Exclusive Interview with E.B. about Straight Outta Compton & More!

Born in Los Angeles, E.B. spent her early years with her father, Eazy-E, before his untimely passing when she was 4 years old. Raised by her music manger mother, Tracy Jernagin (Eazy’s girlfriend through the rise of NWA),his legacy was implanted in everything she did.

Following in her father’s footsteps, she quickly realized she also had a skill for writing poetry and an ear for music and began playing around in their home studio, managed by her mother and working with her artists and legends such as Snoop Dogg and DJ Quick.

Discovered by MTV in 2007, she was featured on “My Super Sweet 16,” and as her notoriety grew from that show, she found her audience to share her music and create her own sound over the next few years.

E.B. has recently transitioned into designing sportswear. She is launching her brand #WEWANTEB this month featuring a line of hats and tees for men and women.

She took some time to talk to us about everything she has going on. Check out her interview below!

What has Straight Outta Compton and the overwhelming response to it meant to you?

“Oh my goodness, everything! Honestly, I definitely anticipated the success of this movie. A lot of people were wondering how it was gonna do. I knew it was gonna be record-breaking and just absolutely incredible. It’s been absolutely amazing to me because it really just kinda brought Eazy-E, in every way, back to the forefront, you know? People getting just, you know, re-educated with who they were and what they did and it’s been amazing, especially for me because I don’t really feel that my father gets all the credit that he deserves. And my generation really just doesn’t understand who my father was. They know that he’s an icon. They know that he’s a legend. They know his image from merchandising and all these things. They know the name, but they don’t really understand who he was and what he did, so this movie kinda brought that back and it’s just been amazing.” 

How are you hoping to use this attention to raise awareness and honor your father’s memory?

“I’ve gotten a lot of attention, like I said, which has definitely brought him back to the forefront, which is great for me because I’m working on a documentary film that I’m producing with my mom, Tracy, and my oldest sister, my dad’s oldest daughter, Erica Wright. We’re doing this documentary about his life but mainly focusing on the scandal surrounding his death so it’s been amazing that the movie just came out and put the spotlight back, back, back on my dad and, you know, really got people back interested and wanting to know more. And then, remembering, and, you know, ‘Oh yeah, what happened to him?’ and not ‘How’s this?’ and in the movie they don’t show too much of his life and they don’t show his personal life, which is fine. In the documentary, we’re gonna talk on all that. It’s just been great.”

When are you hoping to have the documentary out? 

“Hopefully this same time next year. There’s not an exact time, but yeah. Hopefully the same time. Right now I’m just looking for funding and distribution. And yeah, it’s something we’ve been working on for a really long time and, you know, timing is everything. And, you know, this is definitely the most terrific time to get it out.”

What is the message that you hope to bring with the documentary? With your music, your clothing, your social media presence, The WeWantE.B. What are you hoping that people with get from that?

“The music and the clothing are a little separate from the documentary. The documentary is really just trying to share the truth about a lot of things that my dad’s fans already want to know and things that people don’t even know that they want to know and really get closure for my family, for myself. That’s really the purpose of the documentary. As far as music and hats and clothing and all the things I’m doing in my life, with my WeWantEB campaign, those are just passions of mine. Just me being an entrepeneur, I got it honest from my father. Being an artist. That’s really my own thing, that’s my career, but obviously the bigger that I get with the things that I’m doing, the more of a voice I have and it allows my dad’s legacy to live on.”

Other than your father, who’s been your biggest inspiration for everything you’ve been doing? 

“My mom, Tracy (chuckles). She’s my manager. She’s been a music manager for over 20 years. She’s just absolutely incredible. It’s not easy being a woman in this business and she’s very well respected, works with many people. And so it’s definitely, definitely her outside of my dad. I don’t think I could have gotten two better parents.” 

Is there anything that you hope to accomplish that you haven’t seen happen yet – with yourself or with your music, your dad or your career?

“As far as with my dad, the documentary, I feel, is just gonna be the greatest accomplishment. Getting the story out there. A lotta unanswered questions from when he died, so with that, that’s something that hasn’t happened yet, but it will, hopefully, next year. As far as with me, I’m finishing up my EP, entitled WeWantEB, synonymous to my father’s famous WeWantEazy. The timeline for that is late October, early November. And after that, I hope to start doing shows, touring, stuff like that. And just continuing on with my clothing line and my hat line.” 

Are you hoping to have a US tour? Is there a specific region you’re looking at? Or you don’t know yet?

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll know once I finish the project.”

As far as the documentary – I know you said there are a lot of unanswered questions – do you know which of those unanswered questions you’re definitely gonna be addressing?

“Oh, a lot, yeah. I mean, a lot of questions. You know, it is gonna touch a little bit on his personal life, you know, as far as relationships. And then also a lot of his accomplishments that weren’t shown in the movie. And then, you know, once again, it’s really about the scandal surrounding his death, so…what happened to his estate? What happened to his record company? What happened to his kids? What happened to his artists? There’s a lot of questions that people don’t know about. Who stood to gain what from his passing? All these types of things, these are the things we’re gonna talk about in the documentary.”

What kind of feedback have you received in general from the public regarding the movie at this point? 

“Um, you know what? A lot of things that were left out, most of the fans, they don’t know too much, especially my generation. They go to the movies and they watch a movie and they take it at face value, so they don’t really know much more. But the feedback has been great. I mean, everybody has loved it. You can tell by the numbers that it’s doing and the records that it’s breaking. The feedback has been absolutely phenomenal, even to just put my dad back at the forefront. You know, and it it’s 2015, 20 years after his passing.”

As far as your own stuff, your music and everything, who’s your target audience?

“Um…you know, I would probably say girls between maybe sixteen to thirty. Yeah.” 

What’s the main message that you’re trying to bring to them?

“You know what? To just be yourself. Be yourself. I can’t express that any more because even for me being an artist, it ain’t easy. A lot of people expect me to be some rapper or gangster like my dad, but that’s definitely like the go to and I have to bring my roots up because I’m not my dad. I grew up completely different. I’m a girl. I grew up in a different time. I listen to different music. So at the same time that I’m Eazy-E’s daughter, I always have to fight for being E.B. and being true to myself and doing what I want to do and the things that I love.”

Other than the documentary and the tour, do you have any idea what your plans are going to be moving forward, over the next several years?

“The next several years…I mean, I’m hoping to be as big as Rihanna (chuckles). I hope that I’m gonna be touring the world at that point. I mean, in a few years, I’m hoping I’ll have had a couple of albums out and at that point, having a full clothing line. Maybe like a Gwen Stefani or something like that. And having this documentary out. And having that closure. And really just…I don’t know. At some point, I just – most people who ask me this don’t know that I’m a sports enthusiast, so that’s like my second passion – after entertainment and all that, I see myself getting into sports. Whether I’m big enough or got enough to be part owner of a team or just do some type of management or something. I don’t know. I actually do love sports, though. So definitely having my line turn into a sportswear line and really getting into the sporting goods field.”

Do you have a favorite sport? 

“Um, football and basketball.”

So is there a specific team that you’d hope to co-own? 

“I mean, I would love to be part owner of the Seahawks. I don’t know if that would happen (chuckles). But there’s the Seahawks and who wouldn’t love to get in on the Lakers? But, you know…that’s probably not gonna happen, either. It really just depends. No matter where I am, it would probably be a smaller market team where I feel like I could kinda ado what Drake did with the Toronto Raptors and I kinda just wanna build ’em up, you know? I think that would be kinda cool.” 

Where can people find your music and your clothing line? 

“My website is wewanteb.com and that’s where you find the clothes and the hats and maybe in a couple weeks or so, I’ll have everything up on there. But outside of the website, all of my social media – my twitter, my instagram, my youtube, my soundcloud – all of that is @wewanteb.