Dr. Dre has been known to bestow a few gems in his time, one of which includes telling former Death Row artist RBX not to accept any “gifts” from Suge Knight.
In a new interview with The Art of Dialogue published on Tuesday (December 27), the “A.W.O.L.” rapper recounted a time he’d been given a brand new 750 BMW by the Death Row CEO in 1995. While he initially accepted, his lawyer echoed prior sentiments from Dre about a Suge “gift” and he soon returned the new wheels.
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“Everybody thought I was weird for a minute. And the reason they was thinking I was weird was ’cause I be turning down shit,” RBX began. “Somebody called me, boom. [They said] ‘Come get this Beamer, X.’ I said, ‘What?’ They said, ‘Suge bought you a brand new 750!’ Mind you, I had just seen Snoop about a week prior. Snoop had a cold 850. I told Suge I want me a black 750.”
RBX proceeded to take the wheels out for a spin around Los Angeles, but his lawyer called mid-ride to give him a reality check.
“[My lawyer] say, ‘Where you get a Beamer from?’ I say, ‘Suge.’ He say, ‘Mm-hmm. Did they give you the bill of sale to the Beamer?’ I say no. He say, ‘Do you have registration for the Beamer?’ I say no. He said, ‘What do you have in the muthafuckin’ BMW that says that you have permission to drive it?’ I say, ‘Nothing. I got the key!'”
RBX’s lawyer instructed him to immediately return it, so he turned around and brought it back to the Death Row office for a conversation with the receptionist at the front desk.
“I said, ‘Ay man, where’s the paperwork to go to the car bruh?’ He said, ‘What paperwork? Man, that’s a Death Row car! You ain’t got to worry about no paperwork!’ I said, ‘Huh? Bro, I’m driving up and down Melrose. The police is not gon’ pull me over and I’ma just be like, ‘Oh it’s a Death Row car!’ That’s not gon work! You got to give me some type of paperwork.'”
When no such paperwork could be produced, he left the keys and walked out – despite Suge Knight calling and trying to convince him to keep it. He later would go on to realize a lot of fellow Death Row signees had the same issue, including his cousin Snoop Dogg.
“Lot of cats had Death Row houses. My little cousin Snoop he had that issue,” he explained. “I think he had a bomb house but it was in Suge name. Snoop had to do some things and get that house back in his name.”
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In the end, it was wise words from Dr. Dre that kept RBX from getting himself in a tough situation.
“Dre was part of the label, and every now and then he’ll give you a jewel,” he said. “You gotta listen to him when he say some shit ’cause he not gon’ keep saying it to you. He gon’ say it once and if you don’t catch it then you probably won’t catch it. He was saying something like, ‘If it ain’t registered in your name, it’s not yours. It belong to somebody else.’ And that just stuck. So kudos to Dre.”
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RBX did business briefly with Death Row Records as part of Tha Dogg Pound collective. However, he never officially signed a contract and was able to part ways without a legal battle. Upon his exit, he released his debut album The RBX Files in 1995, which included the smash hit “A.W.O.L.”
