Eric Wright, known to the world of music as Eazy-E, passed away of AIDS the week of 20 March. Wright, who was 31, entered LA's Cedars-Sinai hospital on February 24. He went for a lung problem. When he was diagnosed as having full-blown AIDS, Wright made no bones about it. He was the first rapper ever to admit such status.
Eazy is the same sort of loss as Kurt Cobain, which is to say he transformed the music around us. His voice was as unique as that of Nirvana's leader. And his group, NWA, created "gangsta rap". They also re-deployed the word "n*****": as pop discourse.
Eazy-E co-founded NWA with a set of friends: MC Ren, Yella and Dr Dre. The latter, soon a "dope" producer, was once a schmoozy charmer in the World Class Wrecking Crew.
For NWA's products, Wright founded a company of his own: Ruthless Records. (It is received knowledge, still believed today, that Ruthless was funded by cocaine-dealing profits.) Early on, its records came from a plant so small the press was run by hand. And, at first, fans thought the name meant "No Whites Allowed". Yet NWA emerged as N*****s With Attitude. They soon had a string of smashes, which were soon filtered through larger labels: Priority, Warners and Atlantic.
One of the group's biggest hits was "Express Yourself" (124k). And its chorus sampled a song by Eazy-E's Dad. Charles Wright wrote his "Express Yourself" in 1970, for Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Rhthym Band. Ice Cube updated it, Eazy and producer Dr Dre added lots of bass -- and the song became poetically perfect homage.
This was not least because the phrase "express yourself" runs deep in black American culture. Harlem Renaissance poets wrote lines like "Speak up Ike, and 'spress yourself." The saying embodies Afrocentric use of repetition, and the African view: that life is at once progress and repetion. NWA's lyrical update was trenchant:
"Blame it on Ice Cube
'Cause he said it
Gets funky
When you have a subject and a predicate."
Wright was somewhat similar to the
early James Brown -- able to accrue a talented stable of professionals. By 1989, Ruthless
product included: six Dre-helmed rap LPs, three of them gold and heading for platinum,
and an "uncensored" NWA video album. That year, the five members of NWA each took home
six-figure salaries.
Eazy was like the Godfather in other ways. He was physically short of stature. Plus, says Jerry Heller, the white biz veteran who became his manager,
"He was the most Machiavellian guy I ever met. He instinctively knew power and how to control people. And his musical instincts were infallible."
So were Wright's social instincts. NWA's "Fuck The Police" made them notorious, as an underclass anthem. So did their unflinching reportage, with its many profanities. Eazy had an explanation ("Im a reporter, man, I'm writing pulp fiction"). Yet another hit track, "The Boyz-in-the-Hood" (88k), inspired a young PA on television's Peewee's Playhouse. John Singleton wrote a hit film based on its images. And that film -- a mega-hit -- contains stunning performances: notably from Laurence Fishburne (Peewee's "Cowboy Curtis") and NWA's Ice Cube.
Eazy's short life stayed full of controversy. He fathered seven children by six women, lunched with President Bush in the White House, and survived the acrimonious split of NWA. (Ice Cube, in 1990, was the first to leave). Rumours of an NWA reunion, surfaced some while back. And, less than two weeks before he died, Wright got married.
During the week of 20th March, the star drafted his last message to fans. He died as the sort of activist that he was in life, survived by his HIV-negative wife and son. But Ruthless Records, the company that he founded has announced they will release his pending rap project. It is a set of 70 songs, many collaborations. The parties involved are truly diverse, ranging from rap-world stars to Axl Rose, of Guns and Roses fame.
