Clarifying comments he made about Game and Kendrick Lamar’s record deals on The Arsenio Hall Show in February, Suge Knight explained not wanting to put either of the artists down in an interview with BET.
“I was on Arsenio Hall—by the way, Arsenio Hall is a friend of mine, I think he got one of the best shows out,” he said. “One of the things I said, not to put the artist down, it was to put the company down, saying, ‘Why is you treating my people like slaves?’ Now, at the time these artists were signed to Interscope and they pretty much are signed to Interscope. So, we know it’s not Game making decisions over there. We know it’s not [the person] who Game signed to his production company. We know it’s not [Dr. Dre] who don’t know what goes on at Aftermath. We all know it’s Interscope and Universal. The person who’s dictating what’s going on at Interscope is Jimmy Iovine.”
Suge Knight went on to reiterate his perspective on the trickle-down effect of the artists’ relationships with their respective labels.
“So when I turned around and said, ‘Wait a minute…Kendrick Lamar the best artist today, he from Compton. And Game was the best artist over there at Interscope and he from Compton.’ And I said, ‘Why is it they got the worst fucking deals over there?’ I broke it down and said that Game is signed. Universal get their money. Interscope get their money. Aftermath get their money. G-Unit get their money. And then the production company get their money. And then there’s Game. It’s not that much money moving around in the pot.
“Even when I said with Kendrick Lamar, well, if it’s Universal there’s the guy who really bring the deal over to Jimmy Iovine which is Mike,” Knight said. “Then there’s Interscope, then there’s Aftermath, then there’s Top Dawg productions or whatever, then there’s Kendrick. And not only do these companies get the royalties and publishing, if they do a show [and] $100,000 comes in, the manager of those guys get 20%. Now it’s eighty grand. Kendrick get half, the record company get half. Which is ridiculous because the artist should be able to live off their tours. If you can’t live off your tour money, how can you survive by being a slave? Prince was able to survive by being a slave because he was able to tour. If Prince had a deal like these new guys’ deals—it’s that the record company get half of your tour money—Prince would have been fucked…It’s not fair for the two niggas in Compton to be getting fucked. It’s not good for me to have knowledge and don’t pass it onto them. It wasn’t about embarrassing anybody. It wasn’t about putting them as men or as artists down. It was about putting the person who’s in control down. Saying, ‘How is you fucking over these dudes from Compton when they making the difference for your company?”
In February, Suge Knight detailed his view that Game and Kendrick Lamar have “two of the worst deals in the industry.”
“The deals are still messed up,” Suge said during an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show. “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. 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. The reality is there’s more slavery now than ever.”
RELATED: Game Reacts To Suge Knight’s Comments About His Interscope Records Deal
Shots fired. He didn’t have to pull these dudes skirts up like that.
don’t worry Dre, you got hundreds of fuckboys who become armchair record executives every single Wednesday
Dr Dre doesn’t know that birdman’s oil business is worth far more than dre’s overpriced headphone business.
Birdman doesn’t have an oil business.
you trying too hard son, just peek at the answer key in the back of the textbook
I still remember the pictures in that Death ROW DVD of Jimmy and Suge taking pictures together and he was nothing but smiles.
Dude just talks shit because Jimmy got rid of him after his negative reputation became a liability. When Jimmy wanted this guy around, he was more then happy to be there, and would go back tomorrow should the oppurtunity present itself.
all that you said and not a piece of proof Suge is lying
^^
And you have no proof that he is, so what was your point exactly??? I was just pointing out a few facts that people should take into account when considering what he says/
you can’t be this stupid son
Suge says “the label is robbing you”, a guy who was in business with the same label and people and yet you claim it’s him talking sh-t? he knows Jimmy and Dre how about you?
all you have is a judgmental opinion on what you read, don’t be foolish to try and debate this
regardless if he got laid out by a label, you have still never been in business with Jimmy, Dre, Universal to say he’s talking sh-t
Suge talking about robbing people is a bit rich. Everyone on Death Row got fucked over by him. The word irony doesn’t even do it justice to what he is talking about. Just a bitter, angry, fat, washed-up waster.
Why does Suge care? He’s not running shit anymore. Kendrick signed the deal, and knows what he’s parting with.
you’ve gotta lot to learn
So Kendrick only gets 40,000 from a 100,000 show? Oh yea that’s rape for sure lol. He can’t possibly live off that. The rider prices are set so that Kendrick profits. He signed a 360 so he and the label are partners. They split all profits according to the point system they established. This dude is the saltiest of the salty. He raped more people than anyone and didnt give them any money basically. Marion wants to stay relevant.
Says Suge, the guy who didn’t let anyone have their own publishing on Death Row apart from Dre… all the royalties went to Suge Knight publishing even though he never wrote any of the songs.
Coming from this fat nigga is funny as hell. This motherfucker robbed all his artists blind when he ran Death Row. One of the motives about why pac was shot was cause Suge owed him something like $100 million. This guy has NO right to talk outta the side of his neck about Dre. He is just an irrelevant has been who barely was. just fade away Suge
He is right though, why is that so many artist today are becoming independant instead of signing to majors. Those 360 deals are a joke, they want you to became hot before they even sign you. But then when they do sign you the want half of all your tours, merchandise and whatever endorsement deal you may sign in the future. Oh and can’t forget your publishing and masters. So what Shug he is saying is true. They take advantage of people and the fact that most of the up and coming artist are poor. So come on niguh sign your life away for a few hundred thousand. While we make millions off your dumb ass.
Business is business. You have to make a profit and there is also a contract to be read by your lawyer and you get an option to sign or renegotiate the deal. SN need to back off, if he was doing it right he would have made some money and still have a flourishing business. Look around the music business now, all who are big from the West or East wanted to work with his label, worked with his label or beefed with his label.
yeah, the guy who learned how to rob knows about robbery
ya know so much but can’t process that tho
Shug knight is right
No secret that the pie gets smaller when you have more slices to divide to the people at the table….why do you think Tiny Yoyo from GUnit is so salty?
Universal/Interscope/Aftermath/Shady/GUnit…..thats five slices out of the pie that Tiny YoYo called “Thoughts of a Predicate Felon” his debut album.
Nowadays these 360 deals are getting chunks out of an artists tour money but they dont get chunks of
your endorsements, or your walk throughs, its ways to help supplement your income with merchandise
on the side and investments. Everybody cant be a Boss, some artists need you to hold their hand and
Top Dawg Tiffith and Jimmy Henchemen held Game and Kendricks hands.
Tony Yayo still did better than Meek, Wale or anyone else on MMG. Believe that you 40 year old rick ross groupie!
check the networths, tony yayo got paid. meek mill still aint worth a million bucks and has to sue his own city!
lol Tiny Yoyo
“Nowadays these 360 deals are getting chunks out of an artists tour money….”
Artists have smartened up, did you read the article about Meek in HipHop weekly?
Endorsements:
Puma
Monster Energy
24K Headphones
Skull Candy
Ciroc
Belaire Rose
Then you have the $40,000 booking price the $$$$ for guest features, publishing/royalties, your merchandise and your side investments. Now you see DreamChasers artists like Lee Mazin with
singles on ITunes and you know these new era artists are on their shit.
ALL YOU UP AND COMING ARTISTS TAKE NOTES!!!!
how can you have endorsements with 2 separate headphones companies at once? Sounds fishy to me!
I laugh when the 40 year old groupie constantly brings up Meek Mill’s sponsors to defend his money. tell me this nigga aint a twitter executive.
Birdman doesn’t have an oil business.”
He had the bronald oil business, a website, a tattoo, and even proof that he has been in the oil business for 10 years.
It doesn’t exist, fanboy.
A website exisits and his tattoo proves he has an oil business.
had being the key word
lol
didnt he cover up that tattoo
A website and a tattoo doesn’t prove anything.
He showed me his oil drills on the way to paris for a wayne show.
Quit making up fairy tales and come back to the real world.
Isn’t Suge the guy who ran around bragging about how he gets paid everytime Snoop drops a new record??? By all accounts he was fucking everybody out of their money worse then Jimmy ever did
I dont hear 50 Cent, or Game, or Eve or any other artist previously connected to Interscope complain about not getting paid…….. Death Row, on the other hand, I can’t think of any artist who ever did business with Suge that doesn’t have a complaint about the money.
Just consider the source, dude is a well known piece of shit.
50 don’t live off his music alone
Since his release, 50 has been dumping on Interscope every chance he gets
Yeah but not over not getting paid.
Sure knight knows what he talking about. Be sure to check out thegrandreport, they have some good viral videos and more on there
No matter what…my ears thank you Suge for the dope music you created at the Row.
This is what u get from the record labels when all motherfuckas want is free fucking music! Start buying shit u enjoy. U wouldnt want nobody stealing shit at your job and taking it out your paycheck!!!!
he is correct you really think a gold artist is worth 25mil cmon do the math
Rick ross is.
this is why Q wish h didn’t sign to interscope he probably made less than 100k from his album
yeah he would have been better selling like 60k indie
Why am I even wasting bandwidth on this fucking bullshit?
Quit making up fairy tales and come back to the real world.”
Did you know that your homie, Suge killed tupac?
you think he sat beside Pac while getting bullets pumped into him trusting the shooters wouldn’t hit him and kill him too?
“He is right though, why is that so many artist today are becoming independant instead of signing to majors. Those 360 deals are a joke, they want you to became hot before they even sign you. But then when they do sign you the want half of all your tours, merchandise and whatever endorsement deal you may sign in the future. Oh and can’t forget your publishing and masters. So what Shug he is saying is true. They take advantage of people and the fact that most of the up and coming artist are poor. So come on niguh sign your life away for a few hundred thousand. While we make millions off your dumb ass.”
This is why ainterscope can afford to throw money at YouTube sensations like Kreayshawn and Cheif Keef.
Sad because their is no artist development and they throw money at these rookies and then wonder why they fizzle and fail but the labels don’t care as long as they can milk em for a profit untill they find a new hoe.
No way anyone made profit off Kreayshawn.
if you look at court documents from last year chief keef got like 250k from interscope thats not a very big advance…nas got the same amount to do illmatic 20 years ago….
his deal is worth a couple million but that was because they thought he had the potential to be as big as 50 cent was which he doesnt so hes not going to see most of that money…
Like Suge didnt fuck over Tupac n Snoop? Oh die already.Its 2014 we cant still be commenting on Suge.
OK DX, the article title was a bit misleading. He wasn’t insulting Dre in particular – he was gunning for Jimmy again.
I feel for artists that are getting screwed on 360 deals. But, when there are many people involved in a project, they all need to get paid. Take the Game situation. Dre spent a load of time on the album so Aftermath got paid. Game needed some catchy singles so 50 got involved and he got paid. The album needed to get shipped to stores so Interscope loaded up the trucks and they got paid too.
Anyway, Suge is being hypocritical to say the least. Back in the Death Row days, Dre got to keep his publishing but everybody else got FUCKED. Look at Snoop in ’93: Suge had his publishing. On top of that, wasn’t Snoop managed by Knight Life management, AKA Mrs Suge?! Conflict of interest there, maybe?
Still, it’s just Suge talking shit, so who cares.
Kendrick is managed by TDE
It was 18 years ago, Suge. Find something to do in your life. He is a one trick pony, well actually two – talking about Dr Dre and talking about Death Row. The latter wouldn’t have happened without the former. 18 bloody years ago and it is the only thing he can talk about.
he still did more than you ever will in life
and you sitting here talkin bout suge talkin bout dre and snoop.
And you are talking about me. You must be a cockroach or just a cock.
And you are sitting there talking about me.
i swear suge knight is on lean. or marijuana. or crack! no not that! i can rap! ok i’ll stop.
no one is even paying attention to you for you to need to stop so keep going until you’re off this website bitch
wow co’mon laugh a little. life is too short to be cracking somebody else down. and the time u spent replying with that stupid comment you could have been getting laid. good day to you too, “bitch”
I don’t care what people saying just dont signed to bad boy puffy will fuck you.that guy is a fucking snake
I am pretty sure Suge was not there when the deals were being made, and TopDawg was successful before Interscope and Aftermath. He not stupid to fuck himself over like that. Plus Kdot and Game are not as ignorant as he thinks they are. They will know what they are signing because they were not desperate for a record. Suge is getting paid for interviews just so he can pay child support.
Game not desperate for a record deal? LOL yeah right.
You sound silly…think about the chain…for game it was universal, interscope, aftermath,g-unit, then game…for kendrick its universal, interscope, aftermath, tde, then kendrick…anyone with half a brain can figure out these artist are getting raped no matter what their deal is…4 entities get paid before them…simple mathematics
Business is business. You have to make a profit and there is also a contract to be read by your lawyer and you get an option to sign or renegotiate the deal. SN need to back off, if he was doing it right he would have made some money and still have a flourishing business. Look around the music business now, all who are big from the West or East wanted to work with his label, worked with his label or beefed with his label…
I’m sorry I’m going to call a spade a spade how can some one with no business try to tell some one with a business what’s going on. Damn he is such a hater.
i know a mechanic who doesn’t have a car but he knows more about cars than you and i despite not having one.
And he talks like a slave… Why is you treating my people like slaves? (Suge Knight)
Shut up with your rumors!
Puffy was worse and still is!
suge is a rat and is working with the feds
he stays getting arrested but doesnt do any time
the cops SAW suge beating his girlfriend with a knife in his hand in las vegas in 2008…he had drugs on him and hes a felon so why the fuck did he not do any time?
he’s speaking the truth though. Those major labels are raping the artists
I’d hardly call a net worth of $10 million being raped.
Kendrick Lamar is a weirdo bisexual rapper, who’s getting pimped by some real gangsters.
How do you know he’s bisexual? Did you go on a date with him?
pimped out by real gangsters?
who top dawg? hes been on tde since 2006
Dude had oil in dat red cup…he swervin’
high high high don’t like him but I can agree
Why is you treating my people like slaves?The question is, why are you talking like one??
shots fired at game
While Suge praises the My N***a rapper, the former head of Death Row Records also throws a few shots at Game.
YG really pushing Bompton. Other than that I cant think of one Compton rapper, even if its Game, added Suge. Game in an article saying that hes a former gang member. Youre not old enough to really be a gang member yet you say youre a former gang member. YG is a guy that, he represent his music, he represents the city. YG is the only one that made it that has not bowed down and showed he had panties.
And what’s going on at Death Row besides Chapter 7 bankruptcy?
“you’ve gotta lot to learn”
Lol Good one Rain Man.
Be easy suge. Jimmy is CEO but hes not at the very top of interscope. Do some research. Jews own you niggas and u get still nice cut,so its good for you too. hHw much mil would be Kendrick worth if he did not sign w interscope???
suge still the biggest G on the WESTCOAST – respect to the big homie
At WHAT?! Certainly NOT the music or entertainment industry…..the ONLY time you hear about this HAS BEEN is getting arrested (& arrested again & again & again) or dissing someomething he knows NOTHING about to sound ‘relevant’. A JOKE with a capital ‘J’, who ripped off DRE, SNOOP & PAC worse than they EVER had by anyone…. whose this FOOL to comment on ‘anyone’ else’s deals?!@#!
This nicca STILL trying to sound ‘relevant’ & making assinine comments to ‘stay in the news’?!@! He only had a VERY SHORT run of 3-4 years in the industry, BECAUSE of DRE & hasn’t been in it & had a hit in almost 20 years since! He has NO idea what Dre, Jimmy or INTERSCOPE are doing! PLEASE GO AWAY – No one credible in the industry is ‘listening’! Any people out there that think this dude has a clue, HAS NO CLUE THEMSELVES! Sounds like he’s on drugs………..
all i wonder, is this nigga still in life or in freedom???