When Eazy-E recorded "Real Muthafukkin G's" with Dresta and B. G. Knocc Out, was he expecting them to become big things like Dr. Dre's protégés Snoop Dogg and Eminem did?

by SlavophilesAnonymous
hillsonghoods

Eazy-E - a man with a marked entrepreneurial spirit, shall we say - started Ruthless Records at the age of 22, in 1986, with Jerry Heller. A year later, his group N.W.A (notably also featuring Dr. Dre and Ice Cube) released their first album on Ruthless Records. Their 1988 album Straight Outta Compton is now the title of a movie about the group - in other words, it was successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams, I suspect. As owner of the record label (into which he invested a sizeable amount of money he'd earned dealing drugs), Eazy-E did very well financially out of the success of the album, and this disparity between the financial windfall for the record company versus how much the group members earned ultimately led to Ice Cube leaving the group in 1989-1990. Dr. Dre left the group in 1991, similarly concerned that he and the D.O.C. were being screwed over by Eazy-E and Jerry Heller (Dr. Dre got a former bodyguard turned artist manager named Suge Knight to intimidate Eazy-E into signing release forms). Dr. Dre went onto release The Chronic in 1992, which prominently featured a young Snoop Dogg and which was hugely influential on the sound of hip-hop, with its 'G-Funk' sound taking samples of smooth 1970s funk like P-Funk, and allying it with modern hip-hop drum machines, and prominent use of the 'West Coast Whine' synth sound.

In 1993, Eazy-E released the EP It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa featuring 'Real Muthaphuckkin' Gs', which was very obviously a response to The Chronic, aping it in sound (and Eazy-E obviously had to respond to The Chronic, given the allegations on The Chronic songs like 'Bitches Ain't Shit' that Eazy-E had engaged in what Dr. Dre clearly considered ungentlemanly behaviour). Another choice that Eazy-E made here, as with Dr. Dre on The Chronic, was to surround himself with younger rappers. Eazy-E was aware that he wasn't quite the magnetic star or intimidatingly good lyricist that Ice Cube was/is, and he surrounded himself with younger rappers. B. G. Knocc Out and Dresta were brothers, and Eazy-E not only featured them on the song but signed them to Ruthless Records in 1993.

The song was a reasonable success; the EP the song was on reached #5 in the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart. However, Eazy-E as a record label owner did not capitalise on the success of the song; Dresta and B. G. Knocc Out did not appear on a further Ruthless Records single on their own in Eazy-E's lifetime as far as I can tell.

As to why this was, it's hard to escape the conclusion that part of the reason was that Eazy-E died in March 1995 of HIV/AIDS. It's likely that he had been sick for some time, given the usual progression of the disease, but it seemed sudden to B. G. Knocc Out in this interview.

There also seems to be some suggestion that Eazy-E in 1994 became enamoured with a new signing, Bone Thugs-N Harmony, possibly somewhat at the expense of Dresta and B. G. Knocc Out. Eazy-E appears to have spent much of time in his last year working with that group rather than Dresta and B. G. Knocc Out; a recent tribute article to Eazy-E in Vibe has Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N Harmony discussing how Eazy-E liked their camaderie.

Ultimately, the Dresta and B. G. Knocc out album Real Brothas was released in September 1995, and at least appeared on the hip-hop charts. However, Eazy-E had fired Jerry Heller shortly before his death, and Eazy-E's subsequent death meant that the record company was to some extent without established leadership with a record label that was more focused on Bone Thugs-N Harmony. It was probably an unfortunate time to release the record. Any suggestion that there might be a further album was squashed when B. G. Knocc was imprisoned for attempted murder in 1997.

That Vibe tribute article also has will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas talking about how he was mentored by Eazy-E. Given the later success of will.i.am and Bone Thugs-N Harmony, I'd say that Eazy E still had a successful independent record label owners ear/eye for good talent in 1993 and 1994. And given that he had signed the two brothers, effectively investing his own money in them, Eazy E likely did expect Dresta and B. G. Knocc Out to become big things when 'Real Muthaphuckkin' G's' was released. He likely knew that 'Real Muthaphuckkin' G' was going to cause a storm of some kind, and as an entrepreneurial record label owner was likely to leverage that storm into exposure for his signings.

However, the reason for the subsequent silence from the Real Brothas after 'Real Muthaphuckkin' G's' is less clear. Eazy-E may have changed his mind about the likelihood of their success after the relatively middling success of their song together, or he might have simply not had the energy or focus; B. G. Knocc Out says in the interview linked above that they were having trouble getting Eazy-E's attention towards the end.

Sources, along with the interviews/features linked above:

  • The sections on N.W.A by Cheo Hodari Coker and Eazy-E by Carter Harris in The Vibe History Of Hip Hop edited by Alan Light

  • Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang.