How Eazy-E’s wife helped Suge Knight make money
Eazy-E’s legacy is as an emcee and businessman who had a knack for making money, and as the co-founder of Ruthless Records alongside Jerry Heller; even when the days of N.W.A. were over, the lyricist still had a lot of cash coming in from his clever dealings.
Although the ‘Straight Outta Compton’ rhymer was previously friends with Dr Dre when The Chronic creator decided to start Death Row Records alongside Suge Knight, he had one problem — he was still locked into a contract with Ruthless Records.
However, when this problem presented itself, Eazy-E, as a businessman provided Dre with a credible tradeoff. The deal posited that he would release Dre from Ruthless Records early on the basis he had some rights to a percentage of Dr Dre’s future earnings. Out of necessity, to gain his musical independence, Dre signed what many would see as a botched deal.
For several years, Eazy-E made money from Death Row, The Chronic, and other Dr Dre productions, which cost Suge Knight a lot of money. However, following Eazy-E’s death in 1995, the emcee’s widow saved Suge Knight through a business misstep by relinquishing rights to a percentage of Dr Dre’s future earnings. According to many business people, she may have cost Eazy’s estate upwards of a billion dollars.
During an episode of his podcast Collect Call, Suge Knight explained how, by relinquishing the rights, Eazy-E’s widow unknowingly forfeited a 10-figure sum. Explaining the tradeoff deal that Dre was in with Eazy, Knight detailed, “I did a deal for [Eazy]. He gets a dollar off of anything that Dre does. In other words, if he does a movie, if he does a beat, if he promotes some type of merchandise. If he does a commercial, if he produces… Off of his part, [Eazy] gets a dollar.”
It is still perplexing why Tomica Woods-Wright, whom Eazy wed in 1995, relinquished the rights. Still, ultimately, following his death, she decided to sign off on a deal with Interscope Records that terminated the agreement.
However, Knight shed some light on why she made the decision, suggesting that she was lured into it by Interscope, who promised to do business with her and Ruthless Records in the future, which Knight points out never materialized.
Speaking about the deal Interscope lured her in with, Knight recalled, “Tomica met with Interscope. Interscope said, ‘Hey, why you want to get a dollar off of everything Dre does? Me and you could do business later on. Sign off and just let Dre out of it. We’re gonna do business later.’”
The 58-year-old added, “She signed off. They ain’t did no business with that bi**h later. And guess what? That f**ked Eazy’s kids, his momma, at the time his father was still living. It’s f**ked his family.”
Knight’s story implicates Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre of doing shady business. However, it is unlikely that anyone will suffer from the 1995 deal which robbed Eazy-E’s family of millions.