Outtakes From Suge Knight in ‘Rolling Stone’

What didn’t make it into the article

Yesterday, I published an exclusive interview with Suge Knight at Rolling Stone. It was the first official interview with the controversial former Death Row Records CEO in nearly ten years.

The conversation took place last Friday afternoon (November 22), the day before the 20th anniversary of the release of Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle.

He talked to me for about an hour and was quite amiable, speaking at length about Snoop, his fond memories of the early days of Death Row, and about the current state of hip-hop. Here are some outtakes.

On Kendrick Lamar:

Kendrick is a dude that’s an incredible artist. I’m not surprised because he’s from Compton. He grew up in Compton, that’s where he lived at, hung out at, and the guys he hangs with from his neighborhood, is p-folk. So there’s no way it wouldn’t rub off on him. There’s no way that his vision wouldn’t be aggressive or that he wouldn’t have the lyrics he has, if he didn’t grow up there. Kendrick know, anybody from Compton, that’s pretty much saying they’re a Death Row artist. That’s what they grew up to, that’s what they know, that was the people they’re involved with… they mimicked their stuff off of the blueprint I laid down. But Kendrick by far is one of them…