The Godfather of Gangsta Rap
The Godfather of Gangsta Rap, Easy E passed away March 26th, 1995. He was the founder of great Hip Hop group NWA. He is also considered a great A&R as he discovered Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.
Easy was selling weed by the time he met Jerry Heller and they both invested into what would be Ruthless Records. Ruthless would eventually release classic Hip Hop albums by the aforementioned NWA. These albums include Niggaz4Life and Straight Outta Compton, two albums that changed the entire genre.
Get drumanati’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Easy E’s debut album Easy-Duz-It put him on the map as a solo artist. It is still considered one of the best albums ever created within the genre but also it is absolutely a top album of 1988, the year it was released.
Easy E succumbed to the Aids virus only after being diagnosed a mere few weeks earlier. A significant message was released by Easy to acknowledge his diagnosis. “There were few times I used Jimmy-Hats, but most of the times I did it raw.” That statement gave mainstream America, who where still a little afraid and uninformed about the virus, an understanding that anyone can catch the disease. A gangsta rapper for Compton, California passed away of Aids. This changed Hip Hop.
It seems that every thing Easy touched would become to be great and a change within our culture that we hold so dearly. NWA, Bone Thugz, and the Aids virus were all shockers that were brought to Hip Hop by Easy. Whether good or bad we all became aware and paid attention.
