Eazy-E - Featuring… Eazy-E

Still with attitude, but little else

It took an impending death from AIDS for Eazy-E to find remorse, but at least he made peace – with Ice Cube, Dr Dre and his past – before sadly succumbing to the disease in 1995, aged 31. On the evidence of this collection of solo tracks, some NWA cuts and others where Eazy lays down a guest vocal, it’s a past that didn’t seek to make friends. It’s also one that, without being tempered by anyone else, reveals that Eazy was only really a talent in short bursts in the company of others.

On his own, his most vicious fantasies are given free reign. Since there’s very little other than bitches doing stuff to him, or against him, or without him, with the odd bit of violence thrown in, it quickly gets dull. While others from the G-Funk era took Clinton’s P-Funk work and weaved it in to make something new (see Digital Underground and most anything helmed by Dr Dre), Eazy often relies on simply rapping over the top of entire Parliament or Bootsy Collins tracks. When he samples Beastie Boys’ Time To Get Ill on LA Is The Place, it only serves to highlight how unoriginal he became on his own.

EMI | 514 1572

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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