Former N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller dead at 75

Jerry Heller
(Image credit: Jim Cooper/Associated Press)

Controversial music manager Jerry Heller died Friday of unspecified causes in a Thousand Oaks, California, hospital, his cousin told Billboard. He was 75 years old.

Heller was best known as the manager of N.W.A., a groundbreaking hip hop group from Compton, California, that was key to the development and popularization of gangsta rap. The original N.W.A. lineup featured Arabian Prince, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube. Before getting into rap and hip hop, Heller worked with artists including Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Elton John, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Marvin Gaye.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.