Former Death Row Records C.E.O, Suge Knight has been going on about this for a while now. A couple of weeks ago, he was on The Arsenio Hall Show, saying that there are too many middle men in the deals Kedrick Lamar and Game signed with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, and that the two Compton rappers deserve better deals. During his recent interview with B.E.T, Suge spoke more on the issue.
“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. 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. 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."
“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. 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. 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."
Hmm! That's a whole lot of middle men. I don't really know about Kendrick's finances, but I know Game ain't doing badly. Well, he could be doing better if there were few less middle men in his deal, but someone with about three houses, Rolll Royce's and Bentley's ain't doing too badly in my books. And besides, Game rushed his last two albums so he could complete the five album deal he signed over there, and he is currently a free agent.
During the same B.E.T interview, Suge went on to speak more about Kendrick Lamar's contract.
"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. 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?”
I have a feeling Suge Knight still don't like Dr. Dre, and is just using this to get at him. If I recall well, Dre left Death Row Records cos he said Suge was cheating him out his money. Also, everyone around Pac before he got shot said Pac was also thinking of living because Suge wasn't paying him his due. Suge is not a stranger to raping artist. And besides, these artists he is talking about ain't complaining. At least the deals they signed made them as big as they became, so they got something out of it. And one more time, Game is now independent.
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