Ben Westhoff - Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap

H e was the trash-talking, gun-toting hustler who brought the image of the young Compton street kidtough, aggressive, and sick of being stepped onto the mainstream. He rose faster and changed popular music more than almost anyone else, becoming not just a performer, known for his hypnotic rap cadence, but a behind-the-scenes mogul who upset the status quo and enriched himself in the process. He aimed to shock, but his lyrics were only as exhilarating as his life itself. He was a womanizer and a family man, a devoted friend and a brutal adversary, capable of the same type of violence that would come to define the music movement he launched. When he appeared on a 1993 episode of The Arsenio Hall Show , the host introduced him as the godfather of gangster rap.

But back in 1985, before he became known as Eazy-E, he was Eric Wright, the twenty-one-year-old neighborhood drug pusher. While pals from southeast Compton slept off hangovers, Eric would often start his days early. He read the Los Angeles Times before putting on a white T-shirt and white tube socks, pulled high above his blue crocus-sack shoes. A pager and opaque sunglasses known as locs completed the look. The days tended to be bright and scorching on South Muriel Avenue, the treeless Compton street he called home. Unlike lots of other poor families in the area, his was stable: Dad worked at the post office and Mom at a Montessori school. Eric, however, didnt fly so straight.

Before leaving home, he stretched his socks elastic band with one finger and crammed in a roll of bills. Hed keep $2,000 in his sock at all times, said Arnold Bigg A White, a childhood friend. Eric had stashes of cash everywhere. He kept some in his parents garage, and even a few dollars in the pockets of his Levis 501s. But his sock was where he kept the bulk of his traveling cash. If someone hit him upmaybe a homeless guy or someone trying to rob himhe could simply pull out his pockets and shrug his shoulders.

In the last couple of years raps popularity had exploded in the neighborhood, and Eric sometimes thought about getting into hip-hop. But he kept that idea mostly to himself. He focused on the game. Sure, Eric wasnt the biggest drug dealer in the area, but he was doing well. Freebased cocaine was exploding in Los Angeles. Everyone suddenly wanted the stuff: strung-out women with kids, glassy-eyed old guys walking around, everyone . People came to Compton from miles around to get the goods.

Crack would soon wreck the community, but no one really knew where things were headed just yet. Even the police didnt know what to make of this seemingly innocuous, odorless stuff. They would catch you with crack and just give you a slap on the wrist, said Mark Big Man Rucker, Eazys drug-dealing partner.

The influx of crack money was everywhere. Folks showed off gold chains and drove Nissan truckstricked out as lowriders, riding on low-profile tires. But as drug dealing became increasingly lucrative, territory disputes erupted. Then everybodys trying to expand out, said Vince Edwards, a Compton rapper known as CPO Boss Hogg. One or two blocks is not enough, we need another neighborhood.

Eric himself didnt get high. He didnt even drink. He told friends he didnt like the taste of malt liquor, but mainly he knew sobriety gave him a mental advantage. At only five foot four or so, he needed people to take him seriously. Though he had money and the gear that came with itHe had all the tight cars, clothes and all of that, said Lorenzo Patterson, his neighbor who became N.W.A member MC Renhe was careful not to flaunt his wealth. He stayed low-key, wasnt flashy. He wasnt the type to talk a lot, either. Sporting a Jheri curl and a thin mustache, the man behind the locs was guarded and shy. After all, his line of work put a premium on discretion.

When it came to women, however, Eric was a vivacious seducer. He had a baby boy named after himself with his girlfriend Darnettra, who was pregnant again. And he also had another woman pregnant at the same time, named Linda. Im Eazy-E, I got women galore / You might have a lot of women but I got much more , he would later rap.

Before long he took on a steady girlfriend, Joyce, who later bore his fourth child Derrek when Eric was twenty-three. Joyce had diminishing degrees of success trying to keep Eric faithful, and took to calling him the community dick, because he kept getting caught with other women. One time, Joyce got so angry with him that she threw a lunchbox at Erics head. Tracy Jernagin later became another of Erics favorites. But when Eric got her and yet another woman pregnant at the same time, Jernagin was furious. I was hearing, from everyonethats your boyfriend, but this other girls pregnant, having his baby right now! she said. Eric and Rucker, the fellow dealer, engaged in a long-running competition they called baby races, to see who could get the most women pregnant. Eric would win, fathering ten in total.

Still, Eric bought Jernagin expensive gifts, including Gucci watches and a new 1989 Acura Legend. But when she arrived at his house one night and Eric wouldnt come out, she was sure shed caught him cheating. Jernagin decided to enact revenge. She backed her Acura halfway up the block in order to get some momentum and aimed it directly at Erics new BMW 750iL, which was parked on the street. The idea was to get him to come outside and just face me, she remembers thinking, but things didnt go according to plan. Somehow my car went up, like it lifted up almost on two wheels, she said. When it landed, it was undrivable. The whole thing is kind of a blur from there. Erics other woman came out and tried to tangle with her, but eventually Jernagin called Erics sister to pick her up.

Eric Wright spoiled his kids, regularly taking them to Disneyland or Chuck E. Cheeses. When we had an outing or a weekend together, we all went, Eric Wright Jr. recalled. To us, he was the biggest and baddest thing walking.

He could also be a sadistic prankster. Hed draw a gopher out of its hole in his backyard by squirting lighter fluid down in it, and then light the animal on fire and watch it run around. He might take a giant ball of crack and taunt crackheads with it. What would you do for this? hed ask, and then just laugh in his weird way, without opening his mouth very wide. He could be funny and menacing at the same time. I used to think his voice was crazy, said MC Ren. He called my brother, and hed be like Heeyyyy Charlie in his little voice.

Before becoming a dealer, Eric worked some dead-end jobs. He considered going out for the post office like his old man, even taking the civil service test. But that life wasnt for him. I hate workin for somebody else, he said. Eric and his family didnt have tons of money growing up, but they never lacked. His parents taught him to be a self-starter (though they probably didnt intend for him to be a drug dealer).