Original subtitles

When Tupac got shot, they created a war.

(newscaster) Police say they've had 12 shootings

since Tupac Shakur was gunned down.

We had to retaliate because Tupac got shot on our watch.

(overlapping chatter and gunshots)

And he said, "They just shot Big."

And we was right in the middle,

all of that madness and the deaths and the tragedy.

It just seemed like... everybody in Death Row,

we were all involved.

I didn't sign a contract to hurt nobody

or make people hate me or hate people.

It was just to make good music.

"I want my motherfuckin' money."

This is a pure sign that the boat is sinking.

(newscaster) The evidence seized was regarding homicide

and conspiracy to commit homicide.

I mean, it all caught up to him.

(man) He was acting a fool.

He was like an animal getting out of a cage.

(man) You know, this is quite possibly true

that you are a bully and an extortionist and a crook.

♪♪

♪♪

(newscaster) Tupac Shakur is in critical condition

after two rounds of surgery in Las Vegas.

He was shot several times over the weekend

in a drive-by attack.

(Funkmaster Flex) When I first heard Tupac got shot,

I was like, nah, this guy been through a lot.

He's gonna pull out, he's gonna be jumping around any second.

(newscaster) Tupac Shakur is not a stranger to trouble.

Mr. Shakur, how are you this morning?

In November of 1994, he was shot five times

during a robbery at a New York recording studio.

(Catrice "Queen" Brumfield) Tupac getting shot was,

jeez, like Death Row putting out hits.

(newscaster) We've been informed that doctors

told the family members

that they expect the rap star to once again

recover from his injuries.

(Sharitha Golden) When it happened,

I went to Suge's room,

and he had some wounds from fractures of the gun

and the bullets.

(Suge Knight) Tupac stood up,

trying 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,

the doctors say, and traveled to hit his lung.

When he stood up, I grabbed him, said, "Get down!"

And covered him.

When I pulled him down,

that's when I got shot in my head.

(Danny Boy) Suge was lost.

I'm sure he felt a sense of...

responsibility for what happened.

(Mob James McDonald) Suge let Tupac...

jump in the lion's den, you know,

with a pork chop suit on, and-- and--

he shouldn't have been there.

(P. Frank Williams) The night at the casino when Tupac hit Orlando Anderson,

everybody there were active gang members.

(Mutah "Napoleon" Beale) Pac should have been around people that said, "Hold on.

"You the money maker, you the artist.

"You stay away from the gang politics,

stay away from this stuff."

(BG Knoccout) Tupac, I don't think he knew

exactly what he was doing.

But Suge should have told him, you know?

He should have told him.

What can I say?

(Greg Kading) After Tupac was shot in Las Vegas,

he's still alive.

It's a question whether he's gonna live or not,

but Suge Knight has no doubt in his mind

who the assailants were.

A very prominent member of the Mob Piru spoke with Suge Knight

and immediately said, "This is Southside Crips."

(newscaster) Suge Knight, who was released from the hospital Sunday night,

spoke with police and told them he, quote,

"Heard something but saw nothing."

(man) Do you know who killed Tupac?

(Suge) Even if I did,

it ain't my job to snitch on nobody.

'Cause I would never snitch on nobody.

(man) The gang, gangsta rap mentality

that they don't want to talk to the police

is definitely hurting this case.

(P. Frank Williams) Suge started to exert power over

not just entertainment, but just the streets,

and I don't believe Suge thought the police

were gonna do anything to solve the situation.

And if you knew who shot you

and you don't trust the police already,

it's on you to avenge the shooting.

(Greg Kading) Suge Knight instructs his gang associates

back in Compton, the Mob Piru and their Blood affiliates,

to retaliate against the Southside Crips.

(Mob James McDonald) We had to retaliate because Tupac got shot on our watch.

(Kurt Loder) In Compton, California, a gang war and five-day bloodbath

apparently left three men dead and ten wounded.

(Tim Brennan) The natural next thing that was gonna happen

was gonna come back to Compton.

We had 10 or 12 shootings

and three people murdered in Compton,

all back and forth shootings between South Side and the Mob.

Some of our shootings may be in retaliation

for the events that happened in Las Vegas.

(Kurupt) Snoop said he was on his way to Vegas to go see Pac,

and, uh... it was like, "Damn, it's that serious?"

And he was like, "Man, they say he's really hurt."

(newscaster) Tupac Shakur underwent a third operation last night

to correct internal complications

stemming from the drive-by shooting.

He remains in the intensive care unit

at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

(Kevin Powell) I remember calling Kidada Jones on the phone,

his girlfriend, Quincy Jones's daughter,

and she was so optimistic, she said,

"Pac's gonna make it. Pac's gonna make it."

(Kidada Jones) To walk into a room

and see your boyfriend there with six tubes

and, like, inflated, like, four sizes bigger,

and no lung and, you know,

on a life support system and stuff,

and I didn't think he was gonna die.

That's the crazy part.

He's undergone two series of surgeries.

He's had a right lung removed.

And he remains in critical condition.

(Danny Boy) You know, through the days,

I think that Pac was getting better.

You know, I knew he was hit.

I knew he was hurting.

But I don't think I recognized that he was dying.

(woman) It has taken a real toll. It hurts me a lot.

I work at the hospital, so when I heard of what was going on,

we really didn't think he was gonna survive.

(Danny Boy) Tupac, you know, his mother, she stayed by his side.

We would pray and sing.

I sung "A Change is Gonna Come."

(Danny Boy) That was one of Pac favorite songs.

I sang, and tears roll down his eyes,

rolled out his eyes and rolled into his ears.

To hear that man say, like, "Hey, D.B.

D.B., sing this, man."

I'd give my right arm for that.

(Catrice Brumfield) The morning, September 13th,

Afeni called a meeting with everyone...

to let us know... that it was time to let him go.

(Afeni Shakur) I felt it was important for his spirit

to be allowed to be free, you know?

And so I rejoiced with him...

and with the release of his spirit.

I rejoiced then and I rejoice now...

when I'm not crying.

(voice shaking) I just left.

I left our hotel room and I got in the truck.

I'm sorry.

Rap artist Tupac Shakur has died

six days after he was wounded in a drive-by shooting.

Fans had held a vigil outside his Las Vegas hospital.

Going straight to the curb,

just like that brother would have did today

if he was still here.

(Kevin Powell) That night, I got drunk.

I went right to the corner where Pac got shot

and did what we do in the hood.

I poured some liquor out in the street and, uh, you know,

like, a lot of us just cried, man, just cried.

(Danny Boy) I think it hit everybody.

It was a reality that Pac-- Pac was gone.

(laughter)

If I could have walked in and somebody said,

"You know what?

"You got one choice.

You switch places."

I would have did it.

When you lose a best friend, a little brother,

that's something you can't replace.

He couldn't recover from Tupac loss.

He didn't at all.

He even tattooed his name on his body.

(Suge) You can never, ever get over something like this.

You can never, ever forget.

It's my job to make sure all Pac dreams is fulfilled

and he-- he stay alive and keep Death Row alive.

(Catrice Brumfeld) You don't be this big, powerful machine

and lose an artist like him...

and be who Death Row is and not do something.

We were angry, all of us.

And we all wanted revenge.

♪♪

The rap singer Tupac Shakur

was killed in a drive-by shooting

over the weekend in Las Vegas.

No one has been arrested in that killing.

(Tim Brennan) The focus at that time was all the shootings

that were happening in Compton, all the retaliations

against the first shooting of Suge and Tupac in Las Vegas.

(newscaster) Police say they've had 12 shootings

and an increase of violence in Compton since September 7th,

the night rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas.

(Catrice Brumfield) When Pac passed,

and that war in Compton really started to kick in...

that's when I knew this is more than just music.

This is dangerous.

(Tim Brennan) Approximately two weeks after Tupac died,

we served the warrants on 20 locations.

(newscaster) More than 300 local police, FBI, and federal agents

raided suspected gang locations

in Compton, Long Beach, and Los Angeles.

(Tim Brennan) During those warrants, we arrested several leaders

of the South Side Crips and of the Mob Piru.

(newscaster) The gang roundup produced more than a dozen arrests

and apparently netted a possible suspect

in the Las Vegas murder of rap star Tupac Shakur.

The individual being questioned is identified

as Orlando Anderson.

(newscaster 2) Orlando Anderson, member of the Southside Compton Crips,

said he did not kill Tupac Shakur.

(Greg Kading) Orlando Anderson was there that night at the MGM.

He was a very strong person of interest.

Unfortunately, they didn't have the evidence to prosecute him,

even though he was the primary suspect.

And so it was a cold case.

And, uh, that's where it stayed.

(Danny Boy) After Pac died,

Death Row changed drastically.

More than you can imagine.

(Kurupt) Dr. Dre left first, Pac died.

You know, all of those things

what kept us at number one.

The music changed, the direction changed.

So Snoop had to take the reins

and he had to take on the challenge

of holding Death Row on his back and keep going forward.

(Darryl "Joe Cool" Daniel) I seen my cousin Snoop, man.

He was like, God, he was sad, man.

You know, you could hear in his voice

that, you know, "I don't wanna be here."

Nobody wanted to be there.

I mean, we all felt like that, you know?

Because we were Death Row,

and that's the life we was living.

We felt like we was untouchable until that fatal--

until that fatal day.

(Dr. Dre) Getting out of Death Row,

I mean, I always think like, "Oh...

I could have very easily have been in that car in Las Vegas."

You know what I'm saying?

So, fortunately for me, I left at the time that I did.

(Carter Harris) That time that Snoop and Dre

were saying that this beef was out of control

and that they wanted to squash it.

I will be working with a lot of the artists

from the East Coast,

a lot of the artists from West Coast.

(newscaster) Dre's latest release is far from squeaky clean,

but it does attempt to soothe rap's raging hardcore rivalries.

The East Coast/West Coast thing,

I ain't got a problem with nobody.

To me, they better kill it right now,

because if it keeps going on,

nobody from the East Coast is gonna be able

to come to L.A. and be safe,

and nobody from the West Coast is gonna be able

to come to the East Coast and be safe.

I'm Snoop Dogg, I never had any beef with anybody from the East.

I'm here to make good music.

That's what I signed my contract at Death Row Records for,

to make good music and perform and put out good albums.

I didn't sign a contract to hurt nobody

or make people hate me or hate people.

It was just to make good music.

(Darryl "Joe Cool" Daniel) Had he joined in on that shit

Pac was preaching, that hatred toward the East Coast,

he might not be here.

(Snoop) I've been there, I've done that.

So I'm gonna go this route, you know what I'm saying?

Thanks, Dre.

(Ben Westhoff) This did not sit well with Suge

because Snoop would not take his side in this beef.

Snoop tried to stay neutral,

and Suge demanded loyalty.

(Ben Westhoff) Snoop was growing wary of Suge Knight in this time.

There were rumors that Suge had something to do

with Tupac's death.

Snoop believed this

and started taking precautions for himself.

Snoop Dogg, you know,

he got a Humvee that was, like, armored.

♪ Can you feel it, nothing can save you ♪

Why did I get it? 'Cause I want to be protected.

And a sucker might try to get at me.

♪♪

(Carter Harris) There was some friction, there was some tension

between Snoop and Suge.

And even worse,

there wasn't a lot of excitement

around the "Doggfather" album.

Despite the legal ruckus, Death Row is still on schedule

with the long time coming second album

from Snoop Doggy Dogg, called "Tha Doggfather."

Sounds like this.

It wasn't as good as the first one.

I was into the old Snoop long ago,

just kind of the same thing over and over again.

I anticipated more. You know what I mean?

(Sharitha Golden) Snoop sold a lot,

but to us, that's a flop.

Because he didn't sell over what he had already sold.

(Carter Harris) Snoop wasn't exactly happy that it wasn't successful.

He was on his way out and people just thought,

"This is the beginning of the end for...

for Death Row."

(Danny Boy) It was getting close to being the holidays,

and Suge decided that we should cut a Christmas album.

And we gonna go to the Bahamas to cut it.

♪ Santa Claus

♪ Is coming straight to the ghetto ♪

(Danny Boy) We went to Compass Point, Bahamas,

and recorded "Christmas on Death Row."

♪ Now on the second day of Christmas ♪

♪ My homeboy gave to me

(Danny Boy) I was in my hotel room.

Suge came to me and gave me his Death Row chain

and put it on my neck.

He was like, "Take care of this."

And the next morning, during our prayer before session,

they said Suge had to go back to the States

to turn his self in.

He's just been arrested.

♪♪

(Jake Brown) By 1996,

the Los Angeles District Attorney, Gil Garcetti,

was in the worst position a publicly-elected official

designed to win high-profile cases could have been.

(woman) We the jury in the above-entitled action

find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson,

not guilty of the crime of murder.

He's lost the O.J. Simpson case.

He's lost the Snoop Dogg murder case.

(Kurt Loder) A Los Angeles jury found Snoop and his bodyguard,

McKinley Lee, not guilty of murder.

Suge was kind of his last real bite

at kind of like a redemption.

John Norris with an MTV News Brief

outside the criminal courts building

in downtown Los Angeles

for the probation violation hearing

of Death Row Records CEO Marion "Suge" Knight.

The future of Death Row could be in serious jeopardy

if Knight goes prison.

Oh, shit, bro!

(Jake Brown) Suge's parole violation involving the Stanley brothers

had earned him a suspended nine-year sentence.

(gunshot)

And then, in 1996, the MGM

Tupac and Suge beatdown video goes national.

It was a clear violation of that probation.

(attorney) He's on trial for what appeared to this court

to be a kick.

The atmosphere in which this kick took place, though,

I don't think came forth to this court,

and I think that should be considered

in determining the severity of the punishment

to be imposed on Mr. Knight.

When I actually knew it was a rumble going on,

and that's when I started to break things up.

(judge) You wanted to break up this fight, if you will.

I attempted to pull up the security guard

and attempted to pull up Mr. Anderson.

At Suge's hearing, something strange happened.

Orlando Anderson, the guy who had suffered this beating,

claimed that Suge was trying to help him.

that he was trying to stop the beating.

(attorney) Did you hear someone say words to the affect of,

"Hey, man, let's get out of here?"

No.

(man) Orlando testified on Suge's behalf.

Why'd he do that?

(judge) I was, to be quite honest, hoping that you were

going to say, "You know what? I really blew it.

"I got involved in this attack,

"and I can't believe how stupid I was.

You know, I should've gotten out of there."

But you didn't.

(Jake Brown) When you've got nine lives, it's one thing.

Suge had about 30 lives before he got to the point

where they were like...

(judge) Mr. Knight, you blew it.

You testified on the stand

and you weren't completely honest.

And I think we know that.

(Jake Brown) They put everything they had

into making sure Suge went to prison.

And the judge just gave him the max.

(judge) I am sentencing you to nine years in state prison.

(Maxine Knight) He didn't do anything.

And everybody talks about it, which is not right.

(crying)

And the judge is just prejudiced.

Death Row Records is a movement,

and it will continue to go and I'm quite sure

Mr. Knight will continue to set its course and direction.

'Pac is a strong dude, yo. But when he died,

I was just like, whoa.

You know what I'm saying? Kinda took me by...

I mean, even though we was going through our drama,

I would never wish death on nobody, you know I'm saying?

'Cause ain't no coming back from that.

(Funkmaster Flex) Death Row had put that energy out

that Big wasn't welcome on the West Coast.

And he knew that.

Just because that man had a beef with me

or I had a beef with him,

that don't mean you can't like me.

(Funkmaster Flex) But he had to go to L.A.

because if he doesn't, his album would've flopped.

That's why I'm out here, you know what I'm saying?

We hittin' every club, every radio station, you know?

We get our little eye screws and everything,

but I just tell 'em straight up,

yo, you know you love me.

I remember listening to the interview

when Biggie actually came to L.A.

World famous Wake-Up Show, you know, we ballin' out

here in Cali, you know, East Cost dog in the house.

And they asked him the question about, you know,

'Pac died, how do you feel about it?

It definitely was a loss, you know what I'm saying?

A great loss. I feel for his family

You know what I'm saying? But at the same time,

I can't be the one to sit there and really just stress

over somebody else, you know what I'm saying?

At that time, I was going through my own problems.

You know what I'm saying?

When Biggie said that, the phones didn't stop ringing.

People was threatening him. Like, man, how did you--

Why did you disrespect 'Pac like this?

♪ Uh, I spit phrases that'll thrill you ♪

♪ You nobody till somebody kills you ♪

(DJ Quik) Biggie was brave.

Him being there and being threatened.

People were calling the radio station

talking crazy to him, and he stayed there.

(Funkmaster Flex) The Soul Train Awards had come about in L.A.,

and Biggie and Puff were there.

Wassup, Cali?

(Greg Kading) Right after the Soul Train Awards

out here in Los Angeles,

there's this huge, very energetic party

being thrown at the Petersen Auto Museum.

(Tim Brennan) Several Southside Crips were there

at the Petersen Museum speaking with Biggie Smalls,

including Keffe D and Orlando Anderson.

(Greg Kading) There are these big crowds, they're leaving.

Congestion everywhere.

(man) That's Biggie there. That's Biggie right there!

(Greg Kading) Biggie Smalls and his entourage

and their security force get into two Suburbans.

And as they're leaving, they're approaching the light.

The dark Chevy Impala pulls up alongside.

The gun comes out the window,

and the guy begins to shoot.

(gunshots)

(man) Biggie got shot! Y'all, get down!

Then the firing started. One of the bullets

tapped against our window.

I just covered over the top of my woman at the time,

Foxy Brown.

I said, "Don't move. Don't move."

(operator) 911 emergency, what're you reporting?

(man) Fairfax. We on Fairfax and Wilshire.

(operator) What's wrong?

(Kurupt) Man shot in our car right now.

We didn't know what happened when it happened

'cause it was 400 people out here, it's a madhouse.

You hear shots and you hear people screaming and running.

Tires screeching.

(woman) Biggie got shot!

(woman 2) Yeah, there was five shots fired.

(woman) Please, I'm ready to go.

Foxy saw one of her friends and she said, "What happened?"

And they said, uh, "They just shot Big."

(man) Yo, Big, can you hear me?

(woman crying)

Big, you hear me, baby?

(driver) I know the way. Cedar Sinai.

Straight on 5th Avenue! Let's go, let's go.

Foxy said we gotta go to the hospital

where Biggie's at.

With all the bad boys?

Shit, man, all they gonna see is Death Row.

They already think Death Row did it, so--

What? Biggie's shot? Oh, my God!

Good Lord, I can't go there.

But of course, Foxy was starting to get hysterical, crying.

So I said okay, let's go.

I get out. Next thing you know,

Lil' Cease runs by and he's like,

"Kurupt, why?"

And he's just full of tears.

And he's just like, "Why?!"

And he's just heated.

(DJ Quik) It just seemed like everybody in Death Row,

we were all involved.

That's what everybody thinking, that was the notion.

"Quik had something to do with it."

Of course I didn't have anything to do with it.

You know?

(newscaster) Rapper Chris Wallace, better known as

Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in a drive-by shooting

at 12:04 A.M. Pacific time Sunday morning.

Biggie was rushed to Cedar Sinai Medical Center

where he was pronounced dead.

(Funkmaster Flex) He didn't deserve to die like that.

He didn't deserve that on something that he didn't create.

He didn't start that beef, you know?

(Kurt Loder) Death Row Records, the L.A. label with which

Biggie was involved in a famous feud

put out a press release saying that

imprisoned Death Row chief Suge Knight

was shocked and saddened, and that having recently lost

Tupac Shakur to the same senseless violence,

they could sympathize.

(man) Were you every questioned

or investigated for Biggie's murder?

(P. Frank Williams) Even though he was in prison, I still think Suge

was a part of it in some type of way.

Whether he directly ordered it

or people who were down with him said

"We're gonna take care of it for you", I don't know.

(Sharitha Golden) The industry lost a whole lot.

Biggie was the Tupac for Puffy.

Tupac was Death Row's everything.

(DJ Quik) First Suge went to jail, and then Biggie died

in such a short time after 'Pac.

It was just crazy, man.

It just felt like it was over.

It felt like Death Row was over.

The music business was over.

♪♪

In Los Angeles, police tonight are investigating

the gangland style murder

of gangsta rap music star Biggie Smalls.

(horns honking, people yelling)

(newscaster) Today, as Notorious B.I.G.'s funeral procession

moved through the streets of Brooklyn,

his neighbors celebrated his life.

He wanted nothing but peace.

He wanted nothing but peace,

he wanted nothing but love spreading.

When Biggie died, it scared the fuck out of everybody.

The general consensus was

gangsta rap-- it's turning in on itself.

(Kurt Loder) Both Biggie and Tupac gunned down

in their prime within months of each other.

It may involve the long-rumored rap feud said to be going on

between Death Row Records and Bad Boy Entertainment.

It was fucked up, you know?

Went to Snoop's and Snoop said,

"Damn, this shit's getting out of hand, Kurupt."

Any time you do right, it come back to you.

Any time you do wrong, it come back to you.

And we was right in the middle of all that madness

and the deaths and the tragedy.

Boy, I felt like you have to get wise,

you have to get smarter, you have to change.

The loss of Tupac and Biggie was a kind of shock treatment.

(newscaster) Snoop Doggy Dogg, Doug E. Fresh,

and dozens of other big names from the hip hop industry

attended a so-called hip hop peace summit.

The summit really was very effective

in reducing hostilities.

(Snoop) A lot of people like to say that rap, you know,

is a negative, it's this and that.

But from me to you, rap saves lives.

And we're gonna prove that.

The base of all of this is atonement.

Reconciliation.

(newscaster) After that meeting, rap artists and producers

called for an end to the rivalry and the violence.

Only time will tell if this summit

has real substance or is all show.

(Quincy Jones III) Everybody don't realize how that affected hip hop.

That was the beginning of the more peaceful time.

Gangsta rap has never been the same.

(David Weintraub) Meanwhile, at that time, Suge was in jail

and the label was in chaos trying to figure out

what their next plays were gonna be.

July of 1997, I took over and started running the company

and dealing with the day-to-day operation.

And so I was going back and forth to the prison,

running things by him, talking to him on the phone.

Telling him of a situation,

and he would tell me how to deal with it.

(Catrice Brumfield) We were so unguided at that point.

Now all you have is a bunch of active

and inactive gang members mixed in with

some industry folks like myself,

trying to figure out where to go from here.

It was like a giant, huge successful company

is now in shambles.

(Jake Brown) The smoke cleared when Suge Knight went to prison.

A lot of the mismanagement of money came out.

The illusion that Death Row Records

was this paradise where everybody got signed

and became an immediate millionaire

was one of the greatest cons Suge ever pulled.

He wasn't cutting checks.

He wasn't paying publishing and royalties.

So he did things to pacify us.

(Jake Brown) Kurupt, as an example, thought that he had come up

on a house and thought he had a nice car.

(woman) This is a present from Suge.

This my record company gift.

Then when Suge went to jail, they're towing that car away.

This is my new shit.

(Jake Brown) All of those deeds were owned by Death Row.

They were not owned by the artist.

This is a pure sign that the boat is sinking.

(Jake Brown) Suge was not, in fact, managing his artists money well.

Many of them left Death Row broke after having millions

of selling albums and thinking that they had

a million dollars in the bank.

These little checks that y'all are giving me right now?

They cool, they a blessing, thank you so much.

But where's that other money, when the record was really hot?

We spoke with the people who control Death Row

and they chose to ignore us.

I'm on every video on television.

I barely got a dime.

I was hungry and homeless.

Dogg knew it, I knew it.

We all knew it. This is over.

(Darryl Daniel) I would hear Snoop phone conversations like,

"Fuck that! I want my motherfucking money!"

(Kurupt) I told Dogg, I'm getting off of Death Row

and getting the fuck out of here.

And then, Snoop was trying to find another deal

'cause he wanted to get off of Death Row.

(newscaster) Snoop has been at the epicenter

of a protracted and increasingly nasty split

with Death Row Records where he claimed Death Row had,

in effect, ripped him off,

giving him gifts rather than paying him what he was owed.

There was even talk of death threats.

No worries.

At all.

(chuckling) Why, you worried for me?

Why?

I was working against the devil.

And through the grace of God,

Master P and Priority Records, you know, put a deal together

which was, you know, suitable for Mr. Knight.

(Darryl "Joe Cool" Daniel) Once all those elements were removed,

it gave birth to a new beginning for Snoop.

(Snoop) It's official like a referee with a whistle.

Snoop Dogg's a No Limit soldier.

(Dre) Snoop going to No Limit, you know,

and Master P opening his arms up,

letting him in, was incredible.

Everybody gave him open arms because we figure

that it can't do nothing but help, you know?

Take his career to the next level and do it the right way.

♪ I'm looking for a thug girl

Ain't no gang rules, ties, or none of that.

It's just straight family.

I love you. I'm with you.

Love what you do, down with you.

Suge Knight recently said, "He used to be a superstar,

and now he's just a No Limit soldier."

What do you say to that?

Nothing. He used to be a CEO, now he's just an inmate.

Thanks a lot. Good seeing you.

There you go.

(Catrice Brumfield) When Snoop went over to No Limit,

everybody started to leave.

Kurupt left, guys left. Nate left, Rage left,

everybody kind of left.

(Catrice Brumfield) That was the end of Death Row records.

It was a wrap. It was done.

Hey, what's up? I'm Iann Robinson with MTV News.

Having served five years of a nine year sentence

for a probation violation, rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight

walked out of a federal prison on Monday.

By his own admission, Suge hasn't read

a financial statement in five years.

He starts spending lavishly on himself.

Suge starts spending millions and millions of dollars

on new houses, on boats

versus dumping it into Death Row.

(Michel'le Toussant) After Dre and I broke up,

that was when we started getting close.

This was before he went to prison.

It was like, Suge was always there.

I mean, he was that shoulder to cry on.

He was like a confidante.

Baby. Baby, you dropped this.

(Sharitha Golden) She knew we were married.

She had my number, she could've called me

and said, "Hey, are you guys married?

I'm trying to get at your husband now."

Suge moved us into this big, beautiful house.

The city view was amazing.

So I was thinking, oh, this is awesome!

Suge is getting his power back.

(Jake Brown) Suge's now the biggest star in his own label

and all of the media that he's drawing is in the context

of Suge and the prison release, et cetera.

No more jail for you.

Hell no. No more jail for me.

(man) Just starting all over again? Right.

What's the name of your label now?

(Suge) Tha Row.

(man) Change, how come?

Because of the catalogue. And the catalogue is the past.

And, you know, the past is the past.

(Jake Brown) His only real asset is

a $4 million publishing catalogue.

That's where he's making a lot of his money.

Is worth-- It's worth-- It's cool, know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. It's cool.

At the time, all we put out was "Too Gangsta For Radio"

and "Death Row Greatest Hits."

(Reginald Wright Jr.) We wasn't making money like back in the day.

We was a little ghetto.

♪ Death Row uncut

♪♪

(Scott Aronson) When the record sales and the excitement

started to wane, I don't think he sensed that change

and adapted to it.

Why now should an artist sign with Tha Row?

'Cause I the one that started it.

And the second thing is this.

I go like this? That's ten.

Ten years from now,

I'm still gonna be doing what I'm doing.

Suge made a lot of people afraid.

They heard that, you know, this is quite possibly true

that you are a bully and an extortionist and a crook.

All that bad shit comes back on you, man.

(officer) Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

served several search warrants this morning.

One in this location here in Los Angeles which,

as you're aware, is Tha Row Records.

(David Weintraub) Wow, this is really serious.

My office was raided.

My computer was taken, all my books were taken,

all my notes.

Were you at your office at the time?

Nope. (laughing)

Then the next stop was your private home.

(man) Sitting room where the fireplace is located.

(police radio chatter)

Move out the way, get out of here.

And that came from one of the locations?

Locked and loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

100 rounds, AK-47.

(officer) The evidence seized was regarding homicide

and conspiracy to commit homicide.

Mr. Knight is in no way wanted

by the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department.

He's not currently a suspect.

On top of the 2002 raid, Suge gets bombarded

left and right with lawsuits.

One of the lawsuits was launched against you

by your bank for, like, a half a million dollars.

And a boat? Yeah, that's straight.

I get lawsuits though. I'll bet.

(Michel'le Toussant) Suge was furious.

Suge was starting to lose everything.

It-- I mean, he was like an animal getting out of a cage.

He started treating me different.

Ah! No thank you!

(Michel'le Toussant) He instilled fear in me.

It wasn't so fun anymore after that.

I was absolutely miserable.

But what really did it was I got pregnant

and he had this other girlfriend.

She had a baby. I didn't want my child

to live that life.

And that's when I left.

I think it all just came home to roost.

All of the bad karma came to find him.

Suge took a lot of money

that didn't belong to him over the years,

starting with Harry O's $1.5 million.

Michael Harris claimed that he paid Suge

$1.5 million to launch Death Row,

but was cut out of the profits once they started coming in.

Lydia Harris, Michael Harris' wife,

sues Death Row in 1996.

You don't have any fear of Suge Knight's reaction to this?

Why not? 'Cause I don't have no fear.

I'm gonna tell the truth and shame the devil.

(Jake Brown) At first, Suge's got lawyers putting it off.

It works its way lazily through the legal system.

Eventually, in 2006, the case goes to trial.

Suge didn't take it seriously.

At times, he doesn't show up to court.

He doesn't, at one point, even have lawyers showing up.

The default judgment is for $107 million

against Death Row.

Suge loses everything.

♪♪

(Darryl Daniels) Suge Knight, I mean, it all caught up to him.

Karma's a motherfucker, man.

(newscaster) Details of this case play out like a Hollywood movie.

Tupac is dead, Suge didn't have a choice.

She begins to cry and divulges her involvement

in Biggie's murder.

So we finally have somebody who can answer

some of these questions about Tupac's murder.

It's the first real breaks we've gotten in these cases

in over a decade.

♪♪

♪ Murder was the case that they gave me ♪♪

♪♪