Ruthless Records was founded by rapper Eazy-E (supposedly with money he made as a drug dealer) and manager Jerry Heller (who died in 2016). It was the home of gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A., whose records were distributed through Priority Records.

The majority of all Ruthless material was distributed by the ATCO Records division of Atlantic Records (particularly with acts such as JJ Fad, The D.O.C. and Michel'Le), while records by the group Above The Law and a fledgling young Kokane were released through Epic.
In 1993, Ruthless dropped all ties with Priority, Atlantic and Epic and moved to Relativity for distribution, bringing with them a new era of artistry with the introduction of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Years after Eazy-E's death from AIDS, the Ruthless label and back catalog (excluding the Michel'le and Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony material, which stayed with Atlantic and Sony Music respectively) was sold to longtime distributor Priority Records, which in turn was bought out by Capitol and became one of its subsidiaries.

Since 2011, Ruthless Records was inactive for a short time, but was then relaunched in late 2015 by Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Wright.