[MALE NEWS ANCHOR] Breaking news out of LA.
A music industry mogul under arrest
after a deadly hit-and-run.
[SIRENS BLARING]
Rap mogul, Suge Knight, has been arrested.
Not just detained. Arrested. Now accused of murder.
The arrest follows a deadly crash
yesterday in Compton.
[MALE NEWS REPORTER] They say the altercation
had started earlier on the set of a movie.
The movie is called Straight Outta Compton.
It's about the rap group N.W.A.
[FEMALE NEWS REPORTER 1] Knight turned himself in,
casually puffing on a cigar as he made his way inside.
This will be a third-strikes case against Knight.
If convicted, Knight faces life in prison.
SUGE KNIGHT: I started off with dreams.
If you come from that ghetto, that's all you got, is a dream.
When I was in elementary school,
I mean, I was in the third grade.
-ANTOINE FUQUA: Right. -And they had career people.
They came up there and they was like,
"Look, what you wanna be when you grow up?"
So, I was like, "Shit.
-"I'm gonna be a pro football player." -FUQUA: Right.
So, they was like, "Well, pick something else,
"'cause the chance of you being a pro football player
"is, like, the same as you seeing a black president.
"You will never in life see a black president.
"If there ever be a black president,
"maybe your kids' kids'
"kids' kids, you'll be long-gone dead,
"but you'll never see a black president."
-They used to say that to you? -That's what they said to me. So, I'm in elementary school
and I raised my hand again and the teacher say,
"What do you want?"
I stood up. I said, "Fuck you."
And the teacher was like,
"See, that's why you gotta go to the office."
I said, "Well, send me to the office, bitch."
And they had the career people there.
I said, "You know what? Y'all telling this bullshit.
"They should fire your motherfucking ass
"for shooting our motherfucking dreams down."
I met my wife in high school.
I was a football player, and she was a cheerleader.
She was the one who really pursued me and said...
I said, "I'm gonna get me a football player.
"That's gonna be him."
-I had no choice. -[CHUCKLING]
She was a little, pretty thing back then, you know...
"Back then"? I'm not pretty now?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
So, you had the traditional American family.
Yeah. My pops worked,
my mama stayed home and was a housewife.
California was the land of opportunity.
So my whole family moved out here.
You know, growing up in Compton, to me, was, like,
the best thing in the world.
People don't realize, you see,
Compton started off with majority white.
When we first moved to Compton,
we were the only blacks on the street.
So that first year, of being in Compton
every morning,
I watched the stories,
I had some coffee, had some toast with my mama.
-When I was four years old. -[LAUGHS]
So my mama was making her coffee,
shit, I was making me some coffee.
She gave me some, you know what I mean?
I probably had a lot of milk and a lot of sugar,
-but, shit, I had my coffee going, you know. -[LAUGHING]
Chopping it up, being too grown.
And, you know, I was real blessed.
I got great parents.
My old man told me I could do any fucking thing I wanna do,
as long as I be the best at it.
My mother, shit, she let me do whatever I wanna do.
-Right, right. -As long as I don't lie to her.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
FUQUA: Selling the towels.
FUQUA: Right.
So, how old were you the first time you ever saw somebody get shot?
FUQUA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
FUQUA: Right, right, right.
Ba-rap.
I came from school one time, there was a motherfucker there.
If they was dead, you know, we'd check their pockets
and took their rings and their watches.
But one time, you know, we got, like, $5,500.
And me and my mama tight, so, you know, I go home, I tell my mama.
-She at least want half. -[LAUGHING]
She'd go, "What? You took this money from a dead man?
"Where's my cut?"
-You know what I mean? -[LAUGHS]
FUQUA: Is that where you got that ambition from?
SUGE: Yeah, I mean, because, like...
If you come from the ghetto,
and you make it out that water,
you gotta be a cold-ass shark.
You gotta be a fucked-up motherfucker.
If you make it out,
and you don't got all the battle wounds,
and you're half-crazy and on dope or something,
they figure you must be a serious beast.
MARION KNIGHT SR.: I loved football,
and I got him into football.
And I told him he could play anything he wanted to play.
But you got to be rough.
You can't be a crybaby and stuff, you know.
[CHUCKLES]
And he started off in Pop Warner.
I knew he was gonna be kind of rough
when an older kid hit him really hard.
And I looked, "Oh!" I thought, I know he ain't...
And he jumped on up, like, nothing happen to him
and got back in there and went on to do his thing.
I knew he was gonna be kind of rough then,
when he kept playing.
SUGE: I used to go to practice to see how many motherfuckers I could hurt.
My own players.
If I had to punch the linebacker, I'd try to break his leg
-or his neck. -[PLAYERS GRUNTING]
On the sidelines, you see maybe, like,
-five hundred motherfuckers or more. -FUQUA: Right.
-They're at the practice. -Right.
So you see the motherfuckers coming out there,
you know, the running backs,
-they got a cute little bitch with them or something, right? -Right. Right.
I'm from Compton. So, I'm, like, "Shit, nigga."
I could imagine their little bitches and stuff be cheering, "Go, go!"
And when I crack them...
[WHISTLE BLOWING]
I used to peel all the skin
off their fucking motherfucking foreheads.
I could peel all the skin off their helmet.
I used to have all this...
All this shit all in my nails and shit.
Why did you do that?
Well, I felt like this.
I played defense, they played offense.
-At that time, they were my enemy. -Right.
You got motherfuckers trying to block me,
to make sure I don't get to the running back.
And you got the running back trying to score a touchdown
and make me look bad.
Whatever I had to do to win. That's all I knew to do, is win.
Where'd that come from though, Suge? Where did that come from?
Probably because,
when you're growing up, you grow up in the ghetto,
everything's a competition.
They can't give everybody something.
So, whoever wins gets the reward.
FUQUA: How do you navigate, Suge,
when you're a young dude, the gang life?
When you grew up in Compton,
the neighborhood you grew up was mostly what?
Pirus. Ain't no "mostly."
Either you were a Piru or you were nothing.
Right.
-You were a Blood or you were nothing. -You were nothing.
You ain't gonna go for nothing else,
you know, period, not in that neighborhood.
SUGE: It didn't start off where they were just saying,
"Okay, we're gonna start a gang
"and start shooting motherfuckers."
But the Crips were running around, like,
taking motherfuckers' jackets and shoes.
So homies put their shit together.
It was like, protect the neighborhood.
So it started off by protecting your neighborhood.
Said, "Okay, I don't care what you got going over there,
"but you ain't gonna do this shit over here in our neighborhood."
I didn't have to be part of a gang for protection.
I fucked with the homies on the simple fact that...
Pssh.
'Cause I love my homies.
♪ Well, I'm Marion Knight with the wavy hair
♪ I'm quick and fast and always there
♪ I'll take on any O-lineman what I know, yeah
♪ That's why they call him the Sugar Bear! ♪
MALE COMMENTATOR: Marion Knight, number 54!
And you can see his jubilation.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
He asked me which school should he go to, you know.
I said, "I'm gonna support you, either one you want to go.
"I don't care which one you go, just, you know,
"you got to do your best and make things happen."
But I was real happy he got them scholarships.
MALE COMMENTATOR: ...Marion Knight.
That was the best time of my life.
I would go to the game first
and then go gamble.
...with Marion Knight of the two down linemen
in a very interesting defense.
MALE NEWS ANCHOR: Marion Knight finally making the stop on this play.
THOMAS KNIGHT: I thought he was gonna be a ball player. He was a good ball player.
He got with the Rams
you know, doing training camp and stuff, you know, and...
I mean, he would whoop everybody out there,
I mean, all of the pros.
You know, they couldn't stop him.
So we just knew that this guy's gonna...
He gonna make the first-string squad.
And he played first-string all through the pre-season.
Then when he got to, uh, the season games,
they sat him down. This, he's not used to.
He'd been playing first-string ever since Pop Warner.
But he always told me,
"Pop, I know I'm good, better than these guys.
"I know I'm better than these guys.
"But they don't give me any game time.
"They don't give me a shot at it.
"They don't give me a shot at it."
I said, "Man, you just got to hang in there.
"Just don't give up. Don't give up," you know.
But, uh, he couldn't take it. Uh-uh.
"No, I'm gonna go ahead and do something better."
Was it what you thought it was gonna be, the NFL?
Hell, no.
The NFL is the worst motherfucking place
in the world to be.
Why is that?
Because the NFL is like a plantation for slaves.
They treat you like a kid.
Because when you're big, it represents dumb.
-When you're big? -No matter what. No matter what.
I walk in here and people see me, and they'll be like,
even when I was young, they'll be like,
"Oh, man, that's a big crazy motherfucker.
"He must be the bodyguard."
Shit, why do I gotta be the bodyguard? I'm a CEO.
And then, the darker you are,
the more stupid they think you are.
Because, I think, you remind them of a slave.
I've had like, conversations with people
who'd tell me, like,
"You're an African-American."
And I get pissed off.
I ain't no fucking "African-American."
Africans don't even call their motherfucking selves "Africans."
If you look at an African,
if they're from Kenya,
they call themselves "Kenyans."
And then the motherfucker tells me, he said,
"Well, your ancestors were slaves."
I heard the fuck out of that.
How do you know my ancestors weren't the slave owners?
Suge, with that mentality...
Suge, no, I get that, but with that mentality...
Let me ask you this, after college, you did what as a job?
First thing I did,
-I went out there to play some ball. -Right.
After playing some ball,
like on the off-seasons, even in college.
-Right. -Off-seasons...
All the big shows, big concerts.
Were you just rolling with them as an employee
or were you body guarding them?
-Shit. -A little bit of both?
A little bit of everything.
There was times when, you know,
you got to get your hands dirty on that road.
-FUQUA: What year was this? -It's the '80s.
-FUQUA: The '80s right? -Yeah.
From the artists?
My guys come to me. They're like, "Shit, what's up?"
I said, "Shit,
"I'm bringing Compton to this motherfucker." You know what I mean?
Is that where you learned the music game,
as far as the business, through that experience?
I've seen guys come up and be, like,
"Man, I got this hit song,"
and they give a demo to an artist or the manager.
All of a sudden, somebody else is singing that song,
and he's not getting no credits.
Or he sold it to them for $1,000,
and it was worth half-a-million.
So the first thing I did was I started a publishing company.
You started a publishing company?
-By yourself? -By myself.
You just took your own cash?
I took my own cash and started this publishing company.
So, I didn't have writers.
Once, I'm lying on the couch, and I hear this song.
♪ Ice Ice Baby ♪
So, I hear that... [HUMMING TUNE OF ICE ICE BABY]
He's dancing in the video,
and, shit, I'm dancing, too.
When they're singing, Ice Ice Baby.
I'm like, "Shit, money, money."
-"Shit, I'm gonna make money." That's my song! -That was your song?
That was one of your artists?
So, that was my first experience with the music business,
because when I first called these motherfuckers
about my bread,
they basically told me, "Fuck me."
When you called, uh, Vanilla Ice?
So, your artist... What's his name, the artist who wrote that?
♪ Ice Ice Baby ♪
BRIAN ROSS: Who is Mario La Vell Johnson?
His name is listed.
That's the guy that Suge Knight brought over there,
that is an acquaintance of mine
that had nothing to do with that song.
-And you signed over the rights? -Signed over the rights to him.
So that Suge and them could get paid for it.
ROSS: So Mario La Vell Johnson didn't write that song?
VANILLA: No way.
Suge roughed one of my bodyguards up.
They roughed everybody else in my whole entourage up.
Suge took me out on the balcony,
started talking to me personally.
-ROSS: On the balcony? -On the balcony.
ROSS: High above?
VANILLA: Like, 15 floors.
He had me look over the edge.
He showed me how high I was up there.
-Were you scared? -[SCOFFS]
[CHUCKLES]
I needed to wear a diaper on that day.
I was very scared.
ROSS: How much were those points worth?
Three or four million dollars.
SUGE: Never happened.
-You didn't take him out to the balcony? -No, I did not.
-It never happened? -Never happened.
-He's afraid of you. -He shouldn't be afraid of me.
'Cause I can make him a star.
-You can make him a star? -Exactly.
I remember the first time I got a big check.
I wasn't gonna give the bank my check
until they showed me some money.
So I talked to the clerk.
I talked to the assistant manager, I talked to the manager.
"Show me some money. I wanna see some shit.
"If I'm gonna give you my motherfucking check,
"I want to see some money."
They're like, "Man, we don't do that."
"I'm from Compton, I don't care about anybody else.
"I wanna see the money.
"Let me see how all that money looks."
-[LAUGHS] -They took me to the back,
opened the vault. I seen that money.
I put my change in there, and I felt like... [EXHALES]
Anybody need any help, I got you. I'm rich.
MAN: Yo!
Dude, I wanna tell you about a little history that they just made.
Their album Niggaz4Life debuted at number two.
Only artist to do that before them
was Michael Jackson.
And the next week, guess where they went.
Number one. Straight to the top.
Number one pop album in America.
N.W.A, Niggaz Wit Attitude.
What does that all mean, you know?
Look, Niggaz4Life started out...
We got the title because, you know, we niggas,
ignorant brothers out here,
trying to make a dollar, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, but how ignorant is N.W.A?
Come on, G, y'all went to number one.
You got a billboard on Sunset Boulevard.
What's up with all that, man?
It don't mean nothing till you get them dollars.
SUGE: I was managing Andre.
-FUQUA: Dr. Dre? -Yeah.
FUQUA: And what was the manager's name?
-Jerry Heller? -SUGE: Jerry Heller.
Wasn't that supposed to be Eazy-E's company?
SUGE: It was Eazy's company.
Jerry would take 20% off the top.
And he added himself as a group member.
FUQUA: A group member to N.W.A?
You said, "If I stole from these guys,
"why did they never sue me?"
Nobody ever sued, so obviously
they were just using it as an excuse in...
In Compton or wherever,
to say, "You know, we got rid of the white guy, you know,
"because he was helping Eazy steal or whatever."
But nobody ever sued me and nobody ever sued him.
So, obviously it was all bullshit.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
I turned him down.
Instead of Dre being there, Suge Knight was there, and guys in black jackets
with lead pipes and baseball bats.
And forced him, under threat of his life,
and telling him that they would kill his mother,
and that they were holding me hostage.
Under those kinds of duress,
got him to sign releases for Dr. Dre.
You know, he probably cost me personally,
like $25 or 30 million, you know?
MALE INTERVIEWER: Eazy said y'all came at him with bats,
-you know what I'm saying? -No, man.
Swinging and all that whole thing,
you know what I'm saying?
Dr. Dre came that way at Eazy-E, know what I'm saying?
Is that the way you got him to sign...
I don't know what he's talking about.
SUGE: Force can get you in the door.
Brain is gonna keep you there to be able to create and do something.
'Cause if you force somebody to do something...
If you're a dummy, how would you know
if they're giving you a great deal?
FUQUA: How did you create the name "Death Row"?
We were just trying to come up with a name for the record label.
Andre was like, "I got the perfect name for the company."
"What you got?"
"Future Shock."
A guy named Unknown was like,
"Russell and them got Def Jam. What if it was like
"Deaf Row, but like 'deaf,' you can't hear?"
I was like, "Look, we ain't no kids around here.
"We ain't Hollywood.
"Motherfucker, we still in the ghetto.
"We're gonna do some shit where it's 'Death Row.'
"Like the real death row,
"the electric chair type of shit."
So that's when it really became officially Death Row.
MALE EMCEE: Let me see you put your hands together and say, "Oh, yeah."
CROWD: Oh, yeah.
Let me see somebody give Dre, Suge,
DOC, a round of applause.
Death Row Records is gonna be the record company of the 2000s.
Put your hands together!
-Come on, y'all, make some noise. -[APPLAUDING AND CHEERING]
MALE INTERVIEWER: You just recently bought a studio.
What did you do to get where you are now?
Work hard. Hard work.
I started on a 4-track in a garage in Compton.
Dr. Dre was gonna do his own thing.
And with a lot of help from Suge Knight and Harry O,
and a number of people and we got it all together.
SUGE: I get DOC, I get Snoop.
DOC: Death Row is capable
of totally annihilating
any other label in this music business,
but we ain't like that. [LAUGHS]
We got the best producers, we got the best artists.
And we were getting the talent off the streets that they can't get.
There's a lot of talent around.
Guys who didn't have the opportunity
to have a chance to prove themselves.
As far as GF Entertainment goes,
with the studio and the films,
we're giving all the youngsters the opportunity,
from all the neighborhoods.
Well, basically, we haven't forgotten where we came from.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
See, that's the time we were putting some music out.
Most of the shit we were talking about
had something to do with the troops or the riots.
You know, shit that was really going on.
[PEOPLE SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[DR. DRE RAPPING]
MAN: This guy is laying in the street.
Hit the siren, Doug.
[SIREN BLARING]
I was raised like...
Music, it was like the struggle of the slaves,
the struggle of the blues,
the struggle of depression.
So, when I got of age,
we weren't about the struggle of depression
and crying out for help.
We were about saying,
"Fuck you, we're taking this and...
"This bitch over here..."
And people were cussing on the records
and saying the fuck what they wanna say,
and expressing themselves.
[DR. DRE RAPPING]
♪ Yeah, and you don't stop ♪
[SNOOP DOGG RAPPING]
FUQUA: So, you got your label going, you got your money
from the soundtrack. So how did you meet Jimmy?
SUGE: So we go to the meeting with Interscope.
I said, "I'm gonna get you the best song for the summer.
I said, "Better yet, the best song for the whole year.
"And I got an album done, I got a record label.
"The album's called The Chronic."
They're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
So I play 'G' Thang for them.
Jimmy and the rest of those dudes said
it was the worst song ever. "Oh, this is not a hit song."
I tell Andre, "Let's go." So we pushed.
So I take the song to radio.
The song is everywhere, it's blowing up.
-And then they want the song back. -Right.
They say, "We wanna meet."
I met with Ted and Jimmy and they told me
they didn't wanna mess with no R&B, hip-hop, rap music,
because they basically flat-out said, you know,
"Black motherfuckers is headaches
-"and we don't like dealing with them." -Right.
I said, "All right, well, maybe you shouldn't."
"That's why I'm dealing with them."
I said, "Because we're from the same place.
"You're saying you don't like them,
"you don't know them,
"how could you understand them?"
I said, "Shit, but the way you say it,
"we're not talking about like, we monkeys or something.
-Right. -"You guys are fucked up.
"It's not animals, this is real people."
We had that bomb-ass music for that ass.
That sounds good.
People talking about stuff
that they really identify stuff with.
You got a record where a song playing...
If it was 'G' Thang or something like that,
it makes you feel like, "Shit,
"we got hope around this motherfucker."
MALE NEWS REPORTER 1: Bloods and Crips, some 100,000 strong
may turn their anger about the Rodney King verdict
into peace.
The message rose through the smoke and flames.
Gang graffiti never seen before.
A plea, a call for unity.
MALE NEWS REPORTER 2: In the past, the mere sight
of their rival gang's colors,
red for Bloods, blue for Crips,
could trigger deadly violence.
FUQUA: What about the gang affiliations
that everybody was talking about, Death Row with the Blood?
Homies who got red rags on got their red rags on.
Homies, you know, they wear blue.
Snoop and the Dogg Pound, they got their blue rags.
It was about the most powerful movement
that ended up in a negative way.
But it was spreading all over the world,
it's like gang banging.
Red and blue.
Getting real money.
There ain't no shooting, there ain't no violence.
I really enjoyed that shit when the peace treaty was on.
Actually going to Blood neighborhoods,
having smoke-outs, chilling at picnics.
That was a feeling that a motherfucker can't explain.
Everybody was accepting everybody for what they was,
not for where they were from.
You could still wear your gang colors.
You know what I'm saying? You still from this, you still from that.
It don't matter.
And everybody was black at that moment,
you know what I'm saying?
Snoop and Dre made Soul Train tonight.
But Death Row still got some time to do this
for Dre and Death Row and everybody.
We gave our own awards out.
Everybody, we got an award for Dre for Best Producer,
Best Artist,
best motherfucker around here.
[ALL LAUGHING]
Hey! And he ain't no Captain Save-a-Ho, either.
[ALL LAUGHING]
Here it is. Snoop Dogg got the Pimp Award.
"Pimp of the Year." My bitch better have my money.
MAN: Snoop Dogg!
MALE EMCEE: Come on, nigga, get up.
MAN: Give a speech and shit.
Let me give a shout-out to all the new talent on Death Row.
Just a few things I think are proper
with Death Row, the new artists.
We're gonna make room for everybody.
So everybody can come up here and get one of these next year.
There's enough room for everybody, you know what I'm saying?
I would take artists on Death Row
and make them a household name
before they even put a record out.
Like, everybody knew who Danny Boy was, and he didn't have a record out.
Everybody knew who Jewell was, and she didn't have a record out.
Or the Dogg Pound, or Nate. You know.
FUQUA: Explain to me how you worked.
I go to the studio from beginning to end.
And once I hear them and once we do the song,
then it's all about picking the best song.
For me, I picked the best song for radio.
At first, in rap music,
if they were getting 5%, they got 10% airplay,
they popped champagne and had a party.
So when I told them I was bringing people in
to do radio, specialize in radio,
they said, "Don't do it, it won't work."
I damn near had 100% of the music
playing on the radio was my shit.
How do you do that?
-Well, I can't tell everybody that. [LAUGHS] -I got you.
I mean, 'cause you know, they say it's called payola or something.
-You make good music. -Yeah.
FUQUA: There's a lot of stories about Death Row
and how it was run from the inside. They had a, uh...
They said there was a "red room."
And a lot of people said that, basically,
if you came in there wanting a record deal,
then you were gonna rap,
and you'd rap right there on the floor.
If it was garbage, you got a beat-down.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
FEMALE NEWS REPORTER: 22-year-old Snoop Doggy Dogg
will be arraigned later this week on murder charges.
MALE JUDGE: What is your plea at this time?
Not guilty.
SUGE: Snoop was supposed to go to prison
for the rest of his life.
Well, I laid the money out to fight Snoop's case,
when he have no songs done.
If we had lost, he would have been gone to prison
for the rest of his life, and that's it.
You know, that was my people.
So I didn't wanna see this nigga go to jail
for the rest of his life, or anybody else.
So I did whatever I had to do to put my money to use
and make sure he didn't go to prison.
And before that,
I stopped Andre from going to prison three times.
So, we paid all that money,
worked out a little deal, worked out the situation,
where he had to go to county jail for a minute.
Nate Dogg had damn near
five Taco Bell robberies on camera.
FUQUA: He was on camera five times robbing Taco Bells?
Taco Bells. I paid a quarter of a million dollars
to get the shit beat so he wouldn't go to prison.
Everybody had their situations
where they were supposed to go to prison and nobody went.
When I made it, when I got some money...
Shit. You best believe I couldn't wait
to do something back and give something back.
[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
And one of the things that I felt was really important.
Everybody have opportunity.
A lot of artists come from the same place you guys came from.
The same place I came from.
Death Row Records held its annual turkey giveaway,
with the compliments of Death Row co-founder,
Suge Knight.
Hundreds of turkeys were handed out
at the parking lot of the Compton Fashion Center.
MALE NEWS REPORTER: Death Row Records played Santa Claus today
to children at the Martin Luther King Junior/Drew Medical Center.
Meanwhile, in Beverly Hills, some 600 single mothers
and their children from LA's urban neighborhoods
were treated to a feast,
courtesy of Death Row Records.
MAXINE KNIGHT: I didn't know where the money at.
Then he started giving me money.
KNIGHT SR.: Buying you cars.
He bought me cars all the time.
I wanted some kind of van.
He said, "No, my momma got class.
"I think you should have a Cadillac."
Then I fell in love with the Cadillac.
He liked to come back to the hood, you know.
And nothing but trouble in the hood. We all know that.
He liked to socialize with the guys and stuff like that,
but when you're up in that bracket
you just can't, uh... You just can't come back
and sit on the corner.
You know what I'm saying?
[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
[INAUDIBLE]
[MALE INTERVIEWER SPEAKING]
MALE REPORTER: Snoop Doggy Dogg's album, Doggystyle,
has already sold advanced orders of two million.
Released last Monday, it sold out immediately.
It's the first debut album ever to enter the charts at number one.
MALE REPORTER 2: We're here at Tower Records,
where this is really the hottest album on the shelves right now.
[HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING]
FUQUA: Do you feel like some of these artists
are portraying themselves
as these characters they grew up with in movies?
[SUGE SPEAKING]
Right. What's your favorite movie?
Bugsy. Bugsy Siegel.
-Bugsy Siegel. -Yeah.
-Tell me why. -Bugsy was Jewish.
Right, yeah.
And you know, I'm not hatin', but I'm pretty much, like, Jewish also.
I just don't want to be a part of the American dream,
I want to own the American dream.
[LAUGHS] So, you know...
That's why I feel like, you know, I'm Jewish.
Like Bugsy Siegel was Jewish,
-but he was running with the Italians. -Right.
He was airing motherfuckers out like he was Italian.
As far as shooting 'em in the dome, taking their birthdays.
Right. But he went out, violently.
-[GUNS FIRING] -[GLASS SHATTERING]
I like Scarface, though.
Scarface was like, he learned a lot...
What I learned about Scarface is that
I take it from a different view, you know what I mean?
I think it was about a motherfucker having faith
and believing in himself.
If you believe you can do better, you can do better.
And that's what Scarface was about.
I'm Scarface without the drugs,
and without the motherfucker getting killed at the end.
[GUN FIRES]
FUQUA: There's a lot of speculation about,
at that time, the way most companies got started
in the rap game was through drug-dealing and all that.
What's your thoughts on that?
Why do you think a lot of people view Death Row
as a criminal enterprise
as opposed to a record company?
Competition.
You know, before I started the business,
everybody pretty much done what they was told.
So, when I decided to come in and start a label,
where it was owned by the person
who started the company
and it was black-owned, people had a problem with it.
Instead of them telling them, you know,
that I work harder than them, I'm smarter than them,
they told them I turn around and I intimidate motherfuckers.
FUQUA: Some people say you ran Death Row like a cartel.
Our company and our organization,
our empire was like their empire.
Our empire was not ran by a man
who started off on third base and thought he hit a triple.
You know, I come straight from the bottom of Compton.
Only thing different was
I was selling music instead of drugs.
But, as far as being aggressive,
I probably was more aggressive than some of those dudes,
because I believed in the business, I believed in the vision.
So when it came down to it,
I felt I would do anything and everything
to make sure the people on my team win.
Make sure these babies get fed.
[SNOOP DOGG SPEAKING]
FUQUA: How'd the whole East Coast/West Coast conflict even start?
SUGE: I don't think there never was no
East Coast/West Coast
-shit like that. -Right.
SUGE: At one point in time, when you really look at it,
it was two individuals who bumped heads.
They started off friends and they bumped heads.
Me and Puffy, we used to run around with each other.
You know, we'd hang out. Went to clubs and shit.
And it was way back different then, you know.
He was getting in the business, I was in the business.
So he got at me by... When he first started his first album,
when he did that first project with Biggie...
MAN 1: Open C-74! Smalls!
MAN 2: Mr. Smalls, let me walk you to the door.
SUGE: Me and Puffy, we was friends.
How it really got out of hand, is that the Source Awards.
MAN: Now I lay me down to sleep
Pray the Lord, my soul to keep
And if I should die before I wake
I pray to God I die a Bad Boy.
I live in the east and I'm gonna die in the east.
MAN 2: Yeah! Yeah!
♪ Grab your d... if you love hip-hop
♪ Rub your... if you love Big Poppa ♪
-Everybody performed. -Right.
And then we performed.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
Come on, New York!
♪ Yeah! As I look up at the sky
♪ My mind starts tripping a tear drops my eye ♪
-FUQUA: Right. -Back in the years before,
nobody had no respect for the west.
So, as they're going up there, they're so used to booing them
and going crazy on them. You know what I'm saying?
So even when they went to get their award...
[AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]
What's up, baby? Yeah!
In the house.
-What? -Wait, wait, wait!
The East Coast don't love Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?
[AUDIENCE SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
The East Coast ain't got no love
for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg? And Death Row?
We know y'all East Coast. We know...we at.
Y'all don't love us?
DR. DRE: Check it out.
I got to give a shout-out to my homie, Big Suge,
for paving the way so I can make my music.
Shout-out to everybody at Death Row once again.
And we out.
When I went up there and grabbed the award,
and I basically told the motherfuckers the truth.
Second of all, I'd like to thank my whole, entire Death Row family.
On both sides,
-you know what I'm saying? -SNOOP DOGG: West side, baby!
SUGE: And one other thing I'd like to say.
Any artist out there who wanna be an artist,
and wanna stay a star,
and don't wanna have to worry about the executive producer
trying to be all in the videos,
all on the record, dancing, come to Death Row.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
If you're an executive and you're on the business side,
-be on the business side. -Right.
Don't turn around and be in a nigga's video.
Don't turn around and hop on their record.
-Let the artist be the artist. -Right.
I'm the executive producer that a comment was made about
a little bit earlier. But... Check this out.
Contrary to what other people may feel,
I would like to say
that I'm very proud of Dr. Dre,
of Death Row and Suge Knight for their accomplishments.
They want the fame, they don't want the money.
I'm the only nigga who wants the money.
They want the fame.
Period.
Like to tell Tupac to keep his guards up.
We ride with him.
TUPAC: The police violence against us.
That's making us crazy. That's what's making us kill each other.
'Cause we really want to kill the police,
but we're scared, so we kill each other.
You know, we got guns.
We're just scared to shoot the motherfuckers that's doing it to us.
Rapper and actor, Tupac Shakur,
has been arrested in Atlanta
for allegedly shooting two off-duty police officers.
You can't survive out here by yourself.
The police ain't nothing but a gang.
The National Guard is a gang. The Army is a gang.
We learn all our gang shit from the government.
MALE NEWS REPORTER: The rap music artist, Tupac Shakur
says he's getting a bum rap in New York City,
where he is now accused of sexual abuse.
I grew up Panther-wise, you know what I'm saying?
Nowadays, a nigga like, "Fuck that,"
'cause you've got to survive.
You know, I'm screaming "Black" like the next man,
but when the first shot lick off,
you know, it's all good.
FEMALE NEWS REPORTER: Rap musician, Tupac Shakur,
is hospitalized with gunshot wounds in the head and groin,
suffered in an apparent robbery attempt.
MALE NEWS REPORTER: Shakur was shot in the head
and groin outside a New York recording studio.
FEMALE NEWS REPORTER: Shakur's expected to make a full recovery.
Excuse us through. Excuse us, excuse us, excuse us.
FEMALE NEWS REPORTER 2: Tupac Shakur has been sentenced to a maximum of
four-and-a-half years in prison.
The state judge in New York condemned
the 23-year-old rapper
for the crimes he said had escalated
as Shakur's career progressed.
MALE NEWS REPORTER: In a recent interview from behind bars,
rapper and actor, Tupac Shakur,
has accused rappers Puff Daddy and Notorious B.I.G.,
of involvement in his New York shooting.
You were on house arrest while this was going on?
Rapper, actor, and sex-abuse convict, Tupac Shakur,
walked out of a New York jail last week.
Bailed out to the tune of $1.4 million
by Suge Knight of Death Row Records,
which has signed Shakur to a record deal.
When I got Pac out, it was like, "Okay, look."
I said, "I'm gonna be working on these songs."
I said, "You don't got to do it.
"If you want to be on Death Row, you got to work.
"And it's immediate work."
Pac looked at me and said,
"Man, this all I've ever been waiting for.
"To be in a situation to fuck with you,
"and I can go into the studio as much as I want to."
He said, "Man, you know how hard it is to go to a studio?
"God, they had me begging to find a studio to go to.
"Then there'd be some bullshit."
He said, "Man, y'all be having your artist shit right."
I said, "Shit. 24 hours, you can go to the studio as much as you want."
-You left the studio open? -Twenty-four hours.
It's a lot of money.
Two rooms out of my money.
♪ Out on bail, fresh outta jail
♪ California dreaming
♪ Soon as I step on the scene
♪ I'm hearing hoochies screaming
♪ Fiending for money and alcohol
♪ The life of a West Side player
♪ Where cowards die and the strong ball ♪
Nobody ever thought about doing a double CD
on a rap album, but me.
I was the first one who thought of that.
Pac wanted to name his album Euthanasia,
meaning "life after death."
I wanted to name it, All Eyez On Me.
And I named it All Eyez On Me.
FUQUA: What did you see in Tupac?
What did you see in him that made you know
-he was that talented? -Shit.
I seen myself. I seen me in Pac.
And anytime you get to a certain level,
when you're dealing with men on a certain level who got...
If they're good friends,
they got a lot of things in common.
I could tell that Pac was down.
But you could tell he ain't never had no real love.
Like, no real homie love.
He ain't never had no homies.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
SUGE: I had confidence in our squad.
And everybody did their part.
So you need a team.
If it's really gonna be tight, you're gonna need a family.
And at that point, we were a family.
For us, a Death Row family.
-Death Row. -MAN: Death Row.
West Coast at its finest.
Niggas better not wanna see this!
West Coast at its finest.
Pac was like,
"Look, I go to New York, I go to the studio.
"These niggas set me up and shot me. Period."
I was like, "Shit, you're with us.
"Your friends are my friends. Your enemies are my enemies."
Niggas shot me five times.
I came out of jail and sold five million.
Them niggas can't fuck with us.
That's how we do it.
You know the playas are on the west side.
Fuck that "peace" shit.
I ain't even trying to make peace. Fuck them all.
The playas are on this side.
Pac was saying,
"They set me up at the studio.
"They shot me, they robbed me, blah, blah, blah," right?
He didn't say it in code.
Shit, Pac called out names.
When they say something to us,
we wanna make sure we mash their ass like we did Biggie.
See that nigga quiet as a fucking church mouse.
Dropped Hit 'Em Up, that nigga quiet as fuck.
He ain't got shit to say.
His wife's pregnant, that nigga is waiting like
an expectant father not knowing whose the baby is.
The world don't know I used a rubber, so it ain't mine.
I'll tell you straight.
I didn't wanna fuck that fat bitch, no way.
But you know that's the secret to war.
He's my enemy, so she looked all right.
Fat motherfucker, Biggie, came in a gang
gonna try to cross a nigga.
Them niggas don't know.
They gangbang in LA. They love fighting.
MAN: Killing and shooting.
Niggas trying to play that gangsta shit,
but we MOB for motherfucking real.
Every nigga on the road got strikes and shit.
I see Biggie throwing up this.
Biggie don't know nothing about no gang signs.
Why does the nigga keep throwing up gang signs?
Be careful, homie.
All you fake brand-ass niggas, you've got to be careful,
'cause it's very dangerous out here.
You can do that little set-me-up in the studio
and shit in New York.
But in California, nigga, that's where the Gs ride.
MALE INTERVIEWER: If any, what pressure do you feel
without Dre?
I mean, it's a lot of pressure,
but this label was built on the fact that
Snoop Dogg was tight,
Daz was tight, Nate Dogg was tight, Kurupt was tight.
Dre fell off and not here no more,
and it's hurting us a whole lot,
but the push is that we've got to keep everything going
because that's what it all started from,
us having belief in ourselves
and knowing that we could do with or without anybody.
So, just keeping that push alive
and keeping the dream alive on Death Row.
TUPAC: Ain't no other record company out there
that sold as many records as we did.
We outsold Bad Boy, LaFace,
every black record label out there,
we outsold them in one year.
And I'm a convict, and my homeboy just got off a murder case.
So that tells you that it's pure talent.
No hype, we don't got no all-American smiles.
They don't even wanna buy our records.
But they gotta buy our records 'cause we represent the street.
We were in Maui, you know what I mean,
and Pac had never been to Maui or Hawaii or just a vacation.
He get to talking about faking his own death.
No, no, no. Where he at?
[GUNS FIRING]
And Pac was more down for doing, like,
the last little videos and shit
of him dying and all in white, you know what I'm saying,
with Redd Foxx and everybody like that, right?
Man, I've been struggling, trying to get in here a long time.
You're gonna have to earn your way.
Sure hope you can make it.
I'm gonna try. Thanks a lot.
SUGE: We had this situation.
Pac wouldn't even go and do his shit
if I didn't come and be there on time for the video shoot.
He wouldn't go on.
He's cussing everybody out.
With this particular video, he was like,
"Man, what's up, right?"
But I felt like
he was talking about his shit.
Our dreams and our futures
built together that we planned on doing.
So if you're talking about not being here, losing your life
in one of these motherfucking videos,
or you're dead and shit...
I'm like, "Shit, I won't be at that video.
"Just like if something really happened to you, nigga,
"I ain't gonna be there with motherfucking tears
"in my motherfucking eyes.
"I'm gonna be there motherfucking, like, shit...
"Still pushing for you."
MALE ANNOUNCER: Please welcome the former undisputed
heavyweight champion of the world.
Introducing the one and only
"Iron" Mike Tyson.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
COMMENTATOR: And down goes Bruce Seldon!
COMMENTATOR: Tyson with a left hook
and Seldon is down on his...
SUGE: So, you know...
This my little brother.
He pushing that MOB.
I'm gonna you down there and tell you step by step.
I'll show you exactly what we started from
and where we ended up at
that Saturday night.
We're in this middle lane. We've got, like, 20 cars.
As we're getting right up to this point right here...
[GUNS FIRING]
They wanted to search us and shit.
So when the ambulance finally came,
I'm like, "Hey, get him out of the motherfucking car."
The police were jamming me up, too.
So, they didn't know how to take the seat belt off,
-because it was that new shit. -Right.
So, I'm like, "Hold up, man."
I had to go in and show them how to take the seat belt off.
Tupac was cool, laughing. He was like, "Man, you could tell
"y'all are some broke motherfuckers.
"Y'all don't know how to take no expensive seat belts off."
He said, "If the motherfucker was in a Honda,
"you'd have me out of the car already."
He was laughing and shit, you know what I'm saying?
We both were going to the hospital.
We laughed and joked the whole way.
He looked at me and was like, "Man, Simon, sweaty-head.
"You need to be at the hospital faster than me,
"you're bleeding all out of your head and shit.
"How could you see with blood all in your eyes?" Right?
So we start laughing.
On the television,
they never said that my son was shot.
They only said Tupac.
And when Suge got shot,
he was trying to protect Tupac.
COSTELLO KNIGHT: My daughter called me that night.
I was in Compton, California. I was at home.
When she called me, she said, "Suge just got shot."
And Tupac.
I jumped straight up out of the bed, started putting on my clothes.
I was going to Las Vegas, right then.
They called me back and told me that he was gonna be all right,
but Tupac had a problem.
[SIRENS BLARING IN DISTANCE]
FEMALE REPORTER: Rap artist Tupac Shakur
has succumbed to bullet wounds and died at the age of 25.
MALE REPORTER: Doctors at University Medical Center in Las Vegas
say Shakur's heart and respiratory system
simply were overtaxed,
by the devastating gunshot wounds
and now Shakur has died
before detectives could even try to speak to him.
FUQUA: A lot of people said that, uh,
or think that you had something to do with Tupac's murder.
I'm the only person that lost when Pac moved on.
Not only did I lose the idea
of a friend you can have
or a little brother you can have.
Pac was one of those incredible artists that,
I know for a fact, he's worth way more alive than dead.
[SUGE RETCHING]
FUQUA: Where and why do you think people say
Pac wanted to leave Death Row and that's why he was killed?
Where do you think those rumors came from?
Why? Because of the motherfuckers who feared Pac the most.
Probably just competition.
When Jimmy Iovine heard or thought that Pac was dead, right,
the first thing he said was,
He said, "You're lucky as fuck. You done hit the jackpot."
MAN: There were some shootings approximately 12 in nature,
that we believe may possibly have been retaliatory
for the incident that occurred in Las Vegas.
MAN 2: Some of the motivation
for some of the shootings in the city of Compton
may have been retaliation
for events that occurred in the city of Las Vegas
on September 7, 1996.
Las Vegas police department has not announced any suspect
in the Tupac Shakur shooting.
MALE REPORTER: For the second time in six months,
real-life violence has taken the life of a rap star.
Twenty-four-year-old Notorious B.I.G.,
gunned down in a drive-by shooting
outside a music industry party in LA, early Sunday.
MALE REPORTER 2: Speculation that it was a result
of a longstanding East Coast/West Coast feud among rap artists.
MALE REPORTER 3: Biggie's death comes almost exactly six months
after the drive-by slaying of his arch-rival
even more popular rap star, Tupac Shakur, in Las Vegas.
FUQUA: Right. Now some people say that you had
Biggie murdered because of Pac's murder.
[SUGE SPEAKING]
When it's something about me they push the envelope.
Try to destroy me.
But it turns on the next man who is really guilty of something.
According to the facts,
there's not one thing being said.
From that day on, it changed a lot of shit.
It changed the fact that they made it their mission,
basically, to try to destroy us.
FEMALE REPORTER: Now, Los Angeles prosecutors
claim Suge Knight was also in the group
kicking a man on the ground.
Did Knight take part in this fight?
If so, it would be a violation
of the Death Row Record executive's probation
on a 1995 assault charge.
PROSECUTOR: Did you punch anybody during that altercation?
No, sir.
PROSECUTOR: Did you kick anybody during that altercation?
Absolutely not.
KNIGHT Sr.: I noticed the judge,
like, he wasn't interested in what everybody was saying, you know?
-And, uh... -He had already made up his mind.
When I first went to court, I had five lawyers.
And one of those lawyers has been the mayor for Las Vegas forever.
I gave them five million dollars.
So I had five lawyers, I spent five million dollars,
and then the judge looked at me
and gave me nine motherfucking years.
FUQUA: Because you didn't show remorse.
SUGE: I didn't show remorse.
He told me he watched the tape 92, 98 times.
Still couldn't see that I did nothing,
but I didn't show no remorse.
He wanted me to shed a tear or something,
but I just didn't have it in me, or I didn't mean it.
What happened today is a reaction
to the overall general animosity
that appears to exist in the law-enforcement community
with regard to Mr. Knight's record label,
Death Row Records,
and with regard to a variety of his artists.
The judge asked Suge,
"Do you have anything to say, Mr. Knight?"
Suge said, "No.
"I walked in here like a man
"and I'm gonna walk out like a man."
If I could do it all over again,
I would've walked in the courtroom,
with no lawyer,
no public defender, none of that.
Looked at him and said, "Okay, Your Honor,
"I know you're gonna fuck over me,
"but let me see how far I can piss?"
And I would have whipped my shit out
-and tried to pee on him. -Right.
Only thing different is,
I'd have had five million dollars in my pocket
instead of paying the lawyers that made me get nine years.
I started off with dreams.
You come from that ghetto, that's all you got, is a dream.
But you know, if you believe enough,
that dream becomes your reality.
But if you dream too much,
that dream becomes your nightmare.
And if you take advantage of the power,
God will take it from you.
SUGE: I was so glad to get in that motherfucker and get me some rest.
It was a good thing.
You know, before I went to the penitentiary,
I never slept in a bed alone.
If it weren't one bitch, it was five bitches.
Have you ever slept in a bed with seven, eight bitches at once? Just you?
How could you fucking sleep?
Every time you doze off,
there's somebody sucking on your toes, licking on your balls
and trying to wake you the fuck up.
So, it was good for some rest,
but prison gave me the opportunity
to see shit that you normally don't see.
I had the right to live like a beast.
When you open those motherfucking doors
and those gates in that motherfucking jail, when I hit that yard,
it's up to me if I want to slap the shit
out of a motherfucker, kick him up his ass,
stab him or have him stabbed.
You take me from everything that I've built.
You take me from everything you think I care about.
You put me in a cell.
There's no housekeeping in that motherfucker.
I had to get down and keep scrubbing
because I ain't gonna have
no dirty-ass motherfucking cell.
So prison really taught me how to be self-sufficient.
Prison, it really helped me in a motherfucking way.
I stood up for these niggas
and these niggas didn't appreciate it.
So, when I got locked up, these niggas cheered.
FUQUA: When you say "these niggas," who...
Black motherfuckers in the industry.
They turned around,
they were happy to see me go to prison,
but at the same time,
I'm going and telling these dudes,
"Look, I'm not gonna let you go in,
"sell 10 million records or two million records,
"or even 100,000 records
"out of the back door and don't pay them."
I turned around and tackled the buses.
I didn't get thrown under the bus.
I ran into the bus for these motherfucking house niggas.
Shit, Jimmy Iovine, looked back at me and said, "We'll take care of you."
Fuck, taking care of me. I'll take care of myself.
If a man lets another man take care of him,
he shouldn't be offended or get upset
when that man treats him like a bitch.
If you allow another man to take care of you,
how could you get mad when they tell you,
"Shut your punk-ass up and go get me a drink"?
Because you're putting yourself in that position
by allowing another man to feed you.
I didn't allow them to feed me.
I let them know, I'll handle my business,
do what I need to do to feed myself.
FEMALE REPORTER: Death Row Records CEO, Suge Knight,
celebrating his newfound freedom
after serving five years for a probation violation.
SUGE: Damn! You know, still ain't nothing changed!
Death Row is back. Back on the streets,
back in those clubs.
Back in those ghettos, back in your car. Back in the system, you know?
FEMALE REPORTER: Rap music impresario Suge Knight,
is in a California jail tonight.
He is on parole
and could be sent back to prison.
Knight claims a long list of arrests,
parole violations and prison sentences.
MALE REPORTER: Police are looking for a gunman
who allegedly shot rap mogul, Marion Suge Knight,
during a party in Miami beach, early this morning.
FEMALE REPORTER: Police say they have no suspects
in the weekend shooting of rap mogul, Suge Knight.
MALE REPORTER 2: Miami police say they have complained
about a lack of cooperation from witnesses in the shooting.
Before I went to the penitentiary and went to court
my own momma didn't even know how much money I had.
But then, when I went to prison, I got exposed.
So, that made people want to steal more.
That made people want to get you more.
Death Row Records founder, Marion Suge Knight,
has been ordered by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge
to pay $107 million in damages
to a woman who says she helped create Death Row.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
Lydia Harris filed a lawsuit against Suge three years ago,
seeking record sale profits and royalties
she claims she was entitled to, but was never paid.
According to the suit,
Knight refused to honor a partnership deal
he had signed with Harris's husband, Michael,
who was in prison on attempted murder
and drug-related convictions
during the Row's early days.
Once Death Row started turning a profit,
Lydia Harris says Suge forced her out of the label.
And later signed a lucrative deal with Interscope
giving that label marketing and distribution rights
to all Death Row releases.
The suit also accuses Knight of pressuring Michael Harris
into signing away his legal claims to Death Row
in an arrangement the lawsuit says
cost Knight and Interscope just $300,000.
Jimmy Iovine, Interscope, Universal,
I'm the only black motherfucker
that owns his masters, that's why they attack me.
Only reason why I'm the only one in this business
that never said I sold dope.
And they put the dope thing on me
and tried to take my company down
because they said I come from bad money.
But the motherfuckers who came from bad money,
they didn't do nothing about it,
because they don't own it.
MALE SPOKESPERSON: At approximately 5:00 a.m.,
one hundred and seventy-five Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies,
served a total of 15 search warrants
in this location here in Los Angeles,
-two in North Hollywood... -[CELL PHONE RINGING]
...and one in Lakewood.
SUGE: They used to raid my office,
where I'm not a suspect.
They say I did nothing wrong,
but there would be 165 police.
Helicopters, motherfuckers jumping off the...
Coming off the helicopters like SWAT.
Broke every motherfucking window.
Broke every motherfucking door.
Mr. Knight is in no way
wanted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
He's not currently a suspect for our department.
We are simply serving some of these warrants
seeking evidence to crimes that have been committed
in Los Angeles County.
I wasn't even living in my Vegas house.
And they were out there talking about,
"Fuck him. Look at this shit.
"All this is blood-money.
"Nothing but fucking blood money."
Like I said, you know,
if they can't take the money from you,
they take you from the money.
MAXINE: Be happy.
I'd rather him to be happy, if he can't buy me nothing.
As long as he's happy.
I love him to death, man. I'm really proud of him, you know.
The success he's made.
And if I had to do it all over again,
I'd just have him, you know, just like that.
FEMALE REPORTER: We are following developing news
closer to home in West Hollywood,
where a night of fun turned violent.
Several people have been shot
at a party hosted by singer Chris Brown.
FEMALE REPORTER 2: Rap mogul, Suge Knight, was inside the club.
Witnesses say they saw him stumbling out after he was shot
early this morning at around 1:30, this morning.
MAN: Sure does look like Suge, bro.
[POLICE OFFICER OVER SPEAKERS] You'll possibly be arrested
for entering this crime scene.
SUGE: I'll tell you the truth,
I ain't never thought about death.
I felt like, "Shit, God got me."
I'll be feeling like, "Shit, what's that?"
You know what I mean?
I've been getting shot at since high school.
I've been in situations where, shit...
I wasn't supposed to make it, or so they say.
But I'm still here.
I don't wear no vest.
You don't see me paranoid.
I still run around eating off the land, you know what I mean?
I still get up and go hunt.
So I ain't thought about death.
You know, if I could go all the way back and I rewrite it,
the way things should be,
and how it should have ended up,
I think, uh...
As men coming from the ghetto, we all failed.
The reason why I say we all failed
is because of the simple fact that...
We got a black president. President Obama.
President of the whole United States.
And we have black presidents
of production companies and record labels
that can't figure out how to get along with each other.
So we constantly destroy each other.
I think we all could have had, like, a situation
where we were friends
to the point where you had
enough knowledge to make things grow.
Instead of people worrying about
who killed Biggie or who killed Pac,
it would be more like,
"Look at Biggie," and, "Look at Pac."
I got shot in Miami. Pssh.
But I'm still in Miami.
You see me happy as a motherfucker,
enjoying this shit.
You know, I take out time to say,
"Damn, look at the view. Look at the water." You know?
It's not about putting nobody down.
I know one thing.
The amount of records I sold
and the amount of money I made... [SCOFFS]
Ain't never happening again.
But, I wish it would
at the same time.
I had like, every court hit me.
I had like, every authority hit me. I had everybody...
Anything negative to be said about Suge Knight
has been said already.
Some of the most incredible people in the music business...
People that you had the blessing
to help their life and help their career...
I feel like if I didn't give
a lot of motherfuckers record deals,
they'd have been dead a long time ago, or in prison.
I gave them jobs.
I turned their dreams into reality.
I took from...
If it was Snoop, supposed to be in prison for the rest of his life,
I made sure he didn't go.
If it was Pac having a bad time in prison,
when nobody else was there, I made sure I stepped up.
You see a person doing a Tupac documentary,
and they'll be like,
"When Pac got with Suge Knight,
"we felt he sold his soul to the devil, right?"
So I'll be saying to myself, "Damn.
"They want motherfuckers to really believe in God so much,
"they wanna paint me to be the devil."
So before you judge,
before you say something that you don't know about,
just take time to think.
Because I ain't the average nigga.
When you're picking up your favorite daughter from school,
I'm picking up my daughter from school, too.
And they go to the same school.
Our sons might play on the same football team.
So before you decide to judge me, think.
I might be your neighbor.
Some of you motherfuckers, I might be your landlord,
you just don't know it.
So, I know your moves,
understand mine.
[MALE NEWS ANCHOR] Breaking news out of LA.
A music industry mogul under arrest
after a deadly hit-and-run.
Rap mogul, Suge Knight, has been arrested.
Not just detained. Arrested. Now accused of murder.
The arrest follows a deadly crash yesterday in Compton.
-JUDGE: Is Marion Hugh Knight your true name, sir? -Yes, sir, Your Honor.
You're charged in Information TAA 136401,
Count one, murder count. Two, attempted murder count,
three, felony hit-and-run,
various enhancements are alleged.
At this time, it's best you await further reading
-regarding your rights. -Yes, sir.
-To all charges, sir, how do you plead? -SUGE: Not guilty, Your Honor.
-You deny all the enhancements? -Yes, sir, Your Honor.
The focus is definitely the victim, which is my father.
And, uh, we just want justice for him.
And we want peace as the trial moves forward.
A multi-millionaire rap mogul to inmate, Suge Knight,
got a surprise plea deal today to avoid being tried for murder.
-Mr. Knight, is this what you want to do? -SUGE: Yes.
A "no contest" plea is the same as a guilty plea.
-There is no difference. You understand that? -Yes.
Very well.
All right, I'll hear from the people.
NEKAYA CARTER: Your actions after you callously murdered my dad in cold blood
were calculating and deplorable
and reflective of a lack of moral character
and no respect for human lives.
Those of a low-life thug, career-minded criminal.
Three-striker was the representation of being a murderer.
A violation of penal code, section 192.
Submission A, voluntary manslaughter
with a strike prior of which can be found true.
Defendant sentenced to state prison for the high term.
High term of 11 years must be doubled under the strike law.
Defendant'll serve a term in state prison of 22 years.
Pursuit of penal section 667, section A, section 1,
a prior conviction the felon has admitted,
is levied an additional five years in state prison,
for a total on State term of 28 years.
At this time, this case is done.
If there's nothing further, that'll be it.
Thank you, Your Honor.
♪♪