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I didn't know Eric 'Eazy-E' Wright personally but one day I was at my buddy's house when he put on this crazy track that let me know what he was all about. A lot profanity and strong lyrics engulfed his songs but for some reason they just seemed sublime and the music itself engaged me. For the first time I really started listening to music and feeling what an artist was trying to illustrate to his audience. Eric Wright was one the most important men in hip-hop music history and through his accomplishments gained the respect of millions as one of the fathers of rap music.

It was about eleven years ago this year that Eric "Eazy-E" Wright pioneered the creation of what is now considered "gangsta rap," making Ruthless Records one of the most successful independent record labels of all time. Responsible for the sale of millions of records including those of NWA, JJ Fad, Michel'le, M.C. Ren, Above The Law, Bone thugs-n-harmony and his own hit solo records, Eazy-E more than made history. Without his help, or his label, West Coast hip-hop music might have never achieved the national sales or notoriety that it has today.

He was born in Compton, California to a middle-class family in 1963, but became a criminal in his teenage years, yet the life as a gangsta weren't in the plans for the future that Eric Wright was dreaming of, so after completing school, he started in his music business. Together with Ice-Cube, Dr.Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella, he putted together one of the most controversial rap groups ever called N.W.A in 1986. When their hit single"Boyz n' the Hood" started to conquer the charts they put Compton and Los Angeles on the rap-map. With nationwide play Boyz n' the Hood soon became the national-anthem of hip hop music. Everybody that was living in the so called "projects" (the slums) suddenly had something that they could called their own unique creation, a song with lyrics that showed the hard realities of black Americans in a so called "White America".

That was just the beginning. With N.W.A, Ruthless Records got a dream start and in 1989 with the album Straight Outta Compton, that became an instant classic when it debuted and made fans get up and take notice. With songs like #$%* the Police and Gangsta, Gangsta they made the FBI and the LAPD think twice before they stereo-typed black citizens. As well politicians started to show interests in hip-hop music but not in a positive way. The gangsta rap mentality that N.W.A portrayed split listeners into two groups. There were those who thought N.W.A was just expressing opinions of what Black Americans faced and being brutally honest about it. Then there were those who thought that hip-hop was really taking the events of everyday life out of context and encouraging young people to embrace violence as a solution. I feel that Eazy-E just let his audience know what was really happening out there and gave a sense of the environment that some African Americans grew up in and left it to you to make a conclusion.

Through his fame also came fortune and a life that was nothing but the ordinary. Eazy-E launched the careers of many artists and groups to superstar status but some people who that knew him personally might say he was only in it for himself. This could have been so and I'm not in a position to make him out as a saint but he did give up his time and money to the many communities he once grew up in and donated large sums to charitable organizations such as the Make A Wish Foundation. So much in fact that he caught the eye of then senator Bob Dole who asked him to come to a republican dinner at the white house not knowing that Eric Wright was actually Eazy-E who the FBI was currently investigating and attempting to shutdown.

Just then, fate struck with all it's power. Eazy-E's self burning lifestyle demanded it's tribute. A cold showed up to be a inflammation of the lungs, this led to doctors confirming he had AIDS. Two months later he was dead. After 11 523 days on the earth, Eric Wright died on March 26, 1995. He died as the sort of activist that he was in life warning kids about the dangers of unprotected sex and that there always was a way out of the ghetto on a live broadcast from his deathbed. Eazy's short life full of controversy was over. By IQBAL BRAR

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Updated: Sunday, April 05, 1998 6:28:34 PM