Eazy-E: Eazy-Duz-It (25th anniversary edition) [RUTHLESS/PRIORITY]

Why you'll love it

This 25th anniversary edition puts Eazy-E's solo debut back on vinyl on Ruthless and Priority. It sold 2.5 million copies in the US by 1994 and stands as his most successful album.

This edition

• 25th anniversary edition

About the album

Eazy-E was a businessman before he was a rapper. He co-founded Ruthless Records, bankrolled the early N.W.A. records and then stepped up to the microphone himself, and in 1988, with Ice Cube still in the fold, he made his own album with the whole crew pitching in. Ice Cube, MC Ren and The D.O.C. helped write it, and Eazy's high, sneering delivery did the rest. It came out the same year as Straight Outta Compton, and the two records fed each other all year long.

Dr. Dre and DJ Yella produced, with booming drums, funk samples and a playful streak that keeps things moving. "Boyz-N-The Hood (Remix)" revisits the 1987 single that started it all, "Eazy-Er Said Than Dunn" was the first single, and "We Want Eazy" turned the crowd's chant into a hit on the rap charts. "Radio," "Nobody Move" and the title track round out a record that set the template for Compton's swagger.

In 1992 it went double platinum, a tidy reward for a rapper who started out as the man paying for the studio time. Running the label and fronting the album at once is either genius or a very efficient way of avoiding meetings.

Also at Kops: more Eazy-E on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Ruthless / Priority (cat# B0019017-01), a reissue of the 1988 album.