Suge Knight fires shots at Eminem, blaming him for a 2Pac album ‘flop’ – but what’s really fueling this heated feud?
Suge Knight has attributed what he considers the sole failure in 2Pac’s catalogue to Eminem, who oversaw one of the late rapper’s posthumous projects.
On a new episode of Collect Call With Suge Knight that premiered on Tuesday (January 16) via Dave Mays’ Breakbeat Media, the former Death Row Records boss talked to Katt Williams about loyalty, the music business and working out, among several other topics.
During their chat, the 58-year-old also discussed all the people trying to get a piece of ‘Pac following his demise, and the one record that turned out poorly as a result.
“A lot of people been wanting to do songs with ‘Pac and some people even did some shit with ‘Pac,” he said. “There was only one 2Pac project that ever flopped before, and that’s the one Eminem did on all the releases. All the rest of them were successful.”
The album Knight was referring to is Loyal to the Game, which was made up of unreleased recordings by the All Eyez On Me rapper and produced entirely by Slim Shady.
Listen to the Compton native discuss the 2004 LP at the 10:40 mark below:
Suge and Em have a turbulent past, at least according to Tony Yayo. The G-Unit soldier Drink Champs for an interview last year, during which he recalled the moment he realized the Detroit MC was “a real n-gga.”
The story took place in the early ’00s at 50 Cent‘s “In Da Club” video shoot in Los Angeles, where Eminem stood up to Knight, who had pulled up to the set with an army of Mexican gangsters.
The Queens, New York native remembered how chaos erupted when the infamous mogul initially arrived; Eminem, on the other hand, was apparently not afraid.
“This is why I always respected Eminem” Yayo began. “Suge came, he had some Mexican n-ggas. Now, we from New York; you ain’t never seen a n-gga with a tattoo on his forehead.
“We like, ‘Damn, what we got to lose? If we don’t pop now, we going back to the hood!’ So it’s like, fight these Mexican Blood n-ggas, killer n-ggas, or go back home to the crib. Might as well go all out and fight right here! We around Dr. Dre so it’s like, ‘Yo, we gotta do what we gotta do.’”
He continued: “[Suge] lights his cigar and he trying to see what you gon’ do … This is when I knew Eminem was real. He was like, ‘I don’t give a fuck, man!’ That’s when I knew, ‘Damn, Eminem is a real n-gga.’ 50 n-ggas outside. ‘What’s up?!’ And then the n-gga Suge just walked away. The Mexican n-ggas looked kinda confused, they didn’t know what was going on.
“Eminem came outside, 100 percent. Eminem was like, ‘I don’t give a fuck, man!’ Remember, it’s documented, Proof told Suge, ‘Yo, you killed 2Pac!’ in the middle of a party. Them Detroit n-ggas are kinda crazy, bruh! Them 7, 8 Mile n-ggas always been crazy … You could ask anybody, Proof was a wild boy. Rest in peace to Proof.”
