Author Topic: Tha row on "Showcase magazine"  (Read 419 times)

Myrealname

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Tha row on "Showcase magazine"
« on: September 18, 2002, 07:14:23 PM »
This is a tale of justice, American style. In a place where truth too often takes the form of deceit, and history is bought and sold like our ancestors in slavery, such justice becomes the law of the land. This is the same justice that sentenced Jamal "Shyne" Barrows to ten years in prison while his better known co-defendant walked. This is the same justice that shot Tupac Shakur four times on the Vegas strip in 1996, but missed his 10-car entourage and the driver seated next to him. This is the justice that dares to blink at rolling video cameras and bats a blind eye to the Rodney Kings of the ghettos. This is a tale of Suge Knight, an American success story.
"To be in power you don't need guns or money or even numbers. You just need the will to do what the other guy won't." Verbal Kent, Usual Suspects, 1995

Suge Knight is all man. Every inch of his 300-plus, 6-foot-4 frame indicates there's no other term to describe him. Knight's hubris juts out repeatedly even in casual conversation, as if it's the sole directive guiding his every action and the only thing responsible for him surviving his darkest moments. Indeed, few men have endured the decimation Suge has, from seeing his Beamer get showered with bullets during Tupac's fatal shooting to watching all the heavy hitters on his Death Row Records bounce. Add to that the drama of his alleged involvement in the murder of the Notorious B.I.G., his numerous encounters with federal investigators as well as his reported gang ties and you can see why Suge is the wrong n*gga to f*ck with. His latest trick, however, is serving five years in federal prison for a parole violation before reappearing last August without so much as a scratch--with plenty of plans to blow the roof off Tha Row. If all men truly are created equal, it would appear some are more equal than others.
"If a man gon' be a man, he should carry himself like a man, respect other men like men and he'll be respected like a man," Suge began. "It's time to have more men, more black men, more ghetto men, in this business. What we really need in this industry is more entrepreneurs from the inner city. Every person in the city is not a rapper, a dancer, a singer or a producer, and they shouldn't have to be. I think it's time that we have more executives from the inner city. The bulk of your talent comes from the ghetto. It don't make sense to me that everybody gotta be a rapper or a producer or a singer or a dancer just to take their talent to a guy in the suburbs somewhere who don't even like ghetto motherf*ckers, watch him cash in off of it, and send his grand kids, and they kids and they grand kids kids to college. I think we should have our own peoples in inner cities who are entrepreneurs who are in those chairs as CEO's to spread their wealth around and send our kids and their kids to college."
Perhaps that's Suge's true intentions, to urbanize an industry that's been shorting black folks for as long as it's been capitalizing on them. If that's the case then he should be revered as a champion. Instead, he's being hailed more like Diablo for his reportedly violent business practices and his uncanny knack for offending people. He had the greater metropolitan area of New York City up in arms during a January visit to the radio stations where he was shooting off about everything from Puffy's inability to spring Shyne to Dr. Dre's sexual preference. More recently, he caused quite a bit of tension at February's Hip Hop Summit (chaired by Russell Simmons) with choice remarks about rappers on both sides of the coastal lines. The point, of course, is that wherever he goes, and whatever it is he says, people listen and internalize it. That's called power. And that is what just may climb Mrs. Knight's "Sugar Bear" back up the ranks of platinum plus sales--where he's most comfortable.
"You can not talk about the music business and leave out me and Death Row Records," Suge asserted. "That's history. And when you look at it, a lot of people can make history but to be able to make history twice which we will do... Plus you know, the whole thing is there's no pressure on me, I'm self reliant. If I want to do this I do this because I choose to do this, not because I have to. There's a big difference."
"So when you have a function like where you have a Hip Hop Summit, it's supposed to be a meeting of the minds. People are supposed to put their egos away and put their fears away. We can respect if you're a p*ssy, be a p*ssy. Don't be on your record and act like you ain't no p*ssy. Don't be on your records like you're representing the West Coast, but you can't come out and represent the West Coast. We don't need no studio West Coasts. Me personally, I think it's time for these young guys to be in position where they're really going to make a difference. These old motherf*ckers is p*ssies, cream puffs, and they ain't gonna do nothing for us."

"Mr. Soze rarely works with the same people for very long, and they never know who they're working for. One cannot be betrayed if one has no people." Kobayashi, Usual Suspects, 1995

Suge Knight can't rap. No matter how large his iconic stature grows in the industry, or how many magazine covers he graces, Suge will always need somebody else to sell records. It's the great paradox that greeted the day he stepped onto so-called free soil back in August--he had the media hype, but where was the talent? Death Row hasn't had a bonafide star for nearly six years. And although the label has kept the lights on by releasing older material from former artists, Suge is back to square one when it comes to finding that next heavy hitter. Well, almost. The Row is banking on the debut album from Long Beach's Crooked I to return it to its former stature. With 21-year-old rapper Eastwood and soul crooner P.O.V. waiting in the wings, Crooked's debut will be the first original material Death Row has released from a current artist since Daz Dillenger's 1998 Retaliation, Revenge and Get Back. But even Crooked isn't the new artist he appears to be.
"Crooked's been around from day one when we was doing Death Row," Suge recalled, "and everyone used to say how tight he was. I was like 'shoot him through'. But you know how it is with artists, they don't want no competition. And we already had Snoop and Daz and all of them from Long Beach, and every time they would run into him he'd kill the mic off. So they was keeping him away. When I was in the pen, a lot of people was trying to sign him. Everybody was trying to sign him. Aftermath was trying to sign him, and he was telling motherf*ckers off top he's f*cking with me. He had the loyalty part down pat, you know, so he was a priority when I got home to finish up his sh*t."
There must be something about loyalty. Former inmate Nate Dogg said he ain't never going back; Dr. Dre said Death Row doesn't even exist to him. Suge and Snoop have been feuding publicly since Suge first got locked up, while even Pac's battle cries are getting fainter and fainter from the grave with every re-mixed album his mom releases. It's a well-known fact that common business practices at the Row that included beating artists out of their publishing and paying them with loaner gifts--that the label owned. None of the aforementioned artists, save maybe Dre (who was at one time 50-50 partners with Knight), have seen substantial figures while doing time on the Row. Countless others, including the Outlawz, Jewell and Danny Boy, have recorded material for the label only to never see it reach the light of day.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »
 

Myrealname

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Re: Tha row on "Showcase magazine"
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2002, 07:15:13 PM »
Yet and still, artists are clamoring to sign with Knight every day. Brandy's brother Ray J is rumored to have signed with Suge, while TLC's Left Eye (now known as Nina) has also been courted by the label. Even Kurupt recently came back home after spending the last five years as CEO of his own label, Antra Records. Evidently, Suge is doing something to keep his studio doors open.
"One of the things when Kurupt was here and everybody else was here, you'd hear a lot of stuff going on about it's so much better out there when it's really not," Suge explained. "Kurupt had enough smarts and enough nuts to come back home. I'm quite sure if the doors are open to a lot of other people they'll be back home too. But it's not just the record business, it's not just the music part. It's part of being home where you know you got somebody with you who's got your back, regardless if its in the studio or outside the studio. In this company I'm the CEO, I'm hands on and you can talk to me. You don't got to make 10,15 phone calls and talk to 10 other people to talk to me. I'm not one of those executives who hides out and you don't see. I'm not a fake executive who says he's an executive but really is an artist. It's tricky but you gotta read through the bullsh*t and see through the smoke."

"No one ever believed he was real. No one ever saw him or knew anybody who worked directly for him. But to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for him. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." Verbal Kent, Usual Suspect, 1995

"One thing that I have done for this industry is that I'm that ghetto representative. I'm the guy that people in the ghetto either gon' say they're going to do a record label like me, or they're gon' do a record label better than mine. Either way it go it's great for me because they're doing something. They're doing something to make money, create more jobs and they're doing something they can enjoy."
If Pac is the legend, Suge Knight is the myth. They say he threatened Eazy E with bats and lead pipes, they say he beat down rappers with pay phones. He allegedly owns 34 cars, he's had as many as three contracts on his life at one time. In a rags to riches story such as this it's hard to separate fact from fiction, life from urban legend. At some point everybody has wanted a piece of him from broke figgas rapping on the block to the Feds tapping his phone. Maybe it's his penchant for making something from nothing. Suge's got to be the only former bodyguard turned million-dollar record executive, and the only cat who can do five years time and still come home to his empire--fully intact.
"Even when I was getting sentenced in front of the judge, I told the judge I walked in here as a man and I'm going to leave out here as a man," Suge intoned. "I took my time and took it with a smile and went and did my sh*t. I didn't break down like the rest of these old ho ass motherf*ckers. I didn't tell on no motherf*cking body. Shyne's still doing motherf*cking time. Everybody be quick to criticize a motherf*cker like me, talk about an old snitch motherf*cker. Puffy should've told the motherf*cker look, I know ya'll want me. He could've told Johnny Cochran to strike a deal. Get him to take a year and have Shyne do a year they both could've went home. What they did was dump everything off on that boy."
Through it all, the one thing that's remained constant is Suge himself. Though Death Row has just one of its original artists, and despite the fact that the hip hop climate changes weekly, Suge Knight has never wavered on any of his stances for a minute. He's still going where he wants to, when he wants to, and saying what the hell he pleases. He's practicing business as he sees fit and living by the laws he makes. As for all his reputed enemies and simmering feuds both inside and out the rap game we can at least say this--no one has been able to touch him. Sure, he did a little time and was out the game for a minute, but the closest anyone's ever come to taking him out was that night in Vegas when his dome was grazed with bullet shrapnel. Thus concludes our tale of justice, American style. Suge Knight's still undefeated while the rest of us, well, we can only wait for what he does next.
"First of all I got God," Suge said in no uncertain terms. "But it's like this. If you're crossing my people, you might think I'm the devil 'cuz it's 'gon get hot. But I ain't the devil. A lot of those street punks will say anything. My doors is always open. Every place I go I don't care if I'm out of state or in state, I'm in a hotel under my name. When I was in New York I was in New York for seven days. Everybody knew where I stayed at, everybody knew where I was and everybody knew where I hung out at. I don't trot around like I'm the secret service and sh*t, talking in code and putting hats on and sneaking out the back door, leaving clubs running and sh*t."
"...and like that, he's gone."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »
 

Woodrow

Re: Tha row on "Showcase magazine"
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2002, 07:25:25 PM »
Did you type this out?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »
 

Hatesrats™

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Re: Tha row on "Showcase magazine"
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2002, 07:58:38 PM »

Yo homie no diss but your big ass soccer pic makes it hard to read this ish proper....prop's on postin' this...
But I couldn't read shitt..

Can someone put the jist of this up please..

OnE
Hatesrats 2oo2
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »
 

Myrealname

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Re: Tha row on "Showcase magazine"
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2002, 08:06:37 PM »
Quote

Yo homie no diss but your big ass soccer pic makes it hard to read this ish proper....prop's on postin' this...
But I couldn't read shitt..

Can someone put the jist of this up please..

OnE
Hatesrats 2oo2


Its not so diffucult..... ::)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by 1034398800 »