"Well I'm Eazy E, the one they talking about/ N***** tried to roll a dice and just crapped out..."

(Lil Eazy, Eazy's son who I met at the Power Summit '05)










I remember watching The Word (remember that Dani Behr, Terry Christian starring car-crash show) one time and they were saying how Eazy was in hospital with AID's-related illnesses (I could be wrong, but I think Mary J was on that episode?!?). A few days later, on March 26 1995, he died. He wasn't shot, he didn't die of a 'convenient' illness; at that time, Easy died of possibly one of the most socially unacceptable diseases you could have. He also died without publicly resolving his situation with Dre and Cube, although they are said to have made up at his bedside. But whether he did diddle them dudes out of money, Eazy's influence shouldn't eb underestimated. As part of N.W.A, he was a member of one of the most significant rap groups of all time. Hate them or love them, N.W.A challenged just about everything that could be challenged at that time; from their very name to the fact they were from the West coast, to the lyrical content and incendiary wordplay, Cube, Ren, Yella, Dre and Eazy were a force to be reckoned with.

I remember hearing them for first time on my mate's Walkman outside school. She had nicked the tape off her brother. I 'borrowed' it and never gave it back. I still have that tape today. Despite the music being shocking, horrific, confrontational and at times so un-PC it was beyond impossible to defend, I was instantly hooked. To this day I know every word of Gangsta, Gangsta. Now I think a little more about the implications of those words and it's actually harder to listen to know than it was then; particularly the more brutal stuff about women. But that was N.W.A; take no prisoners. Nothing was sacred.

Hearing Eazy's whiny voice was another moment in the N.W.A experience; he wasn't the best rapper, particularly when put next to Cube, but you couldn't help but be drawn to that nasal twang and insane lyricisms.

Here's a couple of Eazy's finer moments:

"What about the bitch that got shot? Fuck her. You think I give a fuck about a bitch, I ain't a sucka...'

"Straight outta Compton is a brother that will smother your mother, and make your sister think I love her...

"Now I'm the motherfucker that you read about/ Taking a life or two, that's what the hell I do, You don't like how I'm living, well fuck you."

"And I'm the E, I don't slang or bang, I just smoke motherfuckaz like it ain't no thang/ And all you bitches, you know I'm talking to you [We wanna fuck you Eazy] I wanna fuck you too.."



Here's a couple of my favourite N.W.A moments. They're the obvious tracks, but F' it, that was the shit I loved when I was 16 or whatever.

Straight Outta Compton:







Gangsta, Gangsta:






The closest we'll come to seeing Dre on a video this year (Express Yourself)