Book shows N.W.A’s success anything but ‘Eazy’
tion, Knight menaced Dre free of Ruthless. Things got scary ugly. Heller hired Mike Klein as head of security, a mysterious guy with a background in “Israeli security forces.”
In the battle against Death Row Records, he brought in the Jewish Defense League, regarded by the FBI as a “right-wing extremist group” for its violent tactics.
Dre had it rough at Death Row, but one pairing was divine. Snoop Dogg introduced him to weed when they teamed on “The Chronic,” the street name for potent, sticky weed.
Later, Snoop was deathly afraid for his life after making his own exit from Death Row.
Snoop denies it, but the author uncovered court papers in which Knight’s wife, Sharitha, makes the claim.
She also said that Snoop hired a 24-hour armed security force and drove around in an armored tank with gun ports.
The author describes Tupac Shakur’s bonding with Knight as akin to nuclear fusion. In fact, Westhoff’s detailed recounting of the long history of Death Row is required reading even for those who may think they know the story.
Westhoff’s careful examination of all the who-killed-Tupac scenarios leads him to conclude that Puff Daddy paid for the execution that September night in 1996 in Las Vegas.
The heartbreak of N.W.A is that Cube, Dre and Eazy had only just found their way back to each other when Eazy was felled by fullblown AIDS.
Again, Westhoff does a serious job sifting through the many questions as to how Eazy contracted HIV.
In the end, the answer is who cares? But plenty of murder theories have floated in the years since, spawned in part by the fact that he died only a month after diagnosis.
Knight publicly offered one of the more intriguing ones, describing to Jimmy Kimmel how it was possible to inject someone with a vial of tainted blood. When asked about it by Westhoff, Cube didn’t accuse Knight, but he refused to discount conspiracy theories about Eazy’s death.
Many others point fingers at the widow, claiming inept medical care.
Yes, the Nation of Islam imported a controversial treatment, Kemron, from Africa. It didn’t help, but it didn’t hurt.
Eazy died of complications from AIDS on March 26, 1995, in what was the dark ages of treatment.
He was buried in his Compton hat, lowered in a golden coffin.
Only one member of N.W.A, DJ Yella, attended.
A truly sad ending to an incomparable era.