had the story completely mapped out. ” The beat is well paced, relatively calm, and strangely evokes a feeling of both genuine joy and a melancholic and nostalgic feeling, something like a past memory, you know?
This vibe is also conveyed in the clip which, like the lyrics, details a day of Ice Cube himself, with some fictional details and others quite real. There was even a blogger in 2012 who claimed to have discovered the exact day that inspired Ice Cube: January 20, 1992. This was through some clues that Ice Cube left in the lyrics and in the video.
But sit down and, in addition to telling you the story of the clip, I'll also show you how it arrived at that date, and why it might be slightly wrong. The clip begins in this little street that is very reminiscent of Grove Street from GTA. I even saw on some website that Grove Street was inspired by the street in this clip, but I don't know if it's true.
What I know is that Ice Cube himself was the inspiration for creating Sweet, just as many other rappers were inspiration for creating characters in the game. Here we have the first clue of the date. This outfit that the girl is wearing was fashionable in the black community in the 90s.
It is an outfit from the Cross-Colours brand, which was only launched in 1989. So this day is somewhere between 1989 and 1992. This girl is not the daughter his, and much less his sister, since Cube only has one older brother.
He even had an older sister, but she was killed by her boyfriend when Cube was just 12 years old. So in this case, this family is just a fictional representation of Ice Cube's family. He wakes up in the morning, and puts his bandana on his head.
On the bedside table, we see the same skull amulet he wears on the cover of The Predator album, and a pistol Glock fully exposed. Here we already see a sign of the constant risk to life that Cube was subjected to in that environment. For him, waking up for another day was already something to celebrate.
And for that, he wakes up thanking God. But he soon realizes that there is something strange about that day. The dog wasn't barking as usual, and the city of Los Angeles, which is usually surrounded by smog - a type of pollution haze - had clear skies and horizon.
In fact, according to the Los Angeles weather calendar, January 20, 1992 was actually a very sunny day. When he went down to the kitchen, Cube discovered that his mother had prepared a different breakfast than what she usually made. This time there was no bacon, which despite being one of Americans' favorite morning dishes, is a prohibited meat for followers of Islam, a religion to which Ice Cube had just converted, and continues to this day.
After coffee, Cube received a call from a girl he had a crush on. “I made an appointment for later and headed out onto the street. And I kept thinking: am I going to live for another 24?
” Surviving in the ghetto has always been a challenge. But in the hoods of Los Angeles in the early 1990s, surviving was like winning the lottery. Cube himself spoke about these lines in a '94 documentary.
“Another 24” is slang for another day, another 24 hours. But coincidentally, Ice Cube was 24 years old when he released this song, so he may have thought of this second meaning as well. After hitting the street, Cube takes his drop-top Impala, which is slang for convertible, and just by pressing a button he can make the car jump.
These cars with modified suspension are part of a culture called Lowrider, which started with the Mexicans but was also absorbed by the black community, mainly in the 80s and 90s. In GTA, this culture is also quite strong, it even has a mission in the game so you can make the car jump, remember this one? And one of the most coveted models is precisely the one in the clip, the '64 Impala, which with this paint job and these wheels on the street was very easy to attract the attention of a thief.
“I had to stop at a red light. I look in the rearview mirror and no thief is in sight. And it’s okay.
” I think now I understand why Cube has that pissed off look on his face all the time. In the hood, this is a form of survival. Even though now, even far from this ghetto reality, that drunk face has become Cube's trademark, there's no way around it: After the light changes, he takes off with the car and receives a beep from Kim, saying that she can do it.
all night. Look: this is the face he makes when he receives this message, I think this is Ice Cube's smile. And for those born after the 2000s, beep or pager was the name of a device through which people sent text messages in the 90s.
And this Kim he talks about in the song is none other than his own wife, who is with him since that time. When asked if she was bothered by that part of the lyrics, Cube responded: “She's my wife. She never had any problems with these lyrics.
In fact, she is in love with this music. ” And who isn't, right? Ice Cube himself has already revealed that this is also his favorite.
He had scheduled the meeting for the evening, but as it was still afternoon, he decided to call his friends to find out which court they were playing basketball on. According to Cube, he arrived in the game giving people a hard time. And he even boasts that the previous week he had scored a triple-double, which is when someone scores 2 digits in 3 different statistics, something a little difficult to happen in an informal match.
In 2019, a Twitter user teased Ice Cube by asking, “I'm still trying to figure out how Cube got a triple-double in a casual game. ” And Cube responded: “It was a 2- on-2 game up to 30 points. I scored 10 points, dished out 10 assists and got 12 rebounds because they were missing so many shots.
" Last year, Ice Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr, also tweeted confirming his father's brave feat: "Tell us something about your dad “He once did well in a random basketball game with his friends. And he doesn't stop talking about it. ” And Cube had reasons to brag.
Especially because the crowd that frequented the court wasn't playing around. “Freakin' brothers every way, like MJ. I can’t believe today was a good day.
” Many people think that MJ is Michael Jordan or even Michael Jackson, but according to what he said in an interview with ESPN in 2008, Ice Cube was just paying homage to his favorite basketball player: Magic Johnson, from the Los Angeles Lakers team. So it looks like the game really went really well, and from the looks of it everything was really going great up until this point. .
. But let's see what happens next, to see if it will continue as well as it does. After the game he gets in the car and drives to his house to take a shower.
On the way he remembers that, the day before, some cowards from the hood tried to drop the steel on him. But interestingly, today they didn't want to pick a fight with Cube. This reminds me of a theory from GTA San Andreas that said that when this song played on the radio, the members of the Ballas, the rival gang, wouldn't shoot at you.
This would be like a secret detail of the game, like: Since the song talks about a day of peace, then the gangs would somehow stop attacking each other while this song plays, you know? Well, I researched several places on the internet and some people say it's true, and others say this theory is a lie, so I decided to test it. And look: I was messing around with the guys and they didn't do anything.
The bizarre thing is that as soon as the song finished, they punched me in the face and shot me mercilessly. So I think that at least for me it worked, anyone who has the game and can test it can comment if it worked too. But for Ice Cube, the problem that day wasn't with the rival gang, but with the police.
On the way home, he passes a car with two police officers who soon start following his car. The stop starts to get tense, until Cube stops at a red light. To his relief, the police officers don't even look at his face, they turn the corner and leave while Cube continues straight.
Cube manages to get home, and at the end of the afternoon, he decides to stop by the house of his homie Short Dog, also known as Shorty. This guy was a member of Da Lench Mob, Ice Cube's old group, and unfortunately passed away in 2019. When Cube gets there, he finds a few more friends, and was generally watching the show Yo MTV Raps.
The clip that was playing was for the song “True To The Game”, from Ice Cube’s previous album. Yo MTV Raps was the first MTV program dedicated 100% to hip hop. Even Ice Cube's old group, NWA, already had a special episode on this program where they performed.
Ice Cube spent the late afternoon playing a dice game called Craps, where you win when you roll specific numbers like seven and eleven. And guess what numbers Ice Cube rolled? Another number that makes you win is number 4, but you have to roll it twice consecutively.
This is a move they call “back doe Lil Joe,” and one that Cube also said he did. As it was worth money, he pocketed much cash from his homies, who were obviously not happy about it. But they still risked playing another game with the beast Ice Cube, “Bones”, which is slang for “Domino”.
In fact, “domino” is the word they traditionally shout when they win this game. In other words, he won again in this game. Here is also a reference to Ice Cube's first film, Boyz In The Hood, where he shouts this in one scene.
But Cube's greatest satisfaction up to that point was knowing that, that day, no one he knew had been killed in his area, South Central Los Angeles. In 1992, this region broke a record crime rate, reaching 403 homicides, according to data from the Los Angeles police. So a day without losing someone close was really rare, and something to celebrate.
In this part, members of the biggest gangs in Los Angeles, the Bloods and the Crips, appear gathered in a cemetery. It was precisely in 1992 that these two gangs signed a truce treaty to unite against police brutality. So here this song also comes in as an anthem of peace.
In fact, Ice Cube said that it is because of this peaceful vibe that he uses "It Was A Good Day" to end his live shows. For the crowd who got excited by the heavy songs during the show you can calm down and go home calm without any bullshit or violence. Night finally fell, Ice Cube came out with a pocket full of money he got from his friends, went to get Kim and took her to the motel.
The night started very light. They drank beer, smoked chronic, which is slang for weed, and watched the Lakers (Ice Cube's basketball team) beat the Seattle Supersonics. This last team doesn't even exist today, but back then it was a mega basketball classic.
On January 20, 1992, the Lakers actually played against the Supersonics and won 116 to 110. But here we find a problem with this theory. Cube says in the lyrics that he had been trying to have sex with her since the 3rd year of high school, meaning it would be their first time.
On January 20, 1992, Cube had already been dating Kim for 4 years, and they already had an 11-month-old baby. But Cube himself has already resolved this theory, in a moment I'll tell you what he said about it. Returning to the clip, Ice Cube says that he teased her all night, to the point that she blacked out because she was so exhausted.
At 1am, Cube carefully wakes Kim up like a gentleman, and she calls him “the top gun”. Cube takes his wife home, and on the way he takes the opportunity to ride his Impala, doing a maneuver they call “three-wheel motion”, which is when you use the lowrider's hydraulic suspension to lift just one of the front wheels. .
After leaving Kim at home, Cube remembers everything that happened, and still can't believe he was living that day. For him, it all seemed like a dream. He didn't hear any police sirens, he didn't see any police helicopters searching for criminals, and when it was 2 am, he killed his munchies by eating at Fat Burguer, an American fast-food chain.
The day was so sinister that on the way home, Ice Cube saw a Goodyear blimp and the sign said: Do you know the craziest thing about this? In 2014, Goodyear actually put Ice Cube's name on a blimp. The event was sponsored by Ice Cube himself, who, together with some friends, wanted to raise donations for a charity.
They contacted Goodyear, which agreed to launch the blimp with Ice Cube's phrase. Goodyear's only reservation is that they wouldn't use the word “pimp”. Instead, they posted messages like “Ice Cube - Today is a good day” and “Flying for a good cause.
” The good thing is that this worked, and they raised over $25,000 in donations in two weeks. And back to the clip, Ice Cube was returning home and had more than enough reasons to celebrate. He was drunk and didn't vomit.
It was late at night, and he was still receiving messages on his pager. But his biggest celebration that day is what became one of the most famous phrases in this song: “Today I didn’t even need to use my AK. I have to say, today was a good day.
” Man, look at how profound this sentence is. It only reflects the extent of the violence that many people have experienced and still experience. But just like the Goodyear balloon and many other things in this story, this part also has a hint of fiction, as Ice Cube himself has already revealed.
“No, using an AK was not part of my daily life. But I was close enough to that world to write about it. ” It is impossible to forget that Ice Cube lived at the height of gangsta rap.
So even though it's a calmer song, he had to add some more gang elements. Cube himself commented in an interview in 2005: “It Was A Good Day” was a risky song. And I wanted to show that I was aware that she was different.
There was a risk that fans would be like: “Oh, this guy is getting soft”. But I had to resolve this in a way that showed I knew what I was doing. ” That's why, before the track ends, the mood of the song changes suddenly.
On the album version, Ice Cube says, “Hey, wait a minute. DJ for this shit, what the f*** am I thinking? !
” This gives the feeling that he is returning to reality. As if everything he experienced had really been a dream. Again putting into question the theory that says it is a specific day.
In 2022, Ice Cube was asked on a podcast about this theory, and he said the following: But that sudden change doesn't just happen in the mood of the song, it also happens in the music video. When Cube is arriving home, all of a sudden a bunch of police cars, snipers, SWAT, helicopters show up and begin to surround him. Basically the guy got 6 stars in GTA, you know?
The police tell him to turn himself in, but he ignores them and walks home calmly. Now… Was he going into the house to save the game and throw off the police? I don't know.
. . After he enters, the police invade the house and the message appears: “Continue…” And indeed, the video for It Was A Good Day continues with the song Check Yo Self, which is another song from GTA.
In this other clip, the police unjustly arrest Ice Cube for murder, he goes through several fights in jail, loses his girlfriend, and after 6 months in prison ends up getting involved with a police officer who releases him from prison. Do you know the most sinister thing about this story? Cube spent a whole day doing well only to be arrested at the end, and even so that wasn't the end for him.
When Ice Cube says it was a good day, he was being grateful for not having to go through situations like "seeing someone close to him get murdered", or having to use his "AK-47". Tragedies that I'm sure most of us here have never had to go through, but that were and are the reality of many people. Cube would wake up, and he didn't even know if he could live for another 24 hours, but he was still happy to live that day.
Even when life hasn't been good to you, or you 're having a bad day, listen to this song and remember that there are still moments that can make you feel incredible and invincible. Just as the Racionais MC's say that "even flowers grow in the landfill", Cube is just showing us that life is not perfect, bad moments will exist, but if you start to see and value each of the small victories of your day- one day, maybe, little by little, things will get much better. If it weren't for this kind of mentality, some of hip hop's biggest anthems would never have been born.
The best example of this is the song Gangsta's Paradise, which only exists because the late rapper Coolio went through difficult and painful trials in the most chilling story we've ever told here. To learn more about this story, just click on this video. Thank you very much for your company, and I hope to see you in the next video.
