100 Miles and Runnin'

''100 Miles and Runnin'' is an EP from the American gangsta rap group N.W.A. Released on August 14, 1990, this EP of five tracks reflects an evolution of N.W.A's sound and centers on the single "100 Miles and Runnin'."Jason Birchmeier
"N.W.A: ''100 Miles and Runnin' '' "
''AllMusic.com'', Netaktion LLC, visited 28 Apr 2020. Two tracks, "100 Miles" and "Real Niggaz," incidentally incited N.W.A's feud with Ice Cube, who had left to start a solo rap career.Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Jeff Mao, Gabe Alvarez & Brent Rollins, "Mo' beef, mo' problems: #7, N.W.A vs. Ice Cube", '' Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists'' (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1999)
p 238
The porno rap track "Just Don't Bite It," also drew notice. Pushing lyrical boundaries in its day, the EP went gold in November 1990 and platinum in September 1992.

Backstory

Whereas the EP's track "Sa Prize, Pt. 2" is a sequel to "Fuck tha Police"—the most controversial track on N.W.A's official debut album, '' Straight Outta Compton''—"100 Miles and Runnin'," rather, became N.W.A's first single to see national radio play, and its music video see national television airtime. It is the first N.W.A. project without Ice Cube and Arabian Prince. The EP attained gold sales, over 500,000 copies sold, by November 16, 1990, and on September 16, 1992, was certified platinum, over 1 million sold.

Cube's departure

In 1989, N.W.A member Dr. Dre, its label Ruthless Records' prime record producer, did all tracks on Ruthless rapper The D.O.C.'s album. By May 1991, feeling underpaid, Dre left Ruthless. But still in 1989, Ice Cube, a prime rapper and ghostwriter in N.W.A, who had been paid about $32,000 so far, asked group leader Eazy-E for a meeting on money allocation.David J. Leonard, "Ice Cube", in Mickey Hess, ed., ''Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture'', Volume 1 (Westport, Connecticut & London, England: ABC-CLIO, 2007)
p 301
N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, Eazy's business partner, led the meeting.

At Cube's concerns, Heller offered N.W.A's five members—Eazy, Dre, Cube, DJ Yella, and MC Ren—a contract nearly unchanged, but a $75,000 signing bonus. Only Cube refused to sign it. By 1990, he had left the group and its label. In May 1990, Cube's debut solo album arrived as ''AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted'', which ''Spin'' magazine called a "masterpiece" and ''The Source'' magazine gave a full five "microphones."David J. Leonard, "Ice Cube", in Mickey Hess, ed., ''Icons of Hip Hop: Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture'' (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007)
p 302
N.W.A's EP, written by Ren and The D.O.C., has two tracks smearing Cube.

Feud with Cube

In the EP's title track, alluding to Ice Cube, Dre raps, "It started with five, but yo, one couldn't take it / So now there's four, 'cause the fifth couldn't make it." And in "Real Niggaz," soon after Ren raps, "Only reason niggas pick up your record is 'cause they thought it was us," Dre calls Cube both "too much cargo" and the proverbial traitor Benedict Arnold.

Hosting rap TV show ''Pump It Up!'', Dee Barnes interviewed N.W.A, promoting the EP. Later, the show's producers sent Barnes to get Cube's rebuttal.Bethonie Butler
"Dr. Dre confronts his 1991 assault on Dee Barnes in HBO's 'The Defiant Ones' "
''The Washington Post'', 11 Jul 2017. Against Barnes's warning, the November 1990 episode splices interview clips to magnify the conflict. In January, drunk at a Ruthless party in Hollywood, Dre assaulted Barnes, reputedly in payback.

Released in May 1991, N.W.A's next album, ''EFil4zaggin'' or ''Niggaz4Life'', furthered the feud in two more tracks: "Message to B.A." and, in a few lines, the hit single "Alwayz into Somethin'." Cube's second album, ''Death Certificate'', released in October, retorts in "No Vaseline," depicting N.W.A as sellouts screwed by Jerry Heller. Cube thus won the battle, ending there.

EP highlights

The ''100 Miles'' EP previewed N.W.A's evolving sound, spare on ''Straight Outta Compton'', and now more layered, as in the "100 Miles" track. This song's idea was from a film among Eazy's favorites, director Walter Hill's 1979 gangster film ''The Warriors''.Jerry Heller w/ Gil Reavill,
Ruthless: A Memoir
' (New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2007)
p 183
On the other hand, the track "Just Don't Bite It," says AllMusic, "is an alarming porno rap that at the time of its release was as explicit as anything out there, including 2 Live Crew."

From the ''100 Miles'' EP, three songs— "100 Miles and Runnin'," "Just Don't Bite It," and "Real Niggaz"—would be collected on '' N.W.A's Greatest Hits''. "Real Niggaz" appears, too, on N.W.A's second and final official, studio album, ''Efil4zaggin'', the backwards spelling of ''Niggaz4Life''. On it, "She Swallowed It" as well as "Findum, Fuckum & Flee"—ahead of dozens of other rap songs in later years—sample "Just Don't Bite It," as does the punk ska band Sublime's song "Let's Go Get Stoned." Arriving in 2003, a remastered edition of ''Efil4zaggin'' fully appends the ''100 Miles'' EP.

Track listing

All songs produced by Dr. Dre and DJ Yella:

Personnel

* Andre "Dr. Dre" Young – producer, vocals
* Lorenzo "MC Ren" Patterson – vocals, lyrics
* Eric "Eazy-E" Wright – executive producer, vocals (tracks 1, 3–5)
* Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby – producer, DJ
* Tracy Lynn "The D.O.C." Curry – lyrics (tracks 1, 4), vocals (track 3)
* Gregory Fernan "Cold 187um" Hutchison – lyrics (tracks 1)
*Michael Sims – bass, guitar
*Brian Kilgore – tambourine (track 2)
*Donovan Smith – engineer
*Steve Huston – artwork
*Kevin Hosmann – art direction
*David Provost – photography
* Jerry Heller – management

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also

*''Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films''

References

;Footnotes

;Notes

External links

* (review of album)
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:100 Miles And Runnin'
1990 debut EPs
N.W.A EPs
Ruthless Records EPs
Priority Records EPs
Albums produced by Dr. Dre
Albums produced by DJ Yella