Eazy E Remembered: Bone Thugs & Harmony
By Paine
Few people ever discuss the Eazy E after NWA. While Eazy continued to top the charts, he was dwarfed in the media by records like Doggystyle and It Takes a Thief. MC Ren and Yella remained at Eazy’s side as he looked for his next vehicle of striking back. The answer to that question became one of the highest selling, most talented groups in Hip-Hop history - Bone Thugs & Harmony.
The very reason why Bone reached the mainstream consciousness is by way of “The Crossroads,” a song largely dedicated to Eazy E. Even before that, Creepin’ on ah Come Up, a 1994 EP, affirmed Bone’s arrival and Eazy’s perseverance. Relive some of those glory moments, along with the great tragedy soon after, as AllHipHop.com discussed Eazy E with Krayzie and Layzie Bone.
On tour for the recent Bone Brothers album, the two recall a different side of Eazy that challenges so many things said about the icon. While we’ll never see NWA in its real capacity together again, along with Above The Law and a few others, Bone Thugs & Harmony carry Eazy E’s torch. Enjoy our final part of the Eazy E Remembered series.
AllHipHop.com: Do you, personally, do anything special to remember Eazy?
Krayzie Bone: It’s been years man. It ain’t like just because it’s ten years - we remember it every year. He played a major part in our lives to where we are now. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be where we are. We mention his names on our songs, we try to give a lot back to him.
AllHipHop.com: Bizzy told me not too long ago, and he said this respectfully, “So if anything, [Eazy] gave me a bottle of liquor and a bag of weed if you wanna keep it all the way real.” Do you cosign that statement?
Layzie Bone: I don’t really agree with that at all. He didn’t put a blunt and a bottle in my mind. I put a blunt and a bottle in my mind, by choice. He gave us an opportunity. I was smokin’ blunts and drinkin’ before I was with Eazy. Bizzy is a complex character. I can’t cosign that. By watching [Eazy] be a CEO by day, and go to the studio by night, it let me know exactly what I wanted to do with my career.
AllHipHop.com: We all know the story of Eazy signing you in Cleveland. But at the time, what specifically brought him out?
KB: He just had a show. We had gone out to California, tryin’ to get on. It just so happened that somebody in Cleveland that used to work for him, called us, and gave us the number to Ruthless Records. We was puttin’ a couple calls - s**t, we put in a lot of calls. One day he called us back. I rapped to him on the phone. He started passin’ the phone around to everybody in the office like, “Listen to these n***as!” He said he to go, but he had to call us back. He called us back and said he had a show in our hometown of Cleveland. We didn’t tell him, but after he called us back in those two hours he said he was gonna call us back, we was like, “Man, we gotta get back to Cleveland.” So we hustled up money to get back on the Greyhound just to open the show. Because the person who gave us the number, they were the ones promoting the show in Cleveland.
AllHipHop.com: Was anybody with Eazy in Cleveland.
KB: DJ Yella was with him. So, when we got back to LA, [Eazy] started takin’ us to different studios to meet different producers. Finally, we really found it with DJ U-Neek. There were a lot of different producers, like [former Tupac producer] Rhythm D.
AllHipHop.com: What’s U-Neek up to these days?
KB: He’s actually doing tracks for this next Bone album.
AllHipHop.com: Was Eazy the first person you guys tried to sign with, or the first to say yes?
KB: We didn’t really run into many people out there. We was out there two or three weeks. Somebody had gave us Tone-Loc’s address. We walked to Tone-Loc’s house, knocked on the door and everything. They came outside, we rapped for him, he didn’t seem like he was all that interested. Tone Loc’s manager stayed there and listened, he was interested. But that never worked out. Eazy was like the next person we [saw].
AllHipHop.com: You said Yella was with Eazy. It’s interesting to hear that, being that NWA had dissolved a few years before. Before he got back up there with Bone Thugs & Harmony, how was he in that transition stage?
LB: Bottom line man, when we first signed with Eazy E, it was obvious that he was depressed. He was kinda quiet. You could tell he wasn’t happy, he was hungry to get back to where he was used to bein’. A week after we been with him, he was one of us then. So E, in his last days, he was happy as a mothaf**ka. He was callin’ himself E Bone, he had some young dudes with him that was down for whatever. He was real enthusiastic about getting back in the game. Up until he got sick, he was havin’ a ball with it. He knew he had something in his arsenal that he could fire back on them other guys with. He knew his s**t wasn’t over with, when everybody else did.
KB: Basically, what we saw in that period of time, trying to build his label back up, he was under a lot of stress. People at his company wasn’t doing what they was supposed to be doing, and hurt him in a major way. I think the whole NWA thing is what all groups go through. Just like I’m in Bone, if I owned the label that Bone was signed to, and I was also a solo artist, and I was makin’ all that money - eventually, everybody else is gonna want to be on the level that I’m on. Eazy E, he was a cool dude. I remember a time when he was going through those problems, and he had left us in hotels, and we wouldn’t see him for weeks at a time. We had no money. We couldn’t get in touch with him. I remember one time, we had a meeting with him, “Man look, we don’t know what’s going on with you. But we got nothing. If it’s gonna be like this, we can go back to Cleveland. Let us go home.” That’s when he pulled out a piece of paper. He showed us how he was being extorted. Money was being stolen from the label. He was getting to fire a whole lot of people. Jerry Heller was one of ‘em. He told us, “I need y’all to ride with me. If Ruthless is fittin’ to blow back up, I need y’all to be down.” When he told us what he was going through, that’s all he had to say. We ridin’ with you.
By Paine
Few people ever discuss the Eazy E after NWA. While Eazy continued to top the charts, he was dwarfed in the media by records like Doggystyle and It Takes a Thief. MC Ren and Yella remained at Eazy’s side as he looked for his next vehicle of striking back. The answer to that question became one of the highest selling, most talented groups in Hip-Hop history - Bone Thugs & Harmony.
The very reason why Bone reached the mainstream consciousness is by way of “The Crossroads,” a song largely dedicated to Eazy E. Even before that, Creepin’ on ah Come Up, a 1994 EP, affirmed Bone’s arrival and Eazy’s perseverance. Relive some of those glory moments, along with the great tragedy soon after, as AllHipHop.com discussed Eazy E with Krayzie and Layzie Bone.
On tour for the recent Bone Brothers album, the two recall a different side of Eazy that challenges so many things said about the icon. While we’ll never see NWA in its real capacity together again, along with Above The Law and a few others, Bone Thugs & Harmony carry Eazy E’s torch. Enjoy our final part of the Eazy E Remembered series.
AllHipHop.com: Do you, personally, do anything special to remember Eazy?
Krayzie Bone: It’s been years man. It ain’t like just because it’s ten years - we remember it every year. He played a major part in our lives to where we are now. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be where we are. We mention his names on our songs, we try to give a lot back to him.
AllHipHop.com: Bizzy told me not too long ago, and he said this respectfully, “So if anything, [Eazy] gave me a bottle of liquor and a bag of weed if you wanna keep it all the way real.” Do you cosign that statement?
Layzie Bone: I don’t really agree with that at all. He didn’t put a blunt and a bottle in my mind. I put a blunt and a bottle in my mind, by choice. He gave us an opportunity. I was smokin’ blunts and drinkin’ before I was with Eazy. Bizzy is a complex character. I can’t cosign that. By watching [Eazy] be a CEO by day, and go to the studio by night, it let me know exactly what I wanted to do with my career.
AllHipHop.com: We all know the story of Eazy signing you in Cleveland. But at the time, what specifically brought him out?
KB: He just had a show. We had gone out to California, tryin’ to get on. It just so happened that somebody in Cleveland that used to work for him, called us, and gave us the number to Ruthless Records. We was puttin’ a couple calls - s**t, we put in a lot of calls. One day he called us back. I rapped to him on the phone. He started passin’ the phone around to everybody in the office like, “Listen to these n***as!” He said he to go, but he had to call us back. He called us back and said he had a show in our hometown of Cleveland. We didn’t tell him, but after he called us back in those two hours he said he was gonna call us back, we was like, “Man, we gotta get back to Cleveland.” So we hustled up money to get back on the Greyhound just to open the show. Because the person who gave us the number, they were the ones promoting the show in Cleveland.
AllHipHop.com: Was anybody with Eazy in Cleveland.
KB: DJ Yella was with him. So, when we got back to LA, [Eazy] started takin’ us to different studios to meet different producers. Finally, we really found it with DJ U-Neek. There were a lot of different producers, like [former Tupac producer] Rhythm D.
AllHipHop.com: What’s U-Neek up to these days?
KB: He’s actually doing tracks for this next Bone album.
AllHipHop.com: Was Eazy the first person you guys tried to sign with, or the first to say yes?
KB: We didn’t really run into many people out there. We was out there two or three weeks. Somebody had gave us Tone-Loc’s address. We walked to Tone-Loc’s house, knocked on the door and everything. They came outside, we rapped for him, he didn’t seem like he was all that interested. Tone Loc’s manager stayed there and listened, he was interested. But that never worked out. Eazy was like the next person we [saw].
AllHipHop.com: You said Yella was with Eazy. It’s interesting to hear that, being that NWA had dissolved a few years before. Before he got back up there with Bone Thugs & Harmony, how was he in that transition stage?
LB: Bottom line man, when we first signed with Eazy E, it was obvious that he was depressed. He was kinda quiet. You could tell he wasn’t happy, he was hungry to get back to where he was used to bein’. A week after we been with him, he was one of us then. So E, in his last days, he was happy as a mothaf**ka. He was callin’ himself E Bone, he had some young dudes with him that was down for whatever. He was real enthusiastic about getting back in the game. Up until he got sick, he was havin’ a ball with it. He knew he had something in his arsenal that he could fire back on them other guys with. He knew his s**t wasn’t over with, when everybody else did.
KB: Basically, what we saw in that period of time, trying to build his label back up, he was under a lot of stress. People at his company wasn’t doing what they was supposed to be doing, and hurt him in a major way. I think the whole NWA thing is what all groups go through. Just like I’m in Bone, if I owned the label that Bone was signed to, and I was also a solo artist, and I was makin’ all that money - eventually, everybody else is gonna want to be on the level that I’m on. Eazy E, he was a cool dude. I remember a time when he was going through those problems, and he had left us in hotels, and we wouldn’t see him for weeks at a time. We had no money. We couldn’t get in touch with him. I remember one time, we had a meeting with him, “Man look, we don’t know what’s going on with you. But we got nothing. If it’s gonna be like this, we can go back to Cleveland. Let us go home.” That’s when he pulled out a piece of paper. He showed us how he was being extorted. Money was being stolen from the label. He was getting to fire a whole lot of people. Jerry Heller was one of ‘em. He told us, “I need y’all to ride with me. If Ruthless is fittin’ to blow back up, I need y’all to be down.” When he told us what he was going through, that’s all he had to say. We ridin’ with you.
