| "No Vaseline" | |
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| Song byIce Cube | |
| from the albumDeath Certificate | |
| Released | October 29, 1991 |
| Recorded | 1991 |
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"No Vaseline" is adiss track written and recorded by American rapperIce Cube. It was released on October 31, 1991, throughLench Mob Records andPriority Records, amidst his feud with his former groupN.W.A. The song serves as the twentieth song on Cube'sDeath Certificate (1991).[3] It is Cube's response to several diss tracks N.W.A. released after his departure from the group.
Produced by Ice Cube himself and Sir Jinx, with samples fromBrick's "Dazz" andThe Average White Band's "Humpin'", "No Vaseline" is aWest Coast hip hop track characterized by its aggressive delivery and raw, unapologetic lyrics. The track accused N.W.A. members, particularlyEazy-E and their managerJerry Heller, of exploiting Cube and the group for financial gain. Cube also ridiculedDr. Dre,MC Ren, andDJ Yella, stating that they had sold out to the industry's corporate interests.[3]
"No Vaseline" was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised it for its sharp lyricism and viciousness. The UK release ofDeath Certificate omitted this song, along with the 46-second long "Black Korea".[4]
Ice Cube recorded this song in response to the comments N.W.A made towards him in their albums100 Miles and Runnin' andNiggaz4Life. He had made some brief disses to N.W.A. in theKill 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" 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 addressesEazy-E and Heller, employing particularly harsh words to criticize Eazy's decision to align himself with Heller: "Heard you both got the same bank account / Dumbnigga, What you thinkin' 'bout?"[3] He useshomophobic andantisemitic slurs[5] as he accuses both Eazy-E and Heller of unfairly exploiting the rest of the group: "You little maggot, Eazy E turnedfaggot / With your manager, fella -- fuckin' MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and Yella" and "It's a case of divide and conquer, 'cause you let aJew break up my crew",[3] and, finally, he claims that this alliance has reduced Eazy's credibility: "house nigga gotta run and hide, yellin'Compton but you moved toRiverside".[3]
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 playSilence of the Lambs."[6]
Politically, Ice Cube also references Eazy's appearance at a lunch benefiting theRepublican Senatorial inner circle, hosted by then-PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, repeatedly saying, "I never have dinner with the President."
The song appears on theDeath Row Greatest Hits compilation album. Although the song was not released onDeath Row Records (as Ice Cube was never signed to the label), it is believed thatSuge Knight 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 ofDeath Certificate and was theB-side for the album single "Steady Mobbin'".[citation needed]
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 theirsolo careers.
In 1992, the implied death threat against Heller ledRabbi Abraham Cooper of theLos Angeles Jewish human rights organization, theSimon 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 meanti-Semitic," Cube responded. "I respect Jewish people because they're unified. I wishblack people were as unified."[7]
In 1993 Dr. Dre and his protégéSnoop Dogg 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."
In 2006 Jerry Heller's bookRuthless: A Memoir, written withGil Reavill, was published by Simon & Schuster/Simon Spotlight Entertainment.[8][9] In it, Heller mentioned the song "No Vaseline" and wrote that he did not believe that Ice Cube was genuinely antisemitic, but that he had exploited prejudices in the African-American community to further his career.[9]: 137
According to a 2013 interview with Ice Cube, when Eazy-E was close to death in 1995 fromAIDS, Cube went to visit him in the hospital, Dre was walking out and told him 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.[10]
In 2022,Kanye West stated in an interview that Ice Cube's lyrics had "really influenced" him to "get on thisantisemite vibe".[11] Ice Cube responded by distancing himself from Ye's antisemitic remarks,tweeting, "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."[12]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[13] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
