Eazy E
Eric "Eazy E" Wright was born on September 7,1963 in the very same little city that he would make world-famous years later, Compton, CA. For him, like so many other youngsters in the same environment, it wasn't long before Eazy dropped out of school and began dealing crack rocks on the corner. This criminal behavior would turn out not only to be the source of inspiriation for his future rapping career but also the financial source for starting his own record company at the age of 23, the infamous Ruthless Records. The label was a partnership between Eazy and Jerry Heller, a Jewish businessman who Eazy met in Hollywood. Not long after the founding of Ruthless, he formed the first group to appear on his label, N.W.A. who would begin the long list of super-groups signed to Ruthless.
N.W.A. originally consisted of 5 members, one of which was Eazy himself. Jerry Heller became the manager of the group. Besides being the creator and finiacial backbone for this group, Eazy also wanted to rap, which he did in an unforgettable way on the legendary cut, "Boyz N The Hood", which was on N.W.A's debut album, "N.W.A. And The Posse". Soon after, Eazy released his first solo joint, called "Eazy Duz It". This album also contained some gems such as the foiled bank robbery with M.C. Ren in "Nobody Move". Eazy's high-pitched voice and naughty lyrics would soon earn him a place in Hip Hop immortality.Succes with N.W.A. contiuned into the next decade, and Ruthless Record grew as well, signing other groung-breaking West Coast artists and groups, such as D.O.C., Above The Law and Michel'le. 1990 marked the departure of Ice Cube from N.W.A., who accused manger Heller of squandering revenues. Eazy, who had always been closest to Heller, strongly denied these accusations. This closeness to Heller was criticized by Cube who claimed that Eazy was just Heller's puppet on strings. In 1991, after unprecedented suucess on the pop chart s with "Efil4Zaggin", N.W.A. abruptly split up when Dr. Dre had the same problems with Heller as Cube did. Again, Eazy is on Heller's side. The break up was a turning point, letting every member inlcuding Eazy, pursue their solo careers.
A month after the break-up, Eazy accused Death Row Record CEO Suge Knight of extortion, claiming that he was forced by Knight's powers of persuasion-which were allegedly a baseball bat and a few henchmen- to prematurely release Dre and D.O.C. from their contracts at Ruthless. In the court settlement, Dre and D.O.C. were released from thier contracts but Eazy would reap a certain percentage of their profits in the years to come. Considering the success of Dr. Dre on Death Row Records, it can be assumed that Eazy was quite happy with this deal.
In '92, Eazy release his first solo project in over 4 years, an EP entitled "5150: Home For Tha Sick", which had moderate success. 1993 was a controversial year for Eazy, a year in which Eazy made many waves in the hip hop community. In April, he publicly supported one of the four L.A. police officers convicted of beating motorist Rodney King, Timothy Brisenio, and later that year, he attended a Republican Party luncheon hosted by U.S. President George Bush. These acts were seen by many in the hip hop community as further signs of Eazy's career crumbling, now that his creative support-namely N.W.A.-was gone. To them Eazy's fame came thanks to the talents of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, and that as a solo artist, he was nothing more than a played-out star whose time was up.
In the midst of this negativity comes "It's On 187um Killa", an album dedicated to attacking Dre in every which way thinkable, from his lipstick and sequins-wearing past as a member of World Class Wrecking Crew to the fact that Eazy reaps benefits from Dre's multi-platinum "The Chronic" LP. He even had words for Death Row's star rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, with cracks like "you're only 60lbs when you're wet and wearing boots" and "tell me where the fuck you found the anorexic rapper". this album wnet on to sell more than 1.5 million copies.
Things cooled down in 1994 and Eazy concentrated more on expanding his label (which was estimated at more than $20 million in assets), and eased back on his solo career. He signed deals with Relativity Records, who would help market, sell and distribute Ruthless artists' releases. He also signed a new sensation from Cleveland, Ohio called B.O.N.E Thugs N Harmony, which cleverly combined gangsta rap beats and lyrics with souled- out R&B. This group would become Ruthless' biggest success since N.W.A.. Also B.G. Knoccout & Gangsta Dresta, two Compton rappers who featured on Eazy's last album, released their own LP on Ruthless.
Then in the beginning of 1995, things suddenly took a tragic twist for the 5-foot-4 Eazy E. At first hospitalized for what he believed to have been a case of chronic asthma, Eazy is found HIV positive, with the AIDS virus already active inside him. The news, released publicly on the 16th of March, spread like wildfire and put the whole nation of hip hop in check. Rappers from all over the country came to Cedar-Sinai Hospital to bring support, including long time homie Dr. Dre who came to squash the 3-year old beef between the two. Ten days after the news was made public, Eric Wright, b.k.a. Eazy "Muthafuckin" E the Hip Hop Thugsta, passed away at the age of 31, leaving millions of fans around the world in tears. Born, lived, loved and died in Los Angeles, Eazy E did not go in vain. His death has hopefully opened many eyes to the dangers of unsafe promiscuity in the 90's, and that contrary to what he said on the album "Efil4Zaggin" , Real Niggaz do Die.
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(EP-1992) |
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of Muthaphukkin Compton (LP-1995) |
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