REST EAZY...

WRITTEN BY DR. NYQUIST!?!!

What up ya’ll, it’s the Good Dr. back at cha on a special day for my man Eazy-E!  Today is a treat for me, Ill be speaking on a cas-single(cassette single) from Eazy E called “Eazy Duz It”.  This was the first single released off the album of the same name.  I had just moved to New Orleans at the beginning of 88 to stay with pops (moms couldn’t handle me!!) from D.C. While I got adjusted to the new surroundings and friends – the music, especially hip hop was different. We would asked each other about different hip hop groups had we heard of, as well as albums that were out at the time. I thought I was a bad azz by mentioning Boogie Down Productions “Criminal Minded” to the crew but they shot me down and one up’ed me by telling me about “By Any Means Neccesary” album which I hadn’t even heard about!! It dawned on me that down in the N.O. , they got more hip hop than D.C., major but more so independent! My folks D.J. Criminal asked if I had heard of a group called N.W.A. and I said “The Only N.W.A. I know about is National Wrestling Alliance” bein smart… He said I had to peep them because they were hard as hell! “Yeah Right” I replied, because nothing could touch Public Enemy. Anyway, listening to the radio – I heard a screeching synth line that I never heard before followed by a menacing voice(O’Shea Jackson aka Ice Cube) speaking on the perils of the dope game, which I knew about well (That’s another story) but what was crazy about the song was the last guy to rap.

EAZY-E | EAZY-DUZ-IT (CASSETTE SINGLE)

He really sounded it like he was more drug dealer than m.c. spittin “Sprung Strawberry jocking me so early – Hoe you wanna hit, you got to get your knees dirty”!! From that day on, I was a fan. After also hearing “ 8 Ball” and “Fat Girls” from N.W.A. and The Posse L.P., I immediately called my brother D back home and told him about the group as I described the album cover.

N.W.A. & THE POSSE (FULL ALBUM ON CASSETTE)

He had saw the record at The Wiz, I told him to go buy it asap! Summer rolls around and just like all things hip hop at that time, music drops with no promo. I stroll into the legendary Peaches record store and go straight to the cassettes. I picked up the Eazy E joint and I notice that there was an extra song that was not on the vinyl so that was a bonus for me! Came home and popped side A of the tape in my Walkman…A female voice comes on “He was once a thug from around the way – Eazy”! And then you hear Eazy interrupt and kick a then unkown Michelle’ out the vocal booth and command Dr. Dre to drop the beat. A funky interpolation of The Temptations “Ball Of Confusion” soon follows. A day in the life of a gangbanger on wax, like the earlier “Six in the morning” by Ice T and “P.S.K.” by Schoolly D, but the production was stellar. Dr. Dre took a piece of The Bomb Squad’s production and he being a dj, also adding live instrumentation (shout out to Stan The Guitar Man) and killed it!!! First time to me, hip hop production was about the audio engineering as well.

REST IN PEACE ERIC WRIGHT |  SEPT. 7, 1963 – MARCH 26, 1995

Next up was “Ruthless Villian” which introduced the world to one of my favorite m.c.’s – M.C. Ren!! Dre drops a hard beatbreak and Ren goes in, not bragging about himself but about his homeboy Eazy, dropping line after dope classic line while Eazy joins in about how gangster he is on the hook.  Shit!! so far, so good – I flipped the tape over to listen to the radio friendly joint called “Radio."  It starts off like if you were tuning the radio dial to get to your favorite station (which was never done before in hip hop production) which I should say on the west coast was KDAY(or KEAZYE.)  Greg Mack starts the song which is a homage to all the disc jockey’s playing Eazy’s music, and they even have the check – in callers! (Dre was a genius at skits also and he knew the importance of the disc jockey and how they broke the new shit first!)  I can play rock….but I prefer Hip Hop!!!  Now the gem on this tape to me is the last song ”Compton’s In The House” (100% Diss Dedicated to The Wacky Wack Crew) which Eazy E once again plays the back and this time Dr. Dre and M.C. Ren gets to step up.  To me, Dre and Ren could’ve been a group because they played off each other’s flow perfect – they were the west coast’s answer to EPMD (they even jacked EPMD’s “You’re a Customer” to rap over), but this song was also pre-N.W.A. (there was a remix on the “Straight Outta Compton” album without the diss) because Cube was studying to be an architect. And if it’s anybody out there who knows who they are dissing please let me know!! This mini E.P. is classic on so many levels……. How a drug dealer started a record label, where Dre upped the ante on production (not beatmaking),the first time supporting rappers played a part in the overall project, and lastly you could say you was 16 and have everybody believing it!!! God Bless Eazy!!! Until the next time yall!!!