In the age of social media, fans feel entitled to speak their opinion on anything and everything an artist does — directly to them. Case in point, someone who clearly failed to read the fine print accused Ice Cube of “robbing” actor Faizon Love, who played “Big Worm” in the iconic Friday film. In a recent interview with Comedy Hype, Love revealed he only got paid $2,500 for starring in the movie and that was enough for people to pounce.
But comedian Michael Blackson — who appeared in the 2000 sequel Next Friday — isn’t down with the Ice Cube slander. On Wednesday (December 29), he defended the N.W.A legend with a pair of Twitter posts and seemed perfectly fine with his salary at the time.
“@icecube is not to blamed for us getting paid so little it’s the film industry’s pay scale,” he wrote. “I got paid $800 a day when I did Next Friday plus overtime I made $1200 for my one day’s work of ‘I can’t get giggy with this shit.’ Thanks to next Friday I became the biggest African comic.”
@icecube is not to blamed for us getting paid so little it’s the film industry’s pay scale. I got paid $800 a day when I did Next Friday plus overtime I made $1200 for my one day’s work of “I can’t get giggy with this shit”Thanks to next Friday I became the biggest African comic
— Michael Blackson (@MichaelBlackson) December 29, 2021
Blackson added for good measure, “When I film my movie I’m paying new actors in food and coochie, that’s my minimum wage modasucka.”
When I film my movie I’m paying new actors in food and coochie, that’s my minimum wage modasucka
— Michael Blackson (@MichaelBlackson) December 29, 2021
Love’s recent remarks put Ice Cube on the defense when someone tweeted him, “yo it’s wild how @icecube act like he for the people and whole time been robbing his own people…Pay them people @FAIZONLOVE @christuckerreal #RIPAjjohnson.”
Cube replied, “I didn’t rob no fuckin body. The 1995 Friday movie cost $2.3 million to make. Shot in 20 days. Faizon worked 1 day, maybe 2. All the actors got paid scale to do the movie. They could’ve simple said ‘No’ but they didn’t. So miss me with that shit.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Love did say he’d appear in the nearly mythical fourth installment no matter what he got paid.
“Now if I do it again, they talking about the Last Friday then, oh yeah, I’m with it,” he said. “You got a last check? If Cube said, ‘Faizon, there’s no money. I need you to do this.’ I would have to do it on GP because it was that character that brought me into the game heavy.”