West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: The_Kush on March 18, 2002, 06:31:54 PM
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(toogangsta.net)
Five years in prison might have taken hip-hop impresario Suge Knight off the street, but it didn't take the street out of Suge.
Seven months after being sprung from California's Mule Creek State Prison, where he served time for violating parole, the man who made Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur into hip-hop legends says he's ready to launch a new empire fueled by his best asset: authenticity.
''I believe we are going to put excitement back in this business,'' said Knight on Friday in his suite at Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hilton. Knight and other execs from his label were in town to promote their new roster of artists at the Billboard/Airplay Monitor radio conference.
''There's nothing new in the business now,'' he said, wrapping his lips around a stogie. ``I'm taking talent from the inner cities. I gave people reality, and now I gotta be able to establish distribution for these guys in the ghetto. We have power because we have street credibility.''
Before his prison sentence, Knight's Death Row Records was pushing $100 million of gangsta rap a year. The songs, filled with lyrics about shoot outs, fights with cops and hard-core womanizing, lift Knight into hip-hop lore, and heaps of controversy.
A widely reported feud between West Coast and East Coast rappers came to a deadly head in 1996, when Tupac Shakur, one of Knight's top stars and closest friends, was shot to death in a car near the Las Vegas strip. Knight was sitting beside him. Hours earlier, the two had attacked a member of the Crips gang in a casino.
Knight was indicted after the attack for violating parole stipulations from a 1994 assault conviction, and jailed. A year and a half later, Christopher Wallace, a.k.a Notorious B.I.G., a top act with Sean 'Puffy' Combs' label, was fatally gunned down. The police targeted Knight in the investigation, but eventually dropped it for lack of evidence.
But today, Knight, 36, said he is primed to start anew, renaming the label Tha Row to break with the past.
''Too many people in this business are living off of history,'' he said. ``I don't like to see people living off the past. It's only right to give new artist a chance to make history.''
His new artist roster include Crooked I, in Miami this trip, and four other acts Knight is priming to cultivate into stars.
''It's gangsta, definitely,'' he said. ``How can we avoid what we are, what are culture is? How can we talk about caviar and golf when we aren't eating caviar and playing golf?''
Snoop and Dre left Death Row, and the label was dropped by Time Warner after Knight was sent to prison. But now, with the entire industry in a tailspin, Knight said being an independent is an asset.
Profits are down at four of the five major labels, and smaller hip-hop labels are getting the ax. Knight, however, owns the masters and cataloges of all of Death Row's music.
Tha Row recently released a collection of Snoop's greatest hits with Death Row, and plans to release another Tupac compilation in the coming months.
''For me, it's always about being in control,'' he said. ``I have nothing against the majors, but I would rather sell records from my trunk before being a slave.''
This weekend marks Knight's first visit to Miami since he made parole. A party was thrown in his honor last August at Miami's Cristal Nightclub following the Source awards. Rumors ran thick that old feuds would be rekindled, but Knight didn't go.
''My [parole officer] told me to sit that one out,'' said Knight.
Knight bought his childhood home in a hard-bitten area of Compton, Calif., to keep things ''real.'' That's what distinguishes his label, he said, as well as its artists.
''A lot of these guys from the East Coast are not guys doing ghetto activity,'' he said. ``Dre's not a guy you're going to see in Compton.''
Knight said while five years on the inside mellowed him out, it didn't necessarily make him a whole new man.
''I definitely got wiser. My spiritual side is more tuned in with God,'' he said. ``But at the same time I'm not a hypocrite. If you try to hit me, I'm going to break your neck.''
Hip-hop insiders, for their part, are keeping a close watch on Knight, to see whether he can spin ghetto once again into gold.
Gangsta was fresh and new when Knight helped launch it six years ago, but hip-hop has evolved and grown since then.
''As long as music reflects what's going on in neighborhoods of the hip-hop community, there's always going to be a demand for it,'' said Kim Osorio, music editor for the Source, a leading hip-hop magazine. ``You look at artists on Death Row and see how successful they were. People are just waiting to see whether he can do that again.''
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LOL.
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I'm laughing right now too, but what Knight doesn't understand is that Snoop and Dre started a trend... a trend of gangsta rap...back then, it was really unheard of besides KRS-One... now everyone is spitting gangsta verses, it's been played out. So Snoop turned Pimp on us and Dre, he stays behinds the board... you wanna be fresh, dont bring gangsta... you won't sell as much as you think, trying to do that... people dont wanna hear that shit anymore.
-Big BpG
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Let me start by saying that I am happy that Suge Knight is back and that The Row is shaking up the industry. I mean, love him or hate him.. this is good for the West. We need the attention. The West is only gonna benefit from Knights controversy.
Now, my tru feelings.. If anyone is living in the past, it would be Suge Knight. He's the only one hanging on to the past and the beef. Not the D.P.G.C. This just shows what The Row is all about.. BEEF!
Ax
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I think people (dpg fans) should get off the cloud they live on cough BPG and realize Snoop been doing his dissing to along with Daz. Atleast Tha Row is making moves. Now Alexf you said DPGC aint doing nothing wrong? How aout Daz making an entire dss album? All I'm staying is it's ok to actually give others credit and not hate them because o your favorites do.
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Now, my tru feelings.. If anyone is living in the past, it would be Suge Knight. He's the only one hanging on to the past and the beef. Not the D.P.G.C. This just shows what The Row is all about.. BEEF!
ya suge is definetly livin in the past. if hes not then why the fuck is he puttin out greatest hits projects and dissin the shit outta the dpgc on death row uncut and givin directions to snoops and dres house.
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I think people (dpg fans) should get off the cloud they live on cough BPG and realize Snoop been doing his dissing to along with Daz. Atleast Tha Row is making moves. Now Alexf you said DPGC aint doing nothing wrong? How aout Daz making an entire dss album? All I'm staying is it's ok to actually give others credit and not hate them because o your favorites do.
Dont get so hyped homie. This is an on going debate.. thats it. A simple debate. Im down with the West Coast homie. That was my opinion. Pz.
Ax
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As long as all the beef stays on wax its all gravy in my eyes, but im bored of the same old 'Dres a gay', 'He wanna be white' disses their just played out, if Tha Row wanna battle theres a grip of ill emcees who would gladly demolish their roster.
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-if Tha Row wanna battle theres a grip of ill emcees who would gladly demolish their roster.- God damn right!
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I think people (dpg fans) should get off the cloud they live on cough BPG and realize Snoop been doing his dissing to along with Daz. Atleast Tha Row is making moves. Now Alexf you said DPGC aint doing nothing wrong? How aout Daz making an entire dss album? All I'm staying is it's ok to actually give others credit and not hate them because o your favorites do.
Don't get to stressed over this, but understand, I'm not ignorant to the fact of what Snoop and Daz do. But it seems like in every interview you read/hear/see with Suge he's living in the past. What I was getting at in my last reply, is that he believes that bringing that gangsta sound is going to be a fresh sound to our ears. However he doesn't see that it's been played out.
-Big BpG
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LOL
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-if Tha Row wanna battle theres a grip of ill emcees who would gladly demolish their roster.- God damn right!
Tha Row will battle with fists not lyrics
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I think people (dpg fans) should get off the cloud they live on cough BPG and realize Snoop been doing his dissing to along with Daz. Atleast Tha Row is making moves. Now Alexf you said DPGC aint doing nothing wrong? How aout Daz making an entire dss album? All I'm staying is it's ok to actually give others credit and not hate them because o your favorites do.
yeah and you got to relise that for every dpg diss theres like 50 DR disses and like 99.9% of the time when the dpg click or whatever diss it's in RESPONSE to a dumb DR diss
i'm mean c'mon now if someone made a record like toogangsta for radio directed at you ....wouldn't you do the same thing as daz is doing....and snoop?
c'mon now
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yeah and you got to relise that for every dpg diss theres like 50 DR disses and like 99.9% of the time when the dpg click or whatever diss it's in RESPONSE to a dumb DR diss
i'm mean c'mon now if someone made a record like toogangsta for radio directed at you ....wouldn't you do the same thing as daz is doing....and snoop?
c'mon now
Personally, I like the way Dre is handling the whole sitaution. He just ignores the disses and keep movin forward.
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"now everyone is spitting gangsta verses, it's been played out. So Snoop turned Pimp on us and Dre, he stays behinds the board... "
Big Bpg can you explain me why snoop turned pimp?
The reason.Snoop in the past was a gangsta(...),now he's a pimp?
Suga free is a real pimp,bishop don juan is a real pimp,snoop is not a pimp,why he turned pimp?
Suga free talk about reality 'cause he's a real pimp,but snoop....
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how can suge say too many labels are livin of the past...then further down the page it says he released snoops greatest hits...correct me if i'm wrong but that's livin off past material aint it?
and about gangsta rap...2 many ppl claim to be gangstaz these days...when they just tryna fit in with the old time gangsta rap...but these days it don't even sell no more...
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how can suge say too many labels are livin of the past...then further down the page it says he released snoops greatest hits...correct me if i'm wrong but that's livin off past material aint it?
Priority wanted to release the album. Death Row wanted to release it 2 years ago, but for some reason, it was pulled at the last minute. That's why there was very little promotion for the album