Can A Blockbuster Help End A #black #HIV Crisis? #AIDS
Straight Outta Compton, which is just out on DVD and Blu-ray, has much to offer its audiences. There’s music, drama, stellar performances from a diverse cast, and a message about racism, oppression, and police violence that resonates with the modern-day Black Lives Mattermovement.
But for Eric Wright Jr., the son of the late rapper Eazy-E, whose life and death were depicted in the film, the most important part of Straight Outta Compton was a letter with an important message that was delivered to fans at a press conference.
“I just feel that I’ve got thousands and thousands of young fans that have to learn about what’s real when it comes to AIDS,” Eazy-E said in the letter released just a few days before his death, which came from an AIDS-related illness on March 26, 1995. “Like the others before me, I would like to turn my own problem into something good that will reach out to all my homeboys and their kin. Because I want to save their asses before it’s too late.”
Let’s take a quick look back on Eazy-E’s legacy from the 1996 Issue of POZ magazine: AIDS Gets a Bad Rap
“The reality of AIDS wasn’t the lesson the hip-hop community carried away from Eazy’s death. Sure, music executive Andre Harrell and supermodel Veronica Webb stepped forward to put together a benefit concert, LIFEbeat’s UrbanAID, in his memory. But ever since, rap lyrics have placed the weight of the epidemic on the shoulders of its women, implying that it is the wanton appetites of groupies that spread HIV. And the boys have taken to warning one another of falling into the burning abyss that is pussy.”
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