The D.O.C. recently reflected on his friendly rivalry with Ice Cube while appearing on VladTV. The veteran rapper says that he and the N.W.A. legend would battle one another constantly during the height of their careers.
“Oh yeah,” The D.O.C. said when he was asked if he and Ice Cube would battle each other. “But, we never called it that. But, hell yeah. Every day. Because Ice Cube is much better as a writer at some things than I am. I know I can’t compete with him in that space. But, I am what’s better at certain things in that space that Cube couldn’t do, so I just hung on my thing and together, we bridged, along with the help of [MC] Ren, we sort of balanced it all out.”
He continued: “[We] came up with some really cool stuff, man. And we all helped both [Dr.] Dre and Eazy-[E] grow into what they would become as artists. You owe those three guys a lot of credit — you should be giving those three guys a lot of credit for building that movement, even though for us, it was just going to the studio, having fun every day, drinking 8 balls, talking noise. We were really creating the West Coast sound.” The D.O.C. made sure to emphasize that it was always just “friendly competition.”
The D.O.C. Discusses Relationship With Ice Cube
The D.O.C. famously served as one of the co-founders of Death Row Records along with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight. In the role, he co-wrote many songs for N.W.A. He released his own debut album, No One Can Do It Better, in 1989. Just months later, he was tragically involved in a serious car crash that permanently altered his voice. He only released two albums in the years since.
