Paper Magazine is paying homage to those rappers that paved the way for hip-hop by sharing open letters written by today’s artists. Kendrick Lamar who also recently shared a letter dedicated to Tupac, payed tribute the late rapper Eazy-E sharing the influence the N.W.A rapper had, saying, “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Eazy.”
In addition to Kendrick Lamar, in upcoming features, fellow rappers Eminem and Swizz Beats will also share their thoughts and feelings about fallen rappers and how they were influenced by them.
Read the full tribute below.
What made Eazy special was that he was telling a different type of truth, a truth that wasn’t heard in music yet. Before them, rap was fun — you had your battles and whatnot, but this time around, when it came to what Eazy wanted to do, being a visionary, he had the idea of speaking the honest truth, and I think it really resonated with a lot of people because it was the shock value of, “Okay, these guys are really standing out and focused on telling their reality, no matter how pissed off you get by it.” And it got interest from people. People actually wanted to hear it and wanted to know what was going on.
I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Eazy and I wouldn’t be able to say the things that I say, talk about my community the way I talk about it, for good or for bad. He’s 100 percent influenced me in terms of really being not only honest with myself, but honest about where I come from and being proud of where I come from
Click here to read the full letter.
Source Complex
