S. Samuel
Former Death Row Records artist, Crooked I, recently spoke on the bad rap Suge Knight receives from the music industry and offered advice to individuals intimidated by the bodyguard-turned-rap mogul.
Reflecting back on his short-lived career under Suge, Crooked also highlighted the positive things the former CEO did for him.
“Suge taught me a lot,” Crooked explained in an interview. “He sat me down with Russell Simmons. He sat me down with Lyor Cohen. He sat me down with LA Reid. He sat me down with the bosses who moved this game…All the bosses, they do it the same kinda way, it’s just that they was intimidated by the dude…People get intimidated, I don’t blame him for that, I blame the person who’s intimidated. Why be intimidated? Okay motherf*cker, that’s how you wanna come, this is me coming. I don’t blame him, it’s like, step up motherf*cker…The industry wants me to bad mouth Suge Knight, they want me to. I don’t have sh*t to say bad really like that. I made money on Death Row, it launched me to where I’m at, when I walk into the offices at a record company they respect me because they know what I’ve been through.” (Hip Hop Game)
Suge made headlines earlier this year for allegedly being behind a $300,000 robbery which involved an Akon associate.
At about 3:00 AM five men broke into his home with guns and were there to collect a debt on behalf of Suge Knight. They claimed producer Detail owed Suge money, and then proceeded to collect on the debt. They stole $170,000 worth of jewelry from his room. Walker adds they demanded a key to the safe and said they would kill all four people in the house if they didn’t get it. The robbers didn’t get the key, instead, they took the 130 pound safe. They also took stereo equipment and a key to a Mercedes. A police source tells us it’s more like $300,000. (TMZ)
The incident reportedly stemmed from a fight between Kon associate Robert Carnes Jr. and Knight around mid-February.
Officers arrested Carnes and another man Thomas Anderson, 33, for assault and disorderly conduct. Suge Knight was transported to SHC-Osborn hospital where he was treated for facial injuries. Carnes and Anderson were booked into Scottsdale City jail and are being held in custody. (AZ Family)
Crooked is known for voicing his opinions within the music industry and calling out rap veterans Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube for their lack of helping upcoming West Coast emcees.
“You’ve got all these people on the West Coast,” he explained. “The ‘Men’ stands for ‘mentality’: No country for this old mentality. We don’t want to deal with this mentality that says we can’t like each other, we can’t unify…After this stuff, man, I’ve been really thinking. That [album is] cool. That’s something that needs to be said. But right now … I’ve been in these [life-threatening] situations before…My focus now is if Ice Cube, Snoop, Dre, none of them dudes wanna reach down and help the new dudes, that’s fine. Maybe I’ll call them and have a healthy conversation about it and move on. I’m not in that zone no more. I want to leave a body of work behind that matches a Biggie or Pac.” (MTV)
Check out Crooked’s interview below:
