Suge Knight Once Believed Kendrick Lamar and The Game Had the Worst Record Deals in History
Many aspiring rappers dream of getting rich by signing with a mainstream record label. But music mogul Suge Knight felt that just because a rapper gets signed, doesn’t mean they earn all the money they’re supposed to.
To him, rappers Kendrick Lamar and The Game proved his point. Knight believed both artists were essentially conned in their deals with Dr. Dre.
Suge Knight considered Kendrick Lamar a Death Row artist
Kendric Lamar is one of Dr. Dre’s, and by extension Aftermath Records’, most successful artists. According to Billboard, Lamar has sold three platinum albums and is highly regarded as a skilled and talented lyricist.
With Lamar being from Compton, his music noticeably carries a lot of West Coast elements. For Knight, this is an indication that he’s a Death Row artist, since his label pioneered Lamar’s music.
“Kendrick know, anybody from Compton, that’s pretty much saying they’re a Death Row artist. That’s what they grew up to, that’s what they know, that was the people they’re involved with… they mimicked their stuff off of the blueprint I laid down,” Knight once told Rolling Stone. “But Kendrick by far is one of them guys that they can’t f*** with. They can’t f*** with that boy lyrically and they better not sleep. Kendrick got a whole army behind him. He got real love out here.”
Suge Knight thought Kendrick Lamar and The Game had some of the worst deals in history
Like Lamar, The Game is also a hip-hop artist that was once groomed under the Aftermath banner. Despite the two artists generating much wealth due to signing with the label, Knight felt they should’ve earned more. But they didn’t because Knight believed they were intentionally shortchanged.
“The deals are still messed up. I think it’s unfair if you really look at it, if you look at Interscope, the two guys from Compton – Game, Kendrick Lamar, got two of the worst deals in the industry,” Lamar once said on The Arsenio Hall Show (via hip-hop DX).
Knight focused on Game’s former contract with G-Unit and Aftermath records to further highlight his point.
“And when you look at it, it’s not so much the production company fault, but what people don’t realize is that if you’re on Universal, it’s the ship. Then Interscope get they cut, then Aftermath get they cut, then G-Unit get they cut. Then the guy who really has Game signed, it was another production company, then it came to Game,” he continued.
The music mogul likened their contracts to day slavery. Only worse.
“When you were a slave you knew it was bad,” he said. “When you was a slave, you was like, ‘S***, it’s bad.’ But it’s worse when somebody make you be a celebrity and put you on a status and you thanking a person for stabbing you in the back.”
The Game once pulled a gun out on Suge Knight
Suge Knight was known for getting into many altercations with rappers associated with Dr. Dre. The Documentary hitmaker The Game was also one of those artists that ran into conflict with Knight.
“Suge rolled up on me one time after the Vibe Awards after-party with like, 60 gangsters,” The Game once said on Power 106 Los Angeles. “He wanted to press for something I said in my song about him, which I said it because I’m from Compton. I’m really from Compton. And I felt like Death Row and Suge and that whole era took so many lives that didn’t get mentioned. In the city. A couple of those was friends and big homies. So, I said a few things about Suge that he didn’t like and they rolled up on me.”
But at the time, Game was armed and was ready for the situation to escalate if it came down to it.
“I wasn’t having no type of back down. I drew my gun on all of them and I held my own and from that day forward, it was nothing but respect with Suge,” he added.
