Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual misconduct has been put under a spotlight over the past year, but now rapper Ice Cube is coming forward to accuse the disgraced movie mogul of sketchy business tactics.
A fan took to Twitter to praise Cube’s 2009 film, “Janky Promoters,” which the former N.W.A. rapper, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson, took to heart because it allegedly hadn’t been given the proper release treatment by Weinstein.
“This movie is bitter-sweet for me. We never had a chance to finish or promote Janky Promoters. Harvey Weinstein and his brother put this movie out on DVD behind our backs before we could finish the film. They actually had editors finish the movie in secret. #JankyStudioHeads,” Cube tweeted.
“Janky Promoters” starred Cube, Mike Epps and Young Jeezy as young promoters who overcome various obstacles in order to try to get Jeezy to perform at a concert they planned.
Another fan saw Cube’s tweets and requested the rapper-actor recut and rerelease the film, but he said he already had tried to fix it.
“Search for the directors cut. My attempt to salvage the movie… Its [sic] much better to me,” he wrote. “Very underground. Not released in too many places.”
In 2010, Cube opened up to A.V. Club about how Weinstein and his company “f–ked” him and “Janky Promoters.”
“The Weinsteins f–ked me. [Laughs.] Yeah, basically, they f–ked me. They was runnin’ through financial problems, so they couldn’t put the movie out on wide release. And they told us we could sell the movie to another company, give them their money back—I had money tied in that movie—and then release it wide,” Cube explained. “While we were making the deal over here, they put it out on DVD over there. And I found out because somebody told me, ‘I just got the DVD for ‘Janky Promoters.'”
“I went through the roof.”
Cube maintained he had no idea what the Weinstein brothers were doing with the movie.
“It was the shadiest s–t that ever happened to me in the movie business,” he said.