Veteran West Coast gangsta rapper
MC Eiht dedicated much of his life to rap, beginning his seminal career with
Compton's Most Wanted (
CMW) while only a teenager. Despite his youth,
Eiht's contributions helped catapult
CMW to national fame in 1990 with
It's a Compton Thang. The group followed the lead of fellow Compton gangsta rappers
N.W.A, but were a bit less controversial and, in turn, much less popular.
CMW released two more albums --
Straight Checkn 'Em (1991) and
Music to Driveby (1992) -- before
Eiht began his solo career in 1993 with the group's producer,
DJ Slip, in tow and "Steiht Up Menace" as his solo debut single. His debut solo album,
We Come Strapped, topped Billboard's R&B album chart a year later.
Eiht's sales numbers unfortunately went downhill from there, though he retained a cult audience over the years and remained loyal to longtime affiliates
Slip and
Mack 10.
Born
Aaron Tyler in Los Angeles,
Eiht began his career as part of
CMW while still a teenager. After the song "Rhymes Too Funky" became a local hit, the group signed to Orpheus, who released three albums by the group:
It's a Compton Thang (1990),
Straight Checkn 'Em (1991), and
Music to Driveby (1992). These albums offered several singles for the group, but none measured up to
Eiht's solo debut, "Streiht Up Menace," in 1993. The
Slip-produced ballad came from the Menace II Society soundtrack, a popular film
Eiht had acted in. Following the success of this single,
Eiht signed to Sony's Epic Street division and entered the studio with
Slip to record his full-length solo debut,
We Come Strapped. Billed as "MC Eiht Featuring CMW," the album didn't really feature anyone from
CMW except the rapper and producer. Nonetheless, the album debuted atop Billboard's R&B album chart despite lacking an omnipresent lead single and reached the Top Five of the pop album chart. The album also garnered headlines for featuring not one, but two parental advisory stickers (Sony claimed no responsibility for the lyrical content).
None of
Eiht's successive albums were as successful as
We Come Strapped, though some were arguably better. Following his initial success in 1994, the rapper returned in 1996 with
Death Threatz and 1997 with
Last Man Standing. Both albums featured production by
Slip and were arguably better albums than
Eiht's chart-topping debut, yet Epic remained unimpressed and parted ways with the Compton gangsta rapper. It didn't take long for
Eiht to return, though. He signed to
Mack 10's Priority-distributed Hoo Bangin' label and recorded
Section 8 (1999), his most diverse album to date, if not his best. In successive years,
Eiht recorded albums on an annual basis:
"N" My Neighborhood (2000),
Tha8t'z Gangsta (2001), and
Underground Hero (2002), all but
Tha8t'z Gangsta for Hoo Bangin'. None of these albums topped the charts, but
Eiht continued to move his career forward. For instance, he appeared alongside
Ice Cube and
Mack 10 in the 1999 film Thicker Than Water and even reunited with
Compton's Most Wanted in 2000 for
Represent.
–
Jason Birchmeier, Rovi