S. Samuel
West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg and former Death Row Records owner Marion "Suge" Knight have officially squashed their past issues and reunited after a messy break-up nearly 20 years ago.
According to reports, Snoop and Suge embraced one another a few nights ago in Los Angeles.
The picture was taken Monday night at AV Club in Los Angeles. Sources tell TMZ … Snoop had performed at the club that night … and Suge showed up to see the performance. After the show, we’re told Suge walked over to Snoop’s VIP table and the two hit it off like old times … hugging, laughing and taking pictures. (TMZ)
Snoop finally broke away from Suge’s Death Row Records in the late 1990’s.
In 1998, Snoop officially left Death Row and it was a very messy split. In an interview with the Long Beach Press-Telegram at the time, Snoop said, “I definitely feel my life is in danger if I stay in Death Row Records. That’s part of the reason why I’m leaving.” Snoop also told the Press-Telegram that he was planning to leave the label, “Because there’s nothing over there. Suge Knight is in jail, the president; Dr. Dre left and Tupac (Shakur) is dead. It’s telling me that I’m either going to be dead or in jail or I’m going to be nothing.” (RapFix)
Back in 2006, Dogg allegedly made a slew of accusations related to Knight.
In an upcoming interview with Rolling Stone, Snoop traced the source of his frustration to when Dr. Dre left Death Row to start his Aftermath record label. That move, coupled with Snoop’s defection to Master P‘s No Limit Records, resulted in bad blood with Knight, who was serving a five year jail sentence at the time. “The n***a threatened my life when he was in jail,” Snoop revealed to the publication. “N***as tried to get at me at concerts; they put my address on a tape. He was gonna give a n***a a Benz if a n***a cut my hair. All kinda f****n’ with me.” (All Hip Hop Rumors)
The rap veteran released his debut album while on Knight’s Death Row roster.
After many delays, Doggystyle was finally released on Death Row in November of 1993, and it became the first debut album to enter the charts at number one. Despite reviews that claimed the album was a carbon copy of The Chronic, the Top Ten singles “What’s My Name?” and “Gin & Juice” kept Doggystyle at the top of the charts during early 1994, as did the considerable controversy over Snoop’s arrest and his lyrics, which were accused of being exceedingly violent and sexist. During an English tour in the spring of 1994, tabloids and a Tory minister pleaded for the government to kick the rapper out of the country, largely based on his arrest. Snoop exploited his impending trial by shooting a short film based on the Doggystyle song “Murder Was the Case” and releasing an accompanying soundtrack, which debuted at number one in 1994. By that time, Doggystyle had gone quadruple platinum. (All Music)
