Gerald Elliot Heller (October 6, 1940 – September 2, 2016) was an American music manager and businessman. He was best known for his management of West Coast rap and gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A and Eazy-E. He rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s representing Journey, Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison, War, Eric Burdon, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ike & Tina Turner, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Otis Redding, the Who, REO Speedwagon, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, Styx, the Grass Roots, and the Standells, among many others.
In the mid-1980s, he worked with R&B and hip hop acts like Michel'le, World Class Wreckin' Cru, J. J. Fad, The D.O.C., Egyptian Lover and LA Dream Team.
Heller was instrumental in the emergence of West Coast rap music when he managed Ruthless Records with Eazy-E and discovered, signed or managed the likes of N.W.A, The Black Eyed Peas, Above the Law, The D.O.C. and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Dr. Dre brought The D.O.C. and Above the Law to Ruthless in its early days and Eazy introduced Bone in the later years.
Early life and education
Born to a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio, Heller served in the United States Army and attended college at the University of Southern California, and started working in the agency business in 1963. After working at Coast Artists, Associated Booking, and the Chartwell, he opened the Heller-Fischel Agency in Beverly Hills which represented rock groups the Who, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, and Black Oak Arkansas as well as writers Carly Simon, Van Morrison, and Cat Stevens. He later bought out partner Don Fischel who went on to package independent TV productions. Heller believed that a key factor in keeping acts working between or after a hit record was to not be greedy and package his own clients together, but tour them in salable packages with other headline acts that were clients of other agencies.
Career
Starting in the mid-1980s, Heller represented rap musicians as the genre became popular with the record-buying U.S. public. His work with Ruthless Records and with Eazy-E formed the foundation for the successes of Priority Records and Interscope Records. To date, Ruthless Records has sold in excess of 110 million records, not counting singles. The label included artists and producers such as Dr. Dre, whose careers Heller helped establish, and sold millions of records for Interscope, Priority, Atlantic, MCA, and Sony. At the time of Eazy-E's death, and Heller's departure from Ruthless, the company was generating revenue in excess of $10 million per month.
Managing the rise of West Coast rap
In the 1980s, Heller began managing acts on the nascent Los Angeles hip hop scene, many of whom recorded for the now defunct Macola in Hollywood. He managed both C.I.A., of which Ice Cube was a member, and the World Class Wreckin' Cru, which included Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. On March 3, 1987, he met Eazy-E, and the two became co-founders of Ruthless. Under the direction of Heller and Eazy, Ruthless had six RIAA-certified Platinum releases in three years: Supersonic (J. J. Fad), Eazy-Duz-It (Eazy-E), Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A), No One Can Do It Better (The D.O.C.), Michel'les self-titled debut, and Niggaz4Life (N.W.A).
After N.W.A
N.W.A broke up in 1991, with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre departing and aiming criticism at Heller and Eazy in diss tracks. However, Ice Cube's diss tracks only occurred after the remaining members of N.W.A initiated a feud on the 1990 EP 100 Miles and Runnin'. Both Ice Cube and Dre accused Heller of breaking up N.W.A with the way he managed the group. Dr. Dre later recalled: "The split came when Jerry Heller got involved. He played the divide and conquer game. Instead of taking care of everybody, he picked Eazy to handle it. And Eazy was like, 'I'm taken care of, so fuck it'." Ice Cube, in his diss track "No Vaseline", accused Eazy of being too much under Heller's influence and both of them exploiting the rest of the group: "Eazy-E, MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and Yella". Also, "It's a case of divide and conquer, 'cause you let a Jew break up my crew" and "house nigga gotta run and hide, yellin' Compton but you moved to Riverside."
Heller married Gayle Steiner, his girlfriend since 1990, in 1996. They divorced in 2014.
Book
Heller's memoir, Ruthless: A Memoir, written with Gil Reavill, was published by Simon & Schuster/Simon Spotlight Entertainment in 2006. In the work, Heller addressed many events that he had previously remained silent on.