Latest / DISGRACELAND / N.W.A Pt. 2: Beatdowns, Band Beef, Death Row and LA on Fire

Transcript

N.W.A Pt. 2: Beatdowns, Band Beef, Death Row and LA on Fire · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The story of NWA,
0:15
Speaker 1: the effect they had on hip hop popular culture, the
0:18
Speaker 1: mirror they held up to the city they came from,
0:21
Speaker 1: and their interpersonal dynamic is so complex that two episodes
0:25
Speaker 1: were needed to properly tell this story. If you're just
0:28
Speaker 1: getting hip to this now, I suggest you hip pause
0:30
Speaker 1: and go back to Disgraceland Episode thirty seven, part one
0:34
Speaker 1: of the NWA story, where we discussed the origins of
0:37
Speaker 1: NWA and the gang, reality and LAPD presence within their
0:41
Speaker 1: home city of Compton. In this episode, we get around
0:45
Speaker 1: to the darker unfortunate behavior of some of the group's members,
0:48
Speaker 1: as well as the actions and attitudes that drove the
0:51
Speaker 1: band apart, a move for some of them that led
0:54
Speaker 1: to the creation of even more great music. That music
0:57
Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show
0:59
Speaker 1: that was and great music. That was a preset loop
1:02
Speaker 1: from my melotron called Mellow Street Tango BK two. I
1:07
Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights
1:10
Speaker 1: to inform her by snow And why would I play
1:13
Speaker 1: you that specific slice of North of the Border Cheese?
1:16
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
1:19
Speaker 1: song in America on April twenty ninth, nineteen ninety two,
1:23
Speaker 1: and that was the day a Semi Valley jury returned
1:25
Speaker 1: a verdict of not guilty to four white police officers
1:29
Speaker 1: accused of assaulting a black motorist, in effect bringing to
1:33
Speaker 1: life an explosion of violence that NWA had been predicting
1:36
Speaker 1: for years. On this episode, Street Tango, Canadian Cheese, the
1:42
Speaker 1: La Riots and NWA, I'm Jake Brennan and this is disgraceland.
2:13
Speaker 1: Ice Cube wanted to know where the fuck his contract was,
2:16
Speaker 1: where his money was. NWA was selling a lot of
2:19
Speaker 1: records and it put Easy's label, Ruthless Records on the map.
2:23
Speaker 1: And now Ruthless's other acts were starting to sell records
2:27
Speaker 1: and for Easy and Jerry Heller, NWA's manager and co
2:30
Speaker 1: founder of Easy's record label, the hard Work seemed to
2:33
Speaker 1: be paying off new cars, houses and offices for Ruthless.
2:38
Speaker 1: Easy had a contract with Jerry and with Priority Records,
2:41
Speaker 1: who distributed, promoted, and partially funded the label. But where
2:45
Speaker 1: were the contracts for Cube and the rest of the group.
2:48
Speaker 1: Something wasn't right. Cube confronted Easy, who told him to
2:51
Speaker 1: fuck off and to go deal with Jerry. Jerry stalled
2:54
Speaker 1: Cube until he could stall no more, and eventually tried
2:57
Speaker 1: getting Cube to sign a draconian contract locking him under
3:00
Speaker 1: control of Ruthless in perpetuity for a relatively speaking at
3:04
Speaker 1: the time measly sum of seventy five thousand dollars. To
3:08
Speaker 1: add insult to injury, Jerry insisted Cube signed the contract
3:12
Speaker 1: without even having a lawyer look at the deal. Cube
3:15
Speaker 1: knew better and bounced fuck NWA and mother fucked Jerry
3:20
Speaker 1: Heller as well. As soon as he split from NWA
3:25
Speaker 1: Ice Cube was east coast bound. The new def Jam
3:29
Speaker 1: Recordings offices in Manhattan were a step up in the
3:32
Speaker 1: label's original office and the NYU dorm room of its
3:35
Speaker 1: co founder Rick Rubin, but Cube wasn't impressed. In fact,
3:40
Speaker 1: he was pissed. The meeting was a bust. The dude
3:43
Speaker 1: he'd come to meet was late. Cube waited just long
3:46
Speaker 1: enough to not be humiliated and split. On his way out,
3:50
Speaker 1: he bumped into Chuck d Public Enemies front man who
3:53
Speaker 1: Cube had immense respect for. Pe had invited NWA to
3:56
Speaker 1: co headline to bring the Noise tour just a few
3:59
Speaker 1: months before, when Cube was a member. Chuck invited Cube
4:03
Speaker 1: to the studio that night to jump on the track.
4:05
Speaker 1: Pe was recording with Big Daddy Kane for the new
4:07
Speaker 1: album Fear of a Black Planet, and Cube jumped at
4:10
Speaker 1: the offer. The session produced the incendiary public Enemy track
4:14
Speaker 1: of Burn Hollywood Burn, and cubes verse was on fire.
4:20
Speaker 1: Ice Cube was done, being played by Jerry Heller, NWA, Easye,
4:25
Speaker 1: the lapd or anyone else who've got in this way.
4:28
Speaker 1: The members of NWA were sure ice Cube would bomb
4:31
Speaker 1: as a solo artist without them, but Ice Cube had
4:34
Speaker 1: a different type of bomb, the mind. Cube moved quick
4:38
Speaker 1: to recruit Public Enemies DJ producer Hank Shockley and his
4:41
Speaker 1: Bomb Squad to produce his solo debut, and Cube was stoked.
4:45
Speaker 1: In his mind. Drey was a genius, but when it
4:47
Speaker 1: came to sampling, the Bomb Squad were next level, and
4:51
Speaker 1: they threw creates of albums at Cube and told him
4:53
Speaker 1: to get the fuck out of Manhattan and head to
4:55
Speaker 1: their studio in Hempstead to quote unquote go find your album.
4:58
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what Cube did. He hunkered down and
5:02
Speaker 1: dug through those crates. It was prime Funk, the hard Stuff, Slave,
5:06
Speaker 1: the God Fact, James Brown, the Queen Betty Davis, the Barkas,
5:11
Speaker 1: the Last Poet, Sly and the family Stone Cool and
5:14
Speaker 1: the Gang Confunction, and even Richard Pryor. But now ice
5:19
Speaker 1: Cube is down with pe and the result was way
5:22
Speaker 1: beyond what Easye or doctor Dre or Jerry Heller could
5:25
Speaker 1: have imagined. The record Cube merged with to debut his
5:28
Speaker 1: solo career was a banger. The title America's Most Wanted
5:33
Speaker 1: America spelled without a C and with three k's, of course,
5:38
Speaker 1: and America went crazy for the record. The album debuted
5:41
Speaker 1: at number nineteen on the Billboard two hundred chart. It
5:44
Speaker 1: went gold in just two weeks and went platinum just
5:46
Speaker 1: two months later, and unlike straight out of Compton, critics
5:50
Speaker 1: by and large raved about the record. The Washington Post wrote,
5:54
Speaker 1: ice Cube has now proven that he was NWA's crucial element.
5:58
Speaker 1: Not everyone thought so, however, Doctor Dre was chief among
6:02
Speaker 1: those who thought ice Cube's solo debut was not all that,
6:05
Speaker 1: and that same year, in nineteen ninety, NWA released their
6:09
Speaker 1: first music without ice Cube, an EP entitled one hundred
6:13
Speaker 1: Miles in Running, complete with a diss aimed a Cube.
6:16
Speaker 1: NWA took the feud off of Wax and into the
6:19
Speaker 1: press when they dissed Cube in an interview with d Barnes,
6:22
Speaker 1: host of Fox Television's Pump It Up. A week later,
6:26
Speaker 1: Barnes was on the set of the film Boys in
6:28
Speaker 1: the Hood, the directorial debut of John Singleton, a former
6:32
Speaker 1: Arsenio Hall intern that ice Cube met when NWA performed
6:36
Speaker 1: on the show. When Singleton got his money together to
6:39
Speaker 1: make his movie, he bought the rights to the song
6:41
Speaker 1: title Boys in the Hood off of Ez, paying him
6:44
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars to appropriate Easy's title for his film.
6:48
Speaker 1: A movie about the reality of growing up in South
6:51
Speaker 1: central Los Angeles, Singleton took it one step further and
6:55
Speaker 1: cast ice Cube in the role of dough Boy. The
6:58
Speaker 1: director wanted all of MDA in the film, but Cube
7:01
Speaker 1: was the only one who recognized the power of the
7:03
Speaker 1: script and the film was potential. The film is a
7:06
Speaker 1: staggering work that depicts the reality of South Central's gang
7:10
Speaker 1: culture as powerfully as anything on NWA. Straight out of
7:13
Speaker 1: Compton and went on to garner two Academy Award nominations
7:17
Speaker 1: for Singleton and launched the careers of Kuba Gooding Junior
7:20
Speaker 1: and Angela Bassett, also cast in the film was Yo
7:24
Speaker 1: Yo Ice Cubes protege, a young female rapper who Cube
7:27
Speaker 1: was so impressed with he named her the head of
7:29
Speaker 1: his record label. De Barnes was on the set to
7:32
Speaker 1: interview Yo Yo, and while the cameras are running, Cube
7:35
Speaker 1: jumped into the frame and playfully ribbed Nwa, firing back
7:39
Speaker 1: at their diss of him a week earlier. To Cube,
7:42
Speaker 1: it was all in good fun, but when Dre saw
7:44
Speaker 1: the diss on TV a few days later, he lost
7:47
Speaker 1: his shit. He caught up with Barnes by chance at
7:51
Speaker 1: a record release party in Hollywood. Barnes was leaning up
7:54
Speaker 1: against the club's wall talking to Yo MTV raps co
7:57
Speaker 1: host ed lover Andre was drunk. He stepped to Barnes,
8:01
Speaker 1: who was scared, unsure of what was happening. The look
8:05
Speaker 1: in Drey's eyes wild menace. Dre confronted her, inches from
8:09
Speaker 1: her face, big, intimidating and demanding to know why in
8:13
Speaker 1: the fuck she aired Cube's diss of Nwa. When the
8:17
Speaker 1: club promoter saw what was going on and tried to intervene,
8:20
Speaker 1: Drey's bodyguard cracked him in the face with a sharp,
8:22
Speaker 1: closed fist. Barnes pleaded her case, I had nothing to
8:26
Speaker 1: do with how the segment was edited or what got aired.
8:28
Speaker 1: Cube was just playing. According to Barnes, Drey wasn't having it.
8:32
Speaker 1: He grabbed her by the front of the shirt with
8:34
Speaker 1: one hand. With the other, he grabbed her by the
8:36
Speaker 1: hair and ear and began slamming her face against the
8:39
Speaker 1: club's brick wall. Then he threw her to the ground,
8:41
Speaker 1: kicked her in the ribs, and started stomping on her
8:43
Speaker 1: hands and fingers. Barnes, on the floor could see the
8:47
Speaker 1: club's second floor stairway a few feet away and knew
8:50
Speaker 1: that that was where this beating was going to end,
8:53
Speaker 1: with Dre propelling her beaten body down the stairs, and
8:56
Speaker 1: she managed to get to her feet and get the
8:58
Speaker 1: hell out of there and into the club's bathroom. When
9:04
Speaker 1: the dust settled and the news of the beating started
9:06
Speaker 1: to circulate, Dre told the hip hop magazine The Source
9:10
Speaker 1: that Barnes agreed not to press charges so long as
9:12
Speaker 1: Dre would produce the record of hers and then he
9:15
Speaker 1: had told her to fuck off, and that that was
9:17
Speaker 1: what prompted her bringing him to court for the assault,
9:19
Speaker 1: and the other members of NWA shook off. The bad
9:22
Speaker 1: press that followed the incident. Mc wren said that Barnes
9:25
Speaker 1: quote unquote deserved it. Easy said, quote bitch had it coming.
9:30
Speaker 1: He grabbed the bitch by the little hair she had,
9:33
Speaker 1: through the bitch to the bathroom door. Pow. He just
9:36
Speaker 1: started stomping on the bitch and then Easy started giggling.
9:40
Speaker 1: The comments by the group and the action by Dre
9:42
Speaker 1: were as bad or worse than any of the misogynoust
9:45
Speaker 1: lyrics on their albums. Drey made a bad situation even
9:48
Speaker 1: worse by telling Rolling Stone quote people talk all this shit,
9:52
Speaker 1: but you know somebody fucks with me, I'm gonna fuck
9:54
Speaker 1: with them. I just did it. You know. Ain't nothing
9:56
Speaker 1: he can do now by talking about it. Besides, it
9:59
Speaker 1: ain't no big thing. I just threw her through a door.
10:03
Speaker 1: Dre pleaded no contest to de Burne's charges of battery
10:06
Speaker 1: and was fined twenty five hundred dollars and given two
10:08
Speaker 1: hundred and forty hours of community service. Barnes brought a
10:12
Speaker 1: civil suit against Dre and settled out of court for
10:14
Speaker 1: an undisclosed six figure amount. Doctor Dre has since apologized
10:19
Speaker 1: for this incident and others. Regarding his history of physical
10:22
Speaker 1: abuse towards women, saying in part, I've done a lot
10:25
Speaker 1: of stupid shit in my life, a lot of things
10:27
Speaker 1: I wish I could go and take back. I watched
10:29
Speaker 1: my mother get abused. You know, there's absolutely no excuse
10:32
Speaker 1: for it. Any man that puts his hands on a
10:34
Speaker 1: female is a fucking idiot. He's out of his fucking mind.
10:38
Speaker 1: And I was out of my fucking mind at the time.
10:39
Speaker 1: I fucked up. I paid for it. I'm sorry for it.
10:42
Speaker 1: But what do I do to get rid of this
10:44
Speaker 1: dark cloud? I don't know what else to do. I'm learning,
10:47
Speaker 1: I'm trying to become a better person, a better man.
10:50
Speaker 1: In the end, I've hurt people that I care about,
10:52
Speaker 1: and for that, I'm really sorry. When he made those statements,
10:56
Speaker 1: it was twenty seventeen and doctor dre Is violent past
11:00
Speaker 1: was safely a few decades in the rear view. But
11:03
Speaker 1: back in the early nineteen nineties, where we left off,
11:06
Speaker 1: Violence was just about to open the door to his
11:09
Speaker 1: insanely successful future as a solo artist. Before he even
11:30
Speaker 1: had a chance to respond to the questions, three of
11:33
Speaker 1: them grabbed him by the arm, by the neck, by
11:35
Speaker 1: the wispy puff of partially bleached hair, and started dragging him.
11:39
Speaker 1: Another pulled open the doors to the balcony, and the
11:42
Speaker 1: blast California sunshine quickly overcame the hotel suite to air conditioning.
11:47
Speaker 1: Before Vanilla Ice knew it, he'd been yanked out of
11:50
Speaker 1: the balcony was being lifted up.
11:51
Speaker 2: No, no, no, fuck this. I told you, I'll sign,
11:53
Speaker 2: I'll pay, I'll do whatever you want. No, no, please, don't, don't.
11:57
Speaker 2: His frantic pleading went unanswered. Men silently went about their business,
12:01
Speaker 2: hoisting him up over the balcony's guardrail. Two men apiece,
12:05
Speaker 2: double teeming a leg in an ankle, and hanging Vanilla
12:08
Speaker 2: Ice over the edge of the balcony, multiple stories above
12:11
Speaker 2: the sidewalk above, certain death unless the white boy with
12:14
Speaker 2: the number one record on the billboard charts gave the
12:17
Speaker 2: South Central gangbangers what they wanted, a cut of his royalties.
12:21
Speaker 2: He swung there delicately, no more screaming, no more pleading,
12:26
Speaker 2: just fear shock, silence. As he stared down at death,
12:30
Speaker 2: the wind cut more clearly up here, he thought you
12:33
Speaker 2: could hear it.
12:34
Speaker 1: It was the only thing he could hear. The sounds
12:37
Speaker 1: of the men his tormentors were momentarily blocked out, just
12:40
Speaker 1: the wind blowing delicately. Then they started shaking him in
12:44
Speaker 1: the reality of it hit him all over again, the
12:47
Speaker 1: faint taste of iron in his mouth from the busted
12:49
Speaker 1: capillaries and his lungs a result of them working overtime.
12:52
Speaker 1: Maxed out by the fear and adrenaline pumping through him,
12:56
Speaker 1: he was being hung out of a balcony of his
12:57
Speaker 1: swank Beverly Hills Hotel won them all right. I told you, guys,
13:01
Speaker 1: I'll sign it. I'll sign. Don't drop me, don't fucking
13:03
Speaker 1: do it. I'll sign. I'll sign. Something must have sounded
13:07
Speaker 1: convincing in his voice, because the four men pulled him
13:09
Speaker 1: back up onto the balcony, but they weren't through with him.
13:12
Speaker 1: They dragged him back into the hotel suite, shut the
13:14
Speaker 1: sliding balcony doors behind him, blocking out the California sunshine,
13:18
Speaker 1: and the lights had dimmed. The TV was off. There
13:22
Speaker 1: was a man, a big man, bigger than the two
13:24
Speaker 1: men who braced each of his arms, and bigger than
13:26
Speaker 1: the two other men who now stood in front of
13:28
Speaker 1: each of the Sweet's exits. And somehow this big man,
13:32
Speaker 1: clad entirely in blood red, sitting peacefully at the Sweet
13:36
Speaker 1: small circular table, who said nothing, just shifted his cigar
13:39
Speaker 1: back and forth between his lips, from one side of
13:42
Speaker 1: his mouth to the other. Somehow, this very large, very
13:45
Speaker 1: quiet man was more intimidating than even the automatic weapons
13:49
Speaker 1: that the two men in the doorways now openly brandished.
13:52
Speaker 1: The men, holding vanilla Ice by the arms, shoved him
13:55
Speaker 1: down into the chair opposite the big man. The big
13:58
Speaker 1: Man said nothing, the papers across the table. Then he
14:02
Speaker 1: picked up the pen and slammed it down on top
14:04
Speaker 1: of the papers. His muscles and his face tightened. The
14:07
Speaker 1: corner of his right eye squinted slightly, his broad chest
14:11
Speaker 1: began to slowly inflate. Everyone in the room could feel
14:14
Speaker 1: his anger. It was as real as the guns those
14:16
Speaker 1: dudes were holding a few feet away. Vanilla Ice had
14:20
Speaker 1: never been more scared in his life, and that's saying something,
14:22
Speaker 1: considering that seconds before this he was being hung out
14:25
Speaker 1: over a hotel balcony and the big Man spoke, your
14:30
Speaker 1: signature or your life. Vanilla Ice snatched up the pen
14:34
Speaker 1: and signed his Christian name, Robert Matthew van Winkle, to
14:37
Speaker 1: the papers, in effect signing over four million dollars in
14:40
Speaker 1: royalties from his biggest hit, Ice Ice Baby to the
14:43
Speaker 1: Big Man sitting across from him, and with that, the
14:47
Speaker 1: Big Man had what he'd come for, a multi million
14:50
Speaker 1: dollars score, some of which he'd kicked back to the
14:53
Speaker 1: artist he'd wrap, Chocolate Johnson, who claimed he'd help Vanilla
14:56
Speaker 1: Ice write the song, but was uncredited and uncompensated. Whatever
15:00
Speaker 1: the reason the Big Man now had when he coveted
15:03
Speaker 1: much needed capital for his new record label, death Row Records,
15:07
Speaker 1: the label would be a new kind of label, a
15:09
Speaker 1: big label, an unconventional kind of label, a label that
15:12
Speaker 1: exclusively wrapped the reality on the streets that its artist
15:15
Speaker 1: came up on and all the violence that came with it. Unconventional, big, violent,
15:21
Speaker 1: just like its owner, just like Suge Knight. Sug Now,
15:26
Speaker 1: with Vanilla ICE's contract in his hands, split, he had
15:29
Speaker 1: other business to attend to over in Hollywood. As far
15:33
Speaker 1: as talent went, Chocolate Johnson was cool and all, but
15:35
Speaker 1: he represented the past. Shug's future lay in the young,
15:39
Speaker 1: talented hands of doctor Dre, who a few weeks back
15:42
Speaker 1: had asked Sug, a friend of a friend from the
15:44
Speaker 1: neighborhood who had a reputation for getting things done, to
15:47
Speaker 1: help him out. Similar to LAPD chief Daryl Gates, sug
15:52
Speaker 1: Knight deployed in any means necessary methodology to his business dealings,
15:56
Speaker 1: and at the moment, that's exactly what doctor Dre needed.
16:00
Speaker 1: After Cube's departure from MWA and Ruthless Records, it became
16:04
Speaker 1: clear to Dre that Easy and his manager Jerry Heller
16:06
Speaker 1: were screwing him financially as well. Drey wanted out of
16:10
Speaker 1: his contract, but Easy and Jerry weren't about to let
16:12
Speaker 1: their biggest talent walk out of the door. After all,
16:15
Speaker 1: he'd sign the contract. Sug was eager to help Drey out.
16:19
Speaker 1: The plan was for the two of them to launch
16:21
Speaker 1: and co own, along with a couple other partners, death
16:23
Speaker 1: Row Records. But none of that could happen until Drey
16:26
Speaker 1: was released from his contract with Ruthless. Easy and Jerry
16:30
Speaker 1: held firm. They wouldn't even sit down at the negotiating
16:33
Speaker 1: table with Dre. So Suge Knight, blood street gang affiliate,
16:37
Speaker 1: former defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams turned music
16:40
Speaker 1: industry mogul on the make, went to work. He knew
16:43
Speaker 1: he needed to be Cagy Easy. E wasn't Vanilla Ice.
16:46
Speaker 1: Easy was bo g a hip hop star, sure, but
16:49
Speaker 1: gangster to his core. Suge Knight knew Easy E did
16:53
Speaker 1: give a fuck. Easy got the caller on sundown. Drey
16:58
Speaker 1: wanted to meet up that night to work shit out
17:00
Speaker 1: out once and for all. Easy agreed to meet Dre
17:02
Speaker 1: over at Galaxy, a studio Dre was working out of
17:05
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, and Easy hit the elevator for the second floor.
17:08
Speaker 1: When the doors opened to the studio lobby, there was
17:11
Speaker 1: no doctor Dre, just a former La Ram with Louisville
17:14
Speaker 1: Slugger and four of his thugs brandishing lead pipes. Easy
17:18
Speaker 1: played it cool, where's Dre at? Sug said nothing, just
17:23
Speaker 1: pulled the contract from his back pocket, unfolded it and
17:26
Speaker 1: showed an Easy word to sign. Easy still cool, and
17:30
Speaker 1: what the fuck is that? Sug finally spoke, It's a
17:34
Speaker 1: contract releasing Dre from Ruthless and you're gonna sign it.
17:37
Speaker 1: It was Easy's turn not to speak. He held the
17:40
Speaker 1: silence and just stared at Shug and then let out
17:42
Speaker 1: a simple huh. He was stalling. He knew he was outnumber,
17:47
Speaker 1: but he didn't yet know what he was going to do.
17:49
Speaker 1: He wondered if he could yank the gat and his
17:51
Speaker 1: waistband out and get a shot off quick enough before
17:53
Speaker 1: Sugar and his goon swarmed and Sug didn't take Easy
17:56
Speaker 1: silence lightly. Time for plan B. You see that white
18:00
Speaker 1: van parked out on the street on your way in here,
18:02
Speaker 1: We got Jerry Heller tied up in the back of
18:04
Speaker 1: that van with a gun to his head. And just
18:06
Speaker 1: in case you ain't the sentimental type, we got two
18:09
Speaker 1: bad motherfuckers perched outside your mama's house over on Muriel.
18:12
Speaker 1: That sealed it for Easy. Jerry he could live without, maybe,
18:16
Speaker 1: but his mom definitely not. He signed the papers Sug split,
18:22
Speaker 1: but he wasn't done. Critics may have claimed that gangster
18:27
Speaker 1: rap was simply exploitative, violent fantasy, but the reality Easy
18:31
Speaker 1: E spit out on record, the same reality that he
18:34
Speaker 1: and Jerry Heller profited from, was now coming back on
18:37
Speaker 1: them and completely fucking up their program. Once Sug freed
18:41
Speaker 1: Dre from Ruthless, he set about to get his hands
18:43
Speaker 1: on Dre's master recordings, showing up at Easy's house and
18:47
Speaker 1: demanding them. Soon after, Jerry found his home burglarized, tossed,
18:51
Speaker 1: and vandalized. Across the front of his expansive Calabasas man
18:56
Speaker 1: someone had written in black marker payback some motherfucker, Jerry,
19:00
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word word word. Howard
19:06
Speaker 1: Stern did not shock Easily, but EASYE was given it
19:10
Speaker 1: the old Compton try. Stern, the controversial and highly rated
19:14
Speaker 1: syndicated New York radio host, was more amused with EZ
19:17
Speaker 1: than he was shocked. The lifestyle easy lead fascinated Stern.
19:21
Speaker 1: You can hear it in his voice if you listen
19:23
Speaker 1: to the recording. How many children you got? Eric? Five?
19:27
Speaker 1: You got five kids? Where's your wife? I'm not married?
19:30
Speaker 1: You're not married? The hell's going on here? Howard's sidekick,
19:34
Speaker 1: Robin Quivers chimed in and asked the same women or
19:36
Speaker 1: different women? Different women? Easy replies different women. Howard now
19:41
Speaker 1: seems shocked. He then asks, you were condoms when you
19:44
Speaker 1: have sex? E? Nah? Robin asked, you heard about aids? Easy? Yeah,
19:50
Speaker 1: but the people I messed with don't. Robin, buts in,
19:52
Speaker 1: how do you know Easy tells her because I would
19:55
Speaker 1: have had it myself if they would have had it.
19:56
Speaker 1: Howard oh Man, Jerry Heller, NWA's manager and co founder
20:04
Speaker 1: of the Easy Eas record label Ruthless Records, was shaking
20:07
Speaker 1: his head as he listened back to the recording of
20:09
Speaker 1: the Stern Show from earlier that week. He banged the
20:12
Speaker 1: stop button on the accept player and then shot a
20:14
Speaker 1: look at Eric as he called across Easy's eighty six
20:17
Speaker 1: hundred dollars Italian desk. Jerry was pissed. Eric was nearly
20:21
Speaker 1: blowing it with his excess, and just when they were
20:24
Speaker 1: starting to make real money, not just walking around money either.
20:27
Speaker 1: Bank ten million a month Ruthless Records through the popularity
20:32
Speaker 1: of NWA had blown up. It was the hottest hip
20:35
Speaker 1: hop label on the West Coast, and the swank new
20:37
Speaker 1: offices Jerry and Easy were now sitting improved it. Jerry
20:41
Speaker 1: had his office decked out and understated pastels with all
20:44
Speaker 1: the finest and trendiest to koutremant an elegant type of
20:47
Speaker 1: class that said, I've been in this business since Michael
20:50
Speaker 1: Jackson at his first nose, and it can afford to
20:52
Speaker 1: roll low key and go fuck yourself. Easy's office said
20:56
Speaker 1: the opposite. I've been in this business for a hot minute.
20:59
Speaker 1: I'm black, I'm and I got more talent and money
21:01
Speaker 1: than the white man in the office next to mine,
21:03
Speaker 1: and the whole goddamn world needs to know it. Now,
21:05
Speaker 1: come on in, make yourself comfortable, and let's listen to
21:08
Speaker 1: some baby making music. And as such, his office was
21:12
Speaker 1: a newgo riche overstatement designed by celebrity interior designer Frank Austin.
21:17
Speaker 1: Plush black coach, massive projection television, loosight walls, in state
21:21
Speaker 1: of the art stereo system, the blast of the latest
21:24
Speaker 1: Ruthless Records. Artist singles at maximum volume all day and night,
21:28
Speaker 1: sometimes for the party he was thrown, sometimes to set
21:31
Speaker 1: the mood into entertaining one of his many female friends.
21:34
Speaker 1: He entertained so much, in fact, that Jerry had to
21:37
Speaker 1: pay extra for increased cleaning services to remove the bodily
21:40
Speaker 1: fluids that were deposited about the office on a daily basis.
21:44
Speaker 1: But not today. Easy was pissed. He told Jerry he
21:48
Speaker 1: was going to kill the dude. Kill Sugar. Night. He
21:51
Speaker 1: told Jerry Sug was too big a problem, too big
21:54
Speaker 1: a hassle, and then eventually Sug would kill the two
21:56
Speaker 1: of them. As frightened of Sugar as Jerry was, he
22:00
Speaker 1: was even more afraid of derailing the gravy train they
22:02
Speaker 1: had rolling through Ruthless every month. Shug might have been
22:06
Speaker 1: an intimidating pain in the ass, but it wasn't worth
22:08
Speaker 1: blowing ten milli a month for He talked Easy out
22:11
Speaker 1: of murdering him and instead installed a seventy five thousand
22:14
Speaker 1: dollars security system, and the two of them set about
22:17
Speaker 1: stashing a small arsenal of weapons in and around the
22:20
Speaker 1: office in their homes and then began taking different routes
22:23
Speaker 1: to and from work. And this business of the street
22:27
Speaker 1: was serious business in business for Easye. It was not
22:44
Speaker 1: good in nineteen ninety two. He didn't know it at
22:48
Speaker 1: the time, but he would soon learn what Cube and
22:50
Speaker 1: Dre learned before him, that his manager, Jerry Heller, was
22:53
Speaker 1: screwing him financially. He also didn't know that all the
22:57
Speaker 1: women he was messing with would put him in an
22:59
Speaker 1: early grave. Within three years time, Easye would be dead
23:03
Speaker 1: from complications of the AIDS virus. But in nineteen ninety two,
23:07
Speaker 1: Ice Cube was riding high. His first two records were
23:10
Speaker 1: both critical and commercial successes, and his acting career was
23:14
Speaker 1: just starting to get real. Doctor Dre was just getting
23:17
Speaker 1: started with a new protege named Snoop and about to
23:20
Speaker 1: put death Row on the map the same way he
23:22
Speaker 1: did with ruthless, but with less stomp, more groove, and
23:25
Speaker 1: of course, the ever present reality of its surroundings. Mc
23:29
Speaker 1: wren joined the Nation of Islam and worked on his
23:31
Speaker 1: solo debut, and DJ Yella kept working on his production career.
23:36
Speaker 1: A lot had changed since their beginnings back on the
23:38
Speaker 1: streets of Compton, but the one thing that remained the
23:40
Speaker 1: same was the essence of the music they were all making.
23:43
Speaker 1: The music never departed from the reality around them, no
23:46
Speaker 1: matter how much success changed them. They were products of
23:49
Speaker 1: South Central of Compton, and the product they made and
23:52
Speaker 1: sold was the violent, tough street reality they were raised in.
23:56
Speaker 1: One in the same. Their careers may have changed, but
24:00
Speaker 1: the world certainly hadn't changed. The reality of the street
24:04
Speaker 1: followed them everywhere. It was ubiquitous, from the ever present
24:07
Speaker 1: violence Cubes spatan his lyrics on both coasts, to the
24:10
Speaker 1: menacing and unconventional business tactics of sug Night, to Dre's
24:14
Speaker 1: abusive and disgusting conflict resolution with d Barnes and Easy
24:18
Speaker 1: and Wren's ridiculously in sensitive remarks on the incident, and
24:21
Speaker 1: finally to Easy's deadly sickness. It was all a product
24:25
Speaker 1: of where they'd come from. And every single incident an
24:28
Speaker 1: anecdote had, in one way or another been represented in
24:31
Speaker 1: their music previously, and in nineteen ninety two, on the
24:34
Speaker 1: solo records Ice Cube and Doctor Dre were about to release, they,
24:37
Speaker 1: both with different styles, would continue to bring that self
24:41
Speaker 1: central reality to Middle America. Doctor Dre's The Chronic and
24:46
Speaker 1: Ice Cubes The Predator both did for nineteen ninety two
24:49
Speaker 1: what Nwas Straight out of Compton did for nineteen eighty eight,
24:53
Speaker 1: held up a mirror to the world they lived in.
24:56
Speaker 1: Both records are incredible in different ways. The Chronic smooth
25:00
Speaker 1: and slick, a party record, a news style g funk one, two,
25:04
Speaker 1: three into the four. The Predator is as hard and
25:07
Speaker 1: mean as anything Ice Cub or NWA or any rap
25:09
Speaker 1: artists had released before. It stomps itself into White America's
25:13
Speaker 1: pristine living room with its high pile shag and plastic
25:16
Speaker 1: covered furniture, and lays waste to any pretense of racial
25:20
Speaker 1: equality in society. Again hardcore reality rap, but unlike Ice
25:26
Speaker 1: Cubes raps on Straight out of Compton his lyrics on
25:28
Speaker 1: The Predator, released in November of nineteen ninety two, they're
25:32
Speaker 1: less predictive and more I Told you so. April twenty
25:36
Speaker 1: ninth wasn't necessarily a good day for ice Cube, but
25:39
Speaker 1: it was an important day, as it was for most
25:41
Speaker 1: residents of Compton in south central Los Angeles. Reckoning time
25:46
Speaker 1: citizens glued themselves to their televisions in their homes, at
25:49
Speaker 1: their work, on barstools in restaurants. The verdict was coming
25:53
Speaker 1: in any minute. The jury has reached a verdict predictor
25:58
Speaker 1: on all counts except one.
26:01
Speaker 3: We the jury or in the above and titled action
26:04
Speaker 3: find the defendant WARRENS Mpale not guilty. The jury find
26:08
Speaker 3: the defendant. Timoby wanted a jury not find the defendant
26:12
Speaker 3: Leo George Jaspace and c for me not guilt. Gy
26:18
Speaker 3: ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that these are verts,
26:20
Speaker 3: so'll say you want to say you.
26:22
Speaker 1: All not guilty. Unbelievable. The four cops accused of beating
26:32
Speaker 1: and using excessive force against Rodney King were quitted on
26:36
Speaker 1: all but one charge brought against them, despite the fact
26:39
Speaker 1: that these same cops were plainly seen beating on and
26:43
Speaker 1: using excessive force against Rodney King on televisions all over
26:46
Speaker 1: the world through the video recording George Holiday made and
26:50
Speaker 1: yet still no justice. People took to the streets almost immediately.
26:56
Speaker 1: Local news reporters descended. The sound of the sirens came
27:00
Speaker 1: from every direction. Helicopters, news, helicopters, not ghetto words, chopping
27:04
Speaker 1: up smog above downtown LA and Crenshaw. People marching everywhere, hooting, hollering,
27:10
Speaker 1: chance of fuck the police. The boiling point was nearly
27:13
Speaker 1: reached April twenty ninth, springtime what hot as a motherfucker
27:19
Speaker 1: By the time the afternoon rolled around. An officer was
27:22
Speaker 1: attacked at Florence and Normandy in South Central, Then another
27:25
Speaker 1: officer was struck down the block away at seventy first
27:28
Speaker 1: and Raymond. The police were outnumbered in the street from
27:32
Speaker 1: Parker Center police headquarters in downtown LA, where a small
27:35
Speaker 1: army of uniformed officers were doing all they could to
27:38
Speaker 1: hold off an angry mob outside of the department. Chief
27:41
Speaker 1: Daryl Gates sent the message out to his officers in
27:43
Speaker 1: the street retreat, and once LAPD cleared out of South Central,
27:49
Speaker 1: shit went off. Bricks bounced off of the police cruisers
27:54
Speaker 1: bailing out of the neighborhood. The streets took on a weird, menacing,
27:57
Speaker 1: block party type of vibe, and there was an anger,
28:00
Speaker 1: but there was release was almost celebratory. Residents had chased
28:04
Speaker 1: away Gates' boogeyman, the lapd whose harassments self Central residents
28:08
Speaker 1: had lived under their whole lives, But quickly the mood
28:11
Speaker 1: darkened further. The violence was too real. White motorists commuting
28:16
Speaker 1: home from work through South Central found themselves dodging bricks
28:19
Speaker 1: and baseball bats at intersections, forced to blast through stop
28:23
Speaker 1: signs and red lights to safety, and some weren't so lucky.
28:27
Speaker 1: Ian McCurry, an Army vet who had just been saved
28:30
Speaker 1: from homelessness by a friend who lived in Watts, was
28:32
Speaker 1: gunned down trying to stop looters from setting fire to
28:35
Speaker 1: a liquor store. Howard Epstein, in La from Northern California
28:39
Speaker 1: on business, was shot in the Hyde Park drive by,
28:42
Speaker 1: and when a crowd surrounded his car and announced the
28:45
Speaker 1: dead driver was white, the mob cheered. The coming six
28:48
Speaker 1: days would see over fifty deaths, twenty five black, sixteen Latino,
28:53
Speaker 1: eight white, Asian Indian, covering a wide array of hellish ends, beatings, stabbings, fires,
29:00
Speaker 1: car crashes, hit and runs. In most of all shootings,
29:03
Speaker 1: including ten shootings by the police or National Guard but today.
29:08
Speaker 1: On April twenty nine, with the local live action news
29:11
Speaker 1: chopper broadcasting from right overhead, the horror peaked and technicolor
29:15
Speaker 1: with an attack on one man. A trucker, a driver
29:20
Speaker 1: for Transit Allied Concrete, white dude with long, heavy metal hair,
29:24
Speaker 1: was pulled from his trailer at the corner of Florence
29:26
Speaker 1: and Normandy and thrown into the street. His name Reginald Denny.
29:31
Speaker 1: Above Denny, a news helicopter was filming everything and broadcasting
29:34
Speaker 1: it live over Los Angeles televisions. Four black men swarmed Denny.
29:39
Speaker 1: One stepped on his neck, another kicked him in the stomach.
29:42
Speaker 1: A third held a five pound oxygenator stolen from another
29:45
Speaker 1: truck nearby and slammed it down onto Denny's head. Denny
29:49
Speaker 1: staggered about on all fours. As he was pulling himself up.
29:53
Speaker 1: Another man came up behind him and from two feet away,
29:55
Speaker 1: slammed a brick down hard onto Denny's head, and Denny
29:59
Speaker 1: collapsed in from the cab of his truck. The dude
30:02
Speaker 1: who threw the brick laughed at what he'd done, pointed
30:04
Speaker 1: at Denny, and did a little victory dance, and then
30:06
Speaker 1: imposed above his bloody, mangled head and flashed gang signs
30:09
Speaker 1: at the cameras and the helicopter above. After that, they
30:13
Speaker 1: lifted Denny's shirt, pulled down his pants, and spray painted
30:16
Speaker 1: his genital's black. And it didn't end there. Residents threw
30:20
Speaker 1: bottles at him, rifled through his pockets, kicked him in
30:22
Speaker 1: his head, hit him with a clawhammer. One dude pulled
30:25
Speaker 1: up on a motorcycle with a shotgun and attempted to
30:28
Speaker 1: blast Denny's fuel tank. He missed and the shit shot
30:31
Speaker 1: drove off. Remarkably, Reginald Denny was able to drag himself
30:35
Speaker 1: into his truck and drive away. His skull was fractured
30:39
Speaker 1: in ninety one places. It was a brutal attack, vicious
30:43
Speaker 1: and totally avoidable. But again, just like the Rodney King beating,
30:47
Speaker 1: the senseless violence of the La riots in nineteen ninety
30:50
Speaker 1: two was not entirely unpredicted, straight out of comped and
30:54
Speaker 1: warned us. The music NWA created and threw into the
30:57
Speaker 1: face of mainstream America was a direct reflection of the
31:00
Speaker 1: reality the group was forced to live in and endure.
31:04
Speaker 1: Just as the violence sells Central residents resorted to and
31:07
Speaker 1: inflicted upon anybody who'd got in their way and wasn't
31:10
Speaker 1: the same color as them was a direct reflection of
31:12
Speaker 1: the reality they were forced to live in and endure
31:15
Speaker 1: under the discriminatory brutality of the LAPD. And right now
31:22
Speaker 1: over on Los Felas, on the part of the street
31:24
Speaker 1: that ran west towards Central LA, just under Griffith Park,
31:28
Speaker 1: the LAPD were nowhere to be found. While a beat
31:31
Speaker 1: up onto a chord speeded toward the riots had a
31:33
Speaker 1: sixty mile per hour clip. Its driver had just been
31:36
Speaker 1: in the studio over an outwater village producing a record.
31:39
Speaker 1: When the news of the riots came across the television,
31:42
Speaker 1: he grabbed his MC, ducked into his shipbox and blined
31:45
Speaker 1: it to get a first hand glimpse of the chaos. He,
31:48
Speaker 1: along with his MC and the passenger seat, were giddy
31:51
Speaker 1: with excitement fucked the police, echoing in their heads beats
31:54
Speaker 1: from their latest session blasting back at them through the
31:56
Speaker 1: teeny stock stereo speakers, this one trading on a Zaza
32:00
Speaker 1: sample from their self titled nineteen eighty debut Damn Shit
32:03
Speaker 1: Sounded Dope. The MC and the passenger seat could see
32:07
Speaker 1: the smoke rising up from South Central and as they
32:09
Speaker 1: got closer, he started to smell it. Paunch it, motherfucker,
32:12
Speaker 1: punch it. Zaps proto g funk blasted back at them,
32:16
Speaker 1: and the MC was so excited he was going to
32:18
Speaker 1: piss himself. He said fuck it and grabbed his nine
32:20
Speaker 1: millimeter from his waistband and started blasting shots out the
32:23
Speaker 1: window and into the skies. They zipped down those fela
32:26
Speaker 1: As at break neck speed. Now the two of them
32:29
Speaker 1: could taste the adrenaline, and by the time they made
32:31
Speaker 1: it to Crenshawn down to twenty eighth, they'd hit gridlock.
32:34
Speaker 1: There were looters everywhere, broken storefront windows, cars on fire,
32:38
Speaker 1: residents rolling down the street with shopping carts filled with
32:41
Speaker 1: stolen goods, cases of beer, bottles of wine and booze, diapers, clothes, food,
32:46
Speaker 1: whatever they could get their hands on, and the driver
32:48
Speaker 1: and the MC were halted in traffic, not going anywhere.
32:52
Speaker 1: Looters began to shout out the MC and the passenger
32:54
Speaker 1: seat as they moved by, shaking his hand through the
32:57
Speaker 1: passenger side window, bumping fists, exchanging words of encouragement, black
33:01
Speaker 1: power revolution words. The MC was well versed in words
33:05
Speaker 1: he grew up with in his home whispered in his
33:07
Speaker 1: ear from his mama from as far back as he
33:09
Speaker 1: could remember. The excitement was almost too much for him
33:12
Speaker 1: for the driver his producer too, and they could see
33:15
Speaker 1: through the windshield about a half block away Tempo Records,
33:18
Speaker 1: the store that was on fire, but that wasn't stopping
33:21
Speaker 1: residents from rushing in and grabbing arms full of CDs
33:24
Speaker 1: and VHS tapes. Again, fucked this, The MC and the
33:28
Speaker 1: driver bailed on the car, left it sitting on Crenshaw,
33:30
Speaker 1: and b lined it straight for the record store. People
33:33
Speaker 1: did double takes as the MC passed by, and once
33:35
Speaker 1: inside Temple, they both started filling their arms as quickly
33:38
Speaker 1: as they could, and the smoke was intense, too intense.
33:42
Speaker 1: The MC bailed and made it out past the sidewalk
33:44
Speaker 1: and back to where they'd left the Hyundai, which thankfully
33:47
Speaker 1: nobody had yet set on fire. But by now he
33:50
Speaker 1: had a small entourage of hip hop fans who recognized
33:53
Speaker 1: him in and outside of the looted record store that
33:55
Speaker 1: were gathered around him. Smoke for more cars and trucks
33:59
Speaker 1: that were set ablaze filled the air. Jocking from position
34:01
Speaker 1: with the hovering news helicopters, the sound of sirens and alarms,
34:05
Speaker 1: residents yelling, screaming, jubilee and anger all at once, the
34:10
Speaker 1: squeaking grind of shopping carts and the concrete was ubiquitous,
34:13
Speaker 1: shattered flask in the ever present chant of fuck the police,
34:17
Speaker 1: all of it. Surrounding the MC in East Coast Export.
34:21
Speaker 1: He took in the reality all around him as he
34:22
Speaker 1: looked up to the south central sky and thought to himself,
34:26
Speaker 1: motherfucking dre and Cube nailed the ship. Surrounded by the
34:30
Speaker 1: chaos of the La riots. He then turned his attention
34:33
Speaker 1: to the young hip hop fans who were now surrounding him,
34:36
Speaker 1: holding out copies of his record that they just looted
34:38
Speaker 1: and were asking him to sign his autograph on He
34:41
Speaker 1: swept a pen from one of his fans, and on
34:43
Speaker 1: the cover of the CD the fan held up, he
34:45
Speaker 1: signed his name Tupac Shakur.
34:51
Speaker 4: I'm Tom John, I'm John, I'm.
35:14
Speaker 1: I'm I'm Jake Brennan in this this Disgraceland. Disgraceland was
35:46
Speaker 1: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with
35:48
Speaker 1: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on
35:52
Speaker 1: the show notes page at disgracelandpod dot com. If you're
35:55
Speaker 1: listening as a Disgraceland All Access member. Thank you for
35:58
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36:01
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36:35
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller, He's the man.