In the space of five minutes, With N.W.A. The set’s second half opens with “We Want Eazy”, a raucous dance floor burner based on an interpolation of Bootsy Collins’ “Ahh, The Name Is Bootsy, Baby”. The R-rated fare comprises Part 1 of Eazy’s disc and the material fit for radio play fills out Part 2. Dre and Yella alternate beats and melodies, and proceed to knock holes in the walls.Įazy-E separated Eazy-Duz-It into two parts, just as Bay Area legend Too Short frequently did on his Golden Era releases. And the title cut “Eazy-Duz-It” finds Eazy mixing street tales with braggadocio, while Dr. Dre, a few new lyrics from Ice Cube, and a spiraling narrative, complete with shootouts and courtroom melees, and is as engaging now as it was back in ’88. “Boyz-N-The Hood (Remix)”, an updated version of Eazy’s first single, has more bass boom from Dr. On “2 Hard Mutha’s”, Ren and Eazy trade rhyme daggers back and forth, while NWA’s DJ Yella gets buck on the live drum kit, and frequent NWA collaborator Stan “The Guitar Man” Jones supplies the song’s melody with his nimble ax work. “Ruthless Villain” has Ren taking center stage spitting rugged verbs over the sparse drum rumbles of Dr. Following “Nobody Move”, MC Ren and Eazy-E have two more inspired collabos.
On the next track, the sinister yet funky “Nobody Move”, NWA firebrand MC Ren appears for the first time, and he and Eazy make like Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger pulling off a daring, full-scale bank heist, and trying to get away clean. The album’s comical opener “Still Talkin” features Eazy free-wheeling bragging, boasting, and banging everything in a skirt, while two drunks – one of them voiced by Ice Cube – talk trash over a festive blues melody during the bridges. Through this album’s twelve tracks, Eazy-E pulls jack moves, tells hood tales, flexes his ego, and revels in all things hedonistic. In the late summer of 1988, months before NWA dropped their atom bomb Straight Outta Compton, Ruthless Records presented its first star attraction: Eazy-E, and his tight full-length debut Eazy-Duz-It.Įazy-Duz-It isn’t as breathtaking as its companion piece Straight Outta Compton, and it doesn’t aspire to be. “Boyz N-The-Hood” became a massive street hit, and led to both Eazy-E and his motley crew NWA securing production deals with Hollywood label Priority Records. With intense vocal coaching from Dre, along with E’s undeniable charisma, Eric Wright the entrepreneur was fashioned into Eazy-E, the Hip Hop Thugsta. Dre suggested Eazy-E record the track himself. Refusing to record what they deemed a stridently West Coast song, HBO left the recording studio in protest, and with the studio time being wasted, Dr. During a recording session with Homeboys Only, a New York group he’d signed to his Ruthless Records label, HBO rebuked Eazy when he’d presented them with a song to record: the Ice Cube-penned, Dr. In fact, he became a rapper by happenstance. By pure twist of fate, Eazy would also become the face of gangsta rap.Įazy-E wasn’t exactly a textbook emcee. Eazy-E (Eric Wright), the mastermind behind the “World’s Most Dangerous Group” NWA, was a Compton, California drug dealer turned record executive. This is one of the most popular albums from Hip Hop’s Golden Era although, ironically, it’s also one of the least acknowledged in terms of quality and replay value.