So no, it doesn’t look like the two ever patched things up
INDIO, CA – APRIL 23: Recording artist Ice Cube performs onstage during day 2 of the 2016 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Weekend 2 at the Empire Polo Club on April 23, 2016 in Indio, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)
Jerry Heller was instrumental in helping the late Eazy-E form Ruthless Records and overseeing N.W.A’s rise. But royalty disputes made Ice Cube leave the group in 1989, with no shortage of bad feelings on both sides. His solo cut “No Vaseline” torched the World’s Most Dangerous Group, and helped Heller into the archetypical example of the thieving music executive.
While Cube and the surviving members of N.W.A have patched things up, it doesn’t look like he and Heller ever buried the hatchet. After the manager’s passing over the weekend, Detroit radio station Hot 107.5 asked Cube about his feelings about his former business partner. His response was a resounding meh.
“I ain’t gonna pop no champagne, but I ain’t gonna shed no tears either,” Cube said. “It is what it is. We come here to pass, and he’s outta here. I’m not losing no sleep over that one.” Watch a clip of his comments below.
Dr. Dre hasn’t commented, but N.W.A’s progeny shared some words. Ice Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr. (who played his father in last year’s Straight Outta Compton biopic), was a bit more sympathetic. “Of course, [Heller] had his moments where he was the champion for the group of N.W.A, and he does deserve credit for a lot of the good that he has done,” Jackson Jr. told TMZ. “But if it wasn’t nothin’ shady, it’d be way better… the good that he did do, I’m not gonna say it outweighed the bad. Rest in peace.”
