100 Miles and Runnin'

Backstory

Whereas the EP's track "Sa Prize, Pt. 2" is a sequel to "Fuck tha Police"—the most controversial track on N.W.A's official debut album, Straight Outta Compton—"100 Miles and Runnin', rather, became N.W.A's first single to see national radio play, and its music video see national television airtime. It is the first N.W.A. project without Ice Cube and Arabian Prince. The EP attained gold sales, over 500,000 copies sold, by November 16, 1990, and on September 16, 1992, was certified platinum, over 1million sold.

Ice Cube's departure and subsequent feud

In 1989, Ice Cube, a rapper and songwriter in N.W.A, who had been paid about $32,000 so far, asked group leader Eazy-E for a meeting on money allocation. N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, Eazy's business partner, led the meeting.

At Cube's concerns, Heller offered N.W.A's five members—Eazy, Dr. Dre, Cube, DJ Yella, and MC Ren—a contract nearly unchanged, but a $75,000 signing bonus. Only Cube refused to sign it. In January 1990, he left N.W.A. In May 1990, Cube's debut solo album arrived as AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, which Spin magazine called a "masterpiece" and The Source magazine gave a full five "microphones". N.W.A's EP, written by Ren and The D.O.C., has two tracks smearing Cube.

In the EP's title track, alluding to Ice Cube, Dre raps, "It started with five, but yo, one couldn't take it / So now there's four, 'cause the fifth couldn't make it." And in "Real Niggaz", soon after Ren raps, "Only reason niggas pick up your record is 'cause they thought it was us", Dre calls Cube both "too much cargo" and the proverbial traitor Benedict Arnold.

Hosting rap TV show Pump It Up!, Dee Barnes interviewed N.W.A, promoting the EP. Later, the show's producers sent Barnes to get Cube's rebuttal. Against Barnes's warning, the November 1990 episode splices interview clips to magnify the conflict. In January, drunk at a Ruthless party in Hollywood, Dre assaulted Barnes, reputedly in payback.

Released in May 1991, N.W.A's next album, EFil4zaggin or Niggaz4Life, furthered the feud in two more tracks: "Message to B.A." and, in a few lines, the hit single "Alwayz into Somethin'. Cube's second album, Death Certificate, released in October, retorts in "No Vaseline", depicting N.W.A as sellouts screwed by Jerry Heller. Cube thus won the battle as N.W.A. never responded to the diss, ending there.

EP highlights

The 100 Miles EP previewed N.W.A's evolving sound, spare on Straight Outta Compton, and now more layered, as in the "100 Miles" track. This song's idea was from a film among Eazy's favorites, director Walter Hill's 1979 gangster film The Warriors. On the other hand, the track "Just Don't Bite It", says AllMusic, "is an alarming porno rap that at the time of its release was as explicit as anything out there, including 2 Live Crew."

From the 100 Miles EP, three songs— "100 Miles and Runnin", "Just Don't Bite It", and "Real Niggaz"—would be collected on N.W.A's Greatest Hits. "Real Niggaz" appears, too, on N.W.A's second and final official, studio album, Efil4zaggin, the backwards spelling of Niggaz4Life. On it, "She Swallowed It" as well as "Findum, Fuckum & Flee"—ahead of dozens of other rap songs in later years—sample "Just Don't Bite It", as does the punk ska band Sublime's song "Let's Go Get Stoned". Arriving in 2003, a remastered edition of Efil4zaggin fully appends the 100 Miles EP.

Track listing

All songs produced by Dr. Dre and DJ Yella:

Personnel

• Andre "Dr. Dre" Young – producer, vocals
• Lorenzo "MC Ren" Patterson – vocals, lyrics
• Eric "Eazy-E" Wright – executive producer, vocals (tracks 1, 3–5)
• Antoine "DJ Yella" Carraby – producer, DJ
• Tracy Lynn "The D.O.C." Curry – lyrics (tracks 1, 4), vocals (track 3)
• Gregory Fernan "Cold 187um" Hutchison – lyrics (tracks 1)
• Michael Sims – bass, guitar
• Brian Kilgore – tambourine (track 2)
• Donovan Smith – engineer
• Steve Huston – artwork
• Kevin Hosmann – art direction
• David Provost – photography
• Jerry Heller – management

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

;Footnotes

;Notes

References

1. Sandow, Greg. (August 31, 1990). "100 Miles and Runnin':Music Review:Entertainment Weekly".
2. "rapreviews.com review".
3. "Robert Christgau review".
4. (1992). "The Rolling Stone Album Guide". Random House.
5. Sandow, Greg. (1995). "Spin Alternative Record Guide". [[Vintage Books]].
6. Jason Birchmeier, [https://www.allmusic.com/album/100-miles-and-runnin-mw0000309738 "N.W.A: ''100 Miles and Runnin{{'-''"], ''AllMusic.com'', Netaktion LLC, visited 28 Apr 2020.
7. Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Jeff Mao, Gabe Alvarez & Brent Rollins, "Mo' beef, mo' problems: #7, N.W.A vs. Ice Cube", ''[[Ego Trip (magazine)
8. Gold & Platinum search, [https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=100+Miles+and+Runnin' "100 Miles and Runnin{{'-}}"], [[Recording Industry Association of America]] website, visited 26 Apr 2020.
9. "RIAA searchable certification database". [[Recording Industry Association of America]].
10. David J. Leonard, "Ice Cube", in Mickey Hess, ed., ''Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture'', Volume 1 (Westport, Connecticut & London, England: [[ABC-CLIO]], 2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=LldOLnIQ66cC&pg=PA301 p. 301].
11. David J. Leonard, "Ice Cube", in Mickey Hess, ed., ''Icons of Hip Hop: Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture'' (Westport, CT: [[Greenwood Press]], 2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=bXy2wTEsbCsC&dq=%22100+Miles+and+Runnin%27%22&pg=PA302 p. 302].
12. [[DJ Vlad
13. Bethonie Butler, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/07/11/dr-dre-confronts-his-1991-assault-on-dee-barnes-in-hbos-the-defiant-ones "Dr. Dre confronts his 1991 assault on Dee Barnes in HBO's 'The Defiant Ones' "], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 11 Jul 2017.
14. Newsweek staff, [https://www.newsweek.com/number-one-bullet-204074 "Number one with a bullet"], ''[[Newsweek]]'', 30 Jun 1991.
15. Vlad Lyubovny, interviewer, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdO7SJ5VGoQ "DJ Yella: All of NWA knew Ice Cube won with 'No Vaseline' "], ''VladTV''–''DJVlad'' @ YouTube, 22 Aug 2015.
16. Steve Huey, [https://www.allmusic.com/album/straight-outta-compton-mw0000653426 "N.W.A: ''Straight Outta Compton''"], ''AllMusic.com'', Netaktion LLC, visited 1 May 2020.
17. Jerry Heller w/ Gil Reavill, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jsn3pM18uJcC&q=%22N.W.A+and+the+Posse%22 Ruthless: A Memoir]'' (New York: [[Simon Spotlight Entertainment]], 2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=jsn3pM18uJcC&dq="100+Miles+and+Runnin'+"&pg=PA183 p. 183].
18. (2015-11-13). "The D.O.C. Speaks On "No Vaseline" & His Friendship w/ Ice Cube". [[YouTube]].
19. (December 22, 1990). "1990 The Year in Music".