Suge Knight has revealed who the uncelebrated heroes behind one of 2Pac’s biggest hits really were and how much money he pumped into the operation.
On a new installment of Collect Call With Suge Knight that aired on Saturday (December 2) via Dave Mays’ Breakbeat Media, the former Death Row Records boss talked about how “California Love” has generated tons of “diamond money” considering how the people responsible for a lot of its success never got their dues.
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After crediting DJ Quik and J-Flexx for laying out the song’s blueprint, he explained that Dr. Dre and ‘Pac did their bits — yet, it was lacking something, which is when the Compton native approached funk legend Roger Troutman.
“The minute Roger walked in that studio, I gave him 50 racks cash off the top,” he recalled, before explaining that the Zapp legend was facing financial hardships at the time. “The minute he told me his situation, I gave him another 100 racks, so I gave him 150 racks before he even hooked up the talk box.
“That muthafucka went in that muthafucka and made magic because I brought him in to make the magic […] so when Roger did that, I gave him another 200 grand just to be in the video. That made ‘California Love’ — so ‘Pac wrote his verse, J-Flexx wrote Dre’s verse.”
Listen to the 58-year-old discuss one of his label’s biggest hits at the 1:37 mark below:
Suge Knight has done a number of surprising things in his career, but perhaps the most shocking of all was also revealed in the same episode of his new podcast: assaulting people for insulting Oprah Winfrey.
“I remember back in the day, doing time, when people said something bad about Oprah Winfrey. Shit, I got in their ass,” he said. “You talking about this Black woman. I fried their shit up, slapped the shit out them — ‘Don’t say nothing about this Black sister.'”
He then brought the conversation back the 28-year prison sentence he is currently serving for running over and killing a man. The man, Terry Carter, was a consultant on the N.W.A biopic, Straight Outta Compton, and Knight was reportedly upset about how he was portrayed in it.
Despite the fact that he defended Oprah’s honor, he addressed her complicated relationship with Hip Hop, saying she “wouldn’t put rappers on her show.”
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“But Oprah promoted [the movie] Straight Outta Compton, even though Straight Outta Compton tried to kill me and have me doing time right now,” he said.
