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Chuck D on Dr. Dre: 'He Could Do Everything Me and The Bomb Squad Did, Just Him and an Engineer'

Chuck D on Dr. Dre: 'He Could Do Everything Me and The Bomb Squad Did, Just Him and an Engineer'

Published Tue, April 4, 2023 at 3:32 PM EDT

Public Enemy frontman Chuck D appeared on a recent episode of Drink Champs with NORE and DJ EFN and discussed his early relationship with N.W.A. and producing Ice Cube's solo debut album with The Bomb Squad.

"It wasn't easy," Chuck D replied when NORE suggested that an east and west coast collaboration like Ice Cube and Public Enemy had never been done. "N.W.A on their first album did what Wu-Tang Clan did 11 years later," Chuck said. "They had a bunch of cats out there rhyming, little crews and they bunched them all together. If you look at the album N.W.A and The Posse, they wear clocks on the album cover, while they are standing on the docks. At the end of '87, we were doing shows and we kept hearing N.W.A., because they had 'Dope Man,' Eazy E had already come out, D.O.C. was from Texas and he was with a crew out in Texas [Fila Fresh Crew] and Macola Records, which was an independent record label, just took all the rappers and grouped them all together, and that was N.W.A. It was a lotta crews."

Chuck revealed that his 1987 tour was his introduction to Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.

quotes
Cube said that he got his style from me, which I got from Schooly D, and Schooly D said that he got it from Melle Mel.

- Chuck D

"In 1988, I got the test pressing for It Takes A Nation of Millions, and Dr. Dre and Eazy E were actually there in the wings. I actually handed it to Dre," Chuck said. "The next year, Straight Outta Compton comes and it's like that fast-speed muscle music. Dre was a one-man operation that could do all the shit that me and the Bomb Squad did with just him and an engineer."

Chuck says that Ice Cube wanted to do a solo album, but he was told to wait a year by Eazy and Dre. "Back then a year was a long time — we talkin' Rip Van Winkle," Chuck said. "Cube decided to do the album with us."

Check out the interview above.

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