Former N.W.A. manager talks gangsta rap

updated 6:20 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2006

NEW YORK - When Jerry Heller met Eric “Eazy-E” Wright on March 3, 1987, he knew right away that the diminutive, Jheri-curled dude with a roll of cash stuffed into his sock would change the music world.

Eazy was the founder of Ruthless Records and creator of the prototype gangsta rap group N.W.A. Heller was a music industry veteran who had represented artists from Elton John to Van Morrison to Marvin Gaye. With Eazy running the “show” and Heller handling the “business,” N.W.A. — and gangsta rap — exploded into a global force.

Now, 11 years after Eazy died of AIDS, Heller has written “Ruthless,” a memoir detailing how Eazy, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and MC Ren formed N.W.A. and how an ambitious security guard named Suge Knight broke up the platinum-selling crew.

Heller, 65, spoke by phone with The Associated Press from his Los Angeles office about “the most important music since the beginning of rock ’n’ roll.”

AP: What kind of person was Eazy-E?

Heller: Eazy was an exceptional human being. He was a visionary. He was very Machiavellian, he understood power and how to use it. He was a good-hearted guy, a good father, just an exemplary human being. I couldn’t be any prouder of him than if he had been my blood son. It’s amazing that we could have this relationship because we’re so different. He told me I was the first white person he ever met not in a police uniform or collecting rent. I miss him very much.

AP: With all the bad stuff Eazy boasted about in his music, how can you say he was a good person?

Heller: I have no proof that he was ever a drug dealer. I’m not sure if he was or he wasn’t. I know that it was good for the Ruthless image, the Ruthless persona, so maybe that’s why he adopted that.

AP: C’mon, man ...

Heller: He certainly never [dealt drugs] at Ruthless. It wasn’t a part of our lives. Now, if you want to talk about how somebody who espoused this kind of brutal misogynistic music could be a good person, well, this was the voice of our inner cities that most white people had never come across. To the guys in Ruthless, this was the reality of their way of life. This is the way they grew up, the way things were.

AP: You have a lot to say in your book about Ice Cube, who talked real bad about you after he left N.W.A.

Heller: He insulted me as a man, as a person, as a Jewish person. ... [yet] he is probably the most important African-American indie filmmaker in the business today. His movies are incredible. Certainly “Friday” and “Barbershop” are important movies, he’s an important guy, yet until recently, this year, I never saw an interview where he didn’t talk bad about me.

AP: How did Suge Knight enter the picture?

Heller: Suge was a part-time security guard at Ruthless. He can be a very charming guy, and my initial instincts were to help him. Eazy was more perceptive, he always thought he was going to be problem. I remember walking into my office one day, and Suge was standing there staring at my chair. He didn’t see me. I said to him, “What you doing, man, you think that’s gonna be your chair?” I never thought anyone could come between Dre and Eazy, they were childhood friends and as close as brothers. I didn’t take Suge as seriously as I should have.

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