Friday is a 1995 comedy film set in Watts, Los Angeles, California, where star Ice Cube grew up. The film was directed by F. Gary Gray and revolves around 16 hours in the lives of two best friends: Smokey (Chris Tucker) and Craig (Ice Cube). The day after Craig loses his job, he and Smokey go through a series of misadventures on their quest to find enough money to pay off a notorious drug dealer, Big Worm (Faizon Love), who has threatened to kill them unless they pay by 10 p.m.

John Witherspoon, Bernie Mac, Anna Maria Horsford, Nia Long, Paula Jai Parker, Regina King, Tom Lister Jr. and Faizon Love (Bebe's Kids) also star.

It is also known for making the line "you got knocked the fuck out!", which is said twice during the movie, a pop culture reference.

Most of this movie was filmed in the southern-most part of South Central Los Angeles. The street that Smokey, Craig, and most of the other characters lived on is 126th Street in Los Angeles, between Normandie Ave. and Halldale Ave. Aside from some of the houses being painted different colors since the movie was filmed, the street presently looks identical to how it looked in the movie. The liquor store that they went to, where A.J. Johnson portrayed a crackhead, is located in Gardena, California, on 135th Street.

Two sequels Next Friday and Friday After Next have been met with mixed reviews.

An animated television series based on the film premiered on MTV2, on Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 9:00 p.m. ET.

In early April 2007, Ice Cube was a guest on Angie Martinez' Hot97 radio show and stated that he was interested in bringing back Chris Tucker as 'Smokey' in a possible Friday sequel, but that was only possible if "New Line cuts the check". This is unlikely as Tucker's Rush Hour sequel performances earned him over 20 million dollars per film, and the entire budget for the sequel Next Friday was only 11 million dollars . To date, Tucker himself has publicly never indicated any interest in appearing in a Friday sequel over the last 12 years. In an interview with BlackFilm.com, Ice Cube stated that he would be interested in involving all major characters from the Friday franchise in a possible sequel, but added "I know I'm not going to get Chris Tucker back, but I'd love to get everybody else back."

The movie was well-received by critics, earning 79% favorable reviews according to RottenTomatoes.com .