XXL celebrates 50 years of hip-hop with this second:
March 26, 1995: Eazy-E, a rap pioneer and Ruthless Records founder, has a legacy that went down in the hip-hop historical past books. Sadly, on today, the N.W.A member died of AIDS.
Eazy-E, born Eric Wright, had an uncanny capacity to painting the infamous gang exercise and crime in Compton, Calif. with vivid precision. As half of the group N.W.A, alongside Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella, he helped gangster rap acquire nationwide publicity. It would later change into a groundbreaking phenomenon the place hip-hop pundits accepted a pure and unapologetic type. There was nothing prefer it on the time.
Eazy-E was the co-founder of Ruthless Records alongside along with his later supervisor Jerry Heller. The imprint featured a number of rap superstars together with N.W.A, the D.O.C., Michel’le and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Bone Thugs, a rap quartet from Cleveland, Ohio, honored their boss and mentor with their critically-acclaimed album E. 1999 Eternal and their traditional track “Tha Crossroads.”
“Without Eazy there would be no Bone Thugs or no Eminems, no Dr. Dres, no Snoop Doggs,” BTNH member Wish Bone informed XXL in March 2010. “There wouldn’t be none of them without the Godfather of Gangsta Rap. It’s always love so when it’s the anniversary of his passing we celebrate it like he was still here, but if he was still here we can’t say how things really would’ve went but we definitely miss him. Rest in peace, there’s always love there.”
From the late Eighties to early Nineties, Eazy was additionally seen as one of essentially the most controversial figures in rap. His fallout with Dr. Dre was extremely publicized, as the 2 went again in forth on a quantity of tracks. Dre’s 1992 debut album The Chronic contained jabs at Eazy, whereas “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” resonated for its easy photographs on the entire Death Row Records label.
Eazy was recognized with AIDS in February 1995 and succumbed to the illness solely a month later in March. He was 31 years outdated. Eazy left behind seven youngsters and made amends with all his former rap rivals like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre earlier than he handed.
Like many different legends that handed away too quickly, Eazy will all the time be without end remembered for his contributions to West Coast hip-hop.
R.I.P., Eazy-E.
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