2Pac and Snoop Dogg had no issues navigating the wild environment at Death Row Records at the height of its success, according to Suge Knight.
The incarcerated Hip Hop mogul spoke with TMZ from behind bars on Wednesday (April 19) as he gears up for the forthcoming 10-season series about his life and career on BLK Prime.
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When asked about the rumored environment at Death Row, Suge did confirm it was as violent as people have said – but he also said that ‘Pac and Snoop fit right in.
“It is true that stuff was aggressive at Death Row,” Suge said. “But you had your choices. If you wanna be the best, and be a man and do how you wanna do it – do it. Be about your music, be about your lyrics. You know, everybody understood that. So when it came to ‘Pac, I think ‘Pac understood it more than anybody in the world.
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“But at the same time, you can’t take nothing from Snoop either because I knew I could get Snoop to come to New York with me and promote Death Row faster than anybody else would. It would just be him and I.”
He continued: “But ‘Pac was on a level where it wasn’t just about no gang shit. It was about our people. And when we say our people – who’s tryna do better, who’s tryna get better. People say it all the time but it’s really no colors in the ghetto. I’m talking about for skin colors.”
Suge also went on to describe why the environment was like it was at the label.
“Truth be told, and once again you’ll see it in the series – it’s like this: I grew up with 10 uncles from the south. They all played football and fight. I started playing organized football, Pop Warner football, at five. They put my age up to seven. So everything I dealt with, I treated like it was a sport.
“Now in football, if you fuck up, they put you in the bull ring. That’s when you get in the middle and the coach will call one, two, three different numbers and if you don’t hit them fast enough, they gon’ knock you down. So you had to be tough and you had to be disciplined.”
“So that’s where I got it from, sports,” he continued. “That’s why if you hear any of the albums I did, they was always competitive. It was competition. Because if a person didn’t have a good verse, somebody else had a better verse. Just like sports! We didn’t live in church. We not in heaven, you know? That’s like if you in the jungle, you gotta survive! I named my label Death Row Records.”
Suge Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2018 for the hit-and-run death of Terry Carter three years prior. Carter’s death occurred during the filming of the blockbuster N.W.A biopic, Straight Outta Compton.
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As previously reported, Suge and his brother, Brian Brown, are collaborating on a series chronicling Knight’s journey to superstardom and eventual tragedy. The show will begin filming this summer and stream exclusively in the fall on BLK Prime.
