Ruthless: A Memoir by Jerry HellerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Apparently buoyed by the 2015 film "Straight Outta Compton" I saw even paperback editions of this book were over $300 on Amazon. I picked this up for $3 at Big Lots and it felt like time to take it off the shelf and then turn it around for a quick profit. Now that I have it done I see hardcover copies of this edition can be had as low as $65, but I am keeping it - this is a good and entertaining history.
The point i the 1988 a groundbreaking new group N.W.A. that revolutionized music and pop culture, changing and influencing hip-hop forever and label Ruthless Records. Veteran manager Jerry Heller tells his story about discovering this movement happening in a crowded Macola LP pressing plant while at a low point of hi career when he was directionless. The way he tells it, he befriended Eric "Easy-E" Wright and won his respect while having a fun and exciting time at the center of a new youth movement and tipping point in popular music. There are extensive tangents into Heller's past with remembrances of Lee Michaels, The Whiskey A Go-Go, John Fogerty, etc. For someone approaching this book as mere gangsta rap hagiography, the tone and side treks may be disappointing. As a document about a popular culture period and cultural shift, it all works.
Heller comes across as a real, admiring fan of this music. In admiring Ice Cube's lyrics he reprints much of them. So, now I can settle that it is not "pull your car" in "Boyz-N-The-Hood", but "we'll pull your card" While respecting Ice Cube as a wordsmith, he has no respect for him personally. I would like to hear Ice Cube's side of this in a longer, considered form than "No Vaseline", but it appears Heller was correct in his aspersions on Suge Knight.
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