Hip-Hop turns 50 years old this year. Five decades of poetry flowing perfectly over beats that’ll make you think or move your feet. In honor of the milestone and celebration of Black Music Month, let’s discuss the connection between Ice Cube’s classic ’90s film Friday and the hit song “It Was a Good Day.”

Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson Sr., was a member of N.W.A, one of the most influential rap groups ever. After departing, his solo career took the success he saw in the group to an entirely new level. In the ’90s, according to the media, Ice Cube was ”controversial,” but to many fans, he was (and still is) the kind of person who could not be silenced.

However, there was a different side of the artist that people weren’t used to seeing, and we saw that in the film Friday and the music video for “It Was a Good Day.”

In an interview with the Austin American-Statesman newspaper in 1995, Ice Cube spoke about how he’d always wanted to show a different side of South-Central Los Angeles than what was established in the media.

“I want to let people know that comedy is a big part of life in the neighborhood and that there are a whole lot of good times mixed in with the bad times,” he said.

The music video for “It Was a Good Day” was chill, and despite being told that it wasn’t “serious,” it inspired the idea of Friday, which the rapper wrote while on tour in Europe, according to the 1995 article.

“I knew this type of film would work after the success of my video. People told me not to make that video because [it wasn’t vintage Ice Cube], but I felt it was important to show that side.”

By “vintage Ice Cube,” they meant mean-looking and “hardcore.” On Friday, the rapper’s character was laid back. He still had a mean mug, but there was a much softer side shown, one that resembled the music video.

The movie was centered around two friends and their shenanigans on what they thought would be a typical chill Friday. South-Central Los Angeles was seen in a much less intense light between the plethora of jokes and lessons in the movie and a peek into everyday life in the music video. And that was Cube’s intention.