"No Vaseline" is a
diss track
A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...
by American rapper
Ice Cube
An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be produc ...
from his 1991 album ''
Death Certificate''.
The song was written and produced by Ice Cube and
Sir Jinx.
The UK release of ''Death Certificate'' omitted this song, along with the 46-second long "Black Korea".
The song contains vicious lyrics and remarks towards Ice Cube's former group,
N.W.A
N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered ...
, which Ice Cube left in December 1989 due to royalty issues. The antagonists are his former bandmates,
Eazy-E
Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. He is often referred t ...
,
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...
,
MC Ren
Lorenzo Jerald Patterson (born June 16, 1969), better known by his stage name MC Ren, is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer from Compton, California. He is the founder and owner of the record label Villain Entertainment.
MC Ren ...
,
DJ Yella
Antoine Carraby (born December 11, 1961), better known by his stage name DJ Yella, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer and film director from Los Angeles, California.
DJ Yella began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru a ...
and their manager,
Jerry Heller
Gerald Elliot Heller (October 6, 1940 – September 2, 2016) was an American music manager and businessman. He was best known for his management of West Coast rap and gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A and Eazy-E. He rose to prominence in the 1960s a ...
, whom Ice Cube blames for causing the rift in the group.
[
]
Information
Ice Cube recorded this song in response to the comments N.W.A made towards him in their albums ''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: ...
'' and ''Niggaz4Life
''Niggaz4Life'' (also known as ''Efil4zaggin'' as per album cover art, stylized in all caps and horizontally mirrored) is the second and final studio album by gangsta rap group N.W.A, released on May 28, 1991. It was their final album, as the grou ...
''. He had made some brief disses to N.W.A. in the '' Kill at Will'' EP, mocking the phrase "hundred miles and running" on "Jackin' for Beats" and ending "I Gotta Say What Up!!!" with an answer-phone message asking what had happened to the other members of the group, which leads to Ice Cube hanging up on the caller.
The first minute of the song is a reference to N.W.A's "Message to B.A.", in which they call Ice Cube "Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...
" as well as an " Ice-T wannabe". Ice Cube then begins his full-blown diss on the group and their manager, Jerry Heller.
Ice Cube addresses Eazy-E
Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. He is often referred t ...
and Heller, employing particularly harsh words to criticize Eazy's decision to align himself with Heller: "Heard you both got the same bank account / Dumb nigga, What you thinkin' 'bout?".[ He uses homophobic and ]antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
slurs as he accuses both Eazy-E and Heller of unfairly exploiting the rest of the group: "You little maggot, Eazy E turned faggot
Faggot, faggots, or faggoting may refer to:
Arts and crafts
* Faggoting (metalworking), forge welding a bundle of bars of iron and steel
* Faggoting (knitting), variation of lace knitting in which every stitch is a yarn over or a decrease
* F ...
/ With your manager, fella -- fuckin' MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and Yella" and "It's a case of divide and conquer, 'cause you let a Jew break up my crew",[ and, finally, he claims that this alliance has reduced Eazy's credibility: " house nigga gotta run and hide, yellin' ]Compton
Compton may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Compton (electoral district), a former Quebec federal electoral district
* Compton (provincial electoral district), a former Quebec provincial electoral district now part of Mégantic-Compton
* Compton, Que ...
but you moved to Riverside
Riverside may refer to:
Places Australia
* Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania
Canada
* Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon
* Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta
* Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...
".[
Heller is not simply dissed as being a bad manager; he is given an antisemitic death-threat: "Get rid of that Devil real simple / Put a bullet in his temple / ’Cause you can’t be the Nigga 4 Life crew / With a white Jew telling you what to do / Pulling wools with your scams / Now I gotta play ''Silence of the Lambs''." "A bullet in his temple" is a ]double-entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially a ...
, referring both to a fatal shot to Heller's head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
and also to a shooting at a Jewish temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
or house of worship; the movie ''The Silence of the Lambs'' is about a killer.
Ice Cube continues the homophobic slurs as he refers to his decision to leave Ruthless Records
Ruthless Records was an American record label founded by Eric "Eazy-E" Wright and Jerry Heller in Compton, California in 1986, where all of the Ruthless trademarks have been owned by Comptown Records, Inc. since 1997. Several artists on the la ...
: "Lookin' like straight bozos, I saw it comin', that's why I went solo ... You got jealous when I got my own company. But I'm a man, and ain't nobody humpin' me."
Politically, Ice Cube also references Eazy's appearance at a lunch benefiting the Republican Senatorial inner circle, hosted by then-President George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
, repeatedly saying, "I never have dinner with the President."
The song appears on the ''Death Row Greatest Hits
''Death Row Greatest Hits'' is the first greatest hits album and second double album released by Death Row Records. Released on November 26, 1996, the thirty-three song compilation contains hits by former and then-current Death Row artists as ...
'' compilation album. Although the song was not released on Death Row Records
Death Row Records is an American record label that was founded in 1991 by The D.O.C., Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, and Dick Griffey. The label became a sensation by releasing multi-platinum hip-hop albums by West Coast-based artists such as Dr. Dre ('' ...
, it is believed that Suge Knight
Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight Jr. (; born April 19, 1965) is a American former music executive, convicted felon, and the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. Knight is considered a central figure in gangsta rap's commercial success in ...
included it as an act of animosity towards Dr. Dre as the song includes numerous disses towards him. "No Vaseline" was track number 20 in the track listing of ''Death Certificate'' and was the B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
for the album single " Steady Mobbin'".
Aftermath
N.W.A never responded to the song as a group. Not long after the release, Dr. Dre left the group, citing lack of monetary compensation. This led to N.W.A's dissolution as its members went on to start their solo
Solo or SOLO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Comics
* ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series
* Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics
Characters
* Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character
* Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...
careers.
In 1992, the implied death threat against Heller led Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
Jewish human rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, to observe, "We're not asking Ice Cube to mask the reality of the streets. By all means flag the social problems, but don't exploit them by turning a professional spat between a former manager and an artist into a racial dispute." "It's wrong for the rabbi to call me anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
," Cube responded. "I respect Jewish people because they're unified. I wish black people
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
were as unified."
In 1993 Dr. Dre and his protégé Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
dissed Eazy-E in the song " Fuck wit Dre Day (and Everybody's Celebratin')" and also referenced Heller in the video, prompting Eazy-E to respond that same year with "Real Muthaphuckkin G's
"Real Muthaphuckkin G's," or "Real Compton City G's" in its radio edit, is a song released in August 1993 by American rapper Eazy-E with guest rappers Gangsta Dresta and BG Knocc Out. Peaking at #42 on ''Billboards Hot 100, and the most su ...
"
In 2006 Jerry Heller's book ''Ruthless: A Memoir'', written with Gil Reavill
Gil Reavill (born 1953) is an American author, journalist and screenwriter whose work has appeared in a variety of media.
Early and personal life
Reavill was born in Wausau, Wisconsin and educated at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Unive ...
, was published by Simon & Schuster/Simon Spotlight Entertainment. In it Heller mentioned the song "No Vaseline" and wrote that he didn't believe that Ice Cube was genuinely antisemitic, but that he had exploited prejudices in the African-American community to further his career.[Jerry Heller, Gil Reavill, 2006. ''Ruthless: A Memoir''. p. 137. Simon Spotlight Entertainment. ]
According to a 2013 interview with Ice Cube, when Eazy-E was close to death in 1995 from AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
, Cube and Dre visited Eazy in the hospital. Cube stated Dre claimed that Eazy was unconscious. Cube left the hospital without seeing Eazy and told Dre to call him when he woke up. Dre later called Cube and told him that Eazy had died.
In 2022, Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
stated in an interview that Ice Cube's lyrics had "really influenced" him to "get on this antisemite vibe". Ice Cube responded by distancing himself from Ye's antisemitic remarks, tweeting
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, ...
, "I don’t know what Ye meant by his statements, you’re gonna have to ask him. I didn’t put the batteries in his back. Please leave my name out of all the antisemitic talk. I’m not antisemitic and never have been."
Certifications
Samples
* "Dazz
"Dazz" is a song by R&B/funk band Brick. "Dazz" is a combination of disco, funk and jazz, hence the title "Dazz", a combination denominator for "Disco Jazz". Released in 1976 from their debut album '' Good High'', it would become their bigges ...
" by Brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
* " Vapors" by Biz Markie
* " Atomic Dog" by George Clinton
* "Hit by a Car" by Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...
* "Turn Off the Radio" and "Better Off Dead" by Ice Cube
* "It's My Thing" by Marva Whitney
Marva Whitney (born Marva Ann Manning; May 1, 1944 – December 22, 2012) was an American funk singer commonly referred to by her honorary title, Soul Sister #1. Whitney was considered by many funk enthusiasts to be one of the "rawest" and "brass ...
* "To Da Break of Dawn
"To da Break of Dawn" is a single from both LL Cool J's fourth album, ''Mama Said Knock You Out'', and the soundtrack to the Kid 'n Play movie ''House Party''. The song was released on June 17, 1990 by Motown Records and Def Jam Recordings.
Back ...
" by LL Cool J
James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, along ...
* "Dope Man
''N.W.A. and the Posse'' is a compilation album, re-releasing N.W.A and associated groups' underground rap songs from the Los Angeles area's rap scene on November 6, 1987.Roni Sarig, ''Third Coast: Outkast, Timbaland, and How Hip-hop Became a Sou ...
", "8 Ball", "A Bitch Iz a Bitch", "Message to B.A." and "Prelude" by N.W.A
* " Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" by The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...
See also
*List of notable diss tracks
The following is a list of diss tracks, songs the primary purpose of which is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist.
Traditional recordings
YouTube
These diss tracks are known for their distribution via the YouTube platfo ...
References
{{authority control
Ice Cube songs
1991 songs
Songs written by Ice Cube
Diss tracks
Gangsta rap songs
N.W.A
Songs against racism and xenophobia
Songs based on actual events
Antisemitism in the United States
African American–Jewish relations