Jelly Heller was a well-known yet controversial figure in the music industry. The recent news of his passing was met with mixed reactions. But now, one of the figures who had the opportunity to work with this polemic figure told an interviewer that he’s not going lose any sleep over it.
In a recent interview with Detroit’s 107.5, Ice Cube was asked about the figure by Big Greg about the passing. Here’s how it went down. Greg spoke about Heller who was “important to hip-hop” in admittedly “some way, shape or form.” Ice Cube interrupted Greg, coldly asking him, “How was that?” causing Greg to suddenly pause his summary of the importance of Heller.
Greg nervously chuckled and replied, “I mean, well, NWA was here because of this man in a way, in a sense, okay?” Ice Cube replied sarcastically menacing yet still in a cold fashion, “Whoa, watch your mouth, man” causing Greg to reply, “Okay, okay, okay, okay,” almost retracting his statement, with Ice Cube repeating the phrase to watch his mouth at least two more times.
Amidst hearing the rapper’s sarcastic yet unserious threat, Greg told Ice Cube, “All right, so check this out. Jerry Heller passed away today. What was your take on that when you got that news?” It took Ice Cube less than a second to formulate his response as he was finishing pouring out a Coke can into his cup.
“I didn’t have no emotions, you know? I, I’m just glad I’m with my brothers today with DJ Yella. I’m glad I’m with MC Ren today. And it’s only right. So you know, I ain’t gon pop no champagne, but I ain’t gon’ shed no tears either. It is what it is, you know, we come here to pass, and he’s outta here, so, you know. I’m not, like I said, you know, I’m not, I’m not losing no sleep over that one.”
As the rapper stated the names he was glad to be with, Big Greg can be heard repeatedly stating, “I got ya, I got ya,” before finishing off with, “I understand you.” You can see the actual part of this interview below.
Ice Cube image by Eva Rinaldi, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0)
How is this relevant to anything?
Always a worthwhile question.