Bon Jovi, Jane’s, N.W.A: Break Up or Make Up?

BREAKUP III?: Speculation about the future of L.A. rappers N.W.A also heated up in the wake of a rift between Eazy-E, the group’s founder and president of the band’s label Ruthless Records, and fellow member Dr. Dre.

Because Dre (real name: Andre Young) is also the group’s record producer, he sought a more lucrative contract. But now Eazy-E (real name: Eric Wright) has filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court charging that representatives of Dre “coerced, menaced and defrauded” him into releasing Dre from his original contracts with Ruthless as a group member, producer and solo artist. Speculation of a split increased when Wright began cutting tracks for a solo project in an L.A. studio.

But Eazy denies that N.W.A--whose 1.5 million-selling “Efil4zaggin” album topped the nation’s pop chart in June--is on the verge of collapse. “People love to talk, don’t they?” he says. “The suit will be settled (out of court) soon. The lawsuit is just about business. N.W.A is still together and everybody’s getting along fine.”

The quartet, including Dre, is currently in the studio remixing a new single whose title is “Appetite for Destruction”--also the name of the debut album by Guns N’ Roses, whose leader Axl Rose has frequently worn an N.W.A cap on stage. The single is due in October and N.W.A plans to launch a national tour Nov. 13. “We got no problems,” Wright says. “N.W.A is always ready to go out and cash it up.”