| RapPages:You started off as a businessman. Since then, and even now,what are your top rules in business? Eazy-E: When I first started , I went to a lot if companies for distribution. I wanted my own label, my own say-so about this, say-so about that,and nobody wanted to do it. Finally someone wanted to listen to what we had to say. They believed in us and they distributed it. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do anything or hold you back from somthing that you wanna do. I don't let anybody hold me back. RapPages:How do you feel about Ruthless' progress as an indie? Eazy-E: Right now I feel like it's slow. It's like, we don't have nothin; out right now. We just got ran out by Penthouse Player. We used to have everything, like Michel'le, D.O.C, Eazy-E, N.W.A., J.J. Fad... everybody was out there. You'd be seein' everything on the charts. It was back-to-back. We had four albums on the charts at one time. RapPages:What's the holdup? Are you waiting for '93 to kick some shit off? Eazy-E: I think so. Really, I'm gonna kick it off in a coupla of months. A lot of things stopped because Dre went his way and I went my way. RapPages:So what's the relationship with you and Dre businesswise? Eazy-E: I guess we got a little business. I mean, I talk to him when I see him,But it ain't like I kick it, 'cause it's like... We've been buddies for like 12 years. He did this thing with somebody he barely knew. Blood is thicker than water. RapPages:How do you feel your business relationship as Eazy-E has affected your personal relationships, not just with the biys from N.W.A., but with other people? Eazy-E: It seems like it kinda fucked it up. Everybody's got egos. They wanna be better than this 'n' better that 'n' this. I'm inthe group, I'm eazy-E solo, and I own the company. I put up all the money and did everything, paid for everything, and I was gettign paid for being an artist and the company. I put everything down. I think businesswise the biggest thing in rap history wwould be to get everybody back together. Me, Dre, Yella, Ren, Ice Cube. Back together. Do another NWA album. Dre producin' it. I think that would be the biggest Hip-Hop record in history. I see a tour too. Ren performing; Dre performing, cause Dre got a solo album; Ice Cube got his solo album; I got my solo album. All of us performing solo and then coming around at the end as NWA. RapPages:Are you guys actuvely pursuing that? Eazy-E: If everybody sat down together and talked in a room, just us, I think they could see the shit. But if they have other people wit 'em , they don't want to see it happen. If everybody would stop tripping out in their ego trips, I think everything would be cool. RP:Is that what fucked up NWA--The ego shit? Eazy-E:The ego shit and people running and whispering in your ear telling you what to do. It's like, man, "You rap better than all them niggaz-I don't know why you don't do your own stuff." Eventually I was gonna let everybody fall into their own place and do their own thing. But then they started turningit around like, "They get a white mufucka over there... you shouldn't fuck with white people." RP:Is that what happened with Jerry Heller? Eazy-E: Yeah. Imean, Jerry's my manager, and he was they manager too. People fuck up people heads by fillin' it with that Black/white, you should hate this, that and evreything else. RP:How instrumental was Jerry in the initial success of the group? People construed the relationship as you getting fucked by Jerry. Eazy-E: |