Eazy-E-->Bob Dole-->Sam Moore

On March 18, 1991, Eazy-E strode into a Republican fundraising luncheon in Washington, DC wearing a black leather suit, a white t-shirt, an LA Kings cap, and a gold EAZY-E bracelet (“paved with diamonds,” the Post drooled). A Republican organization had picked up the scent of the N.W.A. member and solo artist’s charitable contributions and figured him for a potential donor. Only two years before, the FBI had responded to “Fuck Tha Police” with a threatening letter to N.W.A.’s label, Priority Records, but now Mr. Eric Muthaphuckkin’ Wright was getting letters from Senators Bob Dole (KS) and Phil Gramm (TX), personally inviting him to the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle’s “Salute to the Commander in Chief.” Eazy, bless him, put up $1,230 to attend the event at DC’s Omni Shoreham Hotel and hear President George H.W. Bush speak.

Entertainment Weekly reported that a spokesman said Eazy “really loves the president. He thinks he's a great humanitarian and that he did a great job with Desert Storm.” Talking to the Washington Post after the fundraiser, Eazy gave Bush a less enthusiastic review: “I do support the president's policy in the Persian Gulf. I'm not against anything, really, that he's doing.” The lunch was apparently not the best value Eazy ever got for his entertainment dollar, since Bush “came in, spoke, got out.” But if he’d had the chance to speak with the president, Eazy told the Post reporter, he would have brought up L.A.P.D. Chief Daryl Gates and the department’s brutality.

Eazy emphasized this last point in the opinion piece he wrote for the LA Times shortly after the event. His article started with a description of the invitation from Dole (choice quotes: “I believe your accomplishments prove you’re worthy of this important organization,” “Elizabeth and I are especially excited about the news of your nomination, because we will have the chance to be with you”), but said nothing about George H.W. Bush and almost nothing about the lunch. Eazy’s op-ed mostly addressed the Rodney King beating and L.A.P.D. racism, though it did mention that the lunch ended without the meeting Senator Dole and wife had so eagerly looked forward to. The article also mentioned N.W.A.’s plans for a new video of “Fuck Tha Police” starring Rodney King. Here is a question: where is the enterprising young man or woman who will suck a dick or two and get that video made today? Rodney could probably use the work, to say nothing of the blowjob.

But for Eric Wright, there’s no more 8-ball sippin’, no more bitches flippin’, and no more noodle slurpin’ at Mr. Ramen in LA’s historic Little Tokyo neighborhood. Eazy-E died of AIDS-related pneumonia on March 26, 1995. By then, no one remembered Bob Dole’s fuckup with the fundraiser invitations, so the senator was able to kick off his successful campaign for the Republican nomination that same year with a solemn display of outrage at the immorality of gangsta rap. But just because the senator had no soul, that didn’t mean that he had no soul. Sam Moore of Sam & Dave sang at two Dole rallies in ’96, changing the chorus of “Soul Man” to “I’m a Dole man!” A verse: “Got where he’s got / the hard way / Make America better / each and every day / So voters, don’t you fret / He quit the Senate to be president.” Moore also recorded “Dole Man” for the campaign to play at rallies. Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote “Soul Man” with David Porter, objected, and the publishing company that owned the song threatened the Dole campaign with a lawsuit if it continued to play “Dole Man.” Dole dropped the song and lost the election, but went on to national fame as the face of boner pills.

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