All language subtitles for NWA.Eazy-E.Kings.Of.Compton.2016

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[dog barking]

>> Compton, California.

September 7th, 1963.

Eric Wright was born.

Just a boy, he hustled
to survive the streets.

And this boy, he had a dream.

They called him Eazy-E.

He took America
through the streets of Compton

for an unforgettable ride.

Eazy-E, widely regarded
as the king of gangster rap,

rose to fame
as the controversial founder

of N.W.A. and Ruthless Records.

A certified gangster
and crack dealer,

he created a new music style

that spawned
a billion-dollar industry,

selling over 50 million albums.

This is the personal story
of Eric Wright.

>> "Yo,
this is me on New Generations

and, uh, come follow me now.

Come on.

"Eazy-E."

>> "MC Ren
with a bite like tin-tin."

>> "Dre, the motherfucking
Doctor."

>> "Yella boy."

>> "D.O. motherfucking-C.
in the house."

>> "Yeah, you know it."

>> "You gotta carry these
or you get fucked up

on the street.
So we gotta be prepared."

>> "And this got an infrared
scope on it.

You put the dot on your target.

Then you blow the shit
out the motherfucker.

No joke."
[gunshot]

>> "We figure it like this,

we make our records based

on stuff that's happening
where we live, you know?

And people out there
that don't like it, fuck 'em."

>> These guys
largely came out of --

not all of them --
but largely came out, I mean,

as the album name. You know,
straight outta Compton.

I mean, these were guys
from pretty tough neighborhoods

and a pretty tough part of LA.

In some sense, normal life,
you know, ceased to exist.

Um, the economy was so bad
that nobody had work.

And on top of the bad economy

came this new form of-of
cocaine, crack.

>> There was a lot of drugs

in, uh,
in the 60s.

Early 60s and late 70s
especially

is when the Compton dope
exchange kinda took over.

>> If you were a young kid, uh,
you couldn't work jobs.

I mean, the programs

that provided jobs
for younger kids were wiped out.

And they're stuck there.

And then you have
this wave of crack

coming through the community.

So it was pretty-pretty
horrible circumstances for-for

most of these guys.

>> After high school, that's
was when it really picked up.

You know? Different gangs.

This neighborhood
is one color, this ...

you know?

>> Things started
to change dramatically.

>> Do you know
what triggered that?

>> Dope.

>> "Today,
there is a new epidemic.

Smokable cocaine,
otherwise known as crack.

It is an explosively destructive
and often lethal substance

which is crushing its users.

It is an uncontrolled fire."

>> These new gangs,
they had no-no boundaries.

They -- I mean, they just
murdered for the,

just the thrill of murdering.

They-they killed just to say
that they killed somebody.

>> Dre knew Eazy
from the same neighborhood.

Cube stayed by Dre's auntie.

Actually right next door.

>> I kinda got into the drug
thing, you know ...

Just, there was this guy
named Horse, big dude,

and it was Eazy's cousin.

Now, I knew Eazy as --
just as little Eric.

He'd just come around 'cause
that was his cousin.

And Eric would do most
of the deliveries and stuff.

His cousin got hit,
he got killed.

And there were some ...

how we say,
some pharmaceuticals hidden.

And that's how Ruthless really
got started

because E the only one

who knew where it was at.

>> Eazy made his money, um,

by being a street pharmacist
at this point.

>> By being a street pharmacist

you know how to deal
with everybody.

You get that lingo,
that mentality.

And by the weight
that you're carrying

with the amount of product
you've got, comes with respect.

>> You know, he was a guy
in the neighborhood

you didn't mess with.

>> He was well-respected,

he was, uh, well-liked
by a lot of people.

Certain times, you --

certain people have a persona.

Or we-we call it
like a light around 'em

that-that seems
to draw people to 'em,

and he was that kind of a guy.

That just seemed to, uh,
to draw people to him.

You know, a guy
that you could tell

was gonna be somebody.

>> "Ice-T, you know,
he-he kicked a little knowledge.

And KRS-One, he kicks
a lot of knowledge.

And Public Enemy.

You know, them kind of groups,
you know, they draw attention.

You know what I'm saying?
They-they go against the grain.

And that's the types
of groups I like.

You know, that go
against the grain."

>> Realistic, Radio Shack.

Shit that don't match.
You know what I'm saying?

I had it back then,
so we would-we

would play the old records.

>> All with them it was a big
dance scene.

This locking and popping,
Soul Train kind of dancing.

>> The thing
in LA back then

in the early
80s was you were a DJ,

but you also made records.

>> And then a new form
of music emerged in New York

in the late 70s,

early 80s
and that migrated, kind of,

fitfully across the country
to LA.

>> Back then, there was
no hardcore rap back then.

It was all, more up-tempo
on the West coast, dance music.

So we were all doing this,
kind of, electro.

What we called electro.

What's electro now is not what
we called electro back then.

We called electro, funk.

>> Eazy and Dre had a DJ crew
called the High Power Crew.

And Dre used to do
parties and Eazy

would, like, someone
would pay for the equipment.

>> It all started at Eve

after Dark on Avalon,
El Segundo upstairs.

>> Back then from the time
we started to the time

we, you know, ended,
it was packed.

There was sweat on the floor,
there was sweat on the walls,

people were partying
all night long.

I mean, non-stop dancing,
non-stop partying.

It was just-just crazy
vibe going on.

>> Uh, another buddy
of mine named Tim brought Dre

to my attention 'cause

Dre lived with his Grandma,
not-not far from the club.

About this kid
who was, you know,

doing all these fantastic mixes,
and I need to check him out.

So I had the hottest jocks
in the city, you know,

Yella and The Unknown

and myself.
And he was,

you know, he was doing
some different kind of things.

So Tim brought him up.

>> There really wasn't no west
coast rapping.

Until the Wrecking Crew
there was no other groups.

And that kind of, like,
influenced us.

At the club we used to DJ.

We had them down
for little concerts

and we were just seeing
how simple it was.

A person rapping
over our record.

So that was our goal
right there.

Once we seen RUN DMC come down,

that was the start
of us doing music then.

>> RUN DMC
at the LA Sports Arena.

And they had lasers and shit.

And that just blew my mind.

That was when I really realized
that this could really be big.

This could be rock 'n roll.

Because prior to that,
rap was just in clubs,

rap was in basements,
in garages and rec centers.

It wasn't in arenas.

But when I saw that, I'm like,

"Yo.

Yo! This is huge!"

>> Well, one of the things
that-that emerged

at the Swap Meet
in South LA County,

the Roadium Swap Meet,
was a music store.

Run by a guy
who was a grad student

at Cal State in psychology.

This guy's name was Steve Yano.

>> His spot was the place
to go back then.

For the mixed tapes
and for, you know,

whatever hot record
was out right then,

he had it back then.

So you go to the Roadium,
go straight to Steve's spot,

pick up your stuff.

So he knew everybody

because all the DJs
would come through there.

>> Oh, he was the business.

Steve was the business.

>> I just heard on the street
Dre's releasing these dope-ass,

you know,
underground mixed tapes.

And I was like, "Really?"
He goes, "Yeah.

Uh, he's releasing
through a guy named Steve."

And I was like, "Steve?
Where at?"

And he goes, "Steve
at the Roadium."

>> Mixed tapes
started back in the day

when, uh, these guys Dre,

Yella, um ...

with Lonzo Williams they-they

were the Wrecking Crew
at that time

and they did
the KD Traffic Jams.

And, um, Lonzo had a group
called the Wrecking Crew

of which Dre, Yella, Clientelle,

Lonzo himself were
all a member of.

And I'd go by there
to ask them, "Hey,

if I bring you some records,
could you do that?

Could you, you know, kind of
hook it up the way

you're hooking this stuff up?"

They said, "Sure,
bring-bring your records

and, you know, we'll,

um, we'll mix you up a tape."

>> When we was doing mixed tapes
for the Swap Meet

we was doing 'hood shit
on the mixed tape because

we knew that would only
sell in the 'hood.

>> Eazy, uh,

at the Swap Meet
he would come by

and, uh,

Eazy was kind of a quiet guy.

He would very modestly come up
to the stand, look,

uh, through all the records

just like
any other customers I had.

Dre's name would always come up.

And he knew Dre because he went
to high school with him

and they were-they were,
kind of, they were buds.

And he would say,

"Oh, you know, that's
my homeboy's tape,

and he does the scratching
and he does ..." this and that.

He said tell him Eric came by.

And I said, "Oh, ok, sure."

>> Eazy had been gone
for a while

and came back to the
neighborhood looking for Dre.

And every week he would
come back to the Swap Meet

and say, you know-you know,

"Hook me up with Dre!
Hook me up with Dre!

Give me his numbers."

Finally, one night Yano
gets a call at home

at 2:30 in the morning,

and it's Eazy and Dre.

>> These guys get on the horn

and ...

two in the morning I get a call.

And we're on a three-way.

Eric wants to open
a record store

and Dre's wants
to start a record label.

>> And Eazy was in Dre's ear

telling him
how he's gonna get him paid,

blah blah, blah,
blah, blah.

Dre and them are looking
at all the money

that RUN DMC are making.

You know, LL Cool J,
and all he wears is a pair

of pants and tennis shoes.

That's it.
He don't want no shirt, okay?

And we got to go, you know,

iron stuff and wear
sequined clothes.

And got jerry curl juice
and activator.

>> We didn't make any money
from that group so,

we were just thinking of
another way to make some money.

And along came this group.

>> The fight became, um,

when they wanted us
to change our groove up.

And I was-I was open
to suggestions,

but I just couldn't do
the radical change.

Go from being a Temptation
to, uh, Tupac.

You know? That was too much
of a drastic change for me.

>> The beginning of N.W.A.

It was more the ending
of the Wrecking Crew.

That's when Dre
came to me and said,

"Hey, we started this group.

Leave the Wrecking Crew."

So, you know, we just left.

We just left.

>> Then Lonzo was out.

Then that's when Eazy
turned the tables

and we got another route
to go with Eric.

>> "We just decided to do it.

It worked.
You know?

And nigga's a genius."

>> You know, they just put, uh,

two and two together
and there ya go,

you got Ruthless Records.

>> "Mastermind.
You know, Eazy-E is the reason

why we had the style
that we had.

The hardcore gangster rap."

>> At first Eazy was into it
because he wanted the money.

You know, because Eazy was
all -- Eazy liked toys.

He wanted stuff.

But then he liked the music.
You know?

He really got into the music.

And I think he got
into the fame.

He liked the attention.

The attention was, like,
you know, a thing.

>> He had Dre
and them, you know,

he had Dre all over the place,
you know, doing things

and making money.
Okay?

Dre went from getting
whatever he could from me

whenever I had it,

to 100 grand a year
as a new producer.

>> Me and Dre
did all the producing.

You know, all of the producing.

The writing was Ren.

Cube wrote the words

for Eazy's "Boyz-n-the-Hood."

And then Eazy would just show up
and do the work.

He didn't do writing.
Nothing.

He would show up,
take six hours

on one line.
You know, do the work.

But it was his sound
of his voice.

That was the key to the group --

was his sound.

>> Dre couldn't play
an instrument of any kind,

but he had a great ear.

And he was -- he-he knew
the history of-of rock 'n roll

and R&B really well.
And Jazz.

He listened to his mom's record

collection
since he was a little kid.

>> He always had the gift
for music, even back then.

I mean, there was something,

it's kinda hard
to explain what it was,

but it was something
he could hear.

It was like he could hear

further than
what the record was.

The record stops here,
he can hear farther.

>> Ice Cube was the-the
intellectual center of it.

He was the lyricist.

The guy who-who was
much more aware

of the world around him
than the other guys.

And, you know, look him up,

this was a kid from
the Crenshaw District

who gets on a bus
every morning at 7 o'clock

and gets sent to the Valley
to go to high school.

Taft High School in the Valley,

which was like going
to another planet.

And he says riding that bus just
filled him with anger every day.

He'd just look out the window

and see what people had
out there that he didn't have.

And none of the people
he knew had.

Um, and, you know,

when you're 17 years old,

you tend to be pretty
pissed off anyhow.

What he saw was rank injustice

and it angered him.

So clearly that
informed the lyrics.

And the first record

they were going to produce was
by a-a duo from the east coast

who came out.

And Dre had a song for them.

They didn't like the song
so they walked.

And so Eazy and Dre
are sitting there

with an empty studio

that, um, Eazy
has to pay for.

And so Dre says, "Why don't you
do the song," to Eazy.

And Eazy says,
"I can't rap man,

come on, what are you
talking about?"

And Dre says, "Ah,
come on, try it.

You're paying for it anyhow,
you might as well try it."

And so he does it,
and it's "Boyz-n-the-Hood."

>> E would have to do
so many takes.

Like, a million takes.

We were like,
"Come on Eric, just get it."

He's like,
"I'm trying,

I'm trying!"

>> There was
this record-pressing plant

up on Santa Monica Boulevard
called Macola Records.

And it's -- it was
an interesting place.

Because you could-you
could go in there,

for 500 bucks the guy
would make you 1,000 records.

>> Because you could walk
to Macola

with your tapes
in your hand

and your label copy
on a sheet of paper,

and have a record by Friday.

>> Dre had --
has a genius mind to make --

bring out the-the smallest
amount of talent in anybody.

So if you have
that in the bomb production,

he was able
to create an Eazy-E

with that deep little
demonic voice that he had.

You know, he had, like,
a really street demonic voice.

So he made that voice

over these eerie
gangster tracks,

which, you know,

which the conversation,
the combo on it, was ill.

So it-it took over the game.

So it was kind of
like that was his creation.

But-but it was Eazy's money
and business savvy.

You know what I mean?
So you need the both of them.

One without the other
is not happening.

>> Eazy had everything.

And he put his own money
into it, went to Macola,

pressed them up.

And he -- Eazy
was so cold he would say,

"Go get some money --
go get some money

and go buy some records
and sell them yourself."

>> "Boyz-n-the-Hood"
had just dropped, you know,

during the time I started going.

And it was doing good,

but they were still selling 'em
out of the trunk of their car.

>> That they brought
their records

to was the Swap Meet.

You know? They'd walk up
to the stand, "Yo, Steve!"

You know?
"I've got this new record."

I put this record on.

I played this thing
over the course of a week,

and I could tell you if
that thing was gonna be a hit.

>> And I remember
when I first heard the word

"motherfucker," you know,

on-on the record.

I was like, "Holy shit,
did he just say that?"

I mean it was just so --
that's the one thing

that a lot of people
don't understand.

That when they brought
that into rap songs --

at least in my,

you know, in my book --
that had never been done before.

It was just so street.

It was just so hardcore that,

uh, when I would hear them cuss
I would just kind of,

like, look around like,

"Man, are they
gonna allow that?"

You know? "That shit
is crazy right there.

You know what he's saying?"

>> When they came
out it was-it was-it

was kinda like
a double-edged sword.

You know? It was a lot
of positive and negative

that came out of it
at the same time.

Because the positive side
is that, you know,

shit, they put us
on the map.

Then it was like,

they know a motherfucker
from Compton in China right now.

>> "You know,
talking about the hood,

letting people know
how we felt about it.

You know?
How we was just really, uh,

looking for a release, man.

Looking for an outlet to-to
release some of the shit

that was pent up
inside-inside of us.

And-and rapping let us do that.

You know?
So that shit was pure, man.

'Cause I'm telling you,

we didn't know
it was gonna sell.

We just thought
people in the 'hood

would like the record.

It was straight from the heart.
That's why it did what it did."

>> At the end of the day,
turntables would be out.

I'd be dropping
the pegboards down,

pulling the records off.

I flipped the pegboard
over to the shiny side.

Okay?

Button them up next
to each other.

DJ scratches.

And here these kids come out
and start break dancing.

Unbelievable.

Woulda never believed
this woulda happen.

>> "Steve at the Rodium.

He would call us.

'Man, I'm out of tapes,

can you all do another one
next week?'

We'd be like, 'Alright.'

We just rapped some 'hood shit
and send it to him,

and they'd fly.

>> I'm a firm believer that
if it wasn't for them

building up a lot
of street credibility,

getting the respect
of the streets

before, you know,
the albums came out --

if they would have never done
those mixed tapes,

I don't think they would be
as huge as they are,

you know, today.

>> The business side
for Ruthless

was right at the beginning,
right after "Boyz-n-the-Hood."

It was a Ruthless Record,
but it wasn't really a business.

He had to sell it out
of his car and stuff like that.

The business side came,

you know - He was
just a rapper,

he wasn't a writer, no music,

and he won't be in the studio
like me and Dre for 12 hours.

He did all the business side.

>> Ruthless was at first
just a title.

You know what I mean?

But he owned it.
See one thing

when he's business,
he had it on paper.

Ruthless Records.
It was his.

>> Eazy had a serious
business side.

You know?
He-he-he was a creative genius.

He was a visionary.
You know? That's how --

that's why Ruthless Records
was so-was so successful.

You know, he-he had the --
he had a vision.

He knew what he wanted,
you know what I'm saying?

He had the kind of attitude
to where, like,

"If I want it I'm gonna get it."

>> Without any evident ...
you know,

no training whatsoever,
really, was apparently,

according to people
who knew him then,

was a natural businessman.

>> I don't give a damn
how much talent you did --

had-had at the time,

you couldn't have done it
without Jerry.

All these guys made this money

and these careers based
on his initial efforts.

None of these sons of bitches
coulda did it without him.

>> Heller started hanging
out there, meeting these kids

who were coming there
doing this, looking for talent.

He was always
looking for talent.

Eazy knew about Heller.
Heller knew nothing about Eazy.

Heller and Lonzo were friends.

And Eazy started bugging Lonzo
for an introduction to Heller.

Lonzo agreed
to make the introduction

if Eazy would pay him for it.

>> I introduced him to him,
picked up a few bucks.

Did an introduction
and stepped off.

>> And Heller tells a story

that, um, he paid him
in the lobby of Macola Records.

Reached down in his sock
and pulled out 750 bucks

and gave it to Lonzo
and said, "Get out of here."

>> Now it's the time
for the companies

to fight for us.

We actually tried
for Island Records.

They had the first opportunity.

>> I had never heard anything
like that before in my life.

I mean, it was just a window
into a world that I --

it was just completely
foreign to me.

And it was exciting,
it was dramatic,

it was electrifying.

Eazy and, um, Dre
came up to my office.

And they both walked in

and Eazy was just,

you know,
he was this little guy,

but he-he was like 10 feet tall.

He was so confident.

>> I had a radio show
called "Life is Hard."

And what "Life
is Hard" was-was --

the format was anything hard.

It was everything from Slayer

to Public Enemy's first record,

uh, to Ministry.

All the -- I mean,
it was just --

the only criteria was

that it just had to be
really hard and brutal music

>> So I sent it
so him and he just,

same reaction as me.

Completely floored by the song.

>> And I can remember playing it
that first time.

I had just gotten the tape
in the mail that afternoon,

so I didn't have a time --

have a chance to, um,
clean it up.

And the song hadn't been
on the air probably 30 seconds.

And all eight lines
on the telephone

lit up with these people

calling going, "Who
the fuck is that?"

>> He started getting a lot
of phone calls and,

uh, people complaining.

And the next thing
you know it's, uh --

I'm not sure if the FCC
got involved or what,

but he did get fired.

And, uh,

and then it became
a big press story in Dallas,

which is where the station was

and where Jeff
lived at the time.

And, um, so I told Dre
and Eazy about Jeff.

"Poor Jeff got fired."

He played it but it was
the first air play

they had gotten outside of LA.

By that time
Jerry Heller had come

into the picture, it wasn't just
[INAUDIBLE].

So Jerry was really more
involved in the negotiation.

And it pretty much in the end
came down to him saying,

"Make it 300
and you got the deal.

If not, then I've got a cousin
over at Priority

and I can take Michel'le
and J.J. Fad to Atlantic."

And, uh ...

and our lawyer
called his bluff and said,

"No, 250 take it or leave it."

>> Priority came along

and said Eazy can use
his label, name,

everything on the record.

>> "Eazy-E is definitely
the Godfather.

I know there's a few people
out there that-that

had their things going on,
like Ice T and Schoolly D,

but ain't nobody
harnessed it like, uh, Eazy-E.

You know?

He-he harnessed that shit
and made it blow."

>> And it taught me how to learn
how to treat people

when you in this business.

And it's just, like,
you know, he always told me,

"Be about your business,

get your money right.
Do that.

But you gotta learn how to treat
people in this business."

And I think that's
something that I learned.

And that's something that a lot
of artists and CEOs,

they don't really capture that.

They too caught up.

>> Eazy was large

because here was this little
black inky-ass nigga

to come along and say
what the hell he say,

and know mechanicals,
points, breakdowns.

The intelligence of this person
being from Compton.

He's dangerous.

>> He-he's really savvy
when it come to business.

So he's --
he, you know,

looks at things as --
he looks at the future

as opposed
to what's happening now.

You know? He already has a plan
from what I'm seeing.

You know? It's like,
he makes the right decision.

You know? More so than a lot
of the cats in the game.

>> "But he was Ruthless.
He was the entity itself.

The-the vision
behind it, the drive.

There were a lot
of other elements

as far as talent,

but the direction,
the business mind

and everything, it was Eric."

>> He knew from the beginning
how to-how to do business.

And you wouldn't ever guess that
somebody like this would fit

into the-the music world,

which is one
of the most, sort of,

closed-off business groups
in the country.

>> He was the whole person
behind the concept.

Because what it was, was Eazy
would tell us stories about,

you know, Dre, Death Row,
all these things.

And that's how he came up
with the lyrics.

>> If he was white,

a lawyer, in the --

in our business world today,

he'd be in Forbes.

>> And these people had been
doing the same thing forever.

And Eazy, in five minutes,
was-was part of it.

>> I went one day
and he had bought DJ equipment

and all just ... stuff.

And I'm out here just doing
what I gotta do, you know?

And, um, I remember it was,

like, back in the day,
county people got the bunch

and said, "I'm out, you do it.

I don't wanna
do it no more."

I said, "What you gonna do?"

He said, "I'm gonna rap."

Rap? Okay.

I'm gonna rap on
down the street for mine.

And I left.

Eric was like, you know,
a business man.

He seen an opportunity.

Dre's coming
with a deal of music,

and he saw a way
out of the dope life.

>> He did the album.

It didn't take that long,

about a month to do.
Straight Outta Compton.

>> There wasn't a lot
of sampling in it.

You know? If we wanted something
in the track,

we'd go get
a guitar player to play it.

You know what I mean?
Or a bass player to play it.

Or if we wanted a flute, we'd
get a flute player to play it.

Because that's
what made it sound better.

I think that our record
was so scary back then

because the conservatives,

the politicians,
the middle America,

had never heard about Compton

or heard about
any cities like that.

>> And these white kids
in the suburbs

would hear that
and it scared the shit

out of them at first,
but then they were like,

"Whoa, man, that's amazing!"
You know?

And they went from, you know,

listening to whatever crap
they were listening to,

to listening to N.W.A.
You'd drive down the street

and you'd hear these white kids
listening to N.W.A.

full blast
in their car and shit.

>> The rich kids wants to know
how they do it in the ghetto.

And that's why you might sell --

that's why you sell
so many records in the suburbs.

But you need that ghetto stamp.

>> It was something that
they had never heard before.

And the music had
such a broad influence.

It had the hip-hop in there,

it had the electro in there,
and it had the rock in there.

Because we had a lot of guitars
in a lot of our songs.

And, you know, even the kids
who didn't like rap

could identify with
the power of the music.

>> It exploded into the-into
the wider culture.

The suburbs, white suburbs

was where N.W.A.
was the most popular.

>> One day
I remember I was driving

on Compton Boulevard
coming from work.

I had on my little uniform.

And I saw a SWAT truck.

And I'm like,
"Man ..."

I'm nosy, you know?

I wanna know.

I go in the alley
and I see his girlfriend.

She's just standing there.
It was one of his baby's mamas.

She's standing in the alley.
And I'm like, "Joyce,

what happened?"

She said, "They're
shooting a video."

I said, "Who?"
She said, "Eric!"

And he's stand --
I looked down at the thing

and he's standing there
in the middle of the thing --

remember those old
big brick banana phones?

He's standing there
holding the phone.

And I -- you know,
she said, "Eric, look!"

And he looked at me,
and I walked up to him

and the first thing
I could say was,

"I was wrong, bro.

You did it."
He says, "See, I told you!"

He said, "What you doing now?"

I said, "Man,
I'm working welding."

He said, "You don't want
to do that no more."

I quit the next day.

And me and him, from then
on we was rollin'.

>> I would say 1989 the tour.

Everybody loved the tour.

Not just the fans.
I mean everybody.

The crew members,
the light members, everybody.

We knew girls
that would do very,

I would say, freaky things,

for a pass.

>> The energy, the vibe
was-was incredible, man.

I mean, I-I
would be backstage, okay?

When everybody
was getting ready.

And for them getting ready
was throwing on their lows,

fixing their Raiders hats,
drinking 8-ball,

getting really
fucked up, you know?

"Okay, it's time!"

You know?
"Let's go."

You know, uh, Yella

would run up there,
play the intro beat.

You know?
Then guys would come out.

I remember Dre -- Ren and Dre
would come out first, you know?

And then, uh,
Cube would come out,

and then Eazy
would come out last.

>> From the minute they walked
on stage it was just slamming.

You know? I mean, everything
was just tight as shit.

You know? But that first time
they rolled through,

they were still
kinda getting it.

>> They would pull people
up on stage.

I remember guys putting up

their Compton jackets,
you know, showing it off.

But the crowd was just,
like, so crazy.

I can actually say
there's very few --

I could probably
count on one hand,

performers that I've seen

that-that I can say,
"You know what?

There will never be
another show like this again."

>> "Compton's in the house!"

>> "Hey, yo, check this out,
check this out, check this out."

>> "Whassup?"
>> "How many of you all ladies

like seeing my man dance?

All right then."

>> "I don't think
a record can influence somebody

into doing a crime.

If that type
of mentality was there,

they was gonna
do the crime anyway.

Regardless of the record or not.

What I say, they play a lot
of rock 'n roll,

you know what I'm saying?
With the satanic stuff.

And Madonna.

She can get on there half naked.

But when they-when they see
something real from, like,

the black community
or whatever ...

what's going down with
the situation about the police,

you know,
they-they want to ban it."

>> The world reacted to N.W.A.

the way it always reacts
to something like this.

In horror.

Um, and as I said before,

you could have a movie
with the same content and nobody

would think twice about it.

But all of the sudden you've got
this new form of music

that is terrifying to parents.

Uh, terrifying apparently
to some police officers.

Um, terrifying in a way

that if they'd
taken five seconds

to listen to it they'd have
known not to be terrified by it.

>> "You know,
we figure it like this.

We make our records
based on stuff

that's happening
where we live, you know?"

>> If I took myself

and placed myself
into their 'hood,

into their lifestyle,
where they grew up,

and into their surroundings,

all they were doing
was talking about their life.

>> N.W.A. was talking about fuck
the police for a reason.

Because we were
in Compton, you know,

getting assaulted by police
even at, you know,

the young age
of 10, 11,

and 12, man.

You know, they talked about,
you know,

just all the violence,
you know what I'm saying?

You know that N.W.A. is like --

before N.W.A.
it was just hip-hop.

After N.W.A. it was
gangster rap.

There was a new genre of music.

>> You lived in Compton
or you lived in the 'hood,

you could be driving down
the street minding your business

and you'd get pulled over
for nothing!

Sat on the curb
for nothing,

sweated,
your whole car searched.

And you're like, Let's see.

I woke up, I left the house,

I went to the Swap Meet,

and I got pulled over
and sweated for an hour.

For no reason.
Or, My boy got jacked

and beat up by the police.

Or, he got -- you know?

We were just pretty much
telling stories.

And then there was the
crackheads in the neighborhood,

and the drug dealers,
and the drug heads.

So everything that we saw,

we just are, "Hey man,
let's write about that.

Let's talk about that.
That's cool."

>> "We're shooting a video

and Eazy was hanging out the top
of a '64 Impala.

And, uh, since he was
hanging out the top,

the police knew
we was doing a video,

they still gave him a ticket."

>> "Rap star
Eazy-E

will be able
to film portions

of a video in Compton after all.

But during a heated city
council meeting last night,

the mayor dressed down Eazy-E
for ruining the city's image."

>> "We believe now
that we have come up

with an agreement

that would allow these gentlemen
to shoot their video

without depicting women
as whores,

without depicting African
American men as animals."

>> And they,
like, so many people

gravitated towards it, like.

And that's why you see
all those people in the video.

Because people just start --
I guess the initial people

who came, everybody
started calling people.

"Come up here!
Come up here."

And the video was crazy.

I think it was a five-day shoot.

We was all throughout Compton,
all in my neighborhood.

>> "Eazy-E
will still remain Eazy-E,

but we not going

to portray Compton
as a bad city,

'cause Compton is a good city."

>> When you in Compton,
when you from Compton,

when you born in Compton
and it's happening right there,

you are a part of the music,
you know what I'm saying?

So everything the N.W.A did
that -- you know,

that's sort
of like what you embody

as a Compton resident.

So it's not like,
"What did it for you?"

It's like, "I lived through it."

>> "Killings, robbery, murder --

thieving, and everything.

The whole nine yards.

Dope-dealing.
Everything.

Everything you hear
on our records is true."

>>" Yeah,
we figure you can't-you

can't rap about nothing

you don't know nothing about.
You know?"

>> "It either happened
or it could happen."

>> People speaking their --

it was the minorities
speaking their minds.

And it hadn't --
that hadn't been done

on anything recorded
since Huey P. Newton,

you know what I'm
saying, was speaking.

And, you know, Gil Scott-Heron.

And, like, they never
heard that aggressive tone.

And, you know, Ice Cube
and Eazy and Dre

and all them, that's what they
brought to the table, man. So-

>> You need the ghetto.

And what goes on in the ghetto,

that's the case for rap.

As far as if there's low riders,

as far as a guy
having now money,

far as if there's a fight,

far as a guy
calling a woman a bitch.

Far as, you know, a woman
wearing her skirts up to here.

That's what you see
in the ghetto.

So when you get a guy really
from the ghetto,

he's really in-tune --

he's really in-tune
to what goes on, on the block.

>> "We got a real controversial
song coming out called 'Fuck

the Police.'
That's gonna start some shit."

>>"It'll be out January."

>> "What does that talk about?"

>> "It's self-explanatory."

>> "Fuck the police."
>> "Fuck the police."

>> "Fuck with you for no reason
at all 'cause you black,

you've got a little bit
of money ..."

>> "And we getting back
at them."

>> "Yeah."
>> "Beepers ... whatever."

>> "All-all police
ain't bad police.

Just, like, 90% of them."

>>The best thing
that ever happened to N.W.A.

was one day
Priority Records gets a letter

from the assistant director
of the FBI.

Uh, his name was Aldridge.

In which he-he singles
out the song "Fuck the Police."

And it's -- it doesn't say he's
going to do anything about it,

because there's really nothing
he can do about it.

But saying how unappreciated
it is, uh,

by police officers everywhere.

And it created
this huge controversy

about a record nobody
had even heard.

>> I think
that helped sell the record.

Because that put it
on television.

You come into a city,
you get off the plane,

and the police are waiting
for you in that city.

When you get off the plane
because the police or the,

you know, the city council
or whoever from the city

before called and said
we were coming

and this is
what we did in their city.

>> At the end of the tour is
when it started getting funny.

Okay? I guess Eazy
and them --

because at first we had
no contracts.

So I guess they wanted contracts

before we got
to the end of the tour.

We were halfway, and Cube
wouldn't sign his contract.

>> Cube was ...

he was almost alienating himself
from everybody.

Pretty much.

>> It was, like I said --

all I remember
is just doing shows,

and okay, here's-here is this,

you know, record we gotta do.

We're in the studio.

We go do shows,
we're in the studio,

we finish up the record.

The record gets put out.
You know?

And that's -- right

after the record got put out,
that's about when I left.

I don't even think
we ever had any beef.

At all.

The only time
that there started to be beef

was around
the Jerry Heller stuff.

And even then, you know,
I just bounced.

It wasn't like I was, you know,
whatever. I just bounced.

I was like, "Man,
I can't do this.

I'm out."

>> Cube would come in,
do words, and leave.

He doesn't hang out;
he doesn't this and that.

He does his thing
and he walks out.

>> "You want to know
what that's about?

I started beating up
that office.

Yeah.

You know, after he did that,
you know what happened?

Bryonn said,
"What's the problem?"

"I didn't get
my motherfuckin' money!"

"Oh, so you --?
Is this --?

What about his money?"

He wrote a check.

"Here's for your own label,
and here's for your budget.

Go do your album."

Problem solved?

Problem solved.
Lynch Mob Records.

>> After the tour,
I didn't see Cube anymore.

No more, after the tour.

Right after we got
off of that bus

for the last time,
that was the end of him.

>> "Man, I'm more than happy
on-on what's been going on.

I'm more than happy
with the move.

More than happy
to really get my career

going like I want it to go.

You know what I'm saying?
You said a million copies later.

Here we are.
It's only five weeks

into the album,
you know what I'm saying?

So you know, I can't do nothing
but be happy you know?"

>> Cube, you know,
I think it was inevitable

that he would leave.
He was a junior guy.

Even though he was the lyricist,
he was the kid.

Of course he was gonna
get screwed.

>> I don't think
there was any beef

until the beef with, you know,

Cube and N.W.A. after Cube left.

And then with Dre and Eazy.

So that's when the beef
actually started.

>> And to me it just was a lack
of communication.

And people -- too many people

getting involved instead of
two men sitting down talking.

And, "Hey man," you know,
"you owe me this money.

I want this side,
I'm the creative side,

and you need me a lot more
than you think you do."

>> It's about money.

Okay? Dre felt
he should have been --

had an equal share of Ruthless.

And Eazy knows that if
he gives him equal share,

the scales are gonna shift
considerably here.

>> "Well, you know,
I had to do my thing, man.

I'm tired of making
other people money.

It's time to make
Dre some of this."

>> He hurt about Dr. Dre.

I don't think he was hurt
about the business.

I think he was
more hurt personally.

Like, I seen it in his face.

Like, he was like, "Man,
that's fucked up, man.

I had done a lot of shit
for that dude, man.

Like, I remember when he was
sleeping on couches and shit.

And I would put money
in his pocket, man,

and try to help him

and his kids out
and all kinds of shit.

Like, I would look out for him.

And then he met
this body guard dude

and six months later
like he's your homeboy?

But he'll see-he'll see one day.

He gonna find out
who that dude is."

>> When Dre left, he-he

was just ...

he was, like, devastated.
You know what I mean?

And what the surprising thing
was that Yella stayed.

>> When Dre called me saying
he's leaving,

he didn't say nothing specific.

He just said, "I'm leaving.

You wanna come?

Yes or no?"
That was it.

And I told him,
"I'll call you back."

And I haven't
called him back yet.

>> But Eazy, one day
we were in this 850

and-and "Dre Day"
came on the radio.

And, you know,
I was sitting in the car

and I was looking out the window

and this fuckin' comes on
and it's like, "Mr.

Buster,
where the fuck you at?

Can't scrap a lick
..." I was just like,

"Damn, man!" Like, you know,

I'm in the car
with E --you know,

like, imagine being
in the car with Eazy-E

when a record
is on the radio

and it's dissing him!

So that -- that's
like an odd moment.

Even though he's
my homeboy and all,

it was a real weird moment.

Like, "Wow dude,
this is crazy!"

So little by little, like,
we start going like this.

And by the time I got
to over here I'm just laughing.

And he's looking at me
and he's just laughing!

He was really laughing.
Like, we were both,

like, busting up
at the red light.

And he's, like, laughing
and he's like,

"Oh, man fuck that nigga, man!"

>> "You remember that shit?

'Gap teeth
in your mouth

so my dick's got to fit.'

Yeah, that's
that gangster shit, man.

Dre said that a long time ago.

Man, I was growing up
in Compton, man,

and I was, like, one --

I thought I was
the number one N.W.A. fan

in the world.
Still am, man.

That's why I got that shit
tatted on my chest, man."

>> They call him to meet up
at the studio.

He went by himself.

He wasn't scared of them people.

'Cause he knew 'em.

And he went there,

and some homie
from the west side.

"We got your mama

and we got Jerry.

Sign this, homie.

You don't sign it ...it's over!"

He scribbled.
He called Jerry.

"Jerry?" "Hey, Eric,
what's going on?" "You alright?"

He said yeah.
"Hold on."

He called --

"Hey, mom." "Hey baby,
how ya doing?" "You alright??

Where at? Where you at?"
"I'm at home."

That's when he put out a fax

and blast every record label,

every distributor,
every radio station.

Everything!

>>" I said,
'What's going on here?'

And Eazy said, 'You know
this guy Suge Knight?'

And I said, 'Yeah.'
And he says,

'Well, I'm gonna kill him.'

He said, 'This guy
is gonna be a problem

and I think I should kill him.'

I said, 'Let me think
this thing through.'

I said, 'First of all
we're doing 10 million dollars

a month with six employees.'

I said,

'We're the most successful
startup record company

in the history of-of
the music business.

And you wanna kill this guy?'

I said, 'That just doesn't
make any sense to me.'

He was gonna do -- go do it!

I took him seriously.

I talked sense to him.

Because he did listen to me,

and I was always very logical."

>> Eazy always kept us
out of the --

out of those situations.
He always told us,

like, you know, "You all stay
away from that 'cause

I got bigger plans for you all."

And, uh, "This is not a Ruthless

and Death Row beef.

This is an Eazy-E
Dr. Dre disagreement."

>> He was hurt.
And any man would.

You know what I mean?
You -- it's like baking a cake.

You need the eggs,
you need the milk.

Well, N.W.A was the cake

because they benefitted him

just as well
as he benefited them.

Dre's production,
it complimented him.

Cube's lyrics,
it complimented him.

So, I mean, when you have
that whole chemistry

and it just --
it's not working no more

and everybody go
their separate ways,

they still being prosperous.
And it's like, "Okay.

Well, what do I do?
I started this."

So you just gotta kinda think
of how he really would feel.

But I know that he was hurt.

>> Going back
to the days when Dre gone --

actually, Ren was gone too.

And it was just me
and E. I mean,

we -- it struggled a little bit.

Still did, like, little groups

and stuff like that.

Still had the --
but that's when it all -- like,

when it was all falling apart.

>> Um, the fact
that it went on as long

as it did after that
was pretty amazing

if you think about it.

Uh, because those were
two huge, hugely-talented guys

to-to have gone missing.

>> Dre left,

but he was still under contract.

So Eazy was getting paid
off of that money

for a long time.

>> He had negotiation power
to negotiate a percentage

of everything
that Death Row/Interscope did.

See, people didn't know that.

Sony was paying Eric money
for the Chronic.

'Cause they put it out.

And Dr. Dre was still
signed to Eazy.

So they settled.

You know?
It was Eazy.

>> "Don't trust
no motherfuckers.

'Cause everybody in the music
industry is out to get you.

You know what I'm saying?
The music industry

is the most dog-eat-dog,
dog-eat-dog business

you can get into.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like you gotta be
in on all your own shit.

You know? All your meetings.

Know exactly where the money
is coming from,

who's paying the money.

You know?
How much money is-is

getting issued out.

And make sure you sign
all your own checks."

>> I mean, like that song
when he says, you know,

you can diss me all you want,

but the same records
you making is paying me, buddy.

So go ahead have a ball.

Well, I don't know that he got
a third of the Chronic.

He got a third of Dog Pound,
got a third of Snoop.

It was a third
of everything Dre touched.

So keep touching, buddy.
Go ahead.

You know?
>> Eric didn't care.

Eric made more money out of Dre
than the Chronic album.

Come on, man.

Pfft. Now that's gangsta.

>> Eazy was definitely
a loyal ... that was him.

Ruthless was his baby.
That was his thing.

He was in it 110%
all the time.

I mean, all the time.

But you know, he just
stayed with it, you know?

And held it, you know,
like playing football.

You get tackled, but you hold
onto the ball, so ...

>> We started doing a show
and basically

I wrote it on a piece of paper.

You know what I mean?
I said, "Look, dog,

we're gonna do this to this.

At this time we're gonna do
this and ..."

And we just got on the air.

And he was trying really
to do his radio thing

because he, later
on I found out,

was going to buy a station
out in Phoenix.

You know? And he wanted
to call it KEazy-E.

And he was gonna have
us move out there.

See, he was a very smart guy.

He-he wanted to go
into the Beat

to basically sniff

out how they do it and get
to know each department

and, like, and hear,
like, their game.

>> And he sat there talking
about business.

He said, "Man, look
at all these groups."

He must have had
10-15 groups on the list

that I'd never heard of.

See his thing is
he had a good heart.

A group come to him,
he'd put 'em in the studio.

Another group got put
in the studio.

Spending a lot of money.

He showed me a paper
and it was like a million --

1.7 million or something.

Just invested in the groups
that not even out.

>> He would go --
he would do things

like he would put out
a ton of artists.

And throw 'em up in the air

and somethings gotta hit
out of all this, you know,

out of 20 artists.
Something-something's got hit.

>> He introduced me to a group
called Bone Thugs N' Harmony.

And he said that these guys were
gonna be the next big thing.

>> It was kind of a low,
but when Bone got there

and when we heard that sound,

you know?
He-he knew.

>> He took us
to Rhythm D's studio.

And, uh, you know,
we were there,

Eazy introduced him to us.

And he was like, you know,
he was, like, telling Rhythm,

he was like, "Yo.

I want you to find something
for these dudes to, um,

to rock on."

So Rhythm D came-came up
with this beat.

It was-it was-it was crazy.

It-it-it kind of reminded me
of a west coast

beat mixed
with an east coast beat.

>> When we used to do
the Ruthless Radio show

he used to play
"Thuggish Ruggish Bone"

every week.

And-and-and we didn't
get the record.

We didn't get it.
Like, "Oh, man.

He's gonna play that song again?
Oh man, dude."

>> And he would, like,
"Nah, man.

There's something about them.
The sound, dude.

No one is doing this."
We said whatever.

>> This making
"Thuggish Ruggish Bone"

it's crazy 'cause
the story alone,

how-how the song
came about was crazy.

We was actually recording
that song with DJUnique.

And, um, Eazy was
in the studio with us and, uh,

we had been working

and we went out
to take a smoke break.

And, uh, while we was
out there smoking, um,

this female was coming
down the street

and-and she stopped,
she was like,

"What is this place?"

And we was like,
"This is a recording studio."

And she was like," I can sing!"

I was like, "Oh yeah,
you can sing?"

She was like, "Yeah."
And we was like,

"Oh, come in here.

Come in here for a minute."

And then we told
her-we told her,

we was like, "Can you sing this?

Like, can you sing the hook
to 'Thuggish Ruggish Bone'?"

And she said was like, "Yeah."
So we like,

"Go in the booth and sing it."

And she went in there
and blew it away!

We was like,
"Oh, my God."

Eazy was like, "Yo,
record her right now!

Get it on tape right now;

we'll deal with
all the legal stuff later."

>> "Hello, Bryon Bone.

Still got somethin' to say.

Let me hit that cigarette."

>> "Uh-oh, let's get it on tape!

Get him up, B!

Get him up!"
>> "Get him up, baby!"

>> [CROWD] "Ohhhh!"
>> "[INAUDIBLE].

Go ahead,

get him up.

Get your ribs snapped."

>> "Hey, man.

You gotta stop playing, man.

He's gonna fuck you up, man."

>> "Ain't gonna [INAUDIBLE]."

>> "Shit.
He was hard. He's hard.

He been listening
to your CDs, man."

>> "[INAUDIBLE]

motherfucking

[INAUDIBLE]."

>> "Hey, you don't follow me
around like that, man.

I be getting nervous and ..."

>> "He's gonna bust
a little trick for you all."

>> It was me, him,
and my daughter.

And we were in his Jeep Cherokee

and we're driving in El Monte

and the record
comes on Power 106.

It's now took off, the record.

And by the way, Eazy used
to call me every week

to tell me the sound scan
to fuck with me.

Like, "Hey, we just
done 250,000."

And then he'd call me again,
"You know we're at 375."

And then we got to the,

"You know
I just cracked 500,000."

And I just laughed like, "Damn,
this guy is fucking serious.

Like, are you serious, dude?
All right, 500,000!

All right, my bad."
You know what I mean?

>> You know, sometime we'd get
out of the studio

at like 4:30 in the morning

and we'd drive to the house.

I would try to go crash
and he'd wake me, "Here.

Drive with me to Calabasas."

And we'd go from Norwalk

to Calabasas to-to Palmdale
to wherever we had to roll,

'cause he has so much
on his mind.

>> Eric was a-a-a machine, dog.

It's amazing, dog.

>> He is the one dude
that he call you at six.

And, like, he's rolling.

Like, he's up rolling.

Like, you just mighta
left him at the studio

at 3:30 in the morning.

He's calling me at 6:30.

"What's up, man?
You ain't up yet, man?

Shit. Meet me in Hollywood."

And, like, "Hey, man.
Dude ..."

>> He used to stay up.

He would rarely get sleep, dog.

He'd only sleep, like,
three to four hours a day.

He'd wake up and, like,
"Damn this nigga's amazing,

dog!"

This dude is incredible, dog.

>> He just did everything.

Everything.

If we did a photo shoot --

and I remember
all this vividly --

he was there,
he was in the pictures.

He was, like, telling us
where to shoot when ...

You know, it was crazy.

We riding with him
in his low rider.

I mean, these are just things
you could never forget.

>> To that day he tells me,
"I know you and Tony think

that I fuck with you all a lot,

but I don't do this for me.

I do this for my kids."

And I was like, "Oh.

Oh, ok."
He goes, "Yeah, man.

You know, man, one day I'm wanna
leave my label to my kids, man.

It ain't for me."

>> "I give a lot of donations
to different organizations."

>> More laid back
than people really would know.

You'd see him with the glasses
and the little hat.

You know?
That's one way.

But when it's not business?

He-he was the person
behind his kids.

I mean, he loved them.

It was a lot of kids,

but he loved every one of them.

>> And he had,
like, seven or eight.

Something like that.
But we were racing.

Together to have kids.

I got five and I said,
"I retire, man.

I quit at six.
I can't do it no more."

You know?
He was still rolling, you know?

>> Loved his kids.

And-and-and, uh, treated
all of them the same way.

Good, real good.

And tried to do the best

that he could
to provide properly for them.

>> They were coloring
with some books

he had bought her
at the Disney store.

With the colors
and everything, man.

And so he was sitting there
coloring

and he was talking
to my little daughter.

And she was telling him,
"Eazy, let me use the brown."

And he was like,
"No, no, no.

You need to put the purple
in that right there."

And then, "See,
I'm gonna put this yellow;

you need to do that purple."

And so she was like,
"Oh, okay.

Well, give me that one."

And so they were coloring
and I sat there

and I just looked at them,
and I was like, "Damn, man.

This is a really
nice dude, man."

That's the way
it made me feel

because it was really personal
because of my daughter.

And I seen how they were
interacting without them

knowing I was there.

>> He would do things

like he would have rodeos
and, you know,

clown shows, and-and lunches,

and picnics,
and all that kind of stuff

just for the inner city kids.

You know, trying
to give back to the 'hood.

And-and just give-give
a little back to society

because he was given, you know,

so much through this gangster
rap that he put out.

You know?
>> I remember --

yeah, I remember going with Eazy
to Juvenile Hall in Norwalk.

And I remember him
going in there and ...

I remember when he came
out he told me, "Man ...

Man, I feel bad
for them kids, man.

They need some TVs.

They need to have
a few things, man."

And he went out
and got some things for them.

>> Handing out
at every Christmas.

Jewish, black, white, gentile.

Whatever you is.
>> It's the things

that you don't hear
about that are meaningful.

It's the things that are
in the-in the background.

That those things
he did from his heart.

And he didn't do 'em
for the publicity

or to be recognized by anybody.

He did it because God
touched his heart.

And allowed him to be able
to be financially secure

to do those things.

>> I wasn't always sure
where he got his money

or how he got his money.

Um, but I did know
that the money that he had,

he put it into making music.

He put into making records,
he put into his own art.

He also put into
the other people

that were important to him.

>> "I do all these little
benefits.

But a lot of people
don't know that."

>> He really did a lot

of stuff more big
that people don't know.

Charities and this.

You know, all kinds
of little stuff.

But the person?

He's a little devil.

>> He was just like me and you.

There was really no way to feel.

Either you was a super groupie

or you was a super fan,

and it was just it.

It was just --
he was down-to- earth.

It was just like, "Okay,
we're going to do the show."

He didn't have his own
separate tour bus.

He took us on tour.

Didn't nobody know who we was.

But when we left them
cities they knew.

You know? He rolled
on the tour bus with us.

If we had to get car service
he was in the car with us.

If we in the backstage chillin'
out in the back,

he didn't have
his own separate room

where this says
"Eazy-E" and "Others" here.

He was with everybody.

>> A guy that was distant,
or, "Because I'm huge now"

or, you know, "Because
I have money now," you know,

"I don't need to talk
to those smaller guys."

He always talked to everybody --

at least to me -- the same way.

You know?
Same level.

>> Eric never wanted
to make you feel less than him.

Like, he'd always tried
to bring you up to him.

That's the difference in people.

Like, sometimes there's people

that want to make
you feel less than them.

Like, "I'm me,

and you're here."

Eric always wanted to, like,
"You up here with me, man.

Let's roll."

That's what I loved about him.

Like, he didn't
let you get down.

>> I can remember the first time

that N.W.A. came
to play in Dallas.

It was at this venue
called City Lights,

which was an old movie theatre.

I went to the show.

And I was literally
the only white person

in the building.

And I was --
I'd gone by myself.

I couldn't get anybody
to go with me.

And I was, like, kind

of standing in the corner
in my little track suit,

you know, trying to stay
out of the way, you know?

Or whatever.
And-and they came rollin'

in in this huge posse of people.

You know? Dre and Eric
and Cube and all these people.

And Eric looked over
and he saw me,

like, standing in the corner
and he was like, "Jeff!

What are you doing?
Get over here, man.

Come on with us!"
And I was like --

and all these other big dudes

behind him were all like,
"Who is that?" you know?

"Why does Eric know him?"
You know?

"What the fuck's up with that?"

>> And then I will never
forget one time.

'Cause we didn't have no cars.

And, um, we needed a ride.

And Sylk E Fine,
she stayed, like,

about two miles up from me.

And he drove and picked us up.

And when he pulled up,
he had his white Cherokee Jeep.

He pulled up
on my block and kids

was just coming from everywhere.

They was like, "That's Eazy-E!"

So I had to get
in the car 'cause

he had to hurry up
and take off.

And the kids was just running
down the street after the car.

And I was just like, "Wow,
Eazy-E came to pick me up."

>> If you was-
if you was his homeboy,

you his buddy,

he was just like his brother.

Like, do anything for you.
You know?

>> I mean I was in awe.

'Cause here is person
who I've admired

since I was a little kid.

Now I'm sitting right with him.

So I was kinda,
like, kinda star struck I guess.

Just watching him.

You know, just tripping
off of him.

>> From the camp really,
of the whole N.W.A.

You know what I'm saying?
As far as being, you know,

being really cool with you.

You know, some real --
like you seem

like you could talk to him
and he was real cool.

He wasn't on no Hollywood shit,
you know what I'm saying?

He was like --
he was a real cat, you know?

He didn't have no --

he didn't seem
like he had an ego,

even though he had all --
you know, all the cheese.

>> That's one thing about Eric,

that, uh,
when would see me, he-he

would always come up to me.
You know?

And-and to me, I saw myself,

like, down here
and him up here 'cause

his shit was already blowing up.

And I'm thinking --
I would see him at a club

and I'd think, I'm not even
gonna go up to him

because it's been
a couple of months

and maybe he just
made new friends

or something you know?
"Tony, hey!"

And I would turn around
and, like,"Hey what's up?"

And I was like, "Oh!

What's up, man?
You still remember me?"

"Yeah, man.
[INAUDIBLE]

Man, you still doing
those mixed tapes?

Let me know when you do
another one, man.

I want to throw down."
And I was like oh shit,

he's for real?
"You still want to?"

>> If he's doing --
having a party, he's not in VIP,

he's walking around
through the party.

So, I mean, he was a very
hands-on personable person.

So it wasn't a person that

you couldn't reach
or couldn't get to.

You'd see him at IHop,

you'd see him
at drive-thru at Taco Bell.

You'd see him at the Sizzlers
get --making a salad.

Like, you'd see him
in the back --

you'd see him on a-a-a ride

at Six Flags.

>> I mean every day
if we wasn't recording music

we was just
hanging out like homies.

Like ... you know what I mean?

Like you probably did
with your friends growing up.

We was just kickin' it.

We was always getting high,
there was always girls around.

And we was just hanging out.
Like, we was having fun.

The song was selling,
you know what I'm saying?

The video was number one
for a long time.

We was always on tour.
You know what I mean?

So we was having a good time.

He was never down.

He -- everybody,
we was just chilling.

We never had no controversy
or nothing.

You know what I'm saying?
We was just having fun.

>> He would still,
like, come to our apartment

and pass out on the floor.

Wake up, dude eating
all the damn cereal.

You know what I'm saying?
So like, I mean,

it was just times like
that that was real cool, man.

>> He at that point was, like,
burnt out with material things.

Like, I could just tell.

He was -- he didn't give a fuck.

He'd drive -- like I said,
he liked his Jeep Cherokee

more than any other
of his other cars that he had.

Like, he-he would rather stay
at our house in El Monte

than have us go to his mansion.

He'd rather be in the 'hood

in El Monte in a little garage
just hanging out.

Like, that was more his vibe.

Like-like, he was
just like that.

>> I don't know.
He would -- he had a big heart

for such a small person.

That's what I've always
said about him.

He just cared about some things
people wouldn't think

that he even gave
two shits about.

You'll listen to his music
and just think he's just

this gang-banging dude

from Compton, dope-dealing
on the block.

But that wasn't hardly the case.

>> He is the one that knew.

Being from
a suppressed environment,

being a statistic, being pro --

uh, being-being going
through the system all the time,

that you can actually
beat adversity.

You know what I mean? And that's
what made him so beautiful.

>> He loved to see other people
do their thing too.

And if he could be
responsible for it,

I think that's
where he was getting his reward.

You know? Like, that's
what made him happy.

Like, breaking acts
and putting 'em out there.

>> For me,
he was the first person

to put me on an airplane.

I'd never been out of the state.

I've been
all around the world now.

But we fly -- I remember
my first flight with him.

I'm sitting on the plane,
I'd never been on a plane

in my life, and it was
the worst flight I ever had.

I have never had a flight
worse than that.

Turbulence over Grand Canyon,

how the plane drops.

I'm sitting there,
I'm holding my seat.

And I remember all the people
on the plane

were like,"Look
at the body guard!

So you can kick his ass now;
he ain't gonna do nothing!"

I'm holding the seat,
"You're right.

Kill him!"

>> He was really funny.

He had a fucking
amazing sense of humor.

He was like -- he was
like a practical joker.

You know? He would always call
and leave these messages

on my answering machine
that were really funny, and ...

>> Like with me,
we went to a chiropractor.

And I'll just go
with him, you know?

I'm riding with him.

We sit.
He goes in.

The guy comes out,
a little Asian guy,

he comes out he says, "Okay,
my friend you're next."

So I'm, "Oh, no, man.
I'm just with my friend."

"No, he pay for you."
"All right."

When I go into the room,

he's already in the room
sitting there.

I said, "What do you want?"

He said, "I can watch?"

I said, "Watch what?"
He said, "I just wanna watch.

I paid for it, I can't watch?"
Okay." So I laid out.

Dude told me to lay
and dude cracked me from neck

to tailbone.

One...

And I said, "Ah!"
I jumped.

And he got up laughing.
"That's all I wanted to see."

And he walked out.
But he knew I --

you know, he-he paid
for me to see me jump.

>> "This is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna roll up 20 joints.

If you can smoke
half of 'em,

then something
something, something, something

..." He was, like, trying
to make a bet with me.

So we sat in the hallway.

We got to, like, seven joints
and I was so high.

I was like, "I can't do it."
So that was,

like, my initiation,
you know what I mean?

Like, that's
how we kinda bonded.

And ever since then it
was just all good.

>> The, uh,
studio was in Torrance.

And, uh, when I walked
in Eazy was like,

"Oh, we just laid down a track.

We want you
to come --" You know?

"I want you to check it out.
Let's go out to your car."

And so we went out to my car,
he put the cassette tape

in and the song ...

I think it was
"Gangsta Gangsta."

It just started
playing really loud.

He just jacked up the volume

and it completely
blew my speaker out.

>> "I got a check
for $90,000 for you."

He'd take off.
But when you get to the bank,

to the teller window,

it says Mickey Mouse
on the check.

So now you, like --
you feeling real idiot

at the bank.
Now you gotta go catch him.

And now he's not gonna
answer his phone for two days.

>> Once day we went
to the Carson Mall

and bought just about every gun
in the Carson Mall.

I'm talking about back
when they used to sell, like --

you could buy
a semi auto rifles back then.

Like HK, the ones
that looked like,

you know, from A Team
or whatever.

You know?
You could buy those kind.

>> "See this chamber
right there?

That's no bullshit.

This is real.
This is a real gun."

>> "9mm in your ass!"

>> "None of that Hollywood
bullshit, man."

>> He knew how to shoot.

He had guns.

Guns, guns, guns.
Whole 'lotta guns.

>> Motherfuckers would come by
the studio with guns and shit,

and all kinds of shit.

And Eazy-E come out,
"Oh, man.

You all selling Glocks?
Off the box?

Oh, man, let me get
three of them."

Like, "Damn,
you all gotta lot of shit

coming on through the studio."

>> We were on a tour bus
one time.

Going doing a show.

We stopped at a -- what was it?

It was a ...
not a carnival, but,

um, one of those county fairs.

And it was us on the bus, Ice T,

like, a bunch
of groups on that bus.

And they happened
to had a gun show.

At the fair.

Bought like 15, 20 guns.

And we were on this bus, like,

"Man, if we get pulled over
by the police -"

And I think
we had fireworks too.

Because it was
somewhere like Texas

or someplace like that where
you could buy illegal fireworks.

And we had, like,
half sticks of dynamite,

and guns - And if we had gotten
pulled over on that bus,

that would have
been it for everybody.

>> "You gotta carry these or
you'll get fucked up

on the street.
So you gotta be prepared."

>> "And this got an infrared
scope on it.

You put the dot on your target.

Then you blow the shit
out the motherfucker.

No joke."

>> Women.

He was a -- I would say ...

I would say a woman's man.
Or a woman's --

but he was ...women
was his life.

>> Mutual friend
of his and mine was like,

"Hey, I want you
to meet this guy."

You know?
"He wants to meet you."

And I'm like,

"I know him,
I've met him before."

So from there the rest
was history.

He kept calling;
we went out on a date.

I realized,
"Oh, he's actually normal."

>> That was his -- you know,
that was his girlfriend.

And he was crazy about her.

>> I met her at his birthday
party.

He had his 21st birthday party

about three times.

He was always 21.

I said, "Dude, you don't
get no older around here."

But I met her there,
physically met her.

He introduced her to me as,
"This is special."

Like, "This is the one."

>> It started --
he started perking up around

after Bone hit.
You know?

Then he had did
the-the Dre 187 record.

You know, which was
- the competency Gs.

You know?
That-that was-that was cool.

You know? So he was coming back.

And that's why the-the sick,
it just --

it-it-it-it-it just
don't make sense to me.

You know? We're fine,
we're having fun,

we're doing what we're doing.

And every year around November,
December he'd get bronchitis.

This was like clockwork, dude.

I mean, he's coughing.

Every year. This is just
what happens to him.

>> But, you know,
it was, like, normal.

You know? A little coughing.

But he -- to me
he looked normal.

But I looked at a couple
of pictures from back then

and he did look
a little smaller.

>> And I remember being
around him.

He had a cold
off and on for about at least --

about a year.

And, uh, sometimes
I would think,

"Okay, that's the bronchitis."

But other times
I would be like,

"Hmm."
You know?

>> He was coughing,
you know what I mean?

He was -- I could tell
he was coughing.

He was like,
"Yeah, man.

I was in New York, man,

and they left me
at this club, man, and I had --

I just walked through the snow."

That was the day
they seen Ice Cube there.

>> So, when he got sick
he went to New York.

And I didn't go.
But I was at the studio

when he came back.

He came in sick as a dog.

I mean, sick.

He had the little
asthma inhaler.

And I'm like, "Man,
what's wrong with you?"

He was like,
"I'm sick, man."

I'm like, "Damn!"

You know?
He's coughing.

Just coughing and coughing.

I'm like, "Dude,
take some cough medicine!"

You know?
Like, I'm-I'm not being sense --

you know?

I couldn't be sensitive to
something I didn't know about.

So I'm giving him
the riot act like,

"Dude, you're coughing
on everybody.

Really."
You know?

And I can remember,
I will never forget that day.

I came in the back
by the bathroom.

He was laying on the carpet.

I'm like, "What are you doing?"

"I just don't cough
when I lay down."

That's what he said.

"When I sit
up I start coughing."

I'm like, "That ain't natural,
bro." You know?

>> And he started carrying a --

an oxygen tank
with a little mask.

And I was like,
This is kinda serious.

[ambulance siren]

>> A week
before he went in the hospital,

we was talking
and he was coughing.

I was like, "Man,
you --" I was teasing him.

"Man, what's wrong?
You got that shit?"

I was just teasing him.

>> All we kept hearing
was "Eazy's in the hospital.

Eazy's in the hospital.
Eazy's in the hospital."

Then I was hearing it
on the radio.

Then it was on the news.

And then we like,
"What is going on?"

>> So we weren't
around the studio a lot.

So I actually heard about it
on the news.

So then I started making
the phone calls.

"What is going on?"
You know?

"Guys, what's happening?
What's --?"

And they were like,
"We don't know anything.

We just know
that he went in there."

'Cause Eric
has always had asthma.

So he would have
that inhaler on the road.

And so we knew, he --

you know, would take
a puff of his inhaler.

And he would get
bronchitis a lot.

So I just figured maybe
it was just the bronchitis.

'Cause they said he went
to the hospital for bronchitis.

And that's when they found out.

And I'm just like, "What?"

>> And at this time

I had already started
to hear the AIDS rumor.

And people were saying it
and I was already almost

having fist fights
with those motherfuckers

over disrespecting that.

Like, "I heard
your homeboy got AIDS."

And people were really
fucked up, you know?

I'm like, "Fuck you, man,

don't fucking talk
about my homeboy like, man.

I'll fuck you up, man."

>> Word was out
that he was in the hospital,

so we got get well cards

and had all out friends
and homies

from the block
where he started ...

"We love you."

You know, the way
it's set up -- I said,

when we got up the elevator,

we look at the next room,
and see his room number.

Because we don't know
what room he was in.

And, uh, we seen
his name Eric Wright.

Eric Wright, room 5105.

And I'm like,
"Wow, that's crazy."

He's in room 5105,

and he had an album
called "5150."

You know, the numbers were -

>> So I open the curtains
and I said, "Man, damn

you need some sunshine up
in here." You know what I mean?

I'm like, "You sitting here
like your dying!"

And he just sat there.

Then Tamika walked in, you know?

And she came and said,
"I have to talk to you guys."

I'm like, "What?"

She told us he had AIDS.

He had on an oxygen mask.

I remember, he looked and me
and he said, "Did she tell you?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And then she said -- he said,

"She told you everything?"

And I was like, "Yeah."

>> When I found out
about Eazy being sick,

a buddy of mine, Big Man,

finally told me.

See Big Man had been
going to the hospital,

but without telling me.

See, Eric didn't want
him to tell me.

>> I get a call.
I called up to Ruthless Records

and-and his secretary
told me, you know,

"If you need to talk
to Eazy or you need to --

or he owes you any money
or anything like that,

you'd better go to
Cedars Sinai Hospital right now,

'cause he's about to die."

That's what she told me
on the phone.

It was kind of fucked up too.

Yeah, it was kind of fucked up.

Like, what?

>> Within three hours
of it hitting the airwaves, Dre

was standing in the lobby
of the hospital

trying to find Eric.

And he actually got to see him,
you know what I mean?

Before he died.
So that was-that was cool.

>> By the time I really found
out he was in the hospital,

they had already did
some kind of surgery.

So I never actually got
to talk to him no more

than when I'd seen him
in the hospital,

it was maybe a couple
of days before he died.

You know?
He was in --

you know, I guess
they had put him in, like,

a paralyzed thing

so he wouldn't pull the tube
and stuff like that.

So I didn't actually
get to talk to him.

I-I-I sat there
and talked to him at the bed,

but I don't know
if he heard me.

>> He had the-the big tube
in his throat.

And his chest would go ...

it was breathing for him.

The doctor said, "We gonna
put him on a machine

just so his lungs can rest."

Said he's not strong enough
to take it.

So when I went in to see him,
you know ... he's in there,

his chest is pumping,
his eyes was closed.

And I stood next to him
on the bed.

I looked at him.
I didn't say nothing at first.

Then I said-I said,
"Dang, man."

Just like that.
Just quiet. To myself.

You know you speak out loud
to yourself sometimes?

I said, "Dang man."

And he grabbed me.
He grabbed my hand.

And his eyes just
opened like that.

He looked me right in the eye
and he was just looking at me.

And I said, "Dude."

I said, "We've been
through some stuff."

That's the first time
I ever saw him scared.

Fear in his eyes, right?

I said, "Dude,
don't trip, don't trip."

I said, "Dude ..."

And the machine was going ...
making noise.

Then the nurse came,

she looked she said,
"No, he's cool.

He's okay."
I said, "All right."

So I sat there with him
and I said,

"This tube is only
for a couple of days,

you hear me?"
And he shook his head.

He could still,
like, "Yeah, yeah.

I know."
I said, "Okay?"

He's like, "Yeah.

All right" And he was
holding my hand so tight.

And I took my ring,
I said, "Look,

I'm gonna give you this ring

and you know I like this."

I said, "You give this back
to me, personally."

He said, "Yeah."
I said, "All right."

That was the last time

I saw him.

>> As far
as Eazy-E is concerned --

you know, that his mom still
stay around the corner.

You know? They still interact,
we still mess with the sisters

and the kids
and stuff like that.

So-so it was kind of

like a --it was
kind of like a big blow

when that happened
because it messed up

a lot of opportunities.

>> Losing E was, like ...

I think it was, like ...

detrimental to our career.

>> "The example
he gives us is safe sex.

You know? It's not
that he died in vain.

He's one of us.

So he died and made
you see it real.

I mean, I know when Eazy-E died,

mad heads was like,

"Yo, that's a little
too close for me."

You know? You hear about
this one and that one,

but that's Eazy-E.

And if it can happen to him,
it can happen to me.

Let me get my life together.

Let me get it straightened out."

>> Eric's spirit is right here.

Us talking about it ...
he's right here, man.

And it's like he's in --
if he's in purgatory or not,

wherever he at --

wherever you at,
Eazy, I love you.

>> He was a big
educational factor.

And I think we would have
been even greater

if he'd have been alive.
For real.

>> You know what I'm saying?

You been
with your friends so long

and you ain't really,
really pulled him to the side

and told the motherfucker
thank you.

And like-like ...
You know what I mean?

Like a genuine real.

We were so busy I never
really got to tell the guy,

"Hey man, thank you, man,
for all the beautiful shit

you've done for me.

And us."
You know what I mean?

All I wanna do
is just thank him.

##

# It ain't easy livin
on these streets#

#Especially livin
in the CPT#

#Gang bangin and
slangin#

#The man was ahead
of his tim#e

#Niggas with an attitude

#Man ain't shit new

#You know what it do

#He brought out Dr. Dre
and Ice Cube#

#MC Ren adn DJ Yella

#My nigga was drop tight

#He was the only nigga
with a M-16 in the studio
spittin 16's#

#You know what I mean
gangsta shit#

#50 on 50

#Home for the sick

#Eazy does it
eternal E

#Nigga it's on
straight off the streets of
motherfucking Compton

#You lovers at the block

#Business man off top

#Out for the cash crop

#Screamin fuck the Police
a new voice in the streets

#Express yourself
[inaduible lyrics]

#In the Watts 103rd street
bad

#Damn homeboy is real

#Life of a legend all documented

#non fiction
The Boyz in the Hood
brought life to the Hood

#Godfather of the first West
Coast moviment

#Got the planet movin

#West coast that's how
we movin

#Eazy E, founder of the
movement

#Everybody tune in ya station
gangsta music spreadin through
the nation

#West coast that's how
we movin

#Eazy E founder of the
movement

#Everybody tune in ya station
gangsta music spreadin through
the nation

#The radio, on television
and no publicity and still
sold 3 million records

#Straig outta Compton
NWA, Easy made it easy
pioneer of Bone Thugz

#He's a good man and Harmony
loved his family, an entrepenuer

[inaduible lyrics]

#On a west coast mission
[inaudible lyrics]

#At a hood me and yours
the gangsta gangsta ghetto
rap star

#Entered the corperate world
and inovated rap music

#West coast that's how we movin

#Easy E founder of the movement

#Everybody tune in ya station
gangsta music spreadin through
the nation

#West coast that's how we movin

Easy E founder of the movement

#Everybody tune in ya station
gangsta music spreadin through
the nation

##