Lil Eazy E Remembers His Father 15 Years After His Death

In a recent interview with MTV, rapper Eric Wright Jr., aka Lil Eazy-E discussed the legacy of his father, legendary West Coast rapper Eazy-E, who died on March 26, 1995.

"A lot of producers he gave inspiration to," began the 26-year-old rapper. "Dr Dre's a big thing. Eminem's a big thing. 50 Cent's a big thing. If you didn't have my father, you wouldn't have none of them. Other rappers, if my father didn't invent Ruthless Records and N.W.A., you wouldn't have that line. Ice Cube, MC Ren, Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre, therefore Death Row. Death Row was started before any breakup was going on. They'll get the truth one day on a nice big screen. He had a lot of artists outside the genre of rap. J.J. Fad, Michel'le, Will.I.am, he was even working with my father. My father found him. A lot of big things."

Despite having seven children with six different women, Lil Eazy said his dad was a model father, who always had time for him. "People don't understand, he was a father. My grandmother, I was raised by her. Weekends, I got picked up by my father. He picked up all his kids. My father had a lot of kids. Everything was jokes. We'd be over at Grandma's. He took us on Disneyland trips. That's when you realize you're really somebody. All these [other fan] kids? We're supposed to be having time with daddy. All these kids and all these families wanna take pictures. He bought me anything I wanted. He was a great daddy. He had a lot of time for us."

Though the 15th anniversary of his father's death was a kind of celebration for Lil Eazy, at the same time, he still recalled his last memory with pain.

"My last one was about when he first went into surgery for leakage in his lungs," Lil Eazy explained. "He went to the hospital. We was chillin', talking, not understanding he was sick. He was like how he is every other day, eating a hamburger. You're not supposed to, but you're eating a hamburger. We was chillin' in Cedars Sinai. That was the last fondest, good memory. Then I was called in a couple of days before he passed away, and he couldn't talk. I just walked in, and they let me see him. He couldn't say nothing. I just cried. As a kid, I couldn't understand it, why he couldn't say nothing to me. He's squeezing my hand as I exited from the room."

Eazy-E, one of gangsta rap's founding fathers, died on March, 26, 1995 from complications related to the AIDS virus. His memory lives on via the albums he released, both as as a solo artist and with N.W.A., the musicians he discovered like Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony and Will.i.am, and the tremendous influence he had on countless rappers to follow.