FRIEND 4 LIFE

By: Felicia “The poetess” Morris

RP: Looking back, when did the problems start happening within NWA?

Yella: Well the first time was Cube Leaving. Actually I think Cube left because he wanted to do his own thing. So we did the Efil4zaggin album. It sold a million copies in one week. And it’s funny, ‘cause we didn’t tour off it. I think that’s really caused the problems, ‘cause we didn’t tour. We were trying to go for big arenas, but they wouldn’t let us because of insurance or whatever. And then I think that’s when the problems started, right after finishing that album. It started between (Eric) and Dre. Whatever their little differences were, I didn’t know. I didn’t get into it, I just stayed neutral.

RP: So how severe was the rift between Eazy and Cube? In a past interview, Eric mentioned that he and Cube had always been cool, that there was never really that much of a rift between the two of them.

Yella: Well, it really wasn’t too much of a rift between [Eric] and Dre either. Record wise, yeah, but deep down he still was cool with Dre. Record wise, it was just Hollywood bullshit. But deep down, you know, he was mad because Dre left. I think it hurt him a bit.

RP: How did the departures of Cube and Dre affect Eazy?

Yella: Well, when Cube left, we got over it ‘cause there was still four of us left. We came out with an EP. But when Dre left, that’s when everything fell apart. Dre and Ren did their own thing, and then it was over. I mean, he leaves in the middle of an album that sold a million copies in a week? So we never toured, we didn’t do nothing. We barely did a couple off of it. It was a trip. I really never knew why he left, even to this day.

RP: What was the chemistry like between all of you guys early on?

Yella: We was like five brothers, like family. Chemistry was real cool. Wasn’t no attitudes, no ego-trippin’ or nothing. It was just all cool. What reminds me of us back then was The Five Heartbeats. That movie is us. That’s NWA right there. The same little stuff that started off and [how they] started breaking up [in the film], that reminds me of us. And how tight they was. That’s how we was-tight.

RP: When did that start to change?

Yella: Well, what really changed it is the money. We started making more money. I mean big money. Then other people outside of the group started telling certain people, “You should do this and that.” That’s exactly what did it-money and somebody talking. But before, it was funny. We’d be upstairs-me, Julio G and Eric-and I’m calling him retarded and he’s calling me retarded. My little nickname for [Eric] was “Little Rat.” He’s just a rat, into everything. Like back in the NWA days, he wouldn’t come around. Me and Dre would be in studio-he don’t come around. He comes around to do his verse and get out. He didn’t like to hang around the studio back then. But lately he did, ‘cause he bought all the studio equipment. So he wants to be a producer, but didn’t know anything about it.

RP: When things within the group started disintegrating, why did you stay?

Yella: Why did I stay? Damn good question. That’s the million- dollar right there. Well, Cube left first. Then, right after the first album, Dre started going his own way. But he just didn’t leave because we was still doing videos still. Me, I never got into listening to other people and, see, I always kept to myself really. I just stayed low-key. Everybody else is out there, hanging out in the clubs, listening to all these people, and me, I just stayed. Dre asked me did I want to come with him. I never gave him an answer. But I don’t I would’ve went. I just let him have his own space. I didn’t want to be on his coattails, so I just stayed back. And Eric always appreciated me staying too. I was the last one. Ren was doing his own thing. “I know you stayed, I know you stayed.” Little Rat. [Laughs really loud]

RP: You two didn’t really get mad at each other?

Yella: It’s hard to stay mad at him, it’s real hard. Even the last time I talked to him in the hospital, which was like less than a month ago, we was arguing on the phone. I said, “You little rat.” Talking all this mess. That’s a trip. I didn’t know that would be the last time I would talk to him.

RP: How were his spirits while in the hospital?

Yella: He sounded normal to me. I never knew he had AIDS until the night before the press conference. And then the last time I seen him was the day of the press conference. When I seen him in the hospital, he looked normal. He just had tubes in his mouth, but they had him sedated so he wouldn’t move. When I came in there, I went in by myself. He was asleep and I whispered in his ear. He was like a fighting to get his eyes open. He knew it was me. It was a trip. I thought he was going to pull put, at least for a little while, to talk or something.

RP: Where were you when you got the news?

Yella: I was at home and my biddy, Big Man, he called and said, “Are you sitting down?” I said, “Nah, I ain’t sitting down. For what” He asked me again. I said, “Alright, I’m sitting down.” I lied. I was standing up. And he said, “It’s true.” Right when he said” It’s True” I knew he was telling the truth. Two weeks later he called me again. He said, “He passed away.” I was through for the night. Both times, as soon as he said, “It’s true,” I knew it. To this day I still don’t believe he’s dead. I’m waiting for him. He’ll do that all the time, be missing for three weeks, then he’ll pop up. It’s a trip. It don’t even seem real. That’s some crazy stuff. That fast? It didn’t even take a month. That’s too fast for me. Something is wrong with that picture. Definitely. I mean, he had been sick. He had bronchitis. I remember he was taking medicine for it, but he would always cough. Then one night me and him went to eat at Benihana. He didn’t eat that much. Then we was coming home…and he’s all balled up in my seat. I was like, “Man, you need to take your ass home and go to sleep.” I made him go home that night. As soon as I got out of my car, he said, “Are we going to work?” I said, ”Take your ass home.”

RP: Would you consider him a workaholic these last days?

Yella: I wouldn’t call it work. I would just call it overdoing it, period. Not sleeping for the past three months. He’d just be tired all the time ‘cause he was running, trying to be the studio, trying to be in that one. So I wouldn’t call it work. I would call it too much living. Not resting, not eating right.