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♪♪ (Italian opera music)

(gunshots)

Rhythm Mic Live--
we're on location tonight

in the NWA Ruthless Studios

here to talk
to NWA and Eazy-E,

probably the most controversial
rap group in Los Angeles.

(Alonzo Williams)
At that time,
all the rappers

were claiming their hometowns--

South Bronx, you know,
wherever they may be,

New York, Queens,
whatever the case may be.

We were from Compton.

Coming up
in the ghetto, period,

builds character to me,
you know what I'm saying?

It definitely can
build character

if you use it
in a positive way.

When we seen, you know,
regular homeys

from the neighborhood
that was just putting down

real street raps, you know,
it made us

feel like
we could do it.

(Dan O'Dowd)
Something really special

was coming out
of that neighborhood.

It was a fresh, really volatile
time in music.

I liken it to Elvis Presley
when rock and roll started,

to when The Beatles came.

It was something really special
coming out of there.

After a while,
Michael Jackson didn't work.

People didn't believe
the hype.

We didn't care,
we didn't care.

If they didn't feel it
with all of that

trying-to-be-shy nonsense--

people weren't checking
for that no more.

Rap made it gritty.

I think we successful because
we telling it like it is.

And, you know,
that's what people want to hear

because they sick of hearing
about fairy tales

and stuff like that.

NWA to me was like, uh, anti--

against-- anti-establishment.

They was bringing, you know,
South Central

to the forefront
in what was happening,

and, you know, drugs,
and the whole shot.

I mean, they was hitting
another element of society

that nobody else
had touched on.

They talked
about being gangsters.

"Gangsta Gangsta"
was a big hit.

"Fuck Tha Police" was a big hit.

It's not what you know--
it's what you can prove.

When I went
and got NWA albums,

I bought 'em as a fan.

You just see
an all-star cast of people--

of Eazy being the mastermind,

of Cube
being the rhyme writer,

Dre laying down the tracks,
the producer.

And then you had Ren,
who played a supporting cast,

and that just made up one of
the great groups of hip-hop.

We don't tell you
what to do,

and we don't
tell you what not to do.

You got your own freedom
of choice.

(Matt McDaniel)
Eazy represented, you know,

the hardcore little gangster
on the corner.

Don't try to hold us back

because this record
has cursing on it

or it said something,
or you're talking

about raping
somebody and everything.

People were selling cocaine,
making a lot of money,

and he was the first
person that actually came out,

and admitted it, and boasted
about it on a record.

It's some bullshit.

(laughter)

Eazy-E turned out
to have some business savvy.

(Alonzo Williams)
Eazy was a local
crack slinger, okay?

It made him some money,

and because I was
one of the few guys

he knew who had a studio,

he wanted to get with me
and get in the studio.

He was not intending to be
a rapper.

He was gonna be a financier.

Dre was producing for Alonzo

of Cru Cut Records
and the Wreckin' Cru.

Dre started getting in trouble.

He was going to jail for
warrants on a regular basis.

I'm digging in my pocket
to get him out, okay?

So I got to the point
where I got tired of it.

And Lonzo didn't get him
out of jail.

Eazy got him out of jail.

When Eric got him
out of jail,

they cut a deal
that Dre would do some tracks

for Eric in my studio.

And then, they hooked up
and was boys ever since then.

(Eazy-E)
You put the dot
on your target.

Then, you blow the shit
out the motherfucker.

No joke.

Eazy knew it was like
a joke to him, okay?

It was like--
(laughing)

But he got so far into it,
it was like, "Okay, I am this."

I'm walking through
to cross the mall.

I look up in the HQ,
which is a sporting goods store

and a gun store, and these guys
are buying automatic--

semiautomatic weapons
to go on tour with.

I'm, like, "Shit!"

What kind of tour
you guys going on?

Vietnam, or what?

They were selling out
of the back of cars,

and they were making money,
and they were going to the top

one way or the other.

(man)
We used to ride around
in Eazy's Jeep all day

and sell records to the--

what they call swap meets
out here.

I used to make
people buy records.

(reporter)
How'd you make 'em buy 'em?

With a gun.

Eazy paid Lonzo to introduce him
to Jerry Heller.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Jerry Heller was basically

Dr. Dre and Eric Wright's
manager and label head.

(man)
Ruthless started from Eazy-E.

Eazy-E knew that Dre
was a dope producer.

He did the "Straight Outta
Compton" album.

He did "Eazy-Duz-It."

he did Michel'le's album,
he did The D.O.C.'s album.

Dr. Dre was one
of these guys

that could take
this raw street sound

and turn it into the kind
of magic

that would hit
to a wide audience of kids.

They had a message
that clearly was heard

and felt by young people.

All over the country, they had
pockets of young brothers

who sold dope
and had to carry 9mm pistols,

who had a wad of money
that could relate.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Every kid wants something
that's sort of forbidden.

Certainly, this kind
of imagery was.

In fact,
they couldn't even hear it

on their regular
radio stations.

(Jay King)
They sold over
a million albums.

And we have to understand
that, with rap music,

past 500,000, 600,000 albums,

you go outside
the black community.

You had little
white kids out there

that was, you know,
grew up in Pop's Country Club,

and they
wasn't having it.

They wanted to hear NWA.

(Joe Isgro)
It became clear
that there weren't just

10,000 kids listening to this.

There was hundreds
of thousands in each city.

People sat back
and seen an album

that sold a million units
that was never played on radio.

And-- and I had to question--
how does this happen?

How did this happen?

What-- what
went on here?

Now, when it starts
making real money

and it starts looking like some
success is gonna come about,

that's when the shit starts.

Eazy and Jerry wasn't paying
Dr. Dre enough money.

At that time,
I was owed money,

but they wasn't paying it,
you know what I'm saying?

I think they were trying
to starve me-- starve me out.

As hard as you work
for your money,

there's at least two
or three people out there

working just as hard
to get it from you.

I was there
when Dre told me

he would sell his soul to
the devil for a million bucks.

And I swear right now--

devil gotta have a receipt
for his ass.

(Matt McDaniel)
Suge Knight was always around.

He was around in the days
of NWA.

I just-- I never
noticed who he was.

(man)
Suge was just a big kid,
you know?

He was really,
at that time, totally nobody.

(Kevin Powell)
Suge Knight was a bodyguard,

bodyguarding Bobby Brown.

Being a bodyguard is probably
one of the best music schools--

music industry schools
that you could go to

because you're gonna learn
everything about the business.

I was out there looking
and learning, you know?

And I seen
different people complain.

I seen artists.

I seen people
trying to be artists.

I seen people talk
about songs.

And I'm just listening--
I'm hearing it all.

(Dr. Dre)
He was an aggressive person
that cleared the way

for me to go in
and do what I had to do,

you know,
by any means necessary.

Suge was a leader--
he was a winner.

He was smart.

He kind of reminds me
of a hip-hop Dick Griffey.

(Virgil Roberts)
In the 1980s,
Solar was probably

the most successful black-owned
record label in America.

Dick Griffey, who was
the founder of the company,

was one of those men,
he had the rare ability,

I think,
to identify talent in people.

What I'm interested in is--
is really teaching young people

how to be in business
for themselves.

(Virgil Roberts)
Suge first came to see Dick

because he was managing
a young guy

named Mario Johnson,
p.k.a. Chocolate,

who had written
a number of songs

on a Vanilla Ice album.

(Mario Johnson)
I did all of his songs at
his kitchen table at his house.

Me and Quake
would do tracks,

and I would go to his house
and write,

give him songs,
and he would learn 'em.

(Virgil Roberts)
He had gotten some credit
on the album,

but they hadn't paid him

and wouldn't
return his phone calls.

I couldn't get in contact
with him,

but the record wasn't doing
anything at that time.

And then,
when the video hit BET

is when the record
started taking off.

(Suge Knight)
The thing happened so fast,
it blew up so quick,

the first thing
they wanted to do

is tell me, "Look, we'll
give you a couple dollars.

You know, let bygones
be bygones."

I was, like--
I wouldn't go for it.

Suge came to me
at the Palm Restaurant first

and just sat down,
and said, "Hello."

He was kind of nice,
you know?

It kind of scared us 'cause
he was really intimidating.

You know, he had, like,
six or seven guys with him

that looked like
a football team.

We already knew
where he was staying

because I was supposed to be
hearing some tracks

that he was doing,
but for some reason,

they wanted me to just
come by myself.

You know what I'm saying?

And Suge was like,
"Why they just want you

"to go by yourself?

"They already tried to beat you
out of money.

They done beat you out
of songs-- I'm going with you."

They whole attitude
probably was, "Look,

"we was gonna go in there
and tell him,

"'We gonna do it like this,
and give him a check,'

and he gonna shut up."

I had a different program
when we met.

One day, I went
into my hotel room,

and he was in there,
and he's with several people.

And then, he--
then he let me know

what he wanted,
and he wanted

to get some points off
the record "Ice Ice Baby."

I'm, like, "Look, you can't
give me nothing.

"It's what
I'm gonna give you

"because you then get the rights
to put it out there

"'cause I haven't got paid,
and my client hasn't got paid.

I remember watching
"Primetime Live,"

the interview
with Vanilla Ice.

(Vanilla Ice)
Suge took me out
on the balcony,

started talking
to me personally.

He had me look over
the edge,

show me how high
I was up there.

(reporter)
Were you scared?

(Vanilla Ice laughs)

I needed to wear a diaper
on that day.

He didn't, first of all,
hang me off from any balcony

or any of this stuff, okay?

The story's been kind of
blown out of proportion.

And I want to clarify
right now

that Suge and I
have no bad feelings

or anything towards each other.

We had to sue
EMI and Winkle

to recover that money.

And it was more than a year
in the settlement

of that lawsuit
that Chocolate finally got paid.

It doesn't mean he didn't get
hung over the balcony,

but if he did,
it didn't make him go pay.

You can look at it like--

like I was an investor
in Death Row Records

with no return on my money.

(Virgil Roberts)
Suge said, "Well, you know,
I got some other clients

"who also have written
songs and produced records,

and they haven't been
paid either."

He shows up on my doorstep

with these two guys
called D.O.C. and Dre.

D.O.C. was
the storyteller.

The D.O.C. was the guy

that came up
with those great stories.

He was probably the single most
influential person

in gangsta rap.

Dre basically
made Ruthless Records.

I mean, you know,
he did the music.

He probably the one who,
you know,

knew how to work
with the artists.

And it supposed to been him
and Eazy's company together.

Then, when Eazy met Jerry,

Jerry came in,
and X'd Dre out,

and said, "You know, Eric,
I'll give you

"a little bit
more money.

We'll just use Dre
basically as a slave."

They had the worst contracts
I had ever seen

in the history
of the record business.

The contracts that Ruthless
and Jerry Heller

had with NWA and Dre--

I guess
if I said "draconian,"

that would be
a kind word.

(Virgil Roberts)
In the process of having
a number of conversations

with D.O.C. and Dre,
the question came up

about how can we be assured

that we're gonna get paid
in the future?

Dick said, "Look, Dre,
if you can make records

"the way you make records,
I'll show you

"how to start a company.

"You won't have to worry
about people paying you.

You will have a company
that you own and control."

I suggested that,
"Why don't you guys

"go and talk to Eazy

"and see if you can
make a deal

"where Dre continues
to produce Eazy for Ruthless,

he continues to produce NWA
and the other acts."

I was consulting for Ruthless
for Eazy-E,

working through Jerry Heller.

One day, Dre came in with Suge
to my office in Hollywood

and simply said
they had left Ruthless,

were starting their own company
called Death Row Records.

It didn't go down
the way it was supposed to.

And so, Eazy had
to be persuaded

to make some moves
to make things happen.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
According to court papers,
Suge and friends

basically came in
and told Eric and Jerry Heller

Dre was leaving,
and they couldn't stop them,

and that this was
not just legal.

It was physical,
it was personal.

The stories
that Eric, E, told

was that they came in with
baseball bats, threatened guns.

And they threatened his life
and told him

that they would kill his mother,

and that they were
holding me hostage.

Under those kinds of duress,

got him to sign releases
for Dr. Dre.

I wasn't there.

I wasn't in the room.

But when Eazy-E said
in the papers

that me and the chairman
of Sony, Tommy Mattola,

was in the room
with bats and pipes,

he's obviously a liar.

There's no question
that we have

substantial documentary evidence
of a conspiracy here.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Eric Wright, Eazy-E, filed
a RICO lawsuit against them.

It was the first time RICO

had been used
in the music business.

RICO is a racketeering law,

so it's the thing that they use
to get the Mafia

when they can't get the Mafia
leaders on anything else.

Eazy-E's lawsuit contended
that there was money laundering,

extortion, threats,
and violent intimidation.

Not only was it charged against
Suge and Death Row

for stealing what was
their top producer, Dr. Dre,

it was charged against
Sony Music.

From day one,
this label was born

amidst a controversy
that involved violence.

The initial understanding
was that D.O.C. and Dre

and Dick and Suge would
be partners of this company.

Each one of the artists that
started this at the beginning,

I got a lot of love for,

and they always will be
a part of the family

on the strength
that they took that chance.

It's not like they just--
we had a name out there.

It's not like we had
a lot of money to give 'em.

They money I gave ''em
came out of my pocket.

Back then, Suge was, like,
very behind the scenes,

and helpful,
and quiet, humble, non-visible.

He didn't like cameras.

He was invisible,
the invisible man.

(Dr. Dre)
His role was to handle
the day-to-day business

dealing with the artists,
dealing with distributors,

and record companies,
and what have you.

My job was to go in here,

and push these buttons,
and make the records happen.

(man)
Everybody was following Dre

because people knew
that Dre was the man.

Like, everything that he touched

was, like, you know,
gold, or platinum, or better.

That's who everyone wanted
to work with then.

He was actually the most
bankable person at that time

pretty much in the industry,
from the R&B-rap standpoint.

Everybody was taking direction
from Dre

as for as he knows
what he's doing.

He just finished
doing NWA albums

that's double
and triple platinum,

so you have to have confidence
in what you've seen.

You've watched
this man make money.

Warren G was my best friend,

and Nate Dogg
was my best friend,

so we formulated 213.

And Warren G was the DJ,
I was the rapper,

Nate Dogg
would sing the hooks.

We didn't have drum machines
back then.

All we had was records, and
turntables, and a microphone.

Warren G called me on
the three-way with, like,

"Snoop, I got Dre on
the phone, cuz.

"He like the tape,
he wanna work with us, cuz.

"He wanna work--"
I was like, "Nigga, stop lying."

And he said, "Hello?"
I said, "Who this?"

He said, "It's Dre."

He said, "Man, that shit
was dope, man.

I wanna get with you,
come to the studio Monday."

(Nate Dogg)
At that time, it was a dream

just to be in the same room
with Dr. Dre, you know?

Dr. Dre wants us to come
to the studio where he is.

I'd have jogged up there
if I didn't have a car.

(Snoop Dogg)
I wanted to appreciate
the game

and accept everything
that was offered to me,

and learn, and just be
a student at the time.

They were housed
in my building,

so they didn't
have a lot of expenses.

You have to understand that
the greatest expense

in making a record
is the studio time.

I didn't have
a lot of knowledge

about the rap
or hip-hop scenario,

so I kinda let them do
their own thing.

(Snoop Dogg)
Some nights we used
to stay up there all night,

didn't leave till, like, 5:00,
6:00 in the morning.

I mean, it had
a special vibe up there.

You just wanted
to be there.

Even if you wasn't
working on a song,

you just wanted to be there
because it had that atmosphere.

It just was the spot
to be at.

It was right
in the middle of Hollywood.

And, you know, it was just
the place to be for us.

And we was young,
and we never really had been

out of the neighborhood,
and, you know,

we was getting a chance
to see it all in bright lights.

And this was the same studio
that Shalamar, Lakeside,

The Whispers, Babyface,
The Deele--

all of them recorded all their
albums in the same studios.

(Virgil Roberts)
On a business level
and on a day-to-day basis,

it was merely existing.

It seemed like they were trying
to find somebody

to put some money into it
or somebody to help them out.

(Snoop Dogg)
Money was hard
to come by back then

because there wasn't no
structure, there was no label.

And Suge Knight did
all he could do at the time

as far as, you know,
going in his pocket,

his bank account
to get us money.

Dre didn't really have
no money.

He was leaving NWA.

♪♪ (tense music)

Dick had made a deal
with Suge, D.O.C., and Dre

to sell him a recording studio
that he owned.

That was gonna be
something that they would own

separate from
the Death Row label

because they wanted to have
something that they owned.

Suge came along and said
he had found somebody

to help them finance
the purchase of the studio.

It's always been a subject
of speculation

where they got
their original funding,

and the FBI is continuing
to look into this.

There are so many things
you hear about this situation.

I tell you this.

Mike Harris was firmly planted
in the middle of it.

Well, on the news, they used
to call Mike "The Godfather."

Tonight, the story
of a man

who tried
to murder his best friend

at the same time
he was attempting

to win his way
into Beverly Hills acceptance.

This is Michael Harris, a man
drug agents describe

as a major cocaine trafficker.

At the young age of 26,

he had already made
millions of dollars.

These are his roots,

the streets
of South Central Los Angeles,

where he started pushing dope
on street corners

and hung with a Blood street
gang called The Bounty Hunters.

In the drug world,
he is known as "Harry O."

(Jay King)
Mike Harris was a known entity
in our community.

You know, he was
this guy bigger than life

because Mike Harris was in jail
doing things.

Prior to his incarceration,
he was very visible.

He had started doing numerous
things in the community.

(news anchor)
Harris built an organization
that distributed cocaine

in California, Arizona,
Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa,

Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana,
Florida, and New York.

Investigators say
he dealt so much cocaine,

major Columbian drug kingpins
like Mario Villabona

were obliged to deal
directly with Harris.

But like a mob godfather,
Harris sought

to legitimize
his illicit fortune

and gain Beverly Hills
respectability.

Mike Harris had a wonderful
background in entertainment.

I think he was
the first African-American ever

to produce a Broadway show
that was a smash,

and it gave
Denzel Washington his start.

"Checkmates" was the name
of the play.

The play opened on Broadway.

Many of us African-Americans
have been on Broadway,

on the screen,
out front singing and dancing,

but very few of us have been
there as producers.

I thought he was an entrepreneur
in New York.

Had no idea
that he was in jail.

The first time I met Michael,
it was a drug case

involving Bo Bennett
and Mario Villabona.

That trial went and resulted
in a number of convictions

that went to trial
in a federal court.

And after that case,
Michael, I believe,

contacted David Kenner
to have him

represent him on his appeal.

(Sam Gideon Anson)
David Kenner was a longtime
Los Angeles criminal attorney.

By the late '80s, he had become
part of a fraternity

of top flight attorneys that
handled a lot of federal cases,

a lot of big
drug cases downtown.

In the course of
his legal work,

he became
Michael Harris's attorney.

I think if you look at clients
of his over time,

David has a habit of getting
very close to his clients,

and getting very
involved in his clients' lives,

perhaps more so than would be
wise for a lawyer.

David just, you know,
fell in love with Michael,

and they became friends.

He was, you know--
he was a friend to us, you know?

I looked at him
like family.

I was out in LA by myself,

and he, like,
you know, took me in.

You know, him and his family,
we'd go out to eat.

I mean, we would,
like, do everything together.

(Sam Gideon Anson)
He became someone
who was a confidant,

a friend
of Michael Harris's,

and also involved in business
with Michael Harris.

(Virgil Roberts)
I think that he's a lawyer
who had a lot of money,

and he represented people
who had a lot of money.

And it would
not be unusual to me

for somebody who represented
people with money to say,

"I want to invest."

Everybody wants to be
in the music business.

In the years that I worked,
I've gotten tapes and offers

from everyone,
from politicians, you know,

to businessmen who want to be
in the entertainment business.

They started talking.

You know, Mike said,
"You got Dr. Dre."

And Suge said,
"Yeah, you know, he a producer."

Mike said, "Well,
we need to meet."

And Suge said,
"Well, I got a couple of cases.

You know, I can't get in
to visit you."

So Mike said,
"No, I got this attorney.

He's bad, he can get you
in here."

(Sam Gideon Anson)
David Kenner brought Suge Knight

to see Michael at Metropolitan
Detention Center

in Downtown Los Angeles.

They set down
their basic business plan

that they would start a company
called Godfather Entertainment,

and one division of it
would be Death Row Records.

One day,
I see these two people

walk in the building
who I'd never seen before.

And one was David Kenner,

and the other
was Lydia Harris.

In the summer of 1991,
Kenner started coming around.

There was a lot of buzz
about this company,

a lot of expectations that it
could be a successful company.

And David was one of the people
around at the time

making a play
to be Suge's partner,

and to take care of business
for Suge,

to handle business for Suge.

A couple days after Mrs. Harris
and David Kenner came in,

things actually
changed drastically.

Immediately, the studio
gets carpeted.

Things are getting fixed.

I'm starting getting presented
with money

to find apartments
for the artists that hadn't--

that didn't have any apartments,
didn't have any money.

I'm also given
an allowance for them.

I saw a few little upgrades
in the studio,

some chairs, some speakers.

And I was also told
we'll be getting collect calls,

and to accept them,
and to find Suge,

where he was,
and connect them.

We were assigned by them
to may-- build an awareness

for Godfather Entertainment,
and to kick off

their first vehicle,
which is Death Row Records,

to the industry.

Norman Winter,
in his infinite wisdom, said,

"Let's take the boys
into Beverly Hills.

Let's stick it
in everybody's face."

So off to Chasen's.

Let me see you put your hands
together and say, "Oh, yeah!"

(all)
Oh, yeah!

(emcee)
Let me see somebody give
Dre, Suge, D.O.C.

a round of applause.

Death Row Records
is gonna be

the record company
of the 2000s.

We were thinking about
putting in

metal detectors
at the entrance.

Everyone gets served with
subpoenas as an invitation.

"You are hereby ordered
to appear

"before the honorable Dr. Dre

"and the offices
of GF Entertainment

"as a guest of the court
to witness the springing--

springing of
Death Row Records."

Put your hands together!

Come on, y'all,
make some noise.

We invited virtually every
major record company executive

in Los Angeles
and New York.

And it was so big,
that we originally planned

on spending around
20,000, 25,000.

I tell you, it turned out
to be 35,000 or 50,000.

They had enough money
at that time behind 'em,

and they looked good.

For somebody
that comes out of nowhere

to have a party at Chasen's
on Grammy night,

which is reserved generally
for all the white people.

It's also a place
that would never be associated

with rap music
in any way

unless it was something
co-sponsored by a white group.

The market we're going after,
we're mainly for the people.

I mean, for us,
the West Coast

there's a lot
of talent around that guys,

we don't have the opportunity

to have a chance
to prove themselves.

So as far as GF Entertainment
goes with the studio

and the films,
we giving all the youngsters

the opportunities from all
the neighborhoods where--

basically, we haven't forgot
where we came from.

I personally interviewed all
of the players that were there.

GF Entertainment
is a multimedia company.

We have Death Row Records.

We have a movie
production unit, concerts.

We're gonna be doing
pay-per-view concerts

and all kinds
of exciting things.

In the beginning,
they was giving Mike his props,

and they was recognizing
that there was another entity

that helped this be one
major powwow.

(man)
When it came to Dave Kenner,

he toasted the man who made it
all responsible, Harry O.

The label started
with Dr. Dre,

who was gonna
do his own thing,

and with a lot of help
from Suge Knight, and Harry O.,

and a number of people,
and we got it all together.

And that's on tape,
and the FBI

confiscated that
from me...

uh, under very rude
circumstances.

(gunshot)

(Virgil Roberts)
When Death Row was
in the Solar offices,

we pretty much gave over
to the one floor.

There were a lot of young street
folks hanging out,

but it wasn't what it became.

Unfortunately, there was--
there was a lot of tension.

An element showed up

that my people
were not accustomed to.

Dre had invited these guys
over to the studio.

When Suge came,
these guys were using the phone.

So he told him, "Hey, man,
get off the phone.

So the guy says to Suge,

"Hey, man, we were invited
up here by Dre,

and Dre told us
that we could use this phone."

An argument ensued.

Suge went down to the car
and got a gun.

And hey, he beat these guys up
in the studio.

He shot through
the wall to scare 'em.

The hole is in the wall
over there.

The cops came and dug
the bullet out, you know.

(news anchor)
George and Lynwood Stanley
later sued Knight.

He agreed on
a $1 million settlement,

but only paid a third of it.

♪ Y-- Y-- Yeah ♪

♪ And you don't stop ♪

"Deep Cover."
"Deep Cover."

(Virgil Roberts)
"Deep Cover" was--
was a critical success.

It was the introduction of Dre
as a solo artist.

♪ I'm on a mission,
and my mission won't stop ♪

(Kevin Powell)
It was the introduction of Dre

as a mentor to other artists,

in this case,
Snoop Doggy Dogg.

♪ 1-8-7 on
a undercover cop ♪

♪ Yeah, and you don't stop ♪

♪ 'Cause it's 1-8-7
on a undercover cop ♪

♪ Yeah, and you don't stop ♪

By Snoop blowing up
on "Deep Cover,"

I looked at that
like we were all blowing up

'cause I always knew we did
music together,

and I always
had confidence in our music,

that it would sell
and it would sell worldwide.

And after the way it blew up
with Snoop,

it pumped me up.

Like, man, I can't wait
till it's my turn

'cause they really do
love what we doing.

That single is so significant

because it shows
these two different worlds

that Dre was leaving,
and where he's going to.

(man)
Dr. Dre wanted
to make a statement

that he was a solo artist,

that he was a good artist
on his own

and a good producer.

The thing back then was
we gonna try to come up.

That's all Dre used to talk
about is coming up, coming up.

And "The Chronic" was what was
supposed to set it off.

What I'm doing right now

is, um, I'll be putting out
a solo album soon.

(Nate Dogg)
Everybody put their all
into the "Chronic" album

because we seen
that not only was this

gonna build a record company
that we were on

'cause this was
the first album

off the record company
we were on,

this would build
all of our careers.

And we vibe it,
straight whatever Dre want.

It's Dre--
"Dre, whatever you want.

You want this concept, Dre?
You want this? You want this?"

It's all about Dre, it's all
about Compton and Dre.

Dre, Dre, Dre.
Boom.

You had Snoop Dogg
who just brought,

a whole nother
style to rap music.

He has a voice where he can
rap over beats

and just rip
a beat to pieces.

And a lot of that shit
was on the spot,

spontaneous right there.

We just putting the weed
together like this,

breaking it down,
put it in a Zig-Zag.

Once we twist that shit up
and blaze,

if it's the chronic,
we're gonna keep it in this--

you know, unroll that
motherfucker, and throw it out,

and come up
with some new shit.

(Lamont Blumfield)
First of all, you had
so many hungry,

starving individuals
that, you know, wanted

to be superstars, who put
they talent together,

and it came out
to be a classic.

The camaraderie in them
early days over there, man,

all them cats used to show up
to the studio.

They were poor as hell,

but they said, "We're a family."
They still had fun.

Yeah!
"The Chronic," baby!

(Jewell)
So it wasn't like we had money
to hang with our friends

or anything like that,
so we just hung together.

And we created
a masterpiece.

(indistinct chatter)

Check it out.

I think it was a lot
of collaboration

on "The Chronic" album
as far as names like Daz,

Kurupt, Snoop,
Warren G, D.O.C.,

RBX, and myself,
Rage, Jewell.

We were all starving.

All starving.

Dre included.

We would be up there eating
Popeye's chicken

five days a week.

I gotta go
roll up a joint.

We had weed, the best weed,
you know what I'm saying?

That's why
we made "The Chronic,"

because we had the chronic.

I mean, sometimes,
we just was in there, you know,

drinking or elevating our minds
to another level.

Dre would be, like, working
with the beats at the time,

and he would
come up with something,

and depending on who was
in the studio

at that particular time.

There was people waiting all
over the world for that album--

for Dre's album to drop.

(Virgil Roberts)
"The Chronic" was finished.

We had originally thought
we were gonna be able

to distribute
the record with Sony.

This would have been the first
time in history

that young guys would have
actually had the opportunity

to have a distribution deal,

what they call
a P&D deal,

through a major
and get all of the money.

Sony refused to distribute
"The Chronic."

Sony, because of
their fearfulness

of some of the crazy things
going on around Death Row

and their wariness of the
contractual status of Dr. Dre,

didn't want to get
that deal done.

Part of their fears
in dealing with rap bands

is that some of these
gangster rappers

might turn out
to be real gangsters.

Indeed, many of them are.

There's-- any number of these
guys go to jail every year.

I mean, it's, like,
first thing, they--

you know, they go platinum,
then go to jail.

(Virgil Roberts)
Dick and I then
negotiated a deal

with BMG to put out
the record.

They heard
the lyrics, and they said,

"We're not gonna put
the record out.

Everybody got
afraid of putting out

any kind of rap records
with explicit lyrics

that talked about
killing cops and stuff.

There wasn't nobody out there
with us.

I mean, it was a time
when we were shopping a deal.

We had an album done.

John McClane Jr.
came along.

When he heard the record,
he went crazy.

He said,
"Griff, Griff, you gotta--

you gotta give me this,
you gotta give me this record."

John said,
"I love the record.

Why don't you let me take it
to Interscope?"

An opportunity appeared
for a young, aggressive label

to distribute Death Row,

and two established industry
people to deal with--

Jimmy Iovine, who is a superstar
producer of rock records,

and Ted Fields,
who had been a movie producer

and produced
some hit music.

They had some rather
controversial acts

of their own in rock--
Nine Inch Nails.

They signed Tupac Shakur,

the other hottest rapper
in the business.

Interscope was
out of business.

They were getting ready
to close the doors.

Warner's Atlantic
was dropping the deal,

and Ted Fields was tired
of pouring

his personal money in there.

So here comes Dick Griffey
with "The Chronic."

Dick and I went
and met with Jimmy Iovine,

and we met with David Cohen,

and we played them
"The Chronic,"

and they said they were
interested in making a deal.

So these guys told me--
said, "Look, they--

we gonna
advance you $200,000."

Well, in the meantime,
what was--

what was going on is
there was no more money.

There was no cash flow.

Friday, no money,
Saturday, no money,

Sunday, no money,
Monday, no money.

Tuesday, they advanced $100,000,

for which we had
to sign as a loan.

By Wednesday, Suge and Dre
are up at Interscope.

Jimmy Iovine
got a hold of Dre,

said, "See, Dre?

"They doing it
to you again, Dre.

These guys are taking
advantage of you.

They then got in touch
directly with Suge and said,

"You know, Griffey was here,
he won't make us a deal,

but you bring us a record,
we'll give you $1 million."

The man, once again,

had done the old
divide and conquer.

There's really a lot
of prejudice in the business.

And people think it's so much
black and white,

but a lot of it
is young and old.

Most of our young people
don't really know

what's available
for them out there,

so that's how they get
taken advantage of.

Older guys,
only thing they want to do

is sit you down
and say, "Look...

"Okay, Suge, you say
you're a young entrepreneur.

"This is what we gonna do.

"Give me all the stuff you got--
give me your tapes,

"give me your masters,
give me your groups,

and I'm gonna go over there
and make you a deal."

Suge didn't know contracts.

He didn't know manufacturing,
he didn't know publishing.

But you know,
my opinion was,

"Look, I ain't no punk.

"You don't
gotta talk for us.

We gonna go in there and speak
for ours self.

"Instead of getting
a dollar, we want five,

You know, and our masters,
and our ownership."

(Dick Griffey)
What they ended up with
is going over to Interscope

and getting one of those
regular slave deals.

They took the kids away
from the nest too soon.

Interscope clearly
saw the money.

And this is
the record business.

And I think they were
smart enough

to see that whoever
this guy Suge Knight was,

and knowing the track record
of this producer, Dr. Dre,

and you had the legal mind
of Dave Kenner there,

they've got all
the tools in place.

"Everything that we need
is right here.

"We don't really
have to do anything.

"All we have to do is fund
these guys and do what we do,

"which is promote records
and market records

and advertise records."

Jimmy Iovine
had to go pay off

Ruthless, Eazy, Jerry Heller,

and have "The Chronic"
distributed

through Priority Records.

Eazy was getting
on Dre's "Chronic" record,

like, 50 cents a copy,
maybe 25 cents,

meaning, yeah, "Dre Day,"
he talking shit about me,

but every time "Dre Day"
sell a record,

I get 25 cents a copy.

(Virgil Roberts)
After they signed
the agreement,

I think they realized
that they needed to leave,

and they did.

All of a sudden,
they disappeared.

(Jewell)
Suge cut off all ties
with, you know,

the people he was
dealing with in the beginning,

and we got a whole new office
and a whole new crew.

And that really
became kind of the--

the rupture in the relationship

between Dick and Suge
and D.O.C. and Dre.

(Dick Griffey)
"The Chronic" rolls out
and sells 5 million copies,

generates $50 million.

It saved Interscope...
made Interscope.

We invented something
that wasn't out there,

so it was fresh, and everybody
wanted it,

from the East Coast
to the West Coast, period.

You couldn't turn on MTV
without seeing Dr. Dre.

First time I performed songs
from "The Chronic"

was with Dr. Dre,

and we did, like, a small,
little concert in Compton.

And, man, motherfuckers were
singing every word of the songs.

It made me feel, like, damn,
this is my life right here.

(Ton Def)
To me it wasn't like, okay,

Dre is advocating
everybody smoke weed.

He wasn't saying that.

He was saying
my album is dope.

Do you understand
what I'm saying?

My album is dope,
buy it.

It was a good record--
I know a lot of cats

that's pissed off behind
those records right now

'cause they say
they haven't been paid

or didn't get credit
for it.

I liked it--
I mean, it was--

I was surprised by it,
I was happy with it.

In fact, I still play it
from time to time.

I don't like to listen
to his voice on the shit,

but I still listen to it.

If you understand,
you know,

what was going on in the street

at that time
and even now,

word of mouth is everything.

And Death Row became
really hip on the street.

Every young black entertainer
wanted to be a part of it,

so there was no problem
finding talent at all.

There was an understanding
at Death Row

that they weren't getting
at the major companies.

(Doug Young)
One of the things
about these major labels--

they'll never understand
street music.

They'll never understand stuff

that starts right there
in the neighborhoods.

They'll never understand it,

never will, never will,
never will.

That's why you will always have
some young entrepreneurs

who will come along,
who really understand

how to do that,
and make a killing.

(Suge Knight)
I'm not Hollywood.

You know, if you see me
out somewhere,

I don't care who you is--
I'm fixin' to come over there,

hear your hook, talk to you--
"How you doing," whatever.

You ain't gonna speak to me.

I ain't gonna do no
"Psh, let's do lunch."

I ain't with
all that, you know?

I'll be, like, "What's up?
I'm still from the ghetto.

It was
a very, very good time

for young kids
looking for a break.

There was an opportunity there.

There were people there
that understood them,

understood what they were about.

Kids would come in
and want to audition

right off the street.

Basically did the same thing
Motown did.

They took
the mindset, the spirit,

the dreams, the hopes,
and wishes, and thoughts

of the people,
of the time period,

and they set it to music.

If anybody would really
stop for a moment

to analyze what really
happened at Death Row,

it's really a miracle.

You have a company,
a small company

run by a young,
black entrepreneur,

and he releases five or six LPs,

and all of them went at least,
I think, double platinum.

Now, it's a known
fact in our industry--

if you're working for a major,
and you release ten LPs,

and you have
three to four hit records

out of the ten
that you release,

you're considered a genius.

I think the most important thing
in my situation,

that I wasn't coached.

I think if a person is coached
about the business,

they're gonna continue
to make the same mistakes

the other entrepreneurs
been making all along.

The appeal of Death Row Records,
and everybody

wanting to join
Death Row Records at the time,

was the fact that Suge Knight
was a black man

with a lot of power,

and he was a fearsome
individual.

That's the type of person
you want on your team.

Suge Knight is
an intimidating individual.

When he enters a room,
you notice him,

You can't help it.

I think that
he would be considered

a handsome man, huge man.

(Hank Caldwell)
Suge's tremendous size
intimidated people.

When you got a 300-pound guy
saying something,

it means a lot more than if you
have Mickey Rooney saying it.

Suge was bright
enough to use his size

much like Don King
uses his hair.

The hype got so big, that
everybody started fearing him.

I have friends who are at Sony,
and one of them called,

said, "Gee, you know,
we really want to get a track.

Would you do me a favor,
and could you go talk to Suge?"

And I said, "Yeah, I'll go
talk to him."

And so,
I went over to see Suge.

And I said, Suge, "What is it
you're doing?

You got people out here
that are afraid to talk to you."

(Hank Caldwell)
Suge became somewhat like
a folk hero after a while.

These stories just developed
a life of their own.

You got Suge doing everything
from throwing people

off of a 30-story building

to, you know, putting rocks--
and burying them in cement.

The media,
they put bad names on people

and, you know,
try to run.

They drag their name
through dirt or whatever.

But now, as an individual,

you got to do what you got to do
to get paid.

(Jewell)
He was a very
brilliant businessman.

Whatever his tactics
might have been,

whoever he had
to step on to get there,

his main objective was
to just get there

at any cost.

There's a genius
which is a part of him.

And you know what they say
about geniuses, you know?

They aren't far
from being insane.

Suge Knight pretty much
blew his cover

by appearing
on the cover of magazines

because now, you're no longer
a figure behind the scenes.

Now, you're a celebrity.

You're making yourself
a celebrity.

When Snoop's album comes out,

this is the most anticipated
rap album in history.

(Snoop Dogg)
"Doggystyle" was--

we through with
"The Chronic."

"It's all about you, Snoop.

You the hottest thing coming out
the West Coast in a long time."

And Dre gonna produce it.

And when Dre produce an album
from top to bottom,

you can't lose.

(reporter)
Tell us what we should expect
on the new album.

Gangsta shit,
you know what I'm saying?

Smooth gangsta shit.

We're here at Tower Records
in Marina del Rey.

where this is really the hottest
album on the shelves right now.

(news anchor)
Since the album was released
at midnight last night,

at this store,
they've already sold

130 CDs and about
100 cassettes.

It could be
the hottest album ever.

Get it before it's gone.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Nobody had ever,
in the modern era,

had their very first album
go number one.

A triple platinum album is
$30 million to the record label.

It's more like $45 million
on the retail level.

Death Row became
the core of Interscope,

which became the core
of Warner Brothers'

music moneymaking machine.

After the Snoop album came out,
it was all gravy

'cause, man, Death Row
was flying high at the end.

There was just so money floating
around Death Row for anything.

I remember,
I used to keep thousands--

I used to run through thousands
of dollars a day.

They're making
$100 million a year.

They can buy anything
they want.

They can buy
anybody they want.

That made it all very,
very serious business.

Rappers didn't give
gangsta rap its name.

The music industry gave
gangsta rap its name.

They said,
"This music has cussing in it,

"they're calling women bitches,
so that's gangsta rap

because it comes from
the gangs and the gangstas."

Gangsta rap isn't something
that was just born

and invented in the
quote-unquote "ghetto."

It's something that you see
in American movies.

Put that gun away.
When I get good and ready.

The glorification of Al Capone
and Lucky Luciano,

and that's kind of glamorous in
any American's eyes, I think.

It really puts
the truth of society

out in front of America,

and America,
not used to that,

is obviously gonna be
shocked about it.

Suppose they just started
rapping about the 6:00 news.

Would it be gangsta rap?

Gangsta rap is
like the movies, too.

Drama sells.

I take it
for what it is.

It's a record, it's a CD,
it's a tape.

You know, and I'm not
gonna live my life by it,

and other people
shouldn't either.

It's entertainment.

No black man should get on
the front of a magazine

with a 12-inch cigar
in front of two Rolls-Royces

wearing what could be considered
gang colors in America.

That sends a bad message--
that's negative.

Publicity, when it was negative,
played a role also

because it was
part of this role

that Suge Knight
had chosen for the company.

I mean, these kids
were not gangsters,

quote, real gangsters.

Many people there were not,
as a matter of fact,

gang members, like it has
been portrayed in the press.

You know, there were people
around that were.

When you got
brothers that, you know,

perpetrating gang violence
or gang affiliation,

and they making it cool,
it's a problem.

That could be a problem.

It wasn't just Death Row
perpetuating the violence.

I think
it was the media.

I think-- I mean,
let's face it.

The coverage was just awesome.

All of a sudden, Death Row
and gangsta rap was the reason

that every youngster in America
was going bad.

(all)
No gangsta rap!

Lyrics that
promote rape, murder,

racism, drug abuse,
and violence.

"Die, die, die, pig, die."

Time Warner's music division
promotes music

that celebrates the rape,
torture, and murder of women.

C. Delores Tucker
is a political activist

that embodies herself
in matters

of African-American
decency questions.

In the beginning, she was trying
to protect America

from the threat
of gangsta rap.

You will see words
that you can't even repeat

in a locker room.

But by that point, the cat
was out of the bag,

and there was very little
that should could have done.

Doggy style.

Do it from the back.

She involved herself
in Time Warner politics

along with a odd political
bedfellow for her,

who was William Bennett.

The moral obtuseness
of Time Warner.

We do not understand
why they don't get it.

These are right-wing
conservatives, both of them.

They are would-be censors.

Both were attacking Time Warner
along with Dole.

A line has been crossed,

not just of taste, but
of human dignity and decency.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Now, you've got
a presidential candidate

accusing Time Warner
of debasing the nation

for handling
Death Row product.

The mainstreaming of deviancy
must come to an end.

And I think
we do have problems

with the social fabric
of this country right now.

I do have trouble believing
that it is caused

by song lyrics or movies.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Time Warner was also
doing Ice-T.

They got T off the label, but
they were stuck with Death Row.

And the numbers
were so huge,

they didn't know
what to do with it.

They'd just put
$120 million into it.

They're getting all
that money out and then some.

They can't be seen by
any of their artists

to give into
political pressure whatsoever.

If you do that, they'd never get
another act again,

and no self-respecting manager
would ever sign with a label

who they thought
could be pressured for content.

We, African-American
women particularly,

are tired of being called hoes,
bitches, and sluts

by our children,

who are paid to do this
by Time Warner.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
She came up with an idea

that she reportedly
pitched to Fuchs,

that what if she stated a label,
a positive rap label,

and got Suge to distribute
Death Row product through her

with her as the watchdog
of the lyrical content,

to make sure
that the messages were positive.

Michael Fuchs,
reportedly desperate

to try and figure out a solution
to this,

apparently listened to her.

She got Fuchs to guarantee
$80 million

if she could pull this off.

Interscope was not about
to let Death Row

go without a fight.

Suge Knight also protected
those artists lyrically,

you know, made sure
that everyone was allowed

to say whatever the hell
they wanted to say.

Whatever happens,
we're gonna stand up tall

and-- and-- and be
more successful.

Only thing anybody is doing

is making us
stronger and better.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
No way he was gonna let
C. Delores Tucker

decide the lyrical content
of a Snoop Doggy Dogg album.

That wasn't gonna happen,

but they apparently
thought it was.

Michael Fuchs reportedly flew
to Los Angeles

in the Time Warner jet
to Dionne Warwick's house,

with C. Delores Tucker
sitting there

waiting for Suge Knight
to come over to cut a deal

that would make a tame
Death Row Records.

What she really wanted
was a record company,

or to have more
involvement in that business.

I mean, it is a very
lucrative business.

She had
the wherewithal to see

where this rap situation
was going,

how it had the nation
really sort of unnerved.

She was just trying to parlay it
into something for herself,

or she had been promised

that it would be something
for herself.

Never.

Never have I discussed
$80 million with them,

about any kind
of a business deal.

The story goes that they waited
five hours,

Michael Fuchs,
C. Delores Tucker,

and-- and--
at Dionne Warwick's house,

that Suge never showed up.

Suge went right back
to Interscope and said,

"Do you know what these guys
just tried to pull?"

So Interscope then
promptly sued Time Warner

and promptly sued
C. Delores Tucker

for interfering with
their contractual relationship.

Time Warner has decided

to get out of
the gangsta rap business

by selling its 50% share
of Interscope Records

back to that company.

They made
the right decision,

the morally responsible
decision, we think,

and we believe
that by their action,

divesting themselves
of Interscope

at some financial loss,
they have set a standard

for the entire entertainment
industry.

I commend them for it.

I think they are gonna be
good corporate citizens.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Death Row Records was at
the center of controversies,

and if the Republicans
had had their way,

would have
brought down a president.

That's how big
the controversy got.

(Michael Harris)
The origins of Death Row,
starting with David Kenner,

Michael Harris,
and Suge Knight

didn't seem
out of the ordinary

until all the information
started unfolding

because David Kenner,
nobody knew who he was.

David Kenner became
the principle business attorney

for the label, as well as
the criminal attorney

for many people
at the label.

Los Angeles police announced
that 21-year-old Calvin Broadus,

better known as rap star
Snoop Doggy Dogg,

had turned himself
into police on Friday

along with two other
young black men,

all accompanied by an attorney,

in connection with the murder
on August 25th

of a man named
Philip Woldermariam

in what police believe was
a gang-related shooting.

It never should
have gone to trial.

(David Kenner)
The alleged victim in this case
had a gun,

was reaching to his waistband
to pull that gun out.

At the time,
Snoop's bodyguard did the--

fired a shot.

And that's what we said
from the beginning.

The testimony makes it clear
this is a case of self-defense.

(Snoop Dogg)
The DA, he was a pain
in the ass.

He just tried to do
everything in the world

to make me seem like
the most negative,

gangbangin'-est,
criminal-minded motherfucker

he could just imagine,
and tried

to paint a picture of me
that just wasn't happening.

It was crazy knowing
that he was--

that's what
his job was to do,

was to get me locked up
for life.

You know what I'm saying?

I just want to say
fuck you... bitch.

(Paul Palladino)
Dave Kenner was the guy

who legally
made Suge secure.

One of the benefits
Suge Knight

gave to people
that joined Death Row

was to say that,
"I have a legal team,

"people who have
a lot of experience

in the criminal arena,
that can help you."

Whereas in the past,
coming from a black community,

you go into a white
justice system,

where all the cards
are stacked against you.

Here, for the first time
in most of their lives,

they were given
a lawyer who was very capable

and an investigator
on top of it.

And the results spoke for
themselves most of the time.

They got to see instances
where they were acquitted

in cases which normally
they would have been convicted.

In the rap industry,
the problems happen

at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning,

so it's not
a 9:00 to 5:00 job.

David was the rare lawyer
who would be available

to clients at that hour.

(Sam Gideon Anson)
Of the $70 or $80 million

that Interscope paid them
between 1995 and 1997,

about 13 million of that
went to the law offices

of David Kenner
or to David Kenner.

Certainly, this company

was his bread and butter
for some time.

(reporter)
What's your name again?

David Kenner, K-E-N-N-E-R.

I was quite surprised
because you would expect

a music business attorney,
but he wasn't.

He was a criminal attorney.

He had entertainment attorney
qualities, you know?

He's flamboyant
and he's sharp, and-- you know?

And he's kind of
Mafia-ish,

you know, his whole persona.

After a while, David
might have got so caught up

in this lifestyle that
he might have become

somewhat confused
because the thing is

is David really was
supposed to be

working on getting Mike out.

David was handling
Michael's appeal.

David was involved very much
in Lydia's life.

He was friends with Lydia.

This was a person who was
very trustworthy to him.

And I thought, man,
Mike is making a ton of money.

And then, you see
Dave Kenner there.

So you see if Dave is there,
then Mike is there.

And then,
the stories start flashing,

and then you know that there's
a war going on.

There was rumors that,
you know,

Suge was over there trying
to get a deal at Interscope.

But when he would go down
and visit Mike,

him and Kenner
would say it wasn't true.

And Mike said, "Hey, what's this
here in the newspaper?

And Suge would say,
"Oh, they, you know

how the newspaper
print up articles."

So Mike said, "Well, they're not
gonna just print up anything."

So he start asking David,
you know, "What's going on?"

Then David came and said,
"Suge did this behind my back."

(Sam Gideon Anson)
Then that started to cause
Michael concern

about what
exactly was going on.

He started to get word
that Suge was telling people,

"Oh, Michael Harris is nobody,
he's not my partner."

And the word
on the street was

Michael Harris is really pissed
off with Suge, it's on.

(Jewell)
He wanted to get all the credit,

which Mike don't trip--
the credit.

The world thinks
that Suge did this on his own.

Mike's in jail, but he's got
a wife, he's got a kid.

You know,
he's got family out here.

He's got people
he's taking care of.

So you know, his reaction
is he's stunned.

Then, he's kind of
mad about it, you know?

You know,
"How you gonna punk me?"

The phone was never blocked

because it always had cats
calling from the pen.

Harry O., uh,
wasn't the only one.

But after a while,
I even remember--

and I think
it was because of Harry--

that they then blocked
the phone

where it couldn't
take no more calls.

David Kenner started off

to play these guys
against each other.

Once the rift between Suge
and Mike happened,

Dave Kenner had to pledge
allegiance one way or the other.

(Sam Gideon Anson)
Throughout this time,
even if Suge

was denying
his partnership with Michael

or denying that Michael
had any role in the company,

David would be going up
to visit Michael

and saying,
"Oh, no, everything's okay.

"There's no problem,
everything's fine.

"We're gonna get
this taken care of.

It reminds me of the--
Brutus and Caesar.

(Sam Gideon Anson)
At some point,
Michael gets a hold

of the incorporation paperwork
of Death Row Records

and realizes
that Suge and David Kenner

had set up a different company
of Death Row Records

that was independent
of this GF Entertainment

Michael had had a hand in.

And I think Michael
began to suspect

that things were not so kosher
with their partnership.

He the one told Dave, "Hey, look
at this, man, that guy Suge.

"I like him,
go talk to him.

"Okay, a record company?

"Okay, I give you
this amount of money.

You tell him to do this."

Okay, then him and Suge talking,
Suge's going to visit him.

"Suge, check this out--
put it down like this, man.

"Put it down like that.
You do--

"David, you do this part--
keep him out of jail.

You make sure
you keep him out of jail."

That's how Suge got all them
probations and stuff,

Dave fighting like he crazy
to keep him out of jail

'cause Mike
telling him to.

"Keep him out of jail."

But guess what?

Soon as the money
come in, "Who?

Harry O.?"

They turned Scooby Doo on him--

"Who-- who--
who's that?"

You know.

Mike said,
"Well, where's the money at?"

And they said, "You know,
it's gonna be 60 to 90 days,

you know, before we see
a royalty check."

So those 60 and 90 days
turned into a year.

I went over and met
with David Cohen.

He said, "Well, you know,
what if we don't pay you?"

And I told him,
"I'm not threatening you,

"but I'm gonna go
on national TV

and tell what really happened."

(Doug Young)
Everybody knew Harry O.
wasn't no joke, okay?

Everybody knew
Harry O. had chips.

And all you gotta do is be
no joke and have chips,

and you can get
somebody handled.

(Jewell)
That's when Michael
typed up a letter.

(Sam Gideon Anson)
Michael put
his concerns on paper

in the form of a lawsuit

that could have been filed,
that was never filed,

laying out his grievances
as to how he had been

a founding partner
in Death Row Records

and had been denied his fair
share of the proceeds.

That lawsuit
was shown to Interscope,

and Interscope paid a fairly
generous settlement

to make it go away
before it ever got filed.

That next day,
I got a call.

They told me that Mike was,
in, like, a wheelchair.

His mouth was twisted.

I mean,
he couldn't even walk.

He couldn't even use
his hands.

He couldn't do nothing--
I said, "What happened?"

And that's when the doctor said
he had Guillain-Barré.

And I asked Mike--
I said, "Well, did,

you know,
Kenner give you anything?"

I'd started thinking,
at least to myself,

that Suge was getting himself
caught up

into too many situations
that were unhealthy.

He had created an image
that was working for him.

And sometimes, the image
merged with reality.

And I'm not sure
that as time went on,

that Suge
didn't draw the line

between when there
was the image

and when
there was the reality.

Suge wasn't a gangsta.

Suge came from
a family.

His mother and father
are still together.

He was
a college football player.

I feel I got a whole, whole lot
of street credibility,

street smarts,
and at the same time,

I graduated from college.

You know, I--
I hit the books,

and I put both of them together.

He ran that company
like it was his gang.

That's his family.

He might not love us,
but he made us think he did.

(Virgil)
A lot of what followed
in part had to do

with trying
to establish Death Row

as the label with the most
street credibility,

and we're really
doing gangsta rap,

and we're keeping it real,

and we're
keeping it legitimate.

And so, when you guys
get out the joint,

you can come get a job with me,
that sort of thing.

I ain't never had
a job before in my life

until I start working for Suge.

You know,
I was in and out of jail.

You know what I'm saying?

Did a little bit of everything,
you know what I'm saying?

Now, I'm-- pssh-- you know
what I'm saying?

Yeah, a lot of them cats
that was up there

was fresh out
of the penitentiary

with that penitentiary
mentality.

It was like
working at a prison

with no guns, no knives,
no nothing.

you just had to be in there
on your own and handle it.

How many companies
do you know

can have some Crips
and Bloods up there?

Crips and Bloods.

At first, I was totally
with Death Row's concept

'cause it was about time
we had a brother out there, man,

that wasn't taking no shit
from these companies,

that wasn't
paying brothers their money.

So I was totally with it.

It was when the nonsense
got too out of hand.

We had a system
of that kind of thing,

sort of like a demerit system
for artists and so on,

and for some
of the office workers.

Say something wrong,
you get smacked.

If you come
late, you get smacked.

If you do this,
you get smacked.

(laughs)
That sounds to me--

To me, it was like
pimps and hoes.

(Doug Young)
I just knew how after a while,
Suge was unapproachable.

You couldn't
really talk to him no more.

You know, I just--
I just knew it.

There was no more
talking to this guy.

Man, this guy is
the fucking man.

The company was, by no ways,
forms, or fashion, Hollywood.

You know how white folks
like to do.

They like
to scream at each other.

They-- "I'm gonna get
my lawyer on you."

But the new brothers
wasn't doing it like that.

They was coming through doors,
coming through windows,

and the whole nine
on people.

You know, these rappers
are from the street.

They're not
used to nothing else.

So you have to deal with ''em
in the street mentality.

I heard somebody
once describe them

as all thinking they were in
a "Godfather" movie.

Suge was famous for applying
the old Mafia tactics,

that you instill
fear in everybody.

And a guy just walks in,
he wants to--

he has no idea we're in
the middle of a meeting.

He wants a record deal,
he walks in,

and he says
he knows how to rap.

So Suge says, "Okay, rap.

If we don't like what you do,
we gonna kick your ass."

He said maybe three words,
and they just lit his ass up.

I've seen people
get beat up.

You understand I've seen people
get that door locked on 'em,

the infamous door-locking...
(laughs)

when they take you in a room
and touch you up and down.

I wasn't the only lady
that got beat up.

But I was the only lady
beat up and he held down.

Suge grabbed me by my feet,
and everything went haywire.

This girl cold-cocked me.

She loosened up my teeth,
and I had two black eyes.

David Kenner
stood up and watched.

Somebody else videotaped it,

and I kicked
Suge in his nuts,

and I got the hell up
out of there.

I have not laid eyes
on Suge since that day.

He won't lay eyes on me
till he see this.

(Doug Young)
All that drama that people knew
that was happening

right there at Death Row
on that 12th floor--

this is at the building right
down near the UCLA on Wilshire--

it never leaked over
to the Interscope side.

You know,
you see the Interscope.

Interscope looks nice, woody.

Things say
"Interscope Records," and...

they get into reception--
Death Row is just a door.

(laughing)
It's...

It was just
a mahogany door--

colored door--
with a camera.

(Snoop Dogg)
D.O.C. and RBX both
had problems with Suge.

They seen what type of person
he was on the inside.

Not to say nothing bad or not
to say nothing good about him,

but they seen
the type of person he was.

And through the grace of God
and good attorneys,

they were able to leave.

Everybody else was forced
in a chokehold after that.

(Frank Alexander)
Tupac Shakur was not
before his time,

but one of a kind
of his time and era.

He was a movie star, and for him
to be doing street stuff

gave him, like,
sort of a Marlon Brando edge,

the outlaw who was living life

in some romantic
Ernest Hemingway world

where you lived out
your art.

He had
that almost uncontrollable,

defiant attitude.

I got a big mouth,
can't help it.

I talk from my heart, I'm real,
you know what I'm saying?

Whatever comes, comes.

But my controversy, probably--
and it's not my fault.

I'm trying to find
my way in the world.

You know,
I'm trying to be somebody

instead of just make money
off everybody.

Tupac's gift
was the ability

to take somebody else's
pain and story

and translate it.

We, as rappers,
bought that violence.

We bought the violence
that we seen on the street,

and we put it in our records,

put it in our records
for years.

And after three, four years,

people finally
starting to see it

because of all the statistics
that's going on in the streets.

If we stop talking about it,

then they wouldn't
take statistics.

And when they stop
taking statistics,

then we'd be killing each other
in the street,

and these white people
wouldn't care no more.

He would definitely give you
something to think about.

I know some
of y'all white folks

and some of y'all
black folks

don't appreciate
what we talking about,

but this is the only way
we got to make money.

And if you don't let me
make my money on the streets,

I guarantee you, I will make
my money on the streets.

A lot of people
say the same things

or have said the same things
as Pac,

but Tupac made it believable.

'Cause at first,
I always thought

he was just a crazy, arrogant,
little idiot.

But I didn't
really know how deep he was.

We have to be honest
about the tools

that we use to survive.

And why is
a black life any--

any more... recoupable
than a white life?

You know what I'm saying?

We know that they don't put
the same security

in the ghetto
that they do in the white--

in the white neighborhoods.

What I saw in Tupac
was someone

who had a desire
to be successful,

and he only had two
or three avenues.

One was rapping,
one was acting,

and the other was going
into the movement

that his family came out of.

His mother
was a Black Panther.

All of the anger, frustration,
and everything

that she was dealing with
in what was going on

with her
at that time in her life

was feeding right into him.

When Tupac was a kid,
for punishment,

she would make him read
"The New York Times"

cover to cover.

And at the end of the day,

he would be quizzed
on everything

he read out of the paper.

Tupac, well aware of what
his mother had gone through,

brought that into the '90s

because nothing had changed
in the '60s to the '90s

as far as he saw
with his race of people.

I don't know how
to be responsible

for what every black male did.

I don't know.

Yes, I am gonna say
that I'm a thug.

That's because I came from
the gutter, and I'm still here.

I'm not saying I'm a thug
'cause I want to rob you

and rape people and things.

I'm a businessman.

I mean, you know
I'm a businessman

because you find me
at my places of business.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Tupac was a star at Interscope,

and Interscope had their hands
full with him.

He was in jail
and in trouble.

He just had got beat up
by the police.

He had a lawsuit
going to them that he won,

and he was getting just harassed
for anything.

I mean, you know, they just
start throwing him on the news

as the bad guy of rap

when he really
wasn't that person.

I appreciate the press
that you're giving me,

for giving me a fair trial
and a fair shot at justice.

I thank you from the bottom
of my heart

for just destroying
everything I worked for

for the past 22 years,
and a Happy New Year to you too.

Tupac was in the news
every day.

I mean, you can't buy
that kind of publicity.

It's unfortunate the kinds
of media coverage that they got,

but it added to sales.

People didn't know Pac had,
like, 15 cases

in different states in America.

We would go do a show,

Pac would go
straight to court

soon as we get off
the airplane.

Don't block my way,
and don't hit my lawyer.

(Virgil Roberts)
Great artists are almost
always out of step

with what's going on
in society

'cause they see
the world differently

and they act differently.

The last situation he got into,

Interscope kind of, like,
left him for dead.

They weren't really
fucking with Pac like that.

Shakur and another man
were accused

of sexually assaulting and
sodomizing a 21-year-old woman

in their hotel room
last year.

It's not
a crime for me to be

with any girl I want
to be with.

It's a crime for that girl
to turn that into a rape charge.

It was her
who sodomized me.

It wasn't me who went down
to the dance club

and ate her out.

It was her in the dance club
who had oral sex with me.

She should be charged,
not me.

Last night,
or just after midnight,

at 723 Seventh Avenue--

that's between
48th and 49th Street--

our rap star, Tupac Shakur,
and three members of his group

were robbed and shot.

(Kevin Powell)
The word on the streets is
that it was a warning to Tupac.

Who was it coming from?

(reporter)
In a bizarre twist
of events,

rap singer Tupac Shakur
checked himself out

of Bellevue Hospital
late Wednesday night

after the 23-year-old was shot
five times

early that same morning
inside the lobby

of a Times Square
recording studio.

(reporter 2)
Shakur had appeared
in court today,

but had little to say
about being shot.

(reporter 3)
Mr. Shakur, how are you
this morning?

(reporter 4)
After three days
of deliberations,

the jury has finally decided
the fate of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Guilty on three counts
of sexual abuse,

he now faces 1 1/2
to 4 1/2 years in prison.

The main impetus for the
incarceration of Mr. Shakur

was from City Hall,
Mr. Giuliani himself.

Being 23, being black, and last
name being Shakur in America,

he never had a chance.

Tupac was in jail,
and he wanted out of jail,

and he wanted
out of jail badly.

No one, including Interscope,
was putting up

any bail money
to get him out,

and his bail was set
at $1.4 million.

A lot of people
on the East Coast,

a lot of people in New York City
dissed him hard, man.

They dissed him on the radio.

No one went to go visit him
except for a few people.

And he wanted
to be number one again.

So where else do you go

but to where
the other number-one people are?

(Allen Gordon)
Death Row Records
had been trying

to get Tupac for some time.

If you got Suge Knight
dangling in front of you,

you know, freedom, freedom,
money, power, respect,

can get you out of jail,
how else you gonna go for it?

You got a scared young man,
first time behind bars.

He's supposed to be
back there for four years.

And Pac promised him in return,
"You get me out of here,

"I'll put Death Row
on the map.

My first CD will
sell six million copies."

And I don't think
it's a coincidence

that Suge wanted him on
Death Row Records so badly

because even though Snoop
was a huge star,

he didn't have what Tupac had,

that kind of icon presence,
like a James Dean or Elvis.

Now, I heard that he had Pac
sign a contract on toilet paper.

(laughs)

I don't know how true it is,

but I know when Pac came back...
he was ready.

(Frank Alexander)
Tupac got out September of '95.

He went to Death Row Records.

That's the day
he got off the plane,

and they laid down
their first track

for "All Eyez on Me"
in 15 minutes.

This album is more
celebratory of life,

um, upbeat, energetic,
fun, I think,

but it's also harsher
in terms of the language

because I didn't-- I've been
in jail for 11 1/2 months.

(Ton Def)
Tupac brought the feeling
of "I was nothing,

"now I'm something,

"and I want everybody else
to be something too.

If I can do it,
you can do it."

He stirred up
the whole group there.

He got them all going
and all working.

He made sure
that every artist at Death Row

had some part
of this double CD.

It was his way of saying,
"Look, I'm part of the family,

and I want you
on my album,"

which he did
not have to do.

Like, I remember doing a session
with him, you know,

and it seemed like he was
just running around, having fun,

just partying, you know,
having a good time.

But the man was done.

We thought that he didn't
even write 'em.

We thought he came
with his lyrics already.

But no, he wrote 'em
that day.

And that's just
how sharp he was, man.

(Suge Knight)
You had people
around the studio saying,

"Man, we gotta
get like Pac.

"Pac just go in there,
kick 'em in, kick 'em out,

kick 'em in, kick 'em out."

And that's
all they'd talk about,

and that's exactly what
they were doing.

He made
the level of competition,

which is a good thing.

He brought
that level up.

Any of the artists
will tell you

that what Tupac
put into them was this business

of the work ethic,
where you can do more

if you just work at it.

When Tupac came,
it's like Suge wasn't worried

about nobody else, not Snoop,
nobody at the time.

Nobody.

Around the time that Tupac
got out of jail,

Sean "Puffy" Combs
was about to become,

I would say, the East Coast
version of Suge Knight,

with Bad Boy Records.

You know, his first big artist
was the Notorious B.I.G.

This bullshit about the
East Coast and the West Coast

started when we went out
to New York

to do the Source Awards,
and Mr. Knight went onstage.

And he's in New York City,

and we all know Puffy's
from New York City.

Any artist out there
want to be an artist,

and want to stay a star,
and don't want to have to worry

about the executive producer
trying to be

all in the videos,
all on the records, dancing,

come to Death Row.

(booing)

I mean, the whole crowd
started booing.

And then,
I thought to myself, like,

"Why would you do that?"

The East Coast don't love
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?

The East Coast
ain't got no love

for Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg,
and Death Row?

Y'all don't love us?

Y'all don't
love us?

Well, let it
be known then.

We know y'all East Coast.

We know where
the (...) we at.

East Coast (...)!

(booing)

I'm the executive producer
that a comment was made about

a little bit earlier, but cont--
check this out.

Contrary to what other people
may feel,

I would like to say
that I'm very proud of Dr. Dre,

of Death Row and Suge Knight
for their accomplishments.

And all this East and West,
that needs to stop.

It was so... personal.

Puffy was a good friend
of mine.

(Kevin Powell)
There's enough
room in this business

for two young black males
who are entrepreneurs to exist.

I mean, can you imagine
if Al Bell and Berry Gordy

were fighting,
or if The Temptations

had beef with The Four Tops?

I mean, it sounds
fucking retarded

when you think about it.

"Yo, The Four Tops got beef
with The Temptations,

Marvin Gaye and
Smokey Robinson were fighting

at the Grammy Awards
last night."

I mean, think
about that for a second.

A lot of people on
the West Coast felt that...

we have always had love
for the East Coast, you know?

They come here
and break their records.

They come here and play
at the clubs.

You know,
they come do in-stores.

We do the whole nine with them
East Coast cats,

and we go out there,
and we don't get that same love.

I remember New York DJs
at parties

refusing to play
West Coast records.

"They country, they're bamas,
they wear Jheri curls,

they can't rhyme, they're whack,
it's not danceable."

It was the media
that blew it up, you know?

You're seeing certain things
that somebody said

highlighted in magazines
about the West Coast,

and vice versa, and it just--

it just boiled over
from there.

All these people talking about
an East Coast-West Coast war,

they like what Judas
was to Jesus.

They only here
to cause confusion.

It made rap music look bad.

It made rap music
look like

it was just another
part of the dope game.

Controversy is what Death Row
started living off of

instead of talent.

If this was chess,
we'd be yelling "checkmate"

three motherfucking
years ago

'cause we been beat
these motherfuckers.

Then, the disrespect just
started getting worse and worse

between the West Coast
and the East Coast.

Overthrow the government y'all
got right now,

which is Bad Boy,
and Nas, and all that bullshit,

and we will bring a new
government here

that will feed
every person in New York.

And then you had the Tupac
and Big situation,

you know,
flaming it even more.

I possess his soul,
his and Puffy's.

They know
that I was the truest nigga

involved with Biggie's success.

I was
the biggest help.

I was the truest nigga.

I don't write his rhymes,

but he know how much
he borrowed from me.

He know how I used to stop
my shows

and let him touch the show,

let him blow up
and do his whole show

in the middle of my show,

how I used to buy him shit,
and give him shit,

and never ask for it back,

how I used to share, how I used
to share my experiences

in the game, and my lessons,
and my rules, and my knowledge

on the game with him,
you know what I mean?

He owed me more.

He owed me more
than to turn his head

and act like he didn't
know niggas

was about to blow
my fucking head off.

He knew,
but for me to know,

like, three weeks ago,
this happened,

and then three weeks later,
you're album's coming out,

and you are
a fucking don in your album,

but you don't know who shot me
in your fucking hometown?

This nigga's from
your neighborhood,

and I gotta find out
by myself?

And I don't even
call myself a don.

I'm just a capo
from the West Side,

and I'm on the East Side
in jail,

and I know who touched me,

and I know
everything that happened.

Tupac was wrong in blaming

whoever the individual
figures were

who actually had something
to do with it in New York,

and making it into
this whole New York City thing

and then this East Coast-
West Coast thing.

And I think that he definitely
had someone in his ear--

probably Suge--
exacerbating it.

It sells records.

It continues to get
media attention,

which sells more records.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
Tupac had claimed
to have gone out

with Biggie's wife,
Faith Evans.

This was a great humiliation,
reportedly, for Biggie.

It was all over.

We were in Manhattan
shooting a video.

Biggie Smalls had
gotten on the radio station,

and Biggie said that,
"I cannot believe

"that New York is allowing
Tupac and the Dogg Pound

"to shoot a video
in our city,

right in the heart
of Times Square."

The words out
of Biggie's mouth was,

"Tupac and the Dogg Pound."

And it wasn't.

It was Snoop
and the Dogg Pound.

Tupac was not with us.

Snoop at the time
was having his hair braided,

and all of the artists
was in the trailer.

And then,
all of a sudden, gunfire.

Someone shot into the trailer.

They weren't shooting in there
to say, you know, "Get out."

They were shooting
in there to kill someone.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
There was a shift in Tupac
Shakur's lyrical content.

He, at first,
was more political.

Then, at some point,
he became more street.

It was West Coast versus
East Coast.

The person at Riker's Island
was very reflective,

and he's gonna change
his life, and everything.

This new person was, like,
"Fuck New York.

"Fuck the East Coast.
Suge is the man.

He takes care of me."

He's flashing money
in front of the MTV cameras.

It was like, wow--
it was Jekyll and Hyde.

One of the songs was a song
called "Hit 'Em Up."

It talked about
killing the Bad Boy camp,

you know,
different artists.

It was a lot of threats.

I go, "Pac--" I go,
"Did you hear what you said?"

He was like, "Yeah, nigga,
I wrote it."

"Okay, um, we're gonna
need some more security,

and you need to start
wearing a vest."

(Hank Caldwell)
Anytime you have this synergy

between two or more people

and they make
things happen,

when you start
breaking that up,

things are never
the same again.

When you think about Dr. Dre,

here's a cat
who's always had

some sort of big brother
or father figure around him.

Early on, it was
Alonzo Williams.

Then, it was Eazy-E,
Jerry Heller.

Then, it becomes Suge Knight.

And so, Dre was one
of those cats

who always needed
guidance from someone else

because Dre is really
an artistic person.

He's an artist,
he's a true artist.

Seemed like after a while,
somebody was pulling

his strings, you know, like
Dre had to answer to somebody.

(interviewer)
Who do you think that was?

We all know who that was.

(Kevin Powell)
The king, i.e. Suge Knight,

felt the need
to have the court around him,

and I don't think Dre
felt comfortable with that.

I've got all these people
around me, um...

How many of 'em
do I really need?

(Frank Alexander)
Tupac and Dr. Dre

was fine
in the beginning.

Everything was great.

I mean,
you didn't see any problems.

From the time that I worked
there in '95

up until early '96,

Dr. Dre had been
in the studio twice.

Pac took offense
to that.

(Tupac Shakur)
He wasn't producing shit.

Other niggas was producing
the beats like on my albums.

Other niggas
is doing the beats,

and Dre was getting
the credit.

Daz and all the other little
producers, and Assassin,

all the ones we have,
and... they did the tracks.

Dre wasn't doing the tracks,

and Dre didn't
write the lyrics.

(Kevin Powell)
Suge basically took on
the role for Tupac

that he had taken on
for Dre.

And I don't think
it's a coincidence

at a certain point,
you know,

Tupac started becoming
the mouthpiece for Suge

and started dissing Dre.

(Tupac Shakur)
He is a dope producer,
but he ain't worked in years.

I'm out here in the streets,
you know what I mean?

Whooping niggas' asses,
starting wars and shit,

putting it down,
dropping albums, doing my shit,

and this nigga taking three
years to do one song.

I seen the change.

Like, right after we finished
"Murder Was the Case,"

and we moved
into Can-Am Studios

and started working
on the "Dogg Food" album.

I just seen that he wasn't
as inspired.

And it was, like--
it was too many thugs

and niggas up there

that didn't have nothing
to do with nothing.

It was mostly just the way
the studio was, you know?

And that's where I have
to spend most of my time.

It was not
a work atmosphere anymore.

It became fun and games.

And the success
had kicked in,

and we were stars,
and motherfuckers just loved

being around us and bringing
bullshit around us,

and Dre wasn't for that.

I just didn't like some of
the things that were going on.

There was nothing being done
to stop it.

(Snoop Dogg)
Dre likes to work
in an environment

where he can create,
and everybody's on

a creative atmosphere,
and it's not about

what's going on in the hood,
how many niggas you shot,

and how much shit
you done did.

It ain't--
he didn't want that.

Suge took over the company.

It was no mystery
to nobody.

I don't think Dre wanted
to be a yes-man for somebody,

so he wanted
his own situation again.

So he bailed out.

(man)
He says, "Wait,
I want out of this world.

"I want to form Aftermath,
where I'm not part

"of Death Row anymore.

"I want to be beyond that,
I want to be with my family.

I want to live."

(Nate Dogg)
When Dr. Dre left
Death Row Records,

that was the biggest
shock to me

'cause I was real confused
at how you start a label

then you leave the label.

I always figured
if you had a problem

with somebody on your label,

you make them
leave the label,

and you go on
with what you're doing.

I guess that was the way
of learning

that it wasn't
all his label.

(Suge Knight)
Dre's departure wasn't a loss.

I mean, if you have
a multimillion-dollar company

maybe worth a billion dollars
or so,

and you own it 100%
and don't have a partner,

and you don't have
to give him nothing

but his walking papers,
that's great.

Dre made Death Row Records,
you know what I'm saying?

And this is absurd that
he's going from one situation

to another situation,
where he feels

like he's being
undercompensated.

To give up 50% of your label
and move on elsewhere

from a dangerous situation,

which Death Row Records
was becoming,

and we now
find out that it is,

was a smart move for him.

♪♪ (tense music)

(Frank Alexander)
September 7th, we were
just leaving a fight.

Tupac, Mike Tyson, friends,
were at the fight.

And we go backstage
to leave the building.

Immediately after coming
from backstage, um...

one of Suge's
homeboys came up

and whispered into Tupac's ear.

Pac took off running.

There was a gentleman standing
with a MGM security guard

by a pillar
as Tupac was approaching him.

Now, when I think about it,

the guy was
standing there waiting.

And Pac ran up on him,
and a fight broke out.

Orlando Anderson and a couple
of Suge's homeboys

had gotten into a fight
at the Lakewood Mall

in California
back in April of '96

over a Death Row chain

because there was a bounty
on the Death Row chains.

The same person
that had got into an altercation

with Orlando Anderson
in the mall

whispered into Tupac's ear,

and it caused
this fight.

They were, you know,
beating Orlando Anderson

up on the ground.

Tupac, Suge, and the rest
of the entourage,

they're pretty much bragging
about what had happened.

We get back
to the Luxor Hotel.

So we go up to Tupac's room.

He changed clothes.

We come back downstairs.

We're all just
standing around,

and all the women
are coming out.

Everybody's ready to,
you know,

go over to 662,
the afterparty.

So Tupac turns to me and says,
"No, don't ride with us."

He hands me
the keys and says,

"You go drive
the little homeys

"because we're going
to the club.

We're gonna be partying,
and you're gonna drive us."

So I said, "Okay."

Pac and Suge
get into the BMW.

We get back onto
the Las Vegas strip.

Suge's the lead car,
I'm the car right behind him,

and then, there's just cars
all behind us.

So we turn right off
of Las Vegas Boulevard

onto Flamingo
to go down to 662.

As we approached the next
stoplight,

which is Koval and Flamingo,

there is a car coming down
the open lane

that is next
to myself and the BMW.

As the car is approaching,

I turn
and I look to my right,

and I see the car,

and it's a white Cadillac.

It kind of had moved over,

and I would say,
closer to the BMW,

probably about that close.

And an arm just comes out
and just starts firing.

(gunshots)

(Suge Knight)
I heard the shots being fired.

Pac stood up to try
to get in the backseat

to get out the way
of the shots.

That's how he got shot
in his hip,

which hit one of the bones

and traveled
to hit his lung.

I grabbed him and said,
"Get down"...

and covered him.

When I pulled him down, that's
when I got shot in my head.

I said, "Are you hit?"
He said, "I'm hit."

So I'm driving like a madman
to a hospital,

and the first thing he said,
laughingly, jokingly,

loudly is,

"I need the hospital?

You the one
shot in the head."

(siren)

(indistinct police radio)

Coming up next
on the 10:00 news, his lyrics,

his life reflected
a gangsta lifestyle.

Tonight, Bay Area rapper
Tupac Shakur

is dead of gunshot wounds.

It's been all over the media,
all over the news,

all over the radio.

(news anchor)
Hundreds line the streets

outside a Nation of Islam
school

to pay their respects
to the slain rapper.

(Paul Palladino)
The first things I started
hearing were rumors

that Suge had
had Tupac shot

because Tupac was thinking
of leaving the industry.

And I started to laugh
when I heard that, I said,

"You know,
the problem with this is,

"is why would someone
like Suge have the shooter

shoot across the car so that
the bullets would hit him?"

There are so many different
layers to the story,

and it's so tragic.

Tupac Shakur
is one of those kids

who was really one of the great
creative forces of our ages.

He wasn't just a rapper, he was
a kid who was really insightful.

He said, "I didn't
want to go to Vegas anyway."

He goes,
"Almost didn't even come."

That day was gonna happen.

It was the destiny
of his life.

He had the thought
of not going,

but he went,
because his destiny

was to die in it
the next day.

And it's just a shame that...
(scoffs)

another brother gets lost
as a victim of this music.

If you had any street sense
knowledge about yourself,

you knew that company was gonna
come crashing down, face first.

People let the fame
go to their heads,

and their egos took over,
and...

the next thing
you know, it was--

It was nowhere
to go but down.

Coming up, will the founder
of one of rap music's

most successful record labels
be doing time

for a probation violation?

(news anchor)
Last year, he pled no contest
to two counts of assault

stemming from a 1992 attack

on two aspiring rappers
in a Hollywood recording studio.

This is a man who has eight
different convictions.

And, Your Honor,
I ask you,

how many bites
at the probation apple

does this defendant get?

I think it is very clear
that Mr. Knight,

um, delivers a kick
with his right foot.

(Jewell)
That man made a choice
to ignore his conscience,

and it's only him that can
reconcile that

and can change it--
we can't.

We can just move on,

give our contribution
to the music industry,

and hope that nothing like this
ever happens again.

(Judge)
He was an active participant
in this assault,

and I do find a violation
of probation.

I also keep in mind
I think the way

he left the scene evidenced
a consciousness of guilt.

I think he had been
involved in an assault,

and the way
he left the scene

causes me to believe that he
knew exactly what it was

he was doing and what
he had been involved in.

Your prior record indicates
one of violence.

Uh, you are a danger
to the community.

Your prior performance on
probation was not satisfactory.

You committed other crimes
while you were on probation.

You're not a suitable candidate
for probation, in other words,

and so therefore,
probation is denied.

I don't think anybody here
has any question

that if we were dealing with
somebody other than Mr. Knight,

what we saw in that videotape,
first of all,

would not be sufficient
to constitute

a probation violation,

and secondly
and most importantly,

even if somebody
thought it was,

it's certainly not
the kind of violation

or the kind of activity that
warrants a nine-year-sentence.

How can Suge be in jail?

How can one of the most powerful
people in the record business--

not black people, one of
the most powerful people

in the record business--
be in jail...

for something as silly
as stopping a fight,

or even kicking somebody?

In my opinion, this is
a miscarriage of justice.

You got this lawyer,
this attorney,

this guy
who is pretty brilliant.

So you know that this
isn't a regular attorney.

He's got some pull
somewhere

because he's got
somebody from the DA's office

involved in this thing,
and you're saying to yourself,

"If all these people
are involved,

"all these powerful people,

what kind of situation
did he set Suge up in?"

I mean, Dave Kenner was
a big man in our business

on all levels, and
you have to ask yourself,

"Did the money get to him?

Did the power
get to him?"

You gotta ask yourself,
"Is Suge thinking about this?

"Is he sitting
in jail saying,

'Is this guy really
on my side?'"

(George Pryce)
Suge Knight was
and is Death Row.

And for me, without Suge Knight,
there is no Death Row.

If Suge has grasped
all that has happened to him,

I think he could come out
and, again,

start up Death Row Records
and start a record company

that would be more
viable than ever.

They will be legends
no matter what happens,

but if they'd have been--
continued to go on,

no telling what kind of
influence they may have had

on the inner city youth
in America.

When you have guys
that have the ears

of not only black America,

but white America also,
you can call some shots.

Anybody can sell four million
records, five million records,

anybody can sell out
concerts around the world.

Whatever they put their name
and faces on will sell.

Whatever they endorse
will be backed up 100%.

(Jeffrey Jolson-Colburn)
The Death Row Records story

told the tale of three
major record labels,

almost brought one of them down,

rattled another
to its core,

and set the framework
for a whole new way

of doing business
in the music business.

This was a story
that wasn't just about

a bunch of guys
from Compton,

it was a story that affected
the whole music business

and, ultimately,
the business world.

It's about empowerment.
It's about greed.

It's about ego.
It's about sex.

It's about violence.

It's about fame.

It's about failure.

I mean, you don't get
any more American than that.

(Virgil Roberts)
The legacy that Death Row
Records has left

is both positive
and negative.

I think the positive legacy
is that if you have talent

and if you're
prepared to work,

you can create a business,
and it can be successful.

People always say,

"You remember
how ol' Suge

started his company
from nothing?

We can do that."

We're gonna
hear this music forever.

It's gonna forever mark an era
in American culture

and American history.

Now, the sad part
about this whole thing

is that Jimmy Iovine
and Ted Fields

sold Interscope
for $400 million.

I still have the article
in the "Wall Street Journal."

It says, "Warners ups
its stake in rap music."

So what they were buying
was Death Row.

They paid
400 million for it.

So Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields
got 400 million.

Tupac's dead,
and Suge is in jail.

Who's in jail?

Mike Harris.

Suge Knight.

And-- and where's the money?

Who controls the money?

(laughing)
What-- what happened

to the power that all these...
black folks controlled?

(Sam Gideon Anson)
Death Row is the named party
in scores of lawsuits

over its financial
management and mismanagement.

With the federal investigation,
they're looking into

Suge's dealings in Las Vegas.

They're looking into his
dealings with Michael Harris.

(Paul Palladino)
Michael has an attempted murder
charge over his head

and a drug
case over his head.

If the government offered
Michael an opportunity

to get out of jail
to testify against David Kenner

or Suge Knight or Andre Young
or someone else,

there's a good chance
that Michael could take it.

(Doug Young)
Suge, I would imagine,

in the minds of white corporate
America record business,

had to be stopped.

He had to be stopped.

When we start taking the money
that we make in the streets,

however we live--
it's hustling bottles,

selling bottle tops, selling
a bag of weed on the corner--

however we do it,

when we do it and we start to
realize, "You know what...

let me find
something legal to do,"

that's when it
becomes a problem.

They don't want us legal.

They'd rather we--
'cause they feel like

if you selling dope,
you ain't gonna

never really get rich,
unless you the man

sitting next
to the God damn man.

It'd be hard to dig up
and find who started what

with what kind
of legal money,

but they wouldn't
want to do that.

If they were to take Death Row
right now from Suge Knight,

what about Atlantic Group?

What about Interscope Records?

They made more money than
Death Row did off of Death Row.

If Death Row was founded
by drug money,

and Death Row made money,
Interscope made money,

Atlantic Group made money,

you take everybody's
record company.

You don't take
just the black man's.