(AllHipHop News) Suge Knight is such a indomitable character that even his interview outtakes can shake Hip Hop history. During the outtakes of Knight’s Rolling Stone interview posted by esteemed writer Paul Cantor, he explains his involvement in the making of The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die album, how he helped shape Kendrick Lamar and more.
After revealing that Def Jam execs Lyor Cohen and Russell Simmons attempted to get Snoop to sign with them behind Knight’s back, Knight discusses another relatively unknown East Coast connection. According to Knight, he helped shape the debut album of The Notorious B.I.G. through not asking for what he was owed:
If you look at Biggie’s album, Biggie’s album is all West Coast. The first album. When they did the Biggie album, I helped them with that f*cking record. I let Puff use every [The Chronic] sample on [Ready to Die], the hottest record of all time, and didn’t charge them. To show some love. Like here. It ain’t s###. We do this sh*t like we do. I don’t care if it’s a Down South record or East Coast record. If it’s successful, it’s a West Coast vibe.
Ready To Die does sample “The Shiznit” off of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle for the album’s Intro and Dr. Dre’s “Lil Ghetto Boy” off of The Chronic for “Things Done Changed”.
After Snoop Dogg attributed Kendrick Lamar’s aggressive approach on his “Control” verse to him growing up on Death Row Records, Knight shares the same belief and praises Kendrick Lamar:
Kendrick is a dude that’s an incredible artist. I’m not surprised because he’s from Compton. He grew up in Compton, that’s where he lived at, hung out at, and the guys he hangs with from his neighborhood, is p-folk. So there’s no way it wouldn’t rub off on him. There’s no way that his vision wouldn’t be aggressive or that he wouldn’t have the lyrics he has, if he didn’t grow up there. Kendrick know, anybody from Compton, that’s pretty much saying they’re a Death Row artist.