Many know about the feud that occurred between N.W.A and Ice Cube. Why? Because it culminated in one of hip hop’s most savage diss tracks. Whether it’s because Dr Dre said something to Jerry Heller or Ice Cube mentioned the crew in an interview, the rapper and his former crew were hurling accusations at each other consistently for the best part of two years.
However, when Ice Cube released ‘No Vaseline’, he made more than a statement and some major allegations. Ice Cube grew up with some of the N.W.A members he was dissing, and even once considered Eazy-E and Dr Dre to be his friends. However, that was in the past when ‘No Vaseline’ hit the airwaves of LA in 1991.
Cube’s diss track took aim at his former bandmates, Eazy-E, Dr Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella and their manager, Jerry Heller. In the track, he tells Dr Dre to stop rapping and “stick to producing” and, on multiple occasions, accuses the crew members of sodomy. ‘No Vaseline’ is a ruthless and vicious diss track. Its main line is, “you’re gettin’ fucked out your green (money) by a white boy with no Vaseline”.
However, despite the track, no living members of N.W.A hold any grudges presently. Cube and Dre even reunited on stage again after 27 years at Coachella in April 2016. Talking to radio personality Howard Stern in 2016, Ice Cube, speaking on making amends with Dr Dre, stated, “We just went forward. We’re gonna always be like that. I don’t care if we don’t talk to each other for 10 years, when we see each other, it’s gonna be like yesterday.”
The rapper, though, has admitted he doesn’t regret recording the track one iota. In an interview on the Late Night Show with Seth Meyers, Jackson revealed that “There’s always been this and, you know, me and NWA got into it, so I had to let ’em know”. The rapper admitted, “It’s hard to listen to those songs now, ’cause we cool, I love Dre and Ren and Eazy…you know they’re my guys!”
