'Barbershop' reopens with timely 'Next Cut'
Cedric the Entertainer wasn't about to book just any Barbershop appointment.
Ever since Barbershop 2: Back In Business opened in 2004, the comedian heard various ideas for a potential threequel in the hit franchise (whose 2002 original snipped $75.8 million at the box office). But it wasn't until two years ago that the scissors were set in motion, after Cedric and co-star Ice Cube read a topical new script by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver.
"Most of the time, when people get into the third or fourth installments of movies, you have a sense that everybody's just doing a money grab," says Cedric, 51, who returns as the wisecracking Eddie in Barbershop: The Next Cut (in theaters nationwide Friday). "I'm glad that we waited until now. It feels like a film that's saying something. It's funny and has a unique message to it."
Next Cut picks up a decade after the sequel with family man Calvin (Cube), who has merged his Chicago barbershop with the neighboring beauty salon run by Angie (Regina Hall). Staffed by a crop of old and new faces played by Eve, Common and Nicki Minaj, the local hangout joins forces with members of the community to host a "cease-fire," giving out free haircuts in an attempt to start a dialogue between warring gangs.
The movie's timeliness was part of what drew actor/rapper Common, 44, a native of Chicago's South Side who witnessed the devastating effects of gun violence firsthand.
"One of my close friends was shot and killed less than 200 feet from his home," Common says. "To get that call in the middle of the night, and the person on the other line can barely get the words out because they're so hurt and crying. ... Growing up, I experienced it enough to know that it's something you don't want other people to go through."
The comedy was also a chance for him to work with Cube, a new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee as a member of N.W.A. As '90s rap fans may remember, the hip-hop stars publicly feuded over a series of diss tracks, starting with Common's 1994 single, I Used to Love H.E.R., which criticized West Coast gangsta rap. It wasn't until the rappers sat down with Minister Louis Farrakhan, shortly after the Notorious B.I.G.'s death in 1997, that they made peace.
"We both understood that nothing positive was going to come of beefing," Common says. "We're more alike than we are different, and it was one of those things like, 'Man, I can't believe I was beefing with you.' I was happy he even knew who I was, because this was early in my career. I was like, 'Man, Ice Cube knows who I am.' "
They've since collaborated on a new song, Real People, which is featured on the Barbershop soundtrack and preaches unity.
For their fans, "I hope us settling our beef will be an example of 'You can get over that, because it's not worth somebody's life,' " Common says. "Who knows? One day down the line, you may end up doing business or creating something with that person."
Warning: Track contains some NSFW language.