Eazy-E died of AIDS -- a tragic, ironic ending for an artist who pioneered the
gangsta mentality with his recordings with
N.W.A and as a solo artist. This collection purports to pay tribute to him, or celebrate his legacy, but the end result is bizarre. This is not an album -- it's a CD, enhanced with a video game, with a bonus DVD, containing music videos, plus
karaoke, topped off with a comic book in the liner notes. Basically, if you're a fan of some kind of media, you'll find it here, albeit presented in cut-rate fashion. And since this is a disc that tries to sell
Eazy to a modern audience, who allegedly doesn't know about him, you get music that's hopped up in strange, counter-intuitive ways, plus the odd instance of apologizing for what
Eazy was. This is especially true of the comic book, which is an apologetic rant attempting to mythologize
Eazy as a martyr -- portraying him as a savvy businessman, suggesting that those that alleged paternity in the wake of his death were just gold-diggers (as
Tom Laikous would say -- "Ohhh, Really???"), whitewashing his end ("Mom, I have something like
Magic Johnson...IDS"), suggesting he worked until the end, and, best of all, brushing off the celebrated incident of
Eazy attending a fundraiser for
Bush Mach I with "I Ain't No F*ckin' Republican; I got $1 million worth of publicity for $1,500" (yeah, that's right! -- just like how
John Lennon voted Tory not to keep his millions, but to generate copy). Perhaps there are some good cuts scattered on the CD, but no matter how you look at it, this is a startling piece of pure product -- and one that's not even that well assembled. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine