Eazy E

Even before AIDS-stricken rap star Eric (Eazy-E) Wright was laid to rest earlier this month, Wright's former lovers and business associates were haggling in Los Angeles Superior Court for control over his dwindling fortune. "It's sad and it's shocking," said the rapper's 26-year-old widow, Tomica Woods Wright, who has a year-old child by Wright and is pregnant with another, due in September. "A lot of people who claim to know (Wright) really didn't.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrested Eric Wright Jr., known by his rap name Lil' Eazy-E, Saturday night in Compton, sheriff's officials said. Wright, 22, who recently launched a rap career, is the firstborn son of legendary rapper Eazy-E, a founding member of NWA who died in 1995 of AIDS. The younger Wright's first album, "Prince of Compton," was released earlier this year. Sheriff's officials said Wright was the driver of a vehicle pulled over for a traffic violation about 6:30 p.m.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrested Eric Wright Jr., known by his rap name Lil' Eazy-E, Saturday night in Compton, sheriff's officials said. Wright, 22, who recently launched a rap career, is the firstborn son of legendary rapper Eazy-E, a founding member of NWA who died in 1995 of AIDS. The younger Wright's first album, "Prince of Compton," was released earlier this year. Sheriff's officials said Wright was the driver of a vehicle pulled over for a traffic violation about 6:30 p.m.

EAZY-E had a son, Lil' Eazy-E, whom he didn't raise, didn't live with, and who was "never insulated from the streets by his father's fortune -- even as [his father] grew rich and influential." And yet writer Chris Lee and the son can only find praise for the father who left his son in Compton ["His Own Attitude," Oct. 19]. Apparently they believe Eazy-E's success rapping is more important than his disinterest in parenting. Funny how this story gets the biggest type and photo on Page 1 of Calendar, yet Bill Cosby's meeting in Compton to address parenting, education and social responsibility gets Page 2 the same day. ANDREW LEIST Culver City

EAZY-E had a son, Lil' Eazy-E, whom he didn't raise, didn't live with, and who was "never insulated from the streets by his father's fortune -- even as [his father] grew rich and influential." And yet writer Chris Lee and the son can only find praise for the father who left his son in Compton ["His Own Attitude," Oct. 19]. Apparently they believe Eazy-E's success rapping is more important than his disinterest in parenting. Funny how this story gets the biggest type and photo on Page 1 of Calendar, yet Bill Cosby's meeting in Compton to address parenting, education and social responsibility gets Page 2 the same day. ANDREW LEIST Culver City

Telephone operators at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have been deluged with thousands of calls from distraught fans since it was announced that "gangsta" rapper Eazy-E was in critical condition with AIDS in the hospital's intensive care unit. "We've been just about overwhelmed," Paula Correia, director of public relations, said Saturday. "There's been an incredible outpouring of sympathy and we're not equipped to handle it." The 31-year-old rap star, a co-founder of the Compton rap group N.W.A.

THE necklace is remarkable, not only as an exquisitely crafted piece of hip-hop jewelry roughly equal in value to a small condominium, but also as a memorial to the dead. The diamond-encrusted likeness of the late rapper Eazy-E, the size of a fist, hangs at the end of a thick cable of white gold. His characteristic sunglasses and "Compton"-emblazoned baseball cap are adorned with glittering black "ice." The necklace is the property of Eric "Lil' Eazy-E" Wright Jr.

Rapper Eazy-E (Eric Wright) has taken on a new and rather tame venture, by his usual standards: hosting a weekly , party-style radio show on KKBT-FM ("The Beat," 92.3) Wright, who founded the rap group N.W.A., first drew controversy for writing a song that many believed advocated violence against police officers, and then later for championing the cause of LAPD Officer Theodore Briseno, who was charged with beating Rodney G. King.

Rap artist Eazy-E, a major figure in the commercial development of "gangsta" rap, has AIDS, his record company announced Thursday. Eazy-E, co-founder of the Compton rap group N.W.A., is one of the first major music performers to announce he has the disease.

Eric "Eazy-E" Wright came from Compton, stood 5-foot-2 and had a Jheri curl. The Dominguez High dropout was a hustler who believed half of what he saw, some of what he heard. He was an autodidact and a petty criminal, and he brought street smarts to the mainstream like few before or since. Eazy-E was crack-era Southern California's Selena, arguably the most purely gutter black man ever to sell tens of millions of records, and a real-time hero.

THE necklace is remarkable, not only as an exquisitely crafted piece of hip-hop jewelry roughly equal in value to a small condominium, but also as a memorial to the dead. The diamond-encrusted likeness of the late rapper Eazy-E, the size of a fist, hangs at the end of a thick cable of white gold. His characteristic sunglasses and "Compton"-emblazoned baseball cap are adorned with glittering black "ice." The necklace is the property of Eric "Lil' Eazy-E" Wright Jr.

At virtually any rap concert, you're almost certain to hear the names of two rappers lionized: Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., two of rap's most significant artists. But there's another long-departed rap figure who was even more important: Eazy-E. He hasn't received half the attention given to Tupac and Biggie in the years since they died, but by some important measures, Eazy-E had an even greater impact on rap. Not only did his life provide the raw material used by his cohorts in N.W.

Eric "Eazy-E" Wright came from Compton, stood 5-foot-2 and had a Jheri curl. The Dominguez High dropout was a hustler who believed half of what he saw, some of what he heard. He was an autodidact and a petty criminal, and he brought street smarts to the mainstream like few before or since. Eazy-E was crack-era Southern California's Selena, arguably the most purely gutter black man ever to sell tens of millions of records, and a real-time hero.

It's been a heady couple of weeks for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The Cleveland rap group's "Tha Crossroads" became the highest-debuting rap single ever when it entered the national singles chart at No. 2 six weeks ago, and it has continued to sell in the 200,000 range every week. Its popularity helped put the album it comes from, "E. 1999 Eternal," back into the nation's Top 10 nearly a year after its release.

A Los Angeles judge Wednesday approved a court-appointed administrator's business plan to keep Eric (Eazy-E) Wright's record company afloat while the rapper's survivors battle over his estate. Terms of the plan for Ruthless Records, which Wright founded and used to launch gangsta rap into mainstream popularity, are being kept confidential, said Jeffrey Loeb, attorney for the court-appointed Chemical Trust Co.

A hearing scheduled Monday in a dispute over the estate of rapper Eric (Eazy-E.) Wright was reset for June 19 because the judge in the case was unavailable. Several ex-lovers and business associates of Wright were due back in court Monday to continue the fight for control of Ruthless Records, the company Wright founded and left behind when he died of AIDS-related complications on March 26.

Eazy-E, the controversial Los Angeles rapper once accused of advocating violence against police officers, confirms that he believes in the innocence of one of the four officers on trial in the Rodney King case--shocking some members of the rap community. "What the cops did to Rodney King was wrong and the officers who beat him should be sent straight to prison," said Eazy-E, in his first formal interview since he began attending the trial almost daily.

A smiling Mayor Omar Bradley appeared Wednesday with rap star Eazy-E to announce a new pro-Compton video project and, at the same time, to apologize for anti-Semitic remarks he made during an emotional City Council debate the night before. The Simon Wisenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League both called on Bradley to apologize after the mayor said that those destroying the black community were "having a bar mitzvah at the same time."

A probate judge Monday ordered a special administrator to sort out the tangled estate of rapper Eazy-E and return May 22 with a business plan for the late singer's record company. Judge Robert Letteau appointed a representative of Chemical Trust Bank of California to investigate the value of Eric Wright's record label, Ruthless Records. The company has been closed because of an ownership squabble between Wright's widow, Tomica Wood, and his former business manager, Mike Klein.

Even before AIDS-stricken rap star Eric (Eazy-E) Wright was laid to rest earlier this month, Wright's former lovers and business associates were haggling in Los Angeles Superior Court for control over his dwindling fortune. "It's sad and it's shocking," said the rapper's 26-year-old widow, Tomica Woods Wright, who has a year-old child by Wright and is pregnant with another, due in September. "A lot of people who claim to know (Wright) really didn't.