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Ice Cube has worked with some iconic producers throughout his career. The Los Angeles rapper had the luxury of rapping over beats from Dr Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince during his NWA days before going on to work with Sir Jinx, the Boogie Men, DJ Muggs, QDIII, and many others as a solo artist in the ’90s. But for Cube, only one set of producers takes the crown.

Cube released his first solo album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, in 1990 on Priority Records. The album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum that year, backed by the title track as the single. The project is considered a hip-hop classic, thanks partly to the production team behind it, The Bomb Squad, best known for their work alongside Public Enemy.

The group consisted of Bill Stephney, Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, Eric ‘Vietnam’ Sadler, Gary G-Wiz, and Public Enemy’s Chuck D, credited as Carl Ryder. In addition to Ice Cube, they produced music for Slick Rick, LL Cool J, Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, and Run DMC.

During his appearance on The Combat Jack Show, Cube called The Bomb Squad his favourite producers. They produced most of the 16 tracks on AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, except ‘Better Off Dead’ and ‘It’s a Man’s World’.

“The Bomb Squad was… they’re the standard,” he said. “When it comes to sampling [in] that era, nobody could do it like The Bomb Squad. They was mad scientists. They were dudes who were more creative. Their beats hypnotised you.”

“Sonically, [they are] on a whole ‘nother level. These dudes were geniuses with sampling and putting music together in that era. I know I worked with Dre, but The Bomb Squad is my favourite producers. ‘Cause they were what [NWA] was trying to emulate in a lot of ways with Straight Outta Compton, [which has] a lot of them break-beats.”

He added, “The start of [that record] is ‘Bring The Noise’. We’re using these same break-beats to create our stuff because we’re so influenced by Public Enemy.”

Ice Cube then opened up about the difference between NWA and Public Enemy. “They were, to me, more politically-focused than NWA,” he explained. “We got one or two [political songs]; they got 30, 40. Our focus was just a little different than theirs. They had knowledge of self; we were still mental zombies, as far as our place in the world. We was just thinking that the police was the biggest obstacle, until we got the letter from the FBI.”

He continued, “Then, we started to really understand our place in the world, and me personally, started to understand what it is to be black at that time. These dudes helped us get over the hump with that. I’m always [saluting Public Enemy].”

The ‘No Vaseline’ rapper also praised Chuck D as his all-time favourite MC. “Chuck is my favourite rapper of all time, because of message and content,” he said. “[Those skills in Chuck D are] off the meters compared to any other rapper in the game. Salute to Chuck; he really kicked this off.”