It Was a Good Day

“It Was a Good Day” is the seventh track out of sixteen on American rapper Ice Cube’s (real name O’Shea Jackson Sr.) album: “The Predator”, released in 1992.

Ice Cube had originally recorded a demo of “It Was a Good Day” in his home studio. The track is fairly self-explanatory as it simply details Ice Cube’s ideal day, and consists of an intro, three verses, no chorus and an outro. In 2008, Ice Cube spoke to Blender magazine about the track:

“The inspiration (for “It Was A Good Day”) was my life at the time. I was at the top of the rap game. It was the summer of ’92 and I was in a hotel room, really in a state of euphoria. I had all the money I had dreamed of. I was in a good frame of mind. And I remember thinking, ‘Okay, there’s been the riots, people know I will deal with that. That’s a given. But I rap all this gangsta stuff; what about all the good days I had?”

The music video was directed by F. Gary Gray, and was originally aired on tv during March 1992. It was uploaded to Ice Cube’s YouTube channel on the 24th Feburary 2009. The music video simply follows the narrative of the story, with Ice Cube having breakfast the way he likes, sleeping with a women he likes and hanging out with friends. As of May 2019, the track has almost 99 million views.

Release Date: 23rd February 1993

Songwriter/s: Ice Cube, Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley, O’Kelly Isley Jr, Ronald Isley. Rudolph Isley & Chris Jasper

Producer/s: DJ Pooh

Label/s: Priority

Music Video Release Date: March 1992

Music Video Director: F. Gary Gray

Chart Rankings, Certifications and Accolades: In its year of release, “It Was a Good Day” went to #27 in the UK, #15 in the US Billboard Top 100, #7 in the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and #1 in the US Billboard Hot Rap Songs. It has Gold certification in the US. “It Was a Good Day” is ranked as the 81st greatest rap song of all time by About.com, as well as ranking at #77 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of the 90’s”. In 2008, VH1 also ranked the track at #28 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop”.