A war of words is brewing between two men connected to West Coast hip-hop history.
In an interview behind bars with “The Art of Dialogue,” Suge Knight claims Snoop Dogg is destroying rap music and the legacy of Death Row Records.
This was in response to claims that Snoop said Knight was mad that he purchased the label.
Knight mentioned how Snoop, who served as an Executive Creative and Strategic Consultant at Def Jam Recordings in 2021, did nothing for that label and is doing the same thing for the company he co-founded over three decades ago.
“You trying to create something that Suge Knight created, but instead of making something big, you disappointed the world by making everything flops,” he exclaimed. “When I put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold records. You put out Tha Dogg Pound, they sold nothing — it flopped.”
Knight took it a step further to claim that Snoop is ruining the genre for the next generation.
“You don’t got to talk tough. We don’t got to talk about each other that gets [us] nowhere. One person or three or four people is not bigger than hip-hop. We should be trying to figure out how to make hip-hop better. Everybody destroying hip-hop — you guys are making it worse. If you have Death Row, you destroyed it. You messed up the name.”
The Compton native even questioned if “The Doggfather” is really the label’s owner.
“Snoop, you said I’m mad because you bought Death Row,” Knight said. “What you buy? Shut me up. Show me where y’all paid the money to buy it. Show me the paperwork — show me what you own.”
The Compton native co-founded the hip-hop label in 1991 with The D.O.C., Dr. Dre and Dick Griffey. Years later it became a fixture within the West Coast music scene by signing on Snoop and Tupac Shakur.
It started to dissolve due to various reasons, including Knight’s ongoing legal troubles, Shakur’s death in 1996 and when Dre and Snoop left the label. Death Row filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and was auctioned off three years later where it passed through various owners.
Snoop Dogg helped revive the Death Row Records brand in 2022 after he acquired it from MNRK Music Group, formerly known as eOne Music, for an undisclosed price; some sources have speculated the deal is worth around $50 million.
In the meantime, Knight is serving a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter charges. He’s tied to the death of Terry Carter and is eligible for parole in 2034.
