“Is it true Don, your mom bought you Eazy-Duz-It?” Nardwar asks Don Toliver in his latest interview. Don replies, “She bought me that CD when I was real young bro. It changed me for sure. Eazy is so crazy. His raps are just like beyond..”
This month marks 28 years since the passing of one of the greatest artists to come out of the West Coast, Eric “Eazy-E” Wright. Eazy’s impact in music is larger than West Coast hip hop, from signing Ohio’s Bone Thugs N-Harmony to influencing Houston-superstar Don Toliver.
As we celebrate the legacy of the Compton artist, we look back at advice Eazy-E gave young rappers in his first interview with a teenage Adisa Banjoko. How was a teenager from Oceana High School able to get Eazy E’s first interview?
Adisa Banjoko is a music journalist who has interviewed Eazy-E, Tupac Shakkur, and Master P to name a few. His writing has been published on the Source, XXL, Complex, and more. Banjoko marks the moment he interviewed Eazy at 17, as his start in music journalism.
In 1987 Banjoko, then known as Jason Parker, reached out to Ruthless Records through the contact information on Eazy-E’s “The Boyz-N-the Hood” single. The teenager reached out for an interview saying he was calling from “a big time newspaper in the Bay”. That phrase is what convinced the Ruthless artist to return the call for the interview.
A teenage Adisa and a young Eazy-E built a connection on regular conversations for months until Jerry Heller told Eazy to ask one important question: Who does the kid write for, the Chronicle or the Examiner?
Neither. It was for the Oceana Foghorn, a high school newspaper in Pacifica, California.
The hip hop legend’s reply to the aspiring journalist, “Who cares man! Nobody writes about us! Run that s***t, what do you need!”
In the March 1988 issue of the Oceana Foghorn, a high schooler from the Bay Area published Eazy-E’s first interview in an article titled “Eazy Does it Very Well”. This article predates N.W.A, Eazy mentions the group but does not say what the initials stood for. Instead, the Ruthless leader says the public will know their initials once the record is released. An article very early on, the Arabian Prince was mentioned as part of the group.
Thirty-five years since the release of the interview and a message from it still resonates. The spirit that drove Eric Wright to Eazy-E, hip hop legend. Eazy-E’s message to young rappers, “Ain’t nothin to it but to do it and never give up. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know what you could have had.”
Watch Adisa Banjoko tell the encounter below, and learn more about Dregs One’s History of the Bay.