Judge OKs Plan to Keep Late Rapper’s Record Firm Afloat

A Los Angeles judge Wednesday approved a court-appointed administrator’s business plan to keep Eric (Eazy-E) Wright’s record company afloat while the rapper’s survivors battle over his estate.

Terms of the plan for Ruthless Records, which Wright founded and used to launch gangsta rap into mainstream popularity, are being kept confidential, said Jeffrey Loeb, attorney for the court-appointed Chemical Trust Co.

Wright died March 26 of complications from AIDS, leaving behind a debt-laden but highly profitable record company, as well as ex-lovers and business associates fighting over who should run it.

Mike Klein, an employee of Ruthless Records, is challenging Wright’s deathbed decision to marry his longtime lover, Tomica Woods, and to make her co-trustee of his estate, along with his ex-attorney, Ron Sweeney.

Klein contends that the rapper turned over half the company to him in 1992.