Ice Cube names the “best diss song” in hip-hop history
West Coast legend and one of the pioneers of gangsta rap, Ice Cube, has recently given his opinion on what he believes to be the best diss track in history. Unsurprisingly, it was written by a fellow California artist.
However, it was not Tupac’s ‘Hit Em Up’. Instead, the emcee (real name O’Shea Jackson) told a crowd of people during a recent performance that his 1991 song ‘No Vaseline’, aimed at N.W.A., is the best diss track in history.
Talk surrounding diss tracks has escalated recently following the backlash faced by Drake over his ‘The Heart Part 6’, aimed at Kendrick Lamar. The controversial song got more dislikes than likes on YouTube, and many have labelled it as one of the worst diss tracks ever.
As an LA native, one can assume Jackson supports Lamar in his battle with Drizzy. However, he believes that no diss track released since ‘No Vaseline’ even comes close to the venom unloaded on the retro rap effort.
Explaining why his 1991 track aimed at N.W.A. is the number-one diss song, Jackson exclaimed, “I’ll tell you why. One MC, myself, I took out four muthafuckas and their manager. You can’t beat that. You can’t beat that.”
He added, “But we did that over 30 years ago, so as it stands today, I got nothing but love for N.W.A, okay? Nothing but love for Dr. Dre, nothing but love for MC Ren, DJ Yella, Eazy-E rest in peace.”
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time the Lethal Injection creator has insisted his 1991 release is the best. Last year, online magazine The Root claimed that Tupac’s ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ was the best and placed ‘Ether’ in second and ‘No Vaseline’ in third. Following this, in a conversation with DJ Whoo Kid, Ice Cube dismissed the ranking as illegitimate.
Explaining why Shakur’s ‘Hit Em Up’ and Nas’ ‘Ether’ could never be the best, Jackson told the DJ, “How’s 2Pac number one when he needed help on that record?! Me, ‘No Vaseline,’ one MC. I love Nas, but it’s not [second]!”