In 1986, at age 22, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright had allegedly earned as much as US$250,000 from dealing drugs. However, after his cousin was shot and killed, he decided that he could make a better living in the Los Angeles hip hop scene, which was growing rapidly in popularity.[3] He started recording songs during the mid-1980s in his parents' garage, thus starting Ruthless Records.[4] The original idea for Ruthless Records came when Wright asked Heller to go into business with him. Wright suggested a half-ownership company, but it was later decided that Wright would get eighty percent of the company's income and Heller would only get twenty percent. According to Heller, he told Wright, "Every dollar comes into Ruthless, I take twenty cents. That's industry standard for a manager of my caliber. I take twenty, you take eighty percent. I am responsible for my expenses and you're responsible for yours. You own the company. I work for you."[5] Along with Heller, Wright invested much of his money into Ruthless Records.[6] Heller claims that he invested the first $250,000 and would eventually put up to $1,000,000 into the company.[5] With help from Jerry Heller, Ruthless was launched on March 3, 1987, though Wright was the sole owner of the company.
One of the first albums for the label was Eazy's solo debut, Eazy-Duz-It, released in November 1988. It was followed two months later by N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, which was eventually certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.[7]
Ruthless closed out 1989 with the reissue of N.W.A.'s first compilation album, N.W.A. and the Posse, originally released in November 1987 through independent distributor Macola. The reissue was much more successful than the original release; despite not charting on the Billboard 200, it was ultimately certified gold by the RIAA for half a million copies sold.[8] The album featured the Eazy-E solo hit, "The Boyz-n-the Hood".
As the N.W.A members went on tour in support of their projects, some began to voice their displeasure with the financial situation at Ruthless. According to group member MC Ren, it was a common opinion that N.W.A and Ruthless manager Jerry Heller was the one receiving their due:
We felt he didn't deserve what he was getting. We deserved that shit. We were the ones making the records, traveling in vans and driving all around the place. You do all those fucking shows trying to get known, and then you come home to a fucking apartment. Then you go to his house, and this motherfucker lives in a mansion. There's gold leaf trimmings all in the bathroom and all kinds of other shit. You're thinking, "Man, fuck that."[9]
Heller, in his 2006 memoir Ruthless, disputes any allegations of financial misconduct.[10]
In 1989, after coming off tour, group member Ice Cube voiced his opinions on the group's finances. Cube, who had been paid about $32,000 so far, asked Eazy-E for a meeting on money allocation.[11] N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, Eazy's business partner, led the meeting.[11] At Cube's concerns, Heller offered N.W.A's five members—Eazy, Dr. Dre, Cube, DJ Yella, and MC Ren—a contract nearly unchanged, with a $75,000 signing bonus.[11] Only Cube refused to sign it.[11] Though Heller continually claimed that everything was in order, and even offered them to open the account books to prove his innocence,[12] the ensuing confrontation ended in Ice Cube leaving N.W.A. in January 1990 without signing on as a solo artist to Ruthless, which the remaining members proceeded to do.[11] Cube's departure caused the rest of the group to turn on him.
That August, through Ruthless, N.W.A. released their lone EP, 100 Miles and Runnin', with Dr. Dre and DJ Yella providing full production and Eazy-E providing executive production. In the EP's only single, 100 Miles and Runnin', alluding to Ice Cube,[13] Dre raps, "It started with five, but yo, one couldn't take it / So now there's four, 'cause the fifth couldn't make it." And in "Real Niggaz",[13] soon after Ren raps, "Only reason niggas pick up your record is 'cause they thought it was us", Dre calls Cube both "too much cargo" and the proverbial traitor Benedict Arnold. The EP was critically and commercially successful, going platinum in America.[14]
The label also experienced outside pressure due to the group. The success of their song "Fuck tha Police" led to a threatening FBI letter to distributor Priority Records.[15]
In 1989, Eazy signed hip-hop's first white female rapper Tairrie B to Ruthless' new Comptown label subsidiary. She released her debut album The Power of a Woman in 1990 (through MCA Records) featuring the single and video for "Murder She Wrote" which Eazy and Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D appeared in. The album also featured guest vocals by Dr. Dre, D.O.C. and future House of Pain frontman Everlast, and production by QDIII.
N.W.A breakup and other Ruthless artists
Though N.W.A was highly successful, Dr. Dre was advised by The D.O.C. and the rapper's friend, Suge Knight, that he should leave the label to avoid any possible financial meddling by Heller,[18] offering to extricate Dre from his Ruthless contract.[19] Eventually, Knight succeeded in procuring Dre, D.O.C. and Michel'le's contracts—through reportedly illicit means[20]—and proceeded to set up Death Row Records with Dre. This resulted in a feud between Ruthless and Death Row, in particular Eazy-E feuding with Dr. Dre and his new protege, Snoop Doggy Dogg.
Now short of Dr. Dre and The D.O.C., Eazy-E collaborated with several other artists, including rappers B.G. Knocc Out and Gangsta Dresta, as well as producers like Big Hutch and Rhythm D to fill their void. These collaborators played key roles in supporting Eazy during his rivalry with Death Row Records. Although closely affiliated with Ruthless Records, B.G. Knocc Out and Gangsta Dresta were never officially signed to the label. MC Ren and DJ Yella remained neutral in the feud. In August 1993, Relativity Entertainment Distribution announced that it would handle marketing and distribution services for Ruthless. The announcement came 2 months after Ruthless severed ties with Priority.[21] In response to diss tracks such as Bitches Ain't Shit and the intro to Dr. Dre's 1992 debut, The Chronic, Eazy-E released It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa through Epic Records and Ruthless. Released in October 1993, the majority of the EP as well as its title were directed towards Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Death Row. It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa remains to be Eazy-E's best selling project, debuting in the top five on the Billboard 200. With sales of over two million copies in America. The EP has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.
By 1994, MC Ren and Eazy-E had a falling out, with Ren calling Eazy "big headed" and even proposed a N.W.A. reunion without Eazy.[22] Producer Big Hutch/Cold 187um alleges that during this time period, even Wright began to feel as though Heller was dishonest with the label's finances:
When the money started rolling and a lot of cats couldn't come to the table and renegotiate...Ya know, it was fucked up! That's what was wrong. Like Eazy came to me one night and he said "Man, shit is fucked up, man." Because he was at a point where even he was getting played by Jerry Heller.[23]
However he added, "I can't knock Jerry Heller... because Jerry Heller gave us all an opportunity. He took us to the people to get massive exposure. We couldn't have walked through the doors as brothers like that. We needed a guy like Jerry Heller to do that. You need that face, you need that voice, you need that guy with a connect like that. Without him there wouldn't have been none of that."[24]
Eazy-E allegedly fired Heller shortly before his death in 1995.[25]
Eazy-E's death and life after Eazy
On February 24, 1995, Wright was admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with a violent cough.[26] He was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.[27] He announced his illness in a public statement on March 16. It is believed Wright contracted the infection from a sexual partner.[3][28][29] During the week of March 20, having already made amends with Ice Cube, he drafted a final message to his fans.[30] On March 26, Eazy-E died from HIV/AIDS, one month after his diagnosis.[31][32] He was 30 years old (most reports at the time said he was 31 due to the falsification of his date of birth by one year).[4][33] He was buried on April 7, at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Over 3,000 people attended his funeral, including Jerry Heller and DJ Yella.[34][35]
Before his death, he had just signed the Cleveland, Ohio-based group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, whose 1994 extended playCreepin on ah Come Up was well received by critics and fans. The EP went 4× Platinum. Eazy-E executive produced Bone Thugs' second album, E 1999 Eternal, which was released shortly after his death.[36] Their smash 1996 single "Tha Crossroads" was dedicated to Eazy-E and helped push the album to multi-platinum success.
The label has had several distributors simultaneously. Early Ruthless releases were distributed by Macola. All of N.W.A's releases and Eazy-E's debut solo album on Ruthless Records were distributed by Priority, and the rights to these releases are now held by Priority's new owner, Capitol. Releases by the D.O.C, Michel'le, Yomo & Maulkie and JJ Fad were marketed through Atlantic or its subsidiary Atco. These master rights are still held by Atlantic's parent company, Warner, while Above The Law's releases were marketed through Epic and Giant. In 1994, Ruthless found exclusive distribution through Relativity, a former heavy metal label. Relativity was later folded into its parent company, Sony.[citation needed]
12345David J. Leonard, "Ice Cube", in Mickey Hess, ed., Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1 (Westport, Connecticut & London, England: ABC-CLIO, 2007), p. 301.
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