Curio Corner #2: Snoop Dogg’s death threat from Suge Knight

From all accounts, former Death Row Records head Suge Knight is a fucking thug. While Tupac Shakur might have been the one touting the thug life publicly, Knight made his adherence to this lifestyle clear through simple, direct acts: striking parking attendants, beating the Christ out of his girlfriend then making her disappear, and holding Vanilla Ice over a balcony until he signed publishing rights over to him. He was also allegedly (allegedly!) heavily involved in the murders of both Notorious B.I.G and 2Pac, although obviously neither of these cases have been solved, and Tupac is currently alive and livin’ it up in Cuba.

Snoop Doggy Dogg (he was still a Doggy Dogg back in his pup days) felt although the facts spoke for themselves, he could speak for them much more effectively, openly blaming Knight for the death of 2Pac, and leaving Death Row Records for Master P’s No Limit. Obviously Knight didn’t take this well, and was less thrilled still when Snoop shared his theory in several magazines.

Knight was jailed for parole violation around the time of Snoop’s label leap, and with his three star players – Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and 2Pac – no longer on his current roster, Death Row was sinking quickly. Controlling his empire from his jail cell, Knight started releasing a mess of vault material from Tupac and Snoop Dogg. (You may have noticed that Tupac has been quite prolific in his posthumous years.)

These kind of unauthorised odds and sods collections have been frustrating artists since American labels started mangling Beatles albums back in the early ‘60s, but Snoop’s 2000 Death Row collection was particularly pointed: adorned with a photo of Snoop and the title Dead Man Walkin’, as a not-so-friendly reminder that Knight holds grudges, and can organise the deaths of high-profile rappers when the mood takes him.

The compilation itself is of a quality akin to the 2Pac collections: an interesting curio with some genuinely exciting moments, but basically a poorly-produced patchwork with lesser artists clumsily attempting to stitch it together.

Snoop is currently undercover as a lion, while Knight is still living the thug life, most recently in this racially-driven club fight. Dead Man Walkin’ had sold over 200,000 copies by 2005.