Suge Knight was a guest on Arsenio Hall the other month, and while there, he made some remarks concerning both Kendrick Lamar and Game's label deals, comparing them to slavery. Game has since responded to Suge's comments, although it's doubtful we will hear a response from K. Dot, Suge himself elaborated on what he meant further in a new interview on BET.
Suge explained that he didn't mean to put the artist down, he meant to put the company down.
"Even when I said with Kendrick Lamar, well, if it’s Universal there’s the guy who really bring the deal over to Jimmy Iovine which is Mike," Knight said (via HHDX). "Then there’s Interscope, then there’s Aftermath, then there’s Top Dawg productions or whatever, then there’s Kendrick. And not only do these companies get the royalties and publishing, if they do a show [and] $100,000 comes in, the manager of those guys get 20%. Now it’s eighty grand. Kendrick get half, the record company get half. Which is ridiculous because the artist should be able to live off their tours. If you can’t live off your tour money, how can you survive by being a slave? Prince was able to survive by being a slave because he was able to tour. If Prince had a deal like these new guys’ deals—it’s that the record company get half of your tour money—Prince would have been fucked...It’s not fair for the two niggas in Compton to be getting fucked. It’s not good for me to have knowledge and don’t pass it onto them. It wasn’t about embarrassing anybody. It wasn’t about putting them as men or as artists down. It was about putting the person who’s in control down. Saying, ‘How is you fucking over these dudes from Compton when they making the difference for your company?"
Once again, these comments didn't go over too well, especially with the Top Dawg label. The Top Dawg himself, Anthony Tiffith, responded to Suge, "TELL SUGE I SAID IF HE KAN SHOW ME 1 CHECK WE PAID 2 INTERSCOPE OFF OF R TOUING..ILL SELL HIM TDE 4 $1, NOBODY GETS SHIT OFF OUR TOURS."
