Young/Nacho\Drawz
...come on let's picture the possibility...
Whatever Happened to N.W.A's Posse?
The Eazy-E True Hollywood (or True Compton) Stories behind the legendary L.A. hip-hop cover
By Martin Cizmar
published: May 06, 2010
The cover of the 1987 album N.W.A and the Posse does not look like something released by one of the most important rap groups of all time. Actually, just looking at the photo, who would believe that some of the guys in this alleyway would change the course of popular music forever less than a year after the flashbulb popped? Who would guess these men were capable of creating their own genre of music, putting their fingerprints on nearly every hip-hop song written in the past 20 years? In fact, this picture is a perfect snapshot of one of the most important scenes in the history of popular music. Stare for a moment and you can see a myth about to be born. That myth, gangsta rap, enabled four guys in this picture — Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy-E — to titillate and terrify America as Compton-based rap group nikkaz With Attitude. The mythical power of N.W.A certainly doesn't come from the clock necklaces, the running pants or the Jheri curls. Look to the left, at the bottles of malt liquor, the plain jeans and the black ball caps. Those props (and that's the right word) hint at what's going on here, which is the gestation of gangsta rap.
From a music critic's perspective, N.W.A and the Posse is nothing special. Certainly not compared to Straight Outta Compton, the culture-changing epic released less than a year later. In fact, Compton has proved so important that it has since supplanted Posse as the group's "first record" in most histories of N.W.A. That's not an altogether-unfair version of things.
Actually, N.W.A and the Posse, which featured songs by N.W.A and some other groups Dr. Dre did production work for, is just what the name suggests: N.W.A with a gang of friends and associates destined for bit parts in a grander drama.
As Jerry Heller, the band's famously demonized manager, says in his memoir, it was "the product of a loose amalgamation of DJs, musicians and MCs."
"N.W.A and the Posse is unquestionably raw production, not quite ready for prime time," he wrote. "It has elements of greatness, rap songs that later became monsters: 'Boyz-n-the-Hood,' 'Dopeman,' '8 Ball.' Listen to the version of 'Boyz' on the Posse album and then compare it with Dre's remix a year later that appears on Eazy-Duz-It, Eazy-E's first solo album. The difference is clear. Posse was a trial run, a rehearsal."
So, if this is a rehearsal, who are all those extras?
Anyone who knows anything about rap can pick out at least two guys in this photo: Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. If you're into the old school, you can probably identify four of the dozen, adding MC Ren and Eazy-E. A true N.W.A fan could pick out Arabian Prince, who is standing next to Cube.
Pretty much no one not in the photo — not even the most hard-core hip-hop heads — can ID the rest of the posse pictured, other than maybe giving a 20-year-old street name. Until now, that is.
It took a lot of work, but we've tracked down all 12 guys from the Posse record cover. Some of these guys are on Hollywood's A-list, others drive trucks, but they were all once part of the same posse.
ARABIAN PRINCE
AKA: Mik Lezan, Professor X
Before the photo: He was one of Ruthless Records' house producers, also working on J.J. Fad's hit single "Supersonic." (You've probably heard part of "Supersonic": Fergie's "Fergalicious" samples the hook.)
In the photo: He's making no pretense to wear "gangsta" clothing. "I've always been a club cat," Prince tells me. "I want to make people hype, I want to make people party. And when we did the N.W.A thing, I was cool with it because I grew up in the hood as well, but I've never been gangsta. My uncles was gangsta, my cousins was gangsta, and I'm like, 'I'm not really gangsta.'"
After the photo: Arabian was an actual member of N.W.A. He's pictured on the back of the record with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, the core of the group at the time. He left the group while Straight Outta Compton was being recorded, releasing a solo record called Brother Arab in 1989. Like the others who later left the group — including Cube and Dre — Arabian cites financial improprieties as the main motivator behind his departure.
Now: He's working on a cartoon/music project called Funky Lil Anime, "like an animated Black Eyed Peas kinda thing."
SIR JINX
AKA: Anthony Wheaton
Before the photo: If there's a golden link in the chain connecting everyone on the N.W.A and the Posse record cover, it's Sir Jinx. The cousin of Dr. Dre, Jinx was nevertheless always more closely aligned with Ice Cube. At the time the photo was taken he was in the rap group C.I.A. (Cru' in Action!). The other two members of C.I.A. — Cube and Kid Disaster — are also in the photo. They're the two guys in white wearing Flavor Flav–style clocks around their necks, right next to Arabian Prince.
In the photo: Sir Jinx is on the top right, wearing all black. "All that writing on the picture? I did all that," Jinx tells me. "Eric went and bought a bunch of neon spray cans. He knew I did graffiti, so I did as much as I could. If you look at the picture, and you look at me, my name is right next to me, you see 'J-I-N.' Everybody then kinda grabbed a spray can and the neon cans and wrote on the wall behind us."
After the photo: Sir Jinx produced songs for all Ice Cube's early albums, including AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Death Certificate, The Predator and Lethal Injection. Included in his credits are two of Cube's most controversial songs, the diss track "No Vaseline" and the Korean shopkeeper bashing "Black Korea." Jinx also produced Xzibit's 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz.
Now: Jinx recently did some studio work with Dr. Dre and keeps busy doing DJ gigs and appearing places like The Jimmy Kimmel Show and The Orlando Jones Show.
DJ SCRATCH
AKA: LaMont Burnett, King Scratch
Before the photo: Scratch was part of a tight-knit clique that included Sir Jinx, Candyman (bottom right in the Posse photo) and Tupac's future producer, the late Johnny "J."
In the photo: Scratch didn't want to have his photo taken because he hadn't had his hair done properly but was persuaded to jump into the shot by Eazy-E, who said Scratch looked like part of the Ruthless Records gang. "The picture was going to be taken later in the day, and we all had to get Jheri curls done and all that. Dre called early and said, 'We're gonna take the picture,' so I wasn't even going to get in the picture at all. I jumped in the car and I took Jinx and Candyman down there," Scratch tells me. "We went up there, and I wasn't in the picture. I actually had another camera, and I was just snapping them. And Eazy was like, 'Come on, get in the picture. You look Ruthless. Get in the picture.'"
After the photo: Scratch says Eazy-E once asked him to be his DJ, but he refused, out of loyalty to Candyman. Candyman had a huge hit with "Knockin' Boots," but he proved to be a one-hit wonder. Scratch has no regrets though: "Everything happens for a reason."
Now: Scratch lives in Barstow, California. He says it's a place where he has a house that's "nice and cheap and big." He's a family man with children and grandchildren. Scratch has recorded some new music and has also started a company that does merch for other musicians.
MC REN
AKA: Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, The Villain in Black
Before the photo: Though he's lined up right next to Eazy, Cube, Dre and Arabian Prince — rounding out the so-called classic lineup of N.W.A — Ren was not actually a member of the group when this record cover was shot, he says. Rather, he was just another solo rapper signed to Eazy-E's record label. "I was with Ruthless, signed right out of high school as a solo artist, so I was with Eric every day," Ren tells me. "I was going to do a song for Eric, but I wasn't in the group at that time. He just told me to come up there and get in the picture with him because everybody was having their homies hooked up."
In the photo: MC Ren, like his friend MC Chip, is wearing the traditional N.W.A uniform, which is a black baseball hat, T-shirt and jeans. "If you look at the picture, it don't even look how N.W.A look, you know what I mean?" Ren says. "If you look on that album cover, you'll see that me and my homie Chip got on the Raiders hats. That was my thing — the Raiders hats and all that. That was before I even got in the group."
After the photo: MC Ren has released six solo records, the most recent coming out in 2009. His first solo record, Kizz My Black Azz, went platinum and peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200. He's also done verses on solo records released by both Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.
Now: In addition to having a new EP in the works, Ren is rumored to be part of the N.W.A movie project that Cube and Dre are working on.
The Eazy-E True Hollywood (or True Compton) Stories behind the legendary L.A. hip-hop cover
By Martin Cizmar
published: May 06, 2010
The cover of the 1987 album N.W.A and the Posse does not look like something released by one of the most important rap groups of all time. Actually, just looking at the photo, who would believe that some of the guys in this alleyway would change the course of popular music forever less than a year after the flashbulb popped? Who would guess these men were capable of creating their own genre of music, putting their fingerprints on nearly every hip-hop song written in the past 20 years? In fact, this picture is a perfect snapshot of one of the most important scenes in the history of popular music. Stare for a moment and you can see a myth about to be born. That myth, gangsta rap, enabled four guys in this picture — Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy-E — to titillate and terrify America as Compton-based rap group nikkaz With Attitude. The mythical power of N.W.A certainly doesn't come from the clock necklaces, the running pants or the Jheri curls. Look to the left, at the bottles of malt liquor, the plain jeans and the black ball caps. Those props (and that's the right word) hint at what's going on here, which is the gestation of gangsta rap.
From a music critic's perspective, N.W.A and the Posse is nothing special. Certainly not compared to Straight Outta Compton, the culture-changing epic released less than a year later. In fact, Compton has proved so important that it has since supplanted Posse as the group's "first record" in most histories of N.W.A. That's not an altogether-unfair version of things.
Actually, N.W.A and the Posse, which featured songs by N.W.A and some other groups Dr. Dre did production work for, is just what the name suggests: N.W.A with a gang of friends and associates destined for bit parts in a grander drama.
As Jerry Heller, the band's famously demonized manager, says in his memoir, it was "the product of a loose amalgamation of DJs, musicians and MCs."
"N.W.A and the Posse is unquestionably raw production, not quite ready for prime time," he wrote. "It has elements of greatness, rap songs that later became monsters: 'Boyz-n-the-Hood,' 'Dopeman,' '8 Ball.' Listen to the version of 'Boyz' on the Posse album and then compare it with Dre's remix a year later that appears on Eazy-Duz-It, Eazy-E's first solo album. The difference is clear. Posse was a trial run, a rehearsal."
So, if this is a rehearsal, who are all those extras?
Anyone who knows anything about rap can pick out at least two guys in this photo: Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. If you're into the old school, you can probably identify four of the dozen, adding MC Ren and Eazy-E. A true N.W.A fan could pick out Arabian Prince, who is standing next to Cube.
Pretty much no one not in the photo — not even the most hard-core hip-hop heads — can ID the rest of the posse pictured, other than maybe giving a 20-year-old street name. Until now, that is.
It took a lot of work, but we've tracked down all 12 guys from the Posse record cover. Some of these guys are on Hollywood's A-list, others drive trucks, but they were all once part of the same posse.
ARABIAN PRINCE
AKA: Mik Lezan, Professor X
Before the photo: He was one of Ruthless Records' house producers, also working on J.J. Fad's hit single "Supersonic." (You've probably heard part of "Supersonic": Fergie's "Fergalicious" samples the hook.)
In the photo: He's making no pretense to wear "gangsta" clothing. "I've always been a club cat," Prince tells me. "I want to make people hype, I want to make people party. And when we did the N.W.A thing, I was cool with it because I grew up in the hood as well, but I've never been gangsta. My uncles was gangsta, my cousins was gangsta, and I'm like, 'I'm not really gangsta.'"
After the photo: Arabian was an actual member of N.W.A. He's pictured on the back of the record with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, the core of the group at the time. He left the group while Straight Outta Compton was being recorded, releasing a solo record called Brother Arab in 1989. Like the others who later left the group — including Cube and Dre — Arabian cites financial improprieties as the main motivator behind his departure.
Now: He's working on a cartoon/music project called Funky Lil Anime, "like an animated Black Eyed Peas kinda thing."
SIR JINX
AKA: Anthony Wheaton
Before the photo: If there's a golden link in the chain connecting everyone on the N.W.A and the Posse record cover, it's Sir Jinx. The cousin of Dr. Dre, Jinx was nevertheless always more closely aligned with Ice Cube. At the time the photo was taken he was in the rap group C.I.A. (Cru' in Action!). The other two members of C.I.A. — Cube and Kid Disaster — are also in the photo. They're the two guys in white wearing Flavor Flav–style clocks around their necks, right next to Arabian Prince.
In the photo: Sir Jinx is on the top right, wearing all black. "All that writing on the picture? I did all that," Jinx tells me. "Eric went and bought a bunch of neon spray cans. He knew I did graffiti, so I did as much as I could. If you look at the picture, and you look at me, my name is right next to me, you see 'J-I-N.' Everybody then kinda grabbed a spray can and the neon cans and wrote on the wall behind us."
After the photo: Sir Jinx produced songs for all Ice Cube's early albums, including AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, Death Certificate, The Predator and Lethal Injection. Included in his credits are two of Cube's most controversial songs, the diss track "No Vaseline" and the Korean shopkeeper bashing "Black Korea." Jinx also produced Xzibit's 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz.
Now: Jinx recently did some studio work with Dr. Dre and keeps busy doing DJ gigs and appearing places like The Jimmy Kimmel Show and The Orlando Jones Show.
DJ SCRATCH
AKA: LaMont Burnett, King Scratch
Before the photo: Scratch was part of a tight-knit clique that included Sir Jinx, Candyman (bottom right in the Posse photo) and Tupac's future producer, the late Johnny "J."
In the photo: Scratch didn't want to have his photo taken because he hadn't had his hair done properly but was persuaded to jump into the shot by Eazy-E, who said Scratch looked like part of the Ruthless Records gang. "The picture was going to be taken later in the day, and we all had to get Jheri curls done and all that. Dre called early and said, 'We're gonna take the picture,' so I wasn't even going to get in the picture at all. I jumped in the car and I took Jinx and Candyman down there," Scratch tells me. "We went up there, and I wasn't in the picture. I actually had another camera, and I was just snapping them. And Eazy was like, 'Come on, get in the picture. You look Ruthless. Get in the picture.'"
After the photo: Scratch says Eazy-E once asked him to be his DJ, but he refused, out of loyalty to Candyman. Candyman had a huge hit with "Knockin' Boots," but he proved to be a one-hit wonder. Scratch has no regrets though: "Everything happens for a reason."
Now: Scratch lives in Barstow, California. He says it's a place where he has a house that's "nice and cheap and big." He's a family man with children and grandchildren. Scratch has recorded some new music and has also started a company that does merch for other musicians.
MC REN
AKA: Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, The Villain in Black
Before the photo: Though he's lined up right next to Eazy, Cube, Dre and Arabian Prince — rounding out the so-called classic lineup of N.W.A — Ren was not actually a member of the group when this record cover was shot, he says. Rather, he was just another solo rapper signed to Eazy-E's record label. "I was with Ruthless, signed right out of high school as a solo artist, so I was with Eric every day," Ren tells me. "I was going to do a song for Eric, but I wasn't in the group at that time. He just told me to come up there and get in the picture with him because everybody was having their homies hooked up."
In the photo: MC Ren, like his friend MC Chip, is wearing the traditional N.W.A uniform, which is a black baseball hat, T-shirt and jeans. "If you look at the picture, it don't even look how N.W.A look, you know what I mean?" Ren says. "If you look on that album cover, you'll see that me and my homie Chip got on the Raiders hats. That was my thing — the Raiders hats and all that. That was before I even got in the group."
After the photo: MC Ren has released six solo records, the most recent coming out in 2009. His first solo record, Kizz My Black Azz, went platinum and peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200. He's also done verses on solo records released by both Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.
Now: In addition to having a new EP in the works, Ren is rumored to be part of the N.W.A movie project that Cube and Dre are working on.
at nobody likin CandyMan...crazy that Johnny J produced "knockin the boots".....thank god Johnny J didn't waste his greatest productions on Candyman
...even tho knockin the boots was a cool joint
...my theory is they injected eazy with some shyt,told him he had AIDS,and convinced him to write a statement to scare black folks so we could realize its not just a cac/homo disease....scare us into not fukking for population control reasons
....I will never buy that he died of aids quick as hell just cuz he was a midget,they need more people
,im getting more supspicious of his bloodwork by the year.
