Monday marked the 17th anniversary of Eric “Eazy-E” Wright’s death after losing his battle with the AIDS virus. While his impact as a trendsetter and artist will never be lost on the Hip-Hop community for the change he helped usher in the business and pop culture, it’s probably easy to forget there are some out there who see him more than just “Eazy.” Take Erin Bria Wright, who simply refers to him as “dad.”

Erin – also known as “E.B.” – decided to pay tribute to her late father through a series of recreations of his most iconic album covers including the one picture above, Str8 Off The Muthaphuckin’ Streets Of Compton. The aspiring pop-rock singer also caught up with the L.A. Times’ Pop & Hiss blog to discuss the inspiration behind the photos, her father’s legacy and much more.

What made you decide to tackle re-creating album covers as a tribute, and posing at his grave?

 

Every year, I try to find a different way to celebrate him. This year, I tried to think of something where his fans and my fans could come together. I wanted them to see us together and connect the two. I didn’t want to do a song of his because I don’t rap, and I don’t want everybody to get the wrong idea. I thought the best thing to do was to re-create the iconic covers.

 

I decided to do the cemetery picture because, for one, I wanted to visit my father. I hadn’t been there since I was a little girl. So I came up with the idea of going to his grave site at Rose Hills Cemetery because I knew it would be so emotional for me and I wanted to capture that emotion along with me being glamorous, in hopes to show in a beautiful way how much I love and miss my father. Secondly, the album covers were really for fun, that wasn’t too emotional for me … It definitely was the best part of the shoot. I had a great time re-creating his artwork in my own artistic form.”

To read the remainder of the interview, click here.