•Information
•Multimedia
•Interaction
•Quick Linkz
•Vote for TLD
•Miscellaneous
•Staff
E a z y E
(b. Eric Wright, 1963; d. 1995) West Coast rapper who founded his Ruthless Records label reportedly with proceeds from drug dealing. Ruthless debuted with Eazy-E's solo album Eazy-Duz-It (1988), a proto-gangsta album that sold half a million copies. The following year Eazy assembled the combustible N.W.A, hip-hop's most successful collection of talent. Post-N.W.A, the diminutive Eazy-E and his manager Jerry Heller were viciously lampooned in raps by the N.W.A members most often credited with the band's success, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. Although Eazy-E made inexplicable gestures like befriending Officer Theodore Briseno (one of the policemen in the Rodney King case) and, in 1991, attending a $2,500-a-plate fund-raising luncheon with President Bush, Eazy-E remained one of hip-hop's top entrepreneurs. His assets included a Ruthless solo album (it's on [Dr. Dre] 187Um Killa--heavily influenced by Dr. Dre's production style), now diamond vocal group Bone Thugs N Harmony, and a fiercely contested contract that gave him ongoing royalties participation in the careers of Dre and Cube.
On March 26, 1995, amid rumors of an N.W.A reunion, Eazy-E's died of AIDS, reportedly leaving behind seven children by six different women. His death mobilized the rap world to respond to the epidemic with several benefit concerts. Eazy-E's own death-themed posthumous album,"Str8 Off Tha Streets of Compton" contained a paean to condomless sex.
T
H
A
R
U
T
H
L
E
S
S
G
A
N
G
S
T
A
E
A
Z
Y
M
U
T
H
A
P
H
U
K
I
N
E
