Cube had to deliver the goods, or he was done. And a fresh beef was rapidly becoming apparent, with Cube and NWA shooting verbal ammunition at each other, his former comrades attacking Cube on “100 Miles And Runnin’.” A lot was riding on the release of AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. So the East and West Coast rivalry was about to end, right? Well, not exactly, but Cube, his ally Sir Jinx and The Lench Mob all headed to NYC to create the record. But who else could deliver the roughneck, ball-breaking beats like NWA, the rulers of the West Coast jam at the end of the 80s? There was really only one guaranteed-to-spill-blood-with-funk option, so Ice Cube headed east to work with The Bomb Squad, who had been creating beats to burn for Public Enemy. Dre wanted to produce a Cube solo album, the internal politics of NWA nixed that.

And while Cube knew his funk and the noise he wanted to create on his debut album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, his experience as a producer was actually fairly limited. And it’s one thing working within a crew leaving it’s another thing entirely: you gotta build your own. But a reputation brings a problem: you gotta live up to it. He was a proven talent, writing some of NWA’s best lyrics and adding politics to their gangsta armory, with a voice like an army sergeant spitting a rebuke into your face.

Ice Cube leaves NWA and enters the solo arena.

Amerikkka39s most wanted album