Following the success of N.W.A's debut album Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube left the group in 1989 after he felt he wasn't fairly compensated for the work he did on the album, per AllMusic. However, his N.W.A pals didn't appreciate his pursuit for a solo career and bashed him on several of their tracks. Ice Cube retaliated through rap and infamously slammed the group on his track "No Vaseline," where he rapped, "You lookin' like straight bozos / I saw it comin' that's why I went solo / Kept on stompin' / When y'all muthaf***as moved Straight outta Compton / You got jealous when I got my own company / But I'm a man, and ain't nobody humpin' me." He also directly addressed N.W.A.'s song "100 Miles and Runnin" — specifically the lyrics reading, "We started with five, but yo / One couldn't take it—So now it's four / Cuz the fifth couldn't make it." On his own record, Ice Cube rapped, "I started off with too much cargo / Dropped four n****z and now I'm makin' all the dough."
Despite both parties addressing their feud through music, Dr. Dre didn't appreciate the attention over their rift. After hip-hop show Pump It Up covered their drama, Dre allegedly assaulted the show's host, Dee Barnes, per Rolling Stone. "People talk all this s**t, but you know, if somebody f***s with me, I'm gonna f*** with them," Dre explained at the time.
