Brow Beat

Was This Ice Cube’s “Good Day”?

Ice Cube, having a good day.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Earlier today, putting an end to a question that has plagued cultural enthusiasts for years, we received a definitive date for the “good day” so eloquently described by Ice Cube his classic song, “It Was a Good Day.” Skateboarder Donovan Strain sifted all the clues to determine the lucky spot on the historical calendar. Writing on his Tumblr blog, Strain declared:

The ONLY day where:
Yo MTV Raps was on air
It was a clear and smogless day
Beepers were commercially sold
Lakers beat the SuperSonics
and Ice Cube had no events to attend was…    

January 20, 1992. But is that right? What about the Goodyear blimp he supposedly saw in that smogless South Central sky proclaiming that he is a “pimp”?

One Twitter user attempted to burst our bubble, citing renovations on the Spirit of Akron conducted in January ’92. (The tweet was passed along by Deadspin, who has also been on the case this afternoon.) But the Spirit of Akron is based on the East Coast (in Florida), not near Los Angeles; Goodyear also has a blimp based in Carson, California. (As it happens, 1992 is the year that the good ship Columbia gave way to the Eagle; the Spirit of America now patrols the coast for the tire company.)

This afternoon, I spoke with someone in Goodyear’s press office; she was unable to immediately confirm the location of Goodyear’s West Coast blimp on the day in question, but has promised to report back by Monday. We’ll get to the bottom of this. As a former member of N.W.A. and now a successful movie mogul, Ice Cube’s pimp status really should not be in dispute.