The N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton arrived in 2015 and painted a Hollywood portrait of the pioneering West Coast gangsta rap group. Considering director F. Gary Gray only had so much time to tell the story, plenty of details were left out. For starters, J.J. Fad wasn’t even mentioned despite their undeniable impact on the success of Ruthless Records and Dr. Dre’s assault on former Pump It Up! host Dee Barnes was conveniently omitted, too.
According to former Ruthless artist BG Knocc Out, there was another interesting chapter left out of the film. During a recent interview with VladTV, the veteran rapper was discussing The Mysterious Death of Eazy-E television series when Jerry Heller came up. A longtime music manager, Heller was responsible for the careers of both N.W.A and Eazy-E as well as numerous Los Angeles rap and R&B artists.
But at one point, BG Knocc Out said Heller had attempted to sue Eazy-E, something he denied prior to his 2016 death.
“Eazy, the day he came into the studio and we was recording the song ‘Doggpound Killer,’ he was supposed to do a verse on there,” BG Knocc Out explained. “He had eight bars to put on that song. Sometime throughout the course of time he was in the studio, his lungs collapsed and then I go sit in the hallway with him while he’s wheezing, and he had a big manila envelope.
“The guy Donovan who owned Audio Achievements, he came and sat on the other side of Eazy. Eazy was showing him papers … but he was telling him, ‘Look at what Jerry’s been doing and now he’s trying to sue me because I fired him’ … I was sitting right there.”
Jerry Heller filed a $110 million lawsuit against the Straight Outta Compton filmmakers in October 2015. F. Gary Gray, the Oscar-nominated screenwriters, Legendary Pictures, Ice Cube and the estate of Eazy-E were just a few of the many named in the suit.
Not only was he unhappy with the way he was depicted in the film, Heller claimed a significant amount of the movie’s content had been stolen from his autobiography without permission. The defendants countered with a request Heller’s defamation charges be dismissed. In December 2018, two years after Heller’s death, the lawsuit was tossed out.
Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige & Kendrick Lamar Booked For Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show
Elsewhere in the interview, BG Knocc Out discussed the upcoming Super Bowl LVI Pepsi halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige and his hopes for an Eazy-E shoutout.
“That’s one of my gripes with this whole music thing, bro, is that Eazy is just forgotten about, which is so fucking disheartening to me and disrespectful on so many levels,” he said. “It’s like people just forgot about him. I would hope they would shout him out. That would be nice.”
The Super Bowl LVI takes place on February 13, 2022 at the SoFi Stadium just outside Los Angeles, the home of the Rams and Chargers.
We haven’t forgotten about Eazy, real hip hop heads will always have a love and respect for Eazy and it has nothing to do
with his rapping but more for his vision and being one of hip hop’s first moguls that actually hustled his way to the top, from the streets to the mainstream.
Eazy laid a blueprint for cats to follow. You can own your own company and don’t have to work for anyone but yourself.
Dude played his homies I wouldn’t care if they never mentioned him I get tired of these dude’s getting limelight when they be foul him rza puffy
Naw he didn’t play his homies, he put them on. They were just upset that they weren’t seeing the type of money he was seeing. But if you invest in a record label and you put up a 100% of the money to start it, when the money start rolling in are you going to split it even between your homies that are on the label??? The problem was he was their bandmate, homie but at the same time boss and they couldn’t come to terms with that. Eazy was paying for their flights, hotel rooms, food, clothes, studio time so when the first big checks start coming in he suppose to split it even with them and he’s in the red?? He has to recoup on his investment, make the label money and then make his money and then they get paid. You can find 10 talented rappers and 10 talented producers in 2-3 days but try to find someone willing to put up 250k that is nearly a impossible task, that’s what Eazy put up to start Ruthless. Cube has manipulated people into believing everything he says about what when on, remember Ice Cube is a talented actor. Ice Cube sign the same deal/contract on priority that was over to him by Ruthless. Go listen to some of these stories of Eazy willing to help people. Take Eazy out the picture their is a good chance that none of those guys from NWA ever get a fair shot, but Eazy by himself with his money, vision and hustle still could have gotten in the business and made a impact without rapping.
It’s a story about NWA not JJ fad and Dee Barnes. Fuck outta here
Why’d they fuckin put Snoop in the movie then, bozo