Eazy E

Real Name: Eric Lyn Wright (RIP)
D.O.B.: Sept. 7th 1963 Compton, California – Died: March 26th 1995

Label: Ruthless Records

Eazy-E, an American entrepreneurial visionary, record executive and rapper who initially rose to fame as a member of the group N.W.A. Eazy was the sole embodiment of West Coast Gangsta Rap. He introduced the Compton panorama by way of pandemic to the mainstream media. His distinctive and influential image took over the country and became the mean mugging face of Gangsta rap for parents to be well afraid of. His true legacy to the music industry comes down the vision and faith he had in N.W.A. As a manager and business man he carried his street ethics into the industry and ran a very tight game for his crew. He was to be the label boss and manager, but after Cube penned, “Boyz N Tha Hood” he became the main focal point of the outfit. Not for his rap but his straight-up don’t-give-a-fuck swagger, a very real N.W.A. The rest followed, pitching the soundtrack of the hardcore streets of Los Angeles during it’s most volatile era in history.

Eazy’s lyrical characteristics were instantly recognisable by his high-pitched voice with careless abandonment that gave him the anti-role model identity causing much concern for the American government who tried on several occasions to shut down this iconic figure diseasing the wholesome middle-class America. Rapping openly about the cultural atrocities of the inner city of Los Angeles, focusing on the guns, drugs, the police, and misogynist lyrics Eazy became the scapegoat for the carnage left trailed behind by strong gang activity in his home-town. This also gave him the material and quintessential identity to make Eazy-E a very rich a successful industrialist of rap music. The mind of a hustler, Eazy took the streets of Compton and created a company to envelop the scene into a music label. He created Ruthless Records.

Born and raised in Compton, California, Eric Wright attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California (being bussed from South Central). He learnt the necessary skills of business by dealing drugs, of typical economic minded genius, saved the money for a legitimate venture when the opportunity arose. He was in school with Ice Cube who used to write lyrics and rap with a friend, Sir Jinx in a group called ‘C.I.A.’ performing at house parties hosted by Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young who at the time was an aspiring renowned local Compton DJ working at KDAY-AM radio station on the hip-hop show with Antoine ‘D.J. Yella’ Carraby as well as working with Alonzo Williams as a mobile DJ crew called Disco Construction & the Wreckin’ Cru. They hosted parties and dance events throughout downtown LA until 1979 when Lonzo started to run one of the clubs they worked in Eve’s After Dark in Compton. With the disco scene dropping dead, Lonzo revamped the club and set up a permanent crew starring himself on vocals, Dr. Dre and Yella on production, and Marquise ‘Cli-En-Tel’ Hawkins with Michelle ‘Michel’le’ Toussaint on additional vocals in the electro-funk group ‘World Class Wreckin’ Crew’. The group were innovative and set the trend for the next wave of the underground music scene in LA. Eve’s After Dark became a hotspot for emerging talent. Eric ‘Eazy-E’ Wright would frequent the club attracting talent to join his new venture in opening his own record label. Dre however was under contract with Lonzo and in debt to him for paying his studio time and paying off parking fines and raising bail every time Dre was imprisoned for not paying his fines.

Eazy heard this and saw the potential in this new genre of rap music. As an enterprising local drug dealer he always had pockets full of cash and ahead full of entrepreneurial ideas. At this stage Dre was working with CIA’s Ice Cube producing tracks for the group under Cube’s lyrics. They recorded in Eve’s studios. It was at this time Dre’s RX7 Mazda was impounded for unpaid parking tickets compounding to $900 for release. Without any financial mercy, Dre approached the local drug dealer, Eazy for help. With a promise to produce songs for the record label he was looking to form, Eazy paid for studio time in Lonzo’s Eve’s After Dark club. There Dre and Cube put together their skills, Dre the producer and Cube the writer, and they produced for Eazy’s first act under Ruthless Records, HBO a New York based rap duo. Eazy wanted Dre and Cube to come up with east coast influenced tracks. This had little success as Ice Cube refused to play the New York tip and wrote a dirty, descriptive, violent and expressive South Central LA ghetto anthem he called ‘Boyz n Tha Hood’. HBO walked out refusing to perform this track. Leaving Cube, Dre and Eazy with this ground-breaking hit, they suggested that Eazy learned to rap and performed the track himself. With coaching from Cube and local rapper, Lorenzo ‘MC Ren’ Patterson Eric Wright became Eazy-E that hardcore Compton rapper. By September 1987 the track was released by Eazy-E under Ruthless Records. Eazy seized his opportunity by assembling them together with The D.O.C., Arabian Prince and MC Ren forming the now infamous, ‘Niggaz With Attitude’. Eazy had captured the essence of the streets of L.A. in a 40 ounce bottle. In 1986 N.W.A. was born.

Utilising the earnings from drug dealing, Eazy and the newly formed N.W.A. act released ‘N.W.A. And The Posse’ in 1986, selling well for an underground project. Ice Cube was not available for this leaving Dre and DJ Yella to produce a heavier, slower beat with sub par lyrical content. Artists, Arabian Prince had officially left the group for unknown reasons soon after this first release. The D.O.C. would ghost write for the label in absence of Ice Cube’s writing, with Ren subbing for Cube’s vocals.

By ’87 Ice Cube returned to the group to be the foremost song writer for the group with ghost-writer The D.O.C., leaving Dr. Dre and Yella to co-produce the tracks and Eazy-E and MC Ren adding their vocals. The union was running tight like Swiss clockwork. The upcoming productions in 1988-’89 were considered hip-hop masterpieces. Eazy was organising the business side of creating a record label to unleash gangsta rap to the world. Partnering with businessman, Jerry Heller, Eazy formed ‘Ruthless Records’ from parent company Priority Records. Eazy saw himself as the group’s manager but rather than a one-dimensional impresario his image was broadcasted to the forefront of N.W.A. and subsequently the renaissance of Gangsta rap. Eazy-E became a rapper. Proving to be very unnatural to this art form, Ice Cube and MC Ren would continue to coach Eazy on his rapping skills for D.O.C. and Ice Cube’s lyrics. NWA had a man to front the group with the right epitome for this expressive element. As is the nature of any good entrepreneur, Eazy cashed in on his new-found flourishing identity and quickly released a solo LP, ‘Eazy-Duz-It’ released in 1987. Eazy laid down his distinctive lyric and gangsta phenomenon and a double platinum creation sold 2.7 million copies. Ice Cube and The D.O.C. are credited with almost writing the complete volume of lyrics for the album.

By early 1988 N.W.A. had released their finest work with Straight Outta Compton. This became a platinum-certified underground hit and sold a further two million copies after it was re-released in 1989. Considered an outbreak of a silenced generation surviving the struggles of the inner city concrete jungle warfare of South Central Los Angeles, N.W.A. reported bluntly about life in the ghetto throughout most of the songs of Straight Outta Compton. The opening three tracks conveyed a common voice from the people in Compton, South Central. The first title track showed the violent energy of the city with “Gangsta, Gangsta” describing vividly the culture of gang life. But perhaps one of hip-hop’s most controversial and misinterpreted tracks, was written after Eazy and Dre felt inspired by a real event endured with the L.A.P.D. The mistreatment they suffered at the hands of an arrest after being caught for allegedly performing a series of drive-by shootings with paint ball weapons. With such directed angst toward their local law enforcement, Dre and Eazy went straight into the studio upon their release to work on “Fuck The Police.” This introduced Eazy to an unequivocal antidisestablishmentarianism attitude toward mainstream society, a marketing genius confirmed as the catalyst for the group who now became the face of Compton gangsta rap.

The lyrics to “Fuck Tha Police” had sparked flaming controversy across American law enforcement and government. Milt Ahlerich, an assistant director of the F.B.I. sent a disparaging letter to Ruthless Records and parent company, Priority advising the group of the law enforcement’s “exception to such (fucking the police)” This publicity worked entirely in N.W.A.’s favour labelling them as ‘The world’s most dangerous group.’ The alarming rate of success to this un-American group was due to predominant sales of the Straight Outta Compton album coming from white middle class teenagers, who at the time saw a new genre for which to rebel with. This wave of unrest caused the authorities to keep a watchful eye over N.W.A. constantly monitoring the group’s lyrical content and stage performances. Banning their songs on radio stations and shows in several intolerant states grew to their infamous popularity. This promoted N.W.A.’s hardcore gangsta stature. Straight Outta Compton reached double-platinum sales success by 1990.

The climax of this story had reached its peek for N.W.A. as late 1989 saw Ice Cube part ways with the group and label, citing that partner Jerry Heller was garnering undue shares of the group’s earning at the expense of the other artists. Eazy also was blamed for taking a bigger cut. N.W.A. was depleted without the intellect of Ice Cube’s song-writing adroitness.

The remaining four in the group did not take well to Cube’s departure, continuing a tirade of diss-songs against the now solo artist on the EP, 100 Miles N Runnin and Efil4zaggin. This again became great marketing tools for N.W.A. Ice Cube released Amerikkka’s Most Wanted without retaliation on the group.

Eazy-E had assumed control of their direction, continuing the hardcore and controversial lyrics backed up by austere, negligible beats. This was not always agreed by the members, specifically Dre who became increasingly critical of the executive face of the group. Dre preferred to embrace more conventional elements into the production. Regardless, N.W.A. and Eazy-E both released an EP as well as some other side productions from The D.O.C. Eazy, for the final N.W.A. album in 1991, ‘Efil4zaggin’ wanted to include more stereotypical props for their photo shoots and videos. The use of shotguns, pistols and denim gangsta-outfits for which Dre thought to be asinine and uncreative. These differences of opinions tore away Dre from the group accompanied with accusations of financial withholding by Eazy and Jerry Heller.

On his second album, Death Certificate Ice Cube fired back at his former group by releasing the song, “No Vaseline,” proclaiming “The World’s Most Dangerous Crew” as “phonies” and Eazy-E to be a “snitch”. He also made Anti-Semitic remarks about his former manager Jerry Heller, the “Jew who broke up his crew.” He claimed that Heller cheated him and was still cheating the group, with the exception of Eazy-E. This highly damaged N.W.A.’s street credibility. Many would say this led to the group’s demise.

With persuasion from The D.O.C., Dre took a realisation to Cube’s N.W.A.-bashing lyrics and disbanded from Eazy’s group citing contractual and creative differences. N.W.A. never surpassed the success of Cube’s Straight Outta Compton writing and now without Dre’s production prowess N.W.A. could not function as a group and therefore this chapter of gangsta rap had ended with Dre’s departure. Dre left to start a solo producing and business career forming the legendary Death Row Records with Suge Knight, introduced to him via The D.O.C. When he released his first solo album ‘The Chronic’ he began a well-publicized feud with Eazy, constantly belittling him on the song and video for ‘Fuck Wit’ Dre Day(And Everybody’s Celebratin’ taunting him and calling him “Sleazy-E.” Dre’s solo project was regarded as the highest selling hip-hop album ever developed.

Eazy-E responded immediately by releasing the EP, It’s On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa in 1993 dissing Dr. Dre and displaying pictures on the album sleeve of Dr. Dre in make-up from his younger years in World Class Wreckin’ Cru. The album went double platinum. However, Dr. Dre and his Death Row juggernaut was becoming increasingly success in west coast hip-hop, leaving Eazy-E on the losing end of record sales and implausible.

Ruthless Records pressed on, having considerable success with Above the Law, MC Ren, N.W.A master tapes and the most productive and innovative group from Eazy’s label a highly successful and unique harmonic rap group, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony with gangsta rap overtones from Cleveland, Ohio.

Eazy-E was heavily condemned by many rap fans in Los Angeles and especially Compton after openly supporting Theodore Briseño, the only non-white police officer who took part in the Rodney King beating that sparked the 1993 L.A. Riots, and for attending a Republican Party fundraiser, effectively having dinner with the President of the United States of America, George H.W. Bush Sr. an unprecedented act of a so-called gangsta rapper. The FBI actually uncovered a plot by white supremacists to assassinate Eazy.

By 6.35pm on March 26, 1995 Eric ‘Eazy-E’ Wright died as a result of a complication of the AIDS virus. After entering the hospital with suspected bronchitis one month earlier, he was diagnosed with HIV, the virus that caused AIDS as a result of unprotected sex with many women through his career, fathering nine children with seven different women. He immediately announced his illness to the public. This brought former partners, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre to Eazy’s bedside to make peace with the star before passing. Dre claimed on MTV when he said goodbye to Eazy, he never answered and subsequently died. ‘Str8 Off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton’ was released posthumously. Although this album continued the feud with Dre and Death Row, it should be noted that Eazy-E made peace with Dr. Dre before his death.

Eazy-E is lived on through his nine children. Namely his oldest son, nicknamed ‘Lil Eazy’, released a documentary about his father entitled ‘The Life and times of Eric Wright.’ ‘The Impact of a Legend’ pack came with its own documentary of the same name with last remaining tracks recorded from Eazy. His wife, Tomika Wright took over the executive role of Ruthless Records, a division of Epic Records. Ruthless was home to groups, Above the Law, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, BG Knoccout and the Dresta, Blood of Abraham and J J Fad later joined the label.

LIL EAZY

Eric Wright Junior has built a reputation, admittedly piled on top of his father’s legacy but Lil Eazy is set to bring back the Compton grind as he plies his trade with the same grind and hustle his father used. The self-proclaimed Prince of Compton feels his quest is to win back the respect of his father, the west coast pioneer and iconic legend behind this gangsta-rap rollercoaster.

E Junior expressed his inspiration for the continuation of his father’s footsteps, “One day I just finally got fed up with the lack of respect my father wasn’t getting, so I decided to properly rep my pops and bring the West Coast back the way it needed to be brought back.” He continued, “It (His death) was a huge impact (on me). Losing your parent is difficult no matter how you look at it, I’ve got a lot of good memories of him just being a good dad- Us hanging out, him picking me up from school, going to Disneyland, birthday parties and all that stuff. My dad is a legend and a hip hop pioneer. He was also a good business-man and I look forward to reaching his level of entrepreneurship (that) he had.”

“(This is) my life story. My pops is always an inspiration, however, when I write, I write about my life, and growing up in the streets of Compton, and basically walking in very similar steps that my father walked in.” Futuristically predicting, “(I see myself) being a good business man like my father. (I plan on) getting into different business ventures outside of music. I plan on giving back to the community, and helping minorities with jobs the way my father did. I will have my hands into a few (other) things, yes, (but) I won’t go into details yet. However, I plan on being around for a while. I see (myself as) a very successful entrepreneur.”

Like father, like son, Lil E has already opened his own recording subsidiary, Kings Of L.A. under Virgin with his co-manager, Bruce ‘Bruiser’ Bible which is readying itself for the release of E’s début opus, Prince of Compton, affectionately titled to pay homage to his father, the King of Compton. The album features his father’s colleagues, some of the Pacific coast’s finest such as Ice Cube, The DOC, Bone Thugz N Harmony, Dr. Dre and his Aftermath protégés, Mel Man & Scott Storch, Sha Money XL to list the production credits as well as Johnny J and Megahurtz from Westside Connection.

DEAR DADDY

Another block to the building of Eazy-E’s legacy is added with his youngest daughter, Erin Bria Wright. Like Lil E, Erin, E.B. is an aspiring rapper, business entrepreneur with dreams of fulfilling the Wright heritage bequeathed by her father.

E.B. has already released several singles, including “Sixteen and Rich” produced by Eazystreet Entertainment’s own Juice accompanies her present MTV reality series, “Sweet 16”. In true Tupac Dear Mama style, at the budding age of 12, E.B. recorded the song, ‘Dear Daddy’ paying homage to her late father, the legendary gangsta-mogul. Her natural flow of lyrical delivery was a gift inherited elsewhere of her father who never considered himself to be a rapper. It was a skill honed from teachers Ice Cube and Dre. E.B. has plans of furthering the Eazy-E legacy parallel of her brother’s attempts. Similar to Dr. Dre’s children, Manaj and Hood Surgeon, whose stories share the same hopes. E.B. has the singles, ‘Sixteen and Rich’, ‘Movie Star’ and ‘Daddy I Miss You’ already running through local Los Angeles club and radio circuits.

E.B. is busy with the project of co-producing the documentary, ‘No More Lies/A Ruthless Scandal’ detailing her real life accounts of being raised as the daughter of Eazy-E along with inside truths on her father’s life and death, from a more personal perspective. E.B. is also the founder of the charity organisation, Eazystreet Kids with her mother, Tomika Wright started in 1996 helping under-privileged children in urban communities. Her creative side is also branching out into fashion, with her own clothing line called ‘Poppie Styles’ for the teenage market along wtih ‘Poppie baby’ for children. The entrepreneurial gene runs dominant through Eazy’s children. If only he was around to cherish the successes of possibly his greatest achievement to the world of hip-hop, E.B. and Lil Eazy. May the legend live on…

Eazy-E will forever be remembered through his N.W.A. group albums and solo career that put the legendary streets of Compton on the map for the world. He started the careers of some of the most respected and successful American music industry artists of all-time. All west coast gangsta rap owes a debt of gratitude to the founding father of Gangsta rap and the lead of the most controversial and revolutionary hip-hop group ever assembled. A true Compton G. - R.I.P. Eric Wright was 31 years young.

Eazy-E Discography

  • 1988 Eazy-Duz-It RIAA: 3x Platinum
  • 1992 5150: Home 4 tha Sick EP (Gold)
  • 1993 It’s On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa EP (2x Platinum)
  • 1995 Str8 off tha Streetz of Compton (Gold)
  • 1995 Eternal E (Gold)
  • 2002 Impact Of A Legend w/DVD
  • 2005 Eternal E - Gangsta Memorial Edition w/ DVD

N.W.A. Discography

  • 1987 N.W.A. and the Posse (RIAA: Gold)
  • 1989 Straight Outta Compton (RIAA: 2x Platinum)
  • 1990 100 Miles and Runnin’ (RIAA: Platinum)
  • 1991 Efil4zaggin (RIAA: Platinum)
  • 1996 Greatest Hits (RIAA: Gold)
  • 1999 The N.W.A Legacy, Vol. 1: 1988 - 1998,
  • 2002 The N.W.A Legacy, Vol. 2.