The FBI Screws Up Again

FBI Probed Possible Extortion Of Eazy-E, Bureau Memos Say

Originally Published by MTVi's SonicNet.com September 11, 2000

Posted September 19, 2000

Jewish Defense League offered security to Eazy-E when Suge Knight allegedly threatened him, record official says.

Staff Writer Jahna Berry reports:

The FBI mounted a two-and-a-half-year investigation to determine whether associates of the Jewish Defense League tried to extort money from deceased N.W.A rapper Eazy-E and slain rapper Tupac Shakur by making telephone death threats, according to documents recently released by the government agency.

The probe, which extended from Oct. 17, 1996, until May 18, 1999, was closed after investigators failed to substantiate the allegations, according to document excerpts, which are posted on www.thesmokinggun.com's "Archive" section.

Two unnamed informants told the FBI that "Eric Wright, also known as Eazy-E, who owns Ruthless Records ... was a victim of this extortion scheme prior to dying from AIDS." Also targeted was Shakur, "prior to his recent murder in Las Vegas," according to a heavily blacked out Jan. 3, 1997, FBI memo.

Groundbreaking gangsta rap group N.W.A, which included Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and M.C. Ren, along with Eazy-E, released Straight Outta Compton in 1988. The album's title track (RealAudio excerpt) became a signature song for the group. Eazy-E, who founded Ruthless Records, died in 1995. Shakur, another West Coast rapper who garnered national acclaim with his 1992 debut, 2pacalypse Now, was gunned down in a 1996 Las Vegas shooting.

The FBI files outraged a spokesperson for the Jewish Defense League, as well as a former Ruthless Records executive. They said the JDL offered Eazy-E protection in the early 1990s, after Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight allegedly threatened the rapper. A spokesperson for Interscope, Shakur's label, who refused to be identified, declined to comment. Neither David Kenner, Knight's attorney, nor representatives for Ruthless Records could be reached for comment.

The FBI letters blacked out the names of the suspects and many other details of the investigation. However, the memos provide a sketchy picture of a probe to uncover a group that allegedly worked for the JDL and possibly targeted several unnamed rappers. For example, the Jan. 3 memo said Eazy-E paid a security consultant $1,000 per week as a result of death threats. The initial FBI inquiry was upgraded to a "Full Field Investigation" in 1997, but the case was closed in May 1999.

The case was "extensively investigated," according to a May 18, 1999, memo, but the extortion allegation against the unnamed suspects was "not substantiated," the memo stated. JDL spokesperson Irv Rubin, who had not read the documents, and who was unaware of the investigation, expressed amazement at the allegations. "There was nothing but a close, tight relationship" between Eazy-E and the League, Rubin said.

The Defense League offered to provide bodyguards to Eazy-E when Knight allegedly threatened him in the early 1990s, said Mike Klein, former director of business affairs at Ruthless Records. At the time, Knight and Eazy-E were involved in a legal dispute over the work Dr. Dre had done at Ruthless, Klein said. Knight is in prison for violating probation in connection with a 1992 attack on two aspiring rappers; he is scheduled to be released in May.

FBI spokesperson Linda Colton confirmed that the agency released the 170-page file to thesmokinggun.com in response to the site's written Freedom of Information Act request but declined to comment on the investigation. The 1975 Freedom of Information Act legislation gave the public broader access to certain government documents and FBI investigation files. Eazy-E/Tupac Shakur documents are available to the public via written requests because the two rappers are deceased, Colton said.