Ice Cube denies claims he underpaid 'Friday' stars, explains Chris Tucker's absence

Ice Cube hit back at claims on Wednesday he shortchanged his Friday co-stars, including Chris Tucker.

The N.W.A. singer was accused of "robbing his own people" on Twitter after Friday actor Faizon Love said he turned down the sequel because of a low offer. Love, known for his iconic role as Big Worm, spoke with Atlanta Black Star about how he only made $2,500 for the original film. The offer for Next Friday would be "double-scale."

"They wanted to give me double-scale. The scale was $2,500, right. So that was $5,000," he explained, purportedly with a "grimace," explaining the money wasn't enough. Instead, he accepted a role in The Replacements for $100,000.

Cube responded on Twitter, writing, "I didn't rob no f***ing body. The 1995 Friday movie cost $2.3m to make. Shot it in 20 days. Fazion [sic] worked 1 day, maybe 2. All the actors got paid scale to do the movie. They could've [simply] said 'No' but they didn’t. So miss me with that s***."

Another Twitter user replied saying he thought Tucker "quit over money," too. The Rush Hour star previously said he was only paid $10,000 for Friday. But Cube dismissed the rumor that money had anything to do with Tucker's absence from Next Friday.

"We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-$12m," he wrote, "but he turned us down for religious reasons. He didn't want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore."

A rep for Tucker didn't respond to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment, but the actor previously said weed culture triggered his exit.

"Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one is because of the weed," he said in November, according to Atlanta Black Star. "Because I said, 'Man, that movie became a phenomenon. I don't want everybody smokin' weed.' I never really told people this because I kinda forgot about it but it was one of the reasons why I didn't do it. Because I said, 'I don't want to represent everyone smokin' weed.' I kinda made it more personal than a movie and that’s one of the reasons I said, 'Nah, I don't want to keep doing that character.'"

Michael Blackson, who appeared in Next Friday, came to Cube's defense blaming "the film industry's pay scale" for his $800 a day figure.