Cube told Club Shay Shay that he felt that Jerry Heller managing the group and co-owning Ruthless Records was a conflict of interest. "Jerry Heller was so close to owning and running Ruthless with Eazy, that he would look out for him and not really NWA," Cube said. The D.O.C. who also wrote for Eazy E and NWA called Ice Cube the spirit of the group. "I thought that they lost it when Cube left. He was the spirit of the group", he said. "It wasn't just the writing, it was his energy and the angle that he used to approach the songs." In an interview with HipHopDX The D.O.C. said that Cube's leaving over mismanagement of finances was prophetic. "He wanted to know where the business was and, to his credit, he stepped out on his own and made it do what it do.", he said. "Really, when you think about it, that’s a seminal moment, because Cube’s leaving was a precursor to everybody else. I mean, it just showed that both Jerry Heller and Eazy just had a lack of vision, because you had it all and let it get away like that."
Ice Cube has said that leaving NWA was his biggest career risk. “It could have went all bad from there after reaching the mountain top and you just kind of throw yourself off,” Cube told HipHopDx. “So that could have went bad, but it taught me how to trust myself, trust what I see and what I believe. And I was dedicated to not letting this business change who I am.”