Lil Eazy’s got to be focused right now; he’s got an even heavier burden to shoulder than any free weight he’d encounter in the gym — the legacy of his father. Lil Eazy was 10 years old (the oldest of Eazy-E’s nine children) when the former N.W.A front man died of AIDS. “Everybody didn’t feel like my father was the best rapper, so a lot of people feel that I can’t rap,” Lil Eazy says. “But I’m going to take what my father started, the gangster rap, and shoot it beyond to the new generation.”
His major-label debut album, Prince of Compton, proves the nonbelievers wrong. With a nasal voice that only his father could have given him, Lil Eazy shares his pop’s stripped-down, nihilistic worldview and elevates it with emotionally complex writing. And the LP is chock full of sinister beats that would make N.W.A proud. Still, it’s hard to picture Lil Eazy — with his mild manners, excellent work ethic, and trust-fund endowment — living the life he raps about.
“I think the tone of his music will change,” says Officer Miller, a school security guard who knew young Wright as a respectful Dominguez High School student. “I don’t think he’ll be known as some big gangster because that’s not in his heart.” Still, Lil Eazy insists he knows gang life well enough. “I never grew up in Riverside or nothing like that,” he says. “Compton, California, is where I was born and raised. I gangbanged. I’ve seen roaches before. No lights on. I’ve been through all that.”
But for now, Lil Eazy can dab the sweat from his princely forehead and return to his plush condo in the beach community of Marina Del Rey, where there are no roaches and the lights are definitely on.
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