Ruthless by Jerry Heller & Gil Reavill

Author:Jerry Heller & Gil Reavill
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Music
ISBN: 9781416937920
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2006-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

II

Above the Law would have been N.W.A. if N.W.A. never existed. Headed up by a masterful, Dre-like producer named Greg Hutchinson, aka Big Hutch, aka Cold 187um, the group came out of Pomona and were one of Eric’s first signings on Ruthless. Unlike Dre and practically the whole Ruthless coterie, Hutch was a trained musician, a jazz instrumentalist. Dre learned a lot from him. The relentless “siren of doom” that Dre wall-papered into Straight Outta Compton took a cue from Hutch.

But Hutch and Above the Law lagged a crucial step behind N.W.A., demonstrating the importance in music of getting there first. Even so, Above the Law’s 1990 Ruthless release, Livin’ Like Hustlers, which Dre coproduced, was a huge record. Hutch cleverly split the album between two sides, the “sex” side and the “violence” side. Once again, Ruthless had a hit on its hands.

Eazy and I shared the same philosophy about signing acts on the label. “We’re a small shop,” I told him. “We do one record, use all of our best writers, rappers, and producers, and then we move on to the next one.” Dre, who had a hand in all the Ruthless releases, was only one man. (Well, actually, with Yella, he was two.) Eazy didn’t want him spreading himself too thin. Ruthless had two other projects in 1990. The first was blond-haired street-feminist Tairrie B’s Power of a Woman, released on Ruthless’s subsidiary Comptown label, which Eazy wanted to use for white rap. Eazy also helped his running buddy MC Ren produce a group called CPO for Ren’s own production company. I negotiated the deal.

Ice Cube, the apostate ex-member of N.W.A., was quoted in a newspaper interview running his mouth off with an indirect dis at Above the Law. “There’s never been a good rapper from the sixty freeway,” sniffed Cube. That’s how gang sets and rap groups are both identified in L.A.—they’re always linked to the closest freeway.

The 60 freeway, cutting east of South Central, was Above the Law territory. Naturally, Hutch and his band members, Kevin Gulley, aka K.M.G the Illustrator, Arthur Goodman, aka Go Mack, and Anthony Stewart, aka DJ Total K-Oss, took exception to Cube’s quoted remarks.

The beef came to a head at an Above the Law show in Anaheim at Circle Star Theater. Hutch invited Cube to their dressing room backstage, where he gave him a savage beating.

“O’Shea was crying like a little girl,” crowed Eazy. No love lost there.

Ice Cube was terrified. He saw Hutch and the Above the Law crew everywhere. They ran in the same circles, and there was no way he could avoid running into them. So he hung around the concert, sending an abject apology to Hutch via Atron Gregory. Hutch again invited Cube back to Above the Law’s dressing room. Cube showed, hat in hand, expecting to be forgiven, but instead Hutch dealt him another beat-down.

Eazy was not above issuing beat-downs himself, and it didn’t matter to him if the body on the other end was male or female.

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