Eazy-E's Real Name: Eric Wright

Quick answer: The rapper is known professionally as Eazy-E. Biography.com, AllMusic, and a Washington Post report of an Associated Press dispatch independently identify his name as Eric Wright. Publishers disagree on the birth year, so this page does not treat a single year as settled (Biography.com; AllMusic).

Real name and early life

He is known professionally as Eazy-E. Biography.com says he was born Eric Wright on September 7, 1963, in Compton, California. AllMusic independently gives Eric Wright, also written Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, but dates the birth to September 7, 1964, in Compton, CA. This page records the year conflict rather than choosing one figure. Both describe him as a high-school dropout who used money from drug dealing to help start Ruthless Records with Jerry Heller, then worked with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. Both say that after another Ruthless act declined a song those writers had offered, Wright joined them to record "Boyz-n-the-Hood" as N.W.A.

Career highlights

Biography.com and AllMusic both date N.W.A's album N.W.A. and the Posse to 1987 and Straight Outta Compton to 1988, and both say he released the solo album Eazy-Duz-It the same year. AllMusic says Eazy-Duz-It later sold well over two million copies; Biography.com says Straight Outta Compton earned double-platinum sales. Biography.com says that after Ice Cube left in 1989, N.W.A released 100 Miles and Runnin' in 1990 and Efil4zaggin the following year, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts. AllMusic refers to that 1991 album as Niggaz4life and says the group broke up that summer. Both say he continued to run Ruthless Records, later signing Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and both date the solo EP 5150 Home 4 tha Sick to 1992.

Death

Biography.com says he died from AIDS-related complications on March 26, 1995. AllMusic independently dates the death to March 26, 1995, in Los Angeles, CA, and says he had entered the hospital with respiratory difficulties, believing he had asthma, before an AIDS diagnosis. A Washington Post report of an Associated Press dispatch, datelined Los Angeles, says Eric Wright died of AIDS complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized February 24 with asthma. AllMusic and the AP report place the death in Los Angeles; Biography.com's obituary line does not name the city.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Eazy-E or Eric Wright are looking for the same Compton rapper and N.W.A cofounder. The 1963 and 1964 birth years are both attested and are left unresolved here.