The Shady Side Of Ice Cube

Publish date: 2024-05-04

Ice Cube's exit from N.W.A led to a nasty beef with his former crew and ex manager Jerry Heller, who, according to the rapper, stiffed him big time when it came to songwriting royalties. The diss track he recorded (entitled "No Vaseline") was huge, but many people took issue with the lyrics, especially those aimed at Heller. What did he say about the Jewish music mogul? "Get rid of that Devil real simple / Put a bullet in his temple / 'Cause you can't be the N**** 4 Life crew / With a white Jew telling you what to do." The track caused uproar in the Jewish community, with prominent members quick to speak out against Cube.

"I know that recording artists these days like to use the excuse that their music reflects reality, but this record is dangerous," the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a largely Jewish human rights organization, told the Los Angeles Times. "This is not a just theoretical issue here. Ice Cube is advocating violence against other ethnic minorities and given the climate of bigotry in the 1990s, we consider this kind of material a real threat." When Heller broached the subject of Cube's royalties in his memoir, Ruthless, he claimed that he only got less when he had to share songwriting credits with his bandmates. "It's not robbery," Heller wrote, adding, "It's not a Jewish conspiracy to rip off the poor artist."

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