RUTHLESS
RECORDS
Ruthless Records was founded by rapper
Eazy-E (supposedly with money he made as a drug dealer) and manager Jerry Heller
(who died in 2016). It was the home of gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A., whose
records were distributed through Priority Records. The majority of all Ruthless
material was distributed by the ATCO Records division of Atlantic Records
(particularly with acts such as JJ Fad, The D.O.C. and Michel'Le), while records
by the group Above The Law and a fledgling young Kokane were released through
Epic. In 1993, Ruthless dropped all ties with Priority, Atlantic and Epic and
moved to Relativity for distribution, bringing with them a new era of artistry
with the introduction of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Years after Eazy-E's death from
AIDS, the Ruthless label and back catalog (excluding the Michel'le and
Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony material, which stayed with Atlantic and Sony Music
respectively) was sold to longtime distributor Priority Records, which in turn
was bought out by Capitol and became one of its subsidiaries. Since 2011,
Ruthless Records was inactive for a short time, but was then relaunched in late
2015 by Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Wright.
88
J.J.
Fad
Supersonic
RUTHLESS
A
9223
90
The
D.O.C.
Portrait Of A
Masterpiece
RUTHLESS
A
9894,