As the legacy of Eazy-E is reinvigorated with the release of Straight Outta Compton, the critically and commercially lauded biopic depicting the rise of N.W.A., many fans are once again left floored by the fact that Eazy-E died at the age of 31 in 1995 due to complications from AIDS.
Of course, conspiracy theories abound relating to Eazy-E's seemingly sudden diagnosis and subsequent passing, including many related to the historical feud between Eazy-E and Dr. Dre following the dissolution of N.W.A. upon the arrival of new manager Jerry Heller. Suge Knight, as history would have it, played a crucial and reportedly sinister role in this feud. Though any disagreements between Dre and Eazy-E were resolved before Eazy-E's death, that same forgiveness seemingly never included Knight.
In the throwback clip above from Knight's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003, shortly after his release from prison, Eazy-E's death is made the punch line of a downright baffling attempt at a joke. Of course, the "joke" doesn't exit the mouth of Kimmel, instead adding to the bizarre narrative of Suge Knight's continually ludicrous life. Responding to Kimmel's decision to wear a bulletproof vest for the interview, Knight enters into a brief diatribe on how to properly kill someone:
"Technology is so high. If you shoot somebody, you go to jail forever. You don’t want to go to jail forever...They have a new thing out. They have this stuff they called...they get blood from somebody with AIDS and they shoot you with it. That’s [a] slow death. The Eazy-E thing, you know what I mean?"
Knight is currently facing murder charges stemming from a purported hit-and-run incident which took place in Compton earlier this year.
