ice cube is a living hip hop legend, record producer, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director. by and large the man has earned his place in history through his musical endeavors as well as his movie ventures. as far as his musical success i can’t chalk it up to anything other than pure talent and recognition of said talent. i’m not knocking him as an actor, but i believe i’ve figured out cube’s ‘formula’ for his consistent box office success…

no matter how well or poor whatever self-funded project cube vision releases does ice cube has ALWAYS made sure to create some sort of movie, usually comedy, with whoever’s the hot comedian/’funny guy’ at that time. BREHHHHH

now that may seem a little far fetched at first glance but i’ve conducted the proper research…

• Friday (1995) Starring: cube alongside Chris Tucker:: just finished his Def Comedy Jam run in ’92 as well as a minor role in ‘House Party 3’ in ’95.

• Next Friday (2000) Starring cube alongside Mike Epps:: more of a breakout role but Epps was still fairly well known from his Def Comedy Jam run.

• All About the Benjamins (2002) Starring cube alongside Mike Epps once again. this time being not nearly as successful as their previous movie together.

• First Sunday (2008) Starring cube alongside Katt Williams & Tracy Morgan:: in ’07 Katt was coming off his own comedy special called ‘American Hustle’, the success of which established him as a mainstream comedian on his way to being a household name. in ’08 Katt released his HBO comedy special ‘It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’  and had a portion of that act featured in GTA IV, both of which boosted his popularity. Morgan already had a fan base from his work on ‘Martin’, ‘SNL’, and his role on ’30 Rock’.

• Ride Along (2014) Starring cube along Kevin Hart:: the latest ingredient in cube’s foolproof formula, Kevin’s major success started back at his special “I’m A Grown Little Man” in ’09 which garnered his a very large amount of new fans. that led to him releasing a stand-up documentary of himself titled “Laugh at my Pain” in ’11 that did very well at the box office(7.7Ms). Kevin followed that box office haymaker with another one, his stand-up feature film, “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain” grossed 32M worldwide solidifying his as the #1 comedian in the world right now.

keep in mind between these major film successes(excluding ‘All About the Benjamins’ obviously) cube has done various television spots/projects, had major & minor roles in his own and others films respectively, but no matter what he seems to always align himself with whoever the populous is really in love with at the time…now i could be wrong about this being a legitimate strategy that cube & his camp purposefully employ, but the proof IS in the pudding, not hating  just presenting an observation. sometimes its not looking at the ‘bigger’ picture, but the real picture.