Music

N.W.A is still being sued by their dead manager

by Richard Howard

If you happened to catch last year’s blockbuster N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, then you know the name Jerry Heller. The revolutionary rap group’s former manager never claimed to be a nice guy, but the movie went to lengths to portray him as a particularly unsavoury character who created divisions in the group and stole millions from them.

Heller wasn’t exactly tickled pink by the portrayal and quickly filed a $110 million lawsuit against N.W.A, the movie studio and others involved in the making of the film. Last week, Heller passed away at the age of 75 from a heart attack – but according to his lawyer, the suit is still very much alive.

Speaking to TMZ, attorney Mickey Shapiro conceded that the lawsuit would be “somewhat altered” (for example, a dead man can’t claim ‘future damages,’ which were sought in the original suit). However, he assured that other aspects of the case such as his claims of defamation, that Eazy-E’s widow Tomica Woods-Wright violated a confidentiality agreement, and accusations of the movie “lifting” material from Heller’s book, will continue.

Shapiro (who actually became a bit emotional towards the end of the interview) also pointed to “undertones of anti-Semitsm” in the movie and songs such as Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” and reiterated his claim that the depiction of Heller in Straight Outta Compton contributed to his death. “It literally broke his heart,” Shapiro charged.