All language subtitles for Death.Row.Chronicles.S01E01.1080p.WEB.x264-TBS

(man)
Death Row's in
the motherfuckin' house!

(Suge Knight)
Death Row can be bigger
than Motown

or Sony
or Warner Brothers.

Death Row's gonna be the biggest
record company there is.

The master plan was
to take over the world.

(man)
Some of the greatest artists
came together at one time.

And it was like a comet
streaking across the sky.

(man)
Sex, drugs, violence...

For better, for worse,
gang bang went pop.

(man)
It's like everything
we touched turned to gold.

Next year, Death Row gonna start
printing out own money.

You wanted a car, two cars,
five cars, you could have it.

Death Row party
was super bananas, like,
this shit can't be real.

The more money we made
and the bigger that we got,

it became more dangerous.

It was just a blood nation.

Suge spooked me,
I'm telling you,
I didn't wanna be around him.

They want the drama.
We gon' definitely bring it like
only Death Row can bring it.

(woman)
That's when I knew this
was more than just music.

This is dangerous.

♪♪

(gunshot)

♪ Murder was the case
that they gave me... ♪

When Pac died, I'm finna
to get the fuck out of here.

(man)
I know who killed
Tupac Shakur.

The last living eyewitness
to Tupac's murder
is telling his story.

The legacy of Death Row could've
been bigger than Jesus.

But they crucified themselves.

♪♪

(man)
Suge Knight is the heart and
soul of Death Row Records.

To be able
to understand the label,

you have to understand
who he is.

Snoop, Tupac, Dre were in charge
of the music.

But Suge was the force
to be reckoned with.

He put Death Row Records
on the map.

How does it feel
to be so feared?

I don't look at it as fear.
I look at it as respected.

Suge Knight is a mythical
figure.

The controversial
CEO of Death Row Records...

The most feared figure
in all of hip-hop...

His size was intimidating.

(newswoman)
Knight had been on probation
for a 1992 assault

on two aspiring rappers.

(man)
He was a beast.
He was a bully.

Suge Knight,
how you doing?

Don't kill me,
all right, yeah.

I'm talking about slap men...
hard.

We're talking about open fist
across their face.

(Kurt Loder)
Police in Los Angeles charging
Knight with assault and battery.

(man)
Suge was affiliated
with Bloods.

(man)
Suge was involved in guns.
Suge was involved in drugs.

Suge was involved in, uh,
he was a half-ass pimp.

(man)
Suge Knight goes back to jail.

This is, like, some
Godfather type stuff.

(newswoman)
The music producer is accused
of running down two men

and killing them
in a Los Angeles parking lot.

(woman)
This call is being recorded.

(gunshot)

The perception that people have
of Suge, today's Suge is a lot

different than
the Suge I met years ago.

(man)
People believe
Suge was a gangster.

But Suge Knight
did not grow up as a gangster.

Suge Knight grew up in the
middle continent of lower middle

class neighborhood
with working class parents.

♪ I come up hard baby

♪ But now I'm cool

♪ I didn't make it sugar
playin' by the rules... ♪♪

(Sharitha)
I met Suge at a party,
and I was probably about 14.

We were about
three years apart.

He kind of followed me
the whole time.

Wouldn't let me dance
with anybody else.

I was either gonna date him or
date nobody, that's how he felt.

♪ Trouble man...

(Sharitha)
His parents, they were very
family oriented.

And in that neighborhood,
most black families didn't have

a mother and father
in the same house.

♪ But now I'm fine

♪ I'm checkin' trouble sugar

♪ Hey...

♪ Movin' down the line ♪

♪♪

(man)
If you're a young, Black guy

growing up in Compton
at that time,

I mean, drugs and gangs were
as much a part of your life

as stoplights and street signs.

(Sharitha)
Suge never been in a gang but
Compton was Blood.

And growing up back then,
you were associated

with whatever color
was in your neighborhood.

Played Pop Warner Football
at Greater Compton with Suge.

(drum cadence playing)

(indistinct crowd cheers)

(game announcer)
Well, we're ready
to get it underway.

And we couldn't have asked
for a more perfect afternoon

for a college football game,
could we?

He was a good football player.
Suge got his sacks in there.

(game announcer)
Sets up, now he's gonna
run it up the middle.

45 and dives near
the 48-yard line.

Here's the snap,
he drops back on the draw.

But he runs into a lineman
right at the 40-yard line

and falls forward to the 41,

with a tackle made
by Marion Knight,

a 6'2", 260 pound senior...

He was a leader on the team,
and guys respected him.

Last year we was that close
to winning, we did, we just--

We just dedicate it
to ourselves and to our fans.

And went out and worked as hard
as we could to win it.

We knew we could
beat 'em all the time.

He was one of those defensive
linemen that was--

he was pretty aggressive.

(man)
His whole mentality years later
in the record business

all came from playing football.

You know, I'm gonna go out and
get this one way or the other.

(Autney)
There was a time where I was
having an issue

with a guy at the school.

I casually
mentioned it to Suge.

And he asked me, did I need,
did I need any help?

So, I was,
I was thinking about it.

I said, "Yeah, I probably
could use some help."

And then he, you know,
he raised his shirt,

and I just
saw the butt of a gun.

And so I said, "Oh, no-no-no-no,
nah, not that, no, I'm good."

(Sharitha)
And then Vegas.

Suge started showing a behavior,
uh, that was violent.

He thought that
I was with some man.

One day my car stopped on me,

and Suge put sugar
down my gas tank.

He denies it,
but he did it.

I come to get my car back...

All the windows
busted out of it.

One time, he pulled my ponytail
down to his lap

and reached behind the seat

and all I could hear is this
crunch, crunch, crunch.

I'm, like... did you
just really cut my hair?

He didn't want nobody
else to like me.

And he thought that
since he liked my hair,

that if it was gone,

nobody else
would like me either.

Why I got married to this man,
I don't know.

But why not?
I loved him, he loved me.

Why not be with this man?

(man)
He didn't come up
being a gangbanger.

But he glorified it, and I think
if you talk to most people

who really had a street life,
they spent most of their time

trying to get
out of the street.

Suge spent a lot of his time
trying to get into the streets.

(Jake)
Gang life leaked into
his pro sports aspirations

and it wound up killing it.

(Sharitha)
He was a senior.

Football season
was coming to an end.

He had an offer
with the 49ers,

and he ran into a problem.

(Jake)
Ricky Crockett a friend of Suge
Knight's, he's in Las Vegas.

There's a dispute that happens.

They have a confrontation
that gets so heated

that Suge pulls
out a gun and shoots him.

I get a phone call, and he said
he shot his friend.

And I'm, like,
"You did what?"

It's not a life-threatening
injury, thankfully.

It's his friend who refuses
to cooperate with the police.

(Sharitha)
Got a slap
on the wrist for it.

He was put on probation for,
I think, he had,

like, five-year
probation for that.

He lost that contract with
the 49ers because

they didn't wanna
deal with the violence.

They dropped him.

(Sharitha)
After the incident in Vegas,

the 49ers took
back their offer.

So Suge and I moved
back to California.

And at that time,
Compton was crazy.

(newswoman)
The police arrested
these people

ages 15 through 30
for selling rock cocaine.

In the '80s, Los Angeles
was weird in that it was
very segregated.

You had a group
of white cops

who patrolled
in Black neighborhoods.

And it was a lot of distrust
because of crack.

Get down! Get down!

(Virgil)
You have police
brutality on Monday.

Police brutality on Tuesday.

Police brutality
on Thursday.

Police brutality on Saturday.

It was
an ongoing condition.

(man)
You had a generation, man,
that they were fed up.

Cop piss in your face
and tell you it was raining.

And it was, like...
(smacking)

That ain't rain.

(Kevin)
Hip-hop really is almost
like a response

to the failures
of the police in L.A.

You know, I mean, it's our
soundtrack, you know?

It's what Chuck D called
"Black America's CNN."

These guys who have gone
through this every day
didn't have a voice.

But now you have somebody
that could speak for you.

And that was N.W.A.

♪ Fuck tha police comin'
straight from the underground ♪

♪ A young nigga got it bad
'cause I'm brown... ♪

(man)
Young Black males is the target
right now, it's open season.

It ain't rabbit season
or duck season.

It's young Black male
nigga season.

That's what it is right now.

♪ Fuckin' with me
'cause I'm a teenager ♪

♪ With a little bit
of gold and a pager ♪

♪ Searchin' my car
lookin' for the product ♪

♪ Thinkin' every nigga
is sellin' narcotic ♪

♪ Fuck tha police...

We started N.W.A. was just...
To sell a few records

out of the trunk
and make some money.

We didn't start hip-hop music.
We just got it popular.

That's the way it goes
in the city of Compton, boy.

♪♪

(Virgil)
Suge had a lot of friends
from Compton and elsewhere

who were getting involved
in the rap business.

And he said, okay,
you know, maybe I can make
money in that business.

(man)
Bobby!

(Jake)
He meets Bobby Brown
at an after-party.

He kept Bobby Brown from
getting, like, hit by a crazy

fan and from there, boom,
he's Bobby's bodyguard.

(Sharitha)
I think along the way,
he was being taught

all about the music industry,
and he was fascinated.

(Sharitha)
In the late '80s,
he started managing.

Eventually
he managed Jodeci,

Mary J. Blige, D.O.C.

But Chocolate was his first
success story.

That began everything.

(Mario "Chocolate" Johnson)
I went with Suge
to be my manager because

he really wanna see me win.

(man)
Mario "Chocolate" Johnson,
he wrote some of the lyrics

on "Ice Ice Baby"
for Vanilla Ice.

It wasn't until they were
getting awards

when Chocolate goes,
"Hey, I worked on that."

Chart-topping rapper
Vanilla Ice, his debut single

"Ice Ice Baby"
went to number one this week.

♪♪

(Vanilla Ice)
My record is selling over
a million copies a week.

Fastest selling
record in history.

Double Platinum Platinum,
kept going...

I was, like, oh, my God.

♪ If there was a problem
Yo, I'll solve it ♪

♪ Check out the hook
while my DJ revolves it... ♪♪

(Mario)
Vanilla Ice's attorneys,
they tried to give me a contract

for ghostwriting for 100,000.
And I was gonna take it.

'Cause I didn't know.

You know, 100,000, to a man from
the ghetto, it sounds good.

And Suge got a whiff

of what they were doing.

Said, no, you ain't signing this
as a ghostwriter.

♪ All right, stop...

(Jake)
Suge saw in that
an opportunity.

The more intimidating
he seemed,

the more mythical he became.

And that Vanilla Ice story
became an instant urban legend.

(man)
And roll!

(man)
"Death Row Chronicles",
scene four, take one.

(man)
According to Vanilla Ice,
Suge started showing up wherever

Vanilla Ice was along with
a group of huge bodyguards.

And Vanilla said they were
bigger than his bodyguards.

The next time Suge shows up
without any warning,

just to let Vanilla Ice know
he's got that control.

Wow, this guy knows
where I'm at at all times.

How does he know
where I'm at... you know?

What's going on here?

(pounding on door,
door opens)

(Mario)
Suge took Vanilla Ice
out to the balcony.

He had me look over the edge.

Show me how high
I was up there.

(Mario)
Vanilla Ice said that Suge
hung him over the banister.

I needed to wear a diaper
on that day (laughs).

(Mob James McDonald)
Suge got a paper written up

and made Vanilla Ice
sign that paper.

If you don't sign,
you're gonna whoop da whoo.

Signed it.

I walked away alive.

That never happened.

(man)
Take two.

(Mario)
The most threatening thing

of that whole night
that Suge said was,

"We could be here
for 15 minutes.

Or we could
be here all night."

It wasn't not
one shove, push,

no disrespect or nothing.

(Mario)
I'm there so I know.

Kill all of that urban legend,
it never happened.

(Virgil)
I can recall talking
to Suge and said, you know,

why don't you
clean that story up

so that people don't think
you are a gangsta?

And really, I think, he enjoyed
people thinking

he was a gangsta because
you've added to his reputation.

(Mario)
Vanilla Ice saying that he got
hung over a balcony...

It changed Suge's life
drastically because

it put him in that door.

(Virgil)
And all of a sudden people who
would not return his phone calls

started returning
his phone calls.

Suge knew what he was doing.

Suge already
had a blueprint

for where he was going
and what he wanted to do.

And that was
to bully the game.

He had a plan.

His plan was
to take over hip-hop.

This is Eazy-E
and N.W.A.

And we coolin' out here
at this party, right?

Having a ball!
(laughing)

Peace!

Compton's in the house.
You know that.

(man)
Suge had a vision to become
something bigger than he was.

And he saw Dre
as his way to do that.

Yo, my name is Dr. Dre.

Do most of the
music for N.W.A.

Produce, you know?

♪♪

Between 1987 when Ruthless
Records was incorporated

through 1991,
Dr. Dre had produced

about 15 million
in album sales.

(newswoman)
N.W.A.'s album blasted its way

to number one
on the album charts.

♪ All you got to do now,
express yourself ♪

♪ I'm expressing with my full
capabilities ♪

♪ And now I'm living in
correctional facilities ♪

♪ 'Cause some don't agree
with how I do this ♪

♪ I get straight
meditate like a Buddhist... ♪

Dre's genius
came from the ability

to recognize a good beat.

♪ It's Dre on the mic
getting physical ♪

♪ Doing the job
N.W.A is the lynch mob... ♪

I'm the type of person,
I can get anybody in the studio

to make a hit
record off of 'em.

If they have any kind of talent
I can pull it out of 'em.

I'm digging that shit.

(man)
Ooh...

(man)
Dre, he knows
when some shit is hot.

He hears some shit
and he tell you it's fire.

It'll burn the shit out of it
if you touch it.

♪ Express yourself

♪♪

Dre, he was hot.

(electrical buzzing)

But he was unhappy
with Ruthless Records.

You can ask any artist
on Ruthless Records
if they're happy.

I bet you they say "no."

(chuckling)

(man)
I'm the General Manager
of Ruthless Records.

I'm Eazy-E's personal manager.

As Eazy-E started to expand into
different areas of the business,

I found my, uh, duties

becoming more diversified.

(Alonzo)
When they first put the whole
Ruthless thing together,

Eazy was gonna
put the money up.

Dre was gonna make the beats.

And they were gonna
be partners.

(Suge)
As time went on

and the pie got bigger,

Jim stepped in and
pulled Eric to the side

and was, like, look,

me and you can be partners.
You don't need Dre.

And they left Dre
as an employee.

(Dr. Dre)
We wasn't getting paid
what we was supposed to...

And I'm the type of person,
I don't want no more or no less

than what
I'm supposed to get.

If I can't have that, I can't,
I can't be around.

Hi!
The Mega.

The Mega!

Michel'le, hey!

Now Dre, now tell us
a little bit about

what else is coming
up for Michel'le?

Well, I gotta tell you,
she's got this super hype

album coming out entitled
"Michel'le" of course and...

Her gimmick is the way
she talks, say, hi.

Hi!

(laughing)

(Michel'le)
When I was dating Dre,
I was actually

signed with
Ruthless at the time.

Dre and I, we struggled.

We struggled like you suppose
to for a while there.

But he, he told me don't worry
and... I didn't.

Only thing I wanna do is live
my life, make my money.

Make the money
I'm supposed to make.

(John)
Dre and DOC, they were broke,
I mean, uh, even the little

money they got
wasn't a lot, I mean...

Dre had a mansion in Calabasas
that was empty.

Like, devoid of furniture.

Like, you know, if there
was a fire, it would go out

'cause there was
nothing to burn.

♪♪

One thing Suge was always
smart about was he aligned
himself with a big star.

In every move
he made you can see it.

Bobby Brown, D.O.C.

(man)
Suge wanted
to start a label with D.O.C.

And D.O.C. thought this was
a good idea at first.

But they both ultimately
realized

that they needed Dr. Dre.

And so in 1991,
they set their sights on

trying to convince Dr. Dre
to come with them.

(Michel'le)
Suge started
really finessing Dre

when we was still with Ruthless.

He was really plotting.

He was seeing us
before we were seeing him.

He, he, he may be an idiot,
but he's not stupid.

(man)
I worked at Ruthless, and
Jerry Heller who's my cousin...

And, uh, Suge started
coming to the studio

where we were recoding.

The next thing we know, um,

Dre is speaking
to Eazy less

and going to the studio less,

spending more
time with Suge.

(Michel'le)
I would question everything from

why does he show up
everywhere that we're at?

(Gary)
You know, Eazy and Dre had
these beautiful pool parties.

And Suge would be around.

(Michel'le)
Why is he at the videos?

(Gary)
He was just kind of always
in the background.

(Michel'le)
Suge spooked me,
I'm telling you,

I didn't
wanna be around him.

(Gary)
Suge and some
of his guys went to

Ruthless Records
lawyer's office

with ball bats.

And demanded the contracts.

Dre's contract, Michel'le's
contract, D.O.C.'s contract.

And terrified this guy.
The guy peed his pants.

This is a big time lawyer.

But he got
totally gangstered.

(Michel'le)
Suge came to our home
and had a meeting with Dre.

And he told him
that we were getting,

like, two cents on every record,
like, two pennies.

And Dre was furious.

(Dre)
Check my contracts out.
Sure enough...

It wasn't worth the paper they
were written, you know?

And, um, that was that
for me.

So, I said, Dre, look,

ain't no use going
back over spilled milk.

I got a vision.

Obviously, you got a vision.

Let's just start fresh.

Suge, he was aggressive,

and he really seemed
like a go-getter to me.

You know what I'm saying?

And he was making
things happen.

That's all I really cared about

was getting in the studio
and making music.

If you gonna
help me with that,

so be it,
let's keep it moving.

Suge broke the...
He broke the chains.

His unorthodox
way of getting

a deal was groundbreaking.

How does Suge go
from being a bodyguard

to running his own label?

It's called a street--
a street instinct.

He never went
for the little man.

He always went for the big guy.

You don't
rob the person who's,

who's selling
the dope on the street.

You rob the person who's--
who has the dope.

Dre called Eazy and said, look,
man, let's squash this.

Meet me at the studio,
just me and you.

We'll talk it over, you know,
and figure this out.

(soundstage beep)

(man)
"Death Row Chronicles",
scene 12, take seven, mark.

(Jake)
Eazy-E shows up
to this office

within the studio
that is soundproof.

Ay, what's going on?
Ay, where's Dre at?

(Jake)
A beatdown ensues.

Even after that beatdown,
Eazy-E is tough.

Eazy-E grew up in Compton, he's
a real dude from the streets.

He still won't sign them because
he knows what he's giving up.

Suge allegedly hands him a piece
of paper without saying

anything else about
what's on it and says,

"This is where we're going next
if you don't sign it."

And it's Eazy-E's
mother's address

in the suburbs
wherever he moved her.

That terrified him and as
Jerry Heller later said,

under severe
psychological duress,

he signs the releases.

Suge was one of us.
He was no CEO.

He was no,
no tie behind no desk.

He was a thug just like
everybody else.

Gangsterism ain't even a word

but I'm gonna
say that right now.

He took gangsterism
to a different level.

If you're not getting treated
right in a place,

you're not gonna stay there...
you know?

That's all that was.

I guess they didn't
respect my talent.

(chuckles)

So now they're suffering
the consequences.

(Jake)
Suge Knight
extricates Dr. Dre and D.O.C.

from their contracts with
Ruthless Records.

And I really don't
give a fuck...

(Jake)
Suge knew that getting Eazy to
sign that paper was his shot.

He knew it.

He knew he was, like, he had
this marquee talent in Dr. Dre.

His main ghostwriter in D.O.C.,
he knew it was his shot.

And he was gonna go in there

by any means necessary
and get it done.

And it sent
the word out that Suge

was not someone to be
toyed with.

Suge tried to destroy
my record company

with the help of others,
Dre...

So, right now, we're getting
everything back together,

and we finna come out,
you know... fully loaded.

(Gary)
Eazy was pissed off
at Suge for taking Dre.

And it was much money
and energy and work that Eazy

put into starting
Ruthless and making it

a success, you know,
like, that,

it was,
you know, kind of gone.

Eazy wanted to kill Suge,
himself.

He just wanted to kill Suge.

And Jerry
talked him out of it.

(Carter)
That beef drew very
severe lines way beyond

LL and Kool Moe Dee
and all the old school

'80s, you know, battle raps.

For the first time, the beef
created an environment

which was dangerous,
and I think

it was rooted partly
in some gang shit.

(Alonzo)
It was all
with a gang undertone

because of Eazy's Crip
affiliation

and Suge's Blood affiliation.

And I'm sitting there
going, wow, this is really
some crazy shit.

I think the guy is a...
is a serious, major gangster.

(Gary)
Jerry was... well,
he was freaked out.

(Carter)
Jerry's response was to hire an
ex Israeli special forces dude

named Klein
who, uh, helped organize

the defense against Suge
and his guys.

(Gary)
Mike Klein
was a very tough,

hard bad-ass guy.

Let's say that I'm proficient
in self-defense

and, and, uh,
that kind of stuff.

The story I heard was Klein told
Suge he was gonna cut him up

in little pieces and put him in
dumpsters all around the city.

That's a myth.

All I can tell you is
we reached an understanding

that nobody was coming to the
office without an appointment.

(Jerry)
I have guns
all around us now.

You know, this, this art form
isn't worth

me and my family
getting killed over.

Everyone had guns.

We had shotguns
in the corner.

We had Uzis.

Our secretaries had guns.

(gunshot)

(woman)
I didn't look
at how dangerous it was.

I thought it was gansta,
hell, it was like the movies.

It was like a modern-day, um,
"Scarface."

(Carter)
Eazy-E took me into a bedroom in
Norwalk, opened up the closet.

And there were
automatic weapons on a shelf.

And you gotta ask yourself,
why-- why are you showing

a reporter guns?

You know that there's a chance
I'm going back to "The Source",

and I'm gonna
write about this.

So, either you're hoping I write
about this or you're hoping

that I won't write about this
but I'll put out the word

that you got guns
and you're ready for battle.

(Mike)
Eazy was not the type of guy
that would take a beating

and not respond in some way.
That I can assure you.

Eazy was small in stature
but... a lot in guts.

(Gary)
Suge told Eazy, if you don't
sign these papers

we're gonna beat you to a pulp.

You know, it was,
it was extortion.

(Virgil)
Ruthless filed a lawsuit
to rescind the releases

and to get damages for the loss
of Dre's recording services.

(Sharitha)
Dick Griffey
started mentoring Suge

a lot for the business.

How to be
in the record industry

and how to own your own
record label.

So, that's how it started.

(Virgil)
In the Solar office building,
we had a studio.

We had a rehearsal room.

We had some writers rooms
and other things.

I was the President
of Solar Records.

We agreed to let
Suge move DOC and Dre

and kind of all the,
all the folks

who were gonna
make up Death Row Records

into the third floor
where they could start

recording and making records.

As far as I could tell,

the guys
seemed to have no money.

I mean, literally,
there were times when

Dick and I would pay

the lease payments
on Suge's car.

(Sharitha)
What people don't realize is
we had some financial struggles.

I had other jobs
so that's what carried us

that people don't know,
I worked.

And I was having
a baby at the time.

So, it was tough.

Ready?

Hi, my name is David Kenner
and I'm-- excuse me, I'm the

attorney for Death Row and, uh,
its artists and principles.

(John)
David Kenner
was a criminal attorney.

He did a lot
of, like, mafia cases

and big drug dealer cases
and all that stuff.

They reach a point where they
need a financial partner.

Through his attorney,
David Kenner,

Suge is put in touch with
Michael Harris, AKA Harry-O.

Michael Harris
was a major drug dealer.

Not the kind that,
you know, I got dimes.

No, he's the guy that would
deal directly with Noriega.

And he was in prison
at the time.

(woman)
This call is from
a federal prison.

(Jake)
Suge was introduced
to Harry-O.

They had their
meetings at the prison

where he was being held.

He got the funding in a prison
visiting room.

It doesn't get
more gangster than that.

I feel in the future,

Death Row can be, um,

a Sony or Atlantic

or a Warner Brothers.

But first step, you know,

you gotta get people
to know Death Row.

(John)
Michael Harris
said we gotta do this big.

You know, we got to put
Death Row on the map.

And Denise said,
we're gonna do Chasen's.

Chasen's was a swanky,
Beverly Hills restaurant.

Let me see somebody
give Dre, Suge and D.O.C.

a round of applause.

Death Row Records
is gonna be

the record company
of the 2000s!

Put your hands together.

Come on, y'all,
make some noise.

(John)
I mean, Suge's mom and dad were
there and a lot of...

The people from the hood
are sitting at Chasen's.

We're in Beverly Hills,
you know,

most of whom had never left...
the hood.

♪♪

(Ben)
They invited sort of
a who's who of the industry.

And we decided we would
actually do the, uh,

invitations
in a subpoena form.

You know, it was kind
of like an inside joke
based on my situation.

(Michel'le)
Death Row is gonna be big...
huge!

We have the best
acts coming out.

Oh, not we.

Look at me,
like it's my label, really?

This is Death Row, really.

It was a like a dream
to have a Black-owned label.

Like, what is
a Black-owned label?

Just didn't exist
before Suge and Dre.

♪ Is that the future shock?
Hell, no, it's Death Row ♪

♪ I was all in because
of the begin ♪

♪ Then they would say
Yo, we all gon' win ♪

Death Row's gonna be
the label of the future.

Death Row is a artist's label

where the artist
is always right.

A situation where we give a home
and have open arms to artists.

(Kurupt)
Suge master plan was to have

the most talented
roster of artists.

And to become the biggest
record label on the planet.

The most powerful

record label to come
out into the market

that I have ever seen in my
life, and I mean that.

Death Row! Death Row!

Death Row, that's what's
happening tonight.

♪ D-O-C Comin' with the B-O-M-B
Beeyatch! ♪♪

Death Row Records...

The label started with Dr. Dre
who was gonna do his own thing.

And with a lot of help from
Suge Knight and, uh, Harry-O

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

♪♪

(Jake)
After the party
at Chasen's announcing

the founding
of Death Row Records,

now they're officially
set up in business.

And within the week of the
Harry-O deal being made,

red carpet gets rolled out.

Dre was able to come in
with a wish list of equipment.

They got, you know,
like, a new vocal booth.

They got upgrades on the
microphones.

(man)
Tell me what, you got, like,
48 tracks and stuff now?

56 tracks.

Just an infusion of capital
they desperately needed

that Harry-O provided
without any question.

(Ben)
Harry-O was still behind bars
when he was helping Suge

get this label
off the ground.

And so he and Suge
talked almost every day.

(John)
I was actually brought in
as the chief engineer

for Solar Records.

One day I'm in a studio, and I'm
actually repairing something.

Harry-O calls, and I answered
the phone and I said,

"I gotta run out
and get some parts."

And he goes,
"Well, how much is that?"

And I says it's gonna be about
a grand, I said I gotta--

He said, "No-no-no-no.
Let me call you back."

(clock ticking)

About 20 minutes later,
this guy comes up

and hands me a bag.

And it's got about 30 grand.

And I said,
"But I only need a thousand."

There was a time
that I got $100,000

and there wasn't
a bill bigger than a 20.

(laughing)

Death Row was never really
organized,

for example, making sure
we had an accounting department

that was a real accounting
department

that would keep track of money,
like, the business end.

There's no business plan.

There's no policies
and procedures.

It's really just flying
by the seat of their pants.

Who y'all
waiting on? Suge?
Yeah.

Everybody waiting
on Suge today?

I'm waiting
on him, too.
That's right.

I don't know what
time he's due up here.

Probably a little bit later.

(man)
If Suge said 10:00 a.m.
was the meeting,

you won't see him
until about 7:00 p.m.

(chuckles)
8:00, here come Suge

like he's on time
for the meeting.

(Gary)
Suge was never by himself.

He always had, I'd say,
three to five guys with him.

(Mob James)
Suge asked me to bring in

all the Bloods,
how many of 'em I can get.

We start recruiting guys from
the neighborhood.

The Mob Pirus.
It was just a Blood nation.

Suge Knight knew he could pay
them to be his security

and basically carry out

any type
of extortion or, or,

or assaults that
he wanted done.

And spread fear to persons

that he wanted
to intimidate.

(Mario)
There was a phone put in
at Death Row at that time.

And that phone
was strictly for Harry-O.

If that phone rings,
nobody answers it.

It's only for Suge to answer.

(man)
And roll.

"Death Row Chronicles"
scene three, take one, mark.

Actors up!

(Virgil)
One day,
Suge comes in the studio.

And one of the Stanley brothers
is on the phone.

And he says, "Who are you?"

He says, oh, I'm here,
you know, to see Dre.

I'm a friend of Dre's.

He said, "I don't give a fuck
who you are, hang up the phone."

(man)
Their response
to him was... F you.

You're not Dr. Dre.
This ain't your shit.

Make him have
to escalate to go, "Okay...

Now I gotta show
y'all who I am."

(Virgil)
Suge comes back with his gun.

Put the gun to the guy's head.

Said, "Motherfucker,
I told you to hang up the phone.

Now hang up the phone."

(Sharitha)
He gets mad.

He turns from zero
to 100 real quick.

Dre's in the big old studio
working on tracks.

(music playing)

(Virgil)
Suge says, "Take off
all your clothes."

He says, "Man, I'm not
taking off my clothes."

So, Suge shoots
a bullet by his ear.

(gunshot, woman screams)

(Virgil)
Suge says you know
I could really fuck you up.

But I'm not gonna do that.

But I got your driver's license,
and if you tell anybody

about what happened,
then it's gonna be your ass.

It's gonna be your mama's ass,
I'ma get your family.

Guy puts on his clothes.

Goes downstairs.

Walks over to Hollywood
Boulevard, stops a cop car

and says, "I just got assaulted
in this building."

That began all of Suge's
criminal problems.

(man)
It's gangsta time!

Death Row is gonna be the
biggest record company there is.

"The Chronic" album
is the foundation.

That's dope!
♪ What's my name?

It became, like, this pop
culture phenomenon.

Death Row blew the fuck up.

Fast life, just party...

Bring that shit!

(Kurt Loder)
An arrest warrant
was issued for 21-year-old

rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg.

It was traumatic
and didn't know what to do.

He could get the death penalty
for this shit.

♪♪