Ice Cube has broken his silence on the long-running conspiracy theory that Suge Knight was responsible for Eazy-E’s death by injecting the late N.W.A legend with AIDS.
Cube finally addressed the urban legend during an appearance on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, where co-host Mike Majlak quizzed the rap veteran about the murky allegations.
Hesitant to lend any credence to the theory, Cube asked several questions of his own in an attempt to dig deeper into the authenticity the story.
“How would [Suge] do that?” Cube asked. “And Eazy would never tell anybody that?”
“No, I mean, Eazy didn’t even know,” Majlak countered. “‘Cause you just poke somebody, like, and they don’t even know. Maybe they were at a club or some shit.”
Still skeptical, Cube replied: “Nah, I think if somebody poke you with one of them goddamn needles, you know. You know. I mean, I’m just saying… just say this happened, Eazy would tell somebody, ‘This muthafucka poked me with some shit!’
“Now, if he was unconscious and — I don’t know. It’s like… I don’t know. It just sounds… um… if Eazy would have known he got poked, he would’ve said something. If he didn’t know he got poked, then the conspiracy lives on.”
When asked if he would put such a heinous act past Suge Knight — a man with a reputation for stopping at nothing to either get what he wants or exact revenge on his enemies — Cube answered bluntly: “I don’t put shit past nobody.”
Eazy-E (real name Eric Wright) passed away aged 31 on March 26, 1995 due to AIDS-induced pneumonia. Just days before his death, he announced at a Hollywood news conference that he had been diagnosed with the virus. Eazy had learned of his condition weeks earlier after being hospitalized with a violent cough.
In a statement read out by Eazy’s friend and attorney Ron Sweeney, the Eazy-Duz-It rapper acknowledged that he had led a promiscuous lifestyle, fathering seven children with six different women.
Eazy’s passing also came at a time when West Coast Hip Hop was at the center of a power struggle between N.W.A’s former label home, the Eazy-E-founded Ruthless Records, and Death Row Records, Suge Knight and Dr. Dre’s soon-to-be-dominant upstart.
After seeing Ice Cube leave the label over claims of being unfairly compensated despite being the group’s primary songwriter, Dre — N.W.A’s main producer — sought to follow suit. Knight allegedly strong-armed Eazy into letting Dre out of his contract with the help of baseball bats and lead pipes.
As fans struggled to grapple with the reality of his sudden death, the combination of Eazy’s rapid deterioration and his supposedly violent rivalry with Suge Knight and Death Row allowed such a dark conspiracy theory to build steam.
Fuel was added to the fire in 2003 when Suge appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! following his release from jail and explained how injecting someone with AIDS was his preferred method of killing someone as opposed to shooting them, even referring to it as “the Eazy-E thing.”
“See, technology is so high, so if you shoot somebody, you go to jail forever. You don’t want to go to jail forever,” he said. “They have a new thing out. They have this stuff they called — they get blood from somebody with AIDS, and they shoot you with it. That’s a slow death. The Eazy-E thing. You know what I mean?”
Doubt has also been cast on Eazy-E’s death by several close friends, collaborators and even family members.
“I believe in my heart somebody did something to Eric,” B.G. Knocc Out, who appeared on Eazy-E’s 1993 hit “”Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” told HipHopDX in 2011. “Whether it was [his manager] Jerry [Heller], whether it was [his widow] Tomica [Woods-Wright], I have yet to really know the truth about it.
“But, for a person to have full-blown AIDS [that quickly is suspicious] … To be around Eric for the last three years of his life and he never had an episode like this — never ever — something is strange, something is real odd.”
In 2015, Eazy’s son, Yung Eazy, claimed his father was “killed” and pointed the finger at Suge Knight. He also suggested Ice Cube’s 1993 album Lethal Injection was a subliminal jab aimed at his former N.W.A groupmate.
“I’ve been known my pops was killed,” Yung Eazy wrote on Instagram. “His death never added up 2 what ppl have always said maybe they think we’re idiots blind to the truth idk….but 4 u new fans, youngsters & ppl who just don’t know much.”
He added: “notice in #StraightOuttaCompton Eazy did not get sick until after the studio incident with suge and look how he acknowledged & admits on this interview with #JimmyKimmelinjecting ppl instead of shooting them is a new thing that’s done.
“Oh n let’s not touch the topic on Ice Cube naming his album ‘Lethal Injection’ #FreeYourMind #RipEazyE #EazyE #FuckSugeKnight.”
2pac wasn’t so lucky boom boom
you really think it is lucky to get aids and not be shot. i would take the shooting over contracting aids. you have no clue what that disease does to people. i do please educate your self before making really stupid comments.
This article gave me a headache
Dr. Dre and Daz knew Eazy E had HIV in as early as ’93. There’s a track called “domino intro” from Doggystyle in which they literally referenced Eazy dissing them on TV and said he had HIV. They even played on his name so the listener 100% knew who they were talking about. Dre and Daz were signed to death row at this time working under the same guy Eazy literally almost killed before Jerry Heller stopped him. Connect the dots people!
Dr. Dre, Snoop, and Daz all knew Eazy E had HIV in as early as ’93. The track on doggystyle, Domino Intro proves this. Those 3 were working under Suge, same guy that Eazy tried to off before being stopped by Jerry Heller. Ice Cube dropped an album titled “lethal injection” a few months after doggystyle was released. Connect the dots.
I hear you but Lethal Injection dropped only 2 weeks after Doggystyle not a few months later.
Cube has nothing to do with Eazy E’s death!!!
In the 80s/90s …AIDS/HIV was a terrible embarrassment for America considered “ignorantly” a gay disease….so the mention of Eazy having HIV on Snoop’s song in 93…. to try to humiliate E …Ice Cube released No Vaseline in 1991, with the suggestion of Eazy & Jerry Heller as lovers…. everyone was mudslinging back then…..
Ice Cube named his 1993 album “Lethal Injection”. Coincidence?
Eazy e is dead but suge knight in jail he got a long way to go the family wants answers but hey suge in jail anyway i just think more of the family matters you know they want him to be still alive
Biggest faker, biggest hypocrite clown and biggest overall lying POS in the history of hip hop.
Wow!! Devils playground
Cube left before all this. He had nothing to do with it. He wanted nothing to with Suge was well. He dissed all them. No one was safe from being dissed from cube at the time. It was literally war. Now Dre was the traitor back then and I like Dre. But he did wrong back then and possibly lead to Easy down fall. If what Suge said is true.