Eazy-E founded Ruthless Records with NWA manager Jerry heller in 1986. The two worked together quite closely, and Ellis recently revealed in a radio interview, that he once had to talk him out of killing Death Row records CEO Suge Knight.
Ellis recalled the conversation he had with the rapper. "Eazy said, 'You know this guy Suge Knight?' I said, 'Yeah.' He says, 'Well, I'm gonna kill him!' He said, 'This guy is gonna be a problem and I think I should kill him.' I said, 'Let me think this thing through. First of all, we're doing $10 million a month with six employees. We don't even have a typewriter in the office. We're the most successful start-up record company in the history of the music business and you want to kill this guy? That just doesn't make any sense to me.'"
While Heller felt discouraging Eazy from committing murder was a good idea at the time, he now expresses regret about stopping the rapper.
"You know something? I should have let him kill him. You know? I would have done the world a favor. He would have done it for sure by himself. He always rolled by himself and he was fearless...I think that he was going to go do it. I took him seriously."
"He was right and I was wrong," he continued. "I shouldn't have talked him out of it. Ruthless would probably still be around. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube would probably still be with Ruthless. It would have been an empire."
Listen to the full interview below.
