This guy, behind it all here in USA.
Jerry Heller
Born to a
Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio,
[1]
Gerald Elliot "
Jerry"
Heller (October 6, 1940 – September 2, 2016) was an American
music manager and businessman. He was best known for his controversial management of
West Coast rap and
gangsta rap pioneers
N.W.A and
Eazy-E.
Managing the rise of West Coast rap
In the 1980s, Heller began managing acts on the nascent Los Angeles
Hip Hop scene, many of whom recorded for the now defunct Macola in Hollywood. He managed both C.I.A., which Ice Cube was a member of, and the World Class Wreckin' Cru, which included Dr. Dre and DJ Yella
.[4] On March 3, 1987, he met Eazy-E, and the two became co-founders of Ruthless.
[5] Under the direction of Heller and Eazy, Ruthless had 6 RIAA-certified Platinum releases in three years: Supersonic (J. J. Fad), Eazy-Duz-It (Eazy-E), Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A), No One Can Do It Better (The D.O.C.), Michel'le's self-titled debut, and Niggaz4Life (N.W.A).
Heller's memoir,
Ruthless: A Memoir, With regard to the FBI letter sent after the NWA song "
F**k tha Police", Heller wrote that the letter was actually a rogue action by a "single pissed-off bureaucrat with a bully pulpit" named Milt Ahlerich (FBI Assistant Director), who was falsely purporting to represent the FBI as a whole and that the action "earned him a transfer to the Bureau's backwater Hartford office".
[10] He also wrote that he removed all sensitive documents from the office of Ruthless Records in case of an FBI raid.
[10]
The man who managed N.W.A tells EW's Clark Collis about being hated in hip-hop, writing his memoir, and more
www.ew.com