The Death Row era remains one of the most mythical and discussed parts of hip-hop history, with folks like Tupac and Suge Knight being its most referenced actors. But don't forget about folks like Daz Dillinger, who helped shape the West Coast label's dominance despite his issues with Death Row over the years. He recently spoke to The Art Of Dialogue and confirmed a story from Cam'ron about how Suge confronted the Dipset MC for using a recreated "Ambitionz Az A Ridah" beat for his 2002 song "Live My Life."
The track appeared on Cam's Come Home With Me album. Daz spoke on receiving royalties for his production of "Ambitionz Az A Ridah" to this day. "If anybody in this world say, 'I won't deny it,' or say, 'Ambitions of a rider,' anything, in their song, we get that," he remarked. "That's a sample clearance for me." Dillinger pointed to samples by DeJ Loaf, The Game, Meek Mill, and Lil Wayne as examples.
He later shouted out Kyambo "Hip-Hop" Joshua, who was at Roc-A-Fella and had hit Daz up to do some music at Baseline Studios in New York. Killa Cam greeted Dillinger, who later recreated the "Ambitionz Az A Ridah" beat for him to use. But apparently, Knight got in the way.
"Suge Knight was harassing motherf***ers at Roc-A-Fella, so they didn't give me my credit as a producer. They gave it to somebody else to finish up the music," Daz Dillinger remarked. "We laid all that down... I'm like, 'Damn. What happened?'"
Cam'ron's Suge Knight Story
Then, Daz confirmed Cam'ron's story about Suge Knight confronting him over the beat. But he claimed Suge didn't have the right control over the music to make a decision in the first place. "He didn't have nothing to do with. He was already bankrupt, he was out of it already," Dillinger expressed. Daz also claimed a music executive was working with Suge under the table at the time.
For those unaware, here's what Cam said about the alleged confrontation. "He came over with probably six, seven people, and was just basically like, 'Yo, what's up?'" he said on It Is What It Is. "And I'm like, 'Hey, what's up?' and I didn't think of it as no confrontation or anything. But then he went into a spill and he was like, 'Yo, you owe money.' I was like, 'Owe you money for what?' He was like, 'You using one of my beats?'" Apparently, once Daz Dillinger's name came up, the situation quickly diffused. But the version of this story has changed over time.
