Eazy-E

As a one of the founding members of both Ruthless Records and the seminal rap act N.W.A., Eric "Eazy-E" Wright was instrumental in creating the gangsta rap sound and aesthetic. His shockingly lewd and violent verses on N.W.A.'s landmark STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON album, delivered in a trademark nasal voice, terrified parents and electrified kids across the racial spectrum. His debut solo album, EAZY-DUZ-IT, is a gangsta classic and established a lyrical template for ghetto braggadocio. Eazy-E's legacy is marked as much by his death from the AIDS virus in 1995--which brought frank discussion of the disease to sectors of the rap world previously reluctant to approach the topic--as it is by his controversial music.

• pop
• hardcore
• gangsta
• 1990s