By contrast, March 9th was the 20-year anniversary of the passing of Notorious BIG. Most major Hip Hop sites and outlets did some type of tribute or remembrance of the late artist. His former wife Faith Evans was doing a lot of interviews. His children and crew members like Lil Cease were also visible on the internet. It was a big deal. It was definitely made a much bigger deal than the passing of Eazy E. To be fair, it was the 20th year anniversary of BIG passing, and usually, there is more significance placed on every five years of something, than it is every year.
So I decided to look up the 20-year anniversary of the passing of Eazy E; which was in 2015 and see if there were similar tributes put up on his behalf. And there were links from his 20-year anniversary from various Hip Hop sites. And even though this somewhat pacified my dissatisfaction; I still was wondering about the amount of respect given to Eazy E’s legacy. It seems like when it comes to paying homage to our fallen Hip Hop artists, the only people we think of are 2Pac and Biggie. I do realize that Eazy E was not in the same category as those two when came down to musical skills and lyrical ability. I’m also aware of the social and cultural impact that Biggie and Pac made. And ultimately the way those two died and the circumstances that surrounded their death makes it more compelling to talk about.
Even with that said, there should be more respect given to Eazy E’s name. Recently I saw an interview with Kareem “Biggs” Burke, who was one of the co-founders of Roc-a-Fella Records. He had a t-shirt on that basically showed the musical lineage of his record company. His observation was that even though Roc-a-Fella started with him Dame Dash and Jay Z, it has spread to produce so many other artists. His shirt showed pictures of Kanye West, Rihanna, and Desiigner. If you use that same theory in describing what Eazy E did when he helped create and fund the launch of NWA, then you might have a better picture of his impact. From NWA, you have artists like Eminem, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, and 50 Cent. You have the Game, Michelle, and Kendrick Lamar.
“N.W.A would have not existed without Eazy-E. No doubt in my mind. He was bold and not scared of anything. He was 21, 22, I was 16 — to me he was fearless. That’s what he brought. “I don’t want to do no corny ass records that try to get on the radio. I want to do hardcore records about what the hell is going on around here.” said Ice Cube when asked could NWA exist without Eazy E.
Note: Houston’s Shea Serrano is an award-winning music writer and goofball whose recent exploits include Last week, I went to the funeral of a person whom I cared about. While I am of course happy that he will get to spend the rest of eternity in Heaven with the woman that he loved (who was there waiting for him), I am sad for myself and for my family because he is someone we all cared about deeply. This is not a remembrance post, though. My wife, this particular man’s granddaughter, wrote one far better than I could ever hope to do. This, my true best friends, is a blueprint.