Suge Knight has commented on Drake using A.I. to get Tupac and Snoop Dogg to feature on his ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ diss track.
Last weekend, Drake uploaded ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ online, marking the second time the Canadian has thrown jabs at Kendrick Lamar. The first time he did so was on ‘Push Ups’ earlier in the month, which was a direct response to Lamar’s ‘Like That verse where he called out the rapper.
‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ put Drake in hot water as Tupac’s estate has threatened to sue him for using the ‘California Love’ rapper’s likeness against him. The 37-year-old has now removed the song from streaming platforms as a result.
Knight also shared thoughts on Drake using Tupac’s likeness on the latest episode of his podcast, Collect Calls With Suge Knight.
“Young people do what young people do. It’s y’all turn, but regarding the homie ‘Pac, he wasn’t no chump,” he said. “Putting him on a song and dissing Kendrick for everybody entertainment – that ain’t how it go.”
He added that: “‘Pac was a king on that chessboard. He never was a pawn, so he can’t make him be a pawn now.”
The former Death Row Records owner also warned Drake that there might be repercussions for using Tupac’s likeness because if “real gang members of all colours and races all come together, that’s your end.”
Snoop Dogg also was surprised to see Drake use his likeness on ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’, taking to Instagram to share his reaction. “They did what? When? How? Are you sure? [Sigh] Y’all have a good night,” he said. “Why [is] everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the fuck? What happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Good night.”
Knight then slammed Snoop Dogg, while criticising Drake for “putting [Tupac] on a song with Snoop”, saying that the latter “was a part of his downfall and exit, ain’t ever a good look.”
He voiced his scepticism about his former signee’s involvement in Tupac’s death on an earlier episode of his podcast.
“As far as the Puffy situation, I really, really, really gotta have a real conversation with Snoop,” he said, addressing the rumours that Snoop Dogg allegedly knew ahead of time about Pac’s infamous shooting in 1996. “I knew that ‘Pac did everything right by him by putting him on ‘All Eyez On Me’, speaking about him and being real with him. And if it’s true what they say, face-to-face it’s gonna be a lot of explaining to do.”
Tupac was shot on September 7, 1996 and died six days later. For over 30 years, the case remained unsolved as the suspected shooter Orlando Anderson was murdered in 1998 before he could be charged.
Last year, Anderson’s uncle Duane “Keefe D” Davis was arrested for his connection to the fatal shooting of the Death Row Records rapper. Davis entered a not guilty plea to one count of open murder with the use of a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement. After the news broke, Knight said that he “won’t testify” for anyone in the Tupac murder case and said he wants justice for Davis as he’s not the shooter.
Knight is currently serving a 28-year-long sentence in jail for pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2015 hit-and-run. His podcast – which was launched last November – is done over the phone while he serves time.
In other news, Knight reflected on Eazy-E’s wife allegedly ruining a billion-dollar deal. The ‘Eazy-Duz-It’ rapper made a deal with Knight to “where he gets a dollar off of anything that Dre does”.
