Suge Knight | Platinum Soundsets

DJ Quik Grows As An Artist

DJ Quik is one of the most famous singer, producer and rapper America has ever produced. Even if it was seen during the early 90's that the language of music is getting a global touch to its accent, Quik remained stubborn in constructing music by maintaining heritage. He is one of the few persons who have four gold and platinum albums and one hundred million soundscanned recordings to his credit.

He had a very struggling career in the first part of his life. He began his career in music by selling homemade mixtapes and after he moved out of school, he started DJing in the Southern California. However, in the year 1990, he joined Profile Records and proved himself not only as a singer but also as a producer.

Quik became famous in the field of music during the mid 90's when he began working under the management of the label of Death Row on "Above the Law" and created records in the g-funk style, unique to Quik himself. Mainly, he was hugely inspired by the two stalwarts of the g-funk style, Roger Troutman and George Clinton and learned to use the talkbox that later became the distinctive character of his creations up to the year 2005 when he announced the retirement of the talkbox. Around the year 1994, DJ Quik, under the management of Death Row, worked with the executive producer Suge Knight for the album "save+sound" that had Death Row as a special appearance. However, it is interesting to know that his debut album "Quik Is the Name" was quite successful. In 1998 his album "Rhythm-al-ism" labeled him as an underrated musician by most fans.

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Dr. Dre Starts New Label, Aftermath

Dr. Dre was a rapper who could create his own niche in the world of rap music and moved away from the political stance and the avant-noise as well as the party vibes of the genre of old-school rap. He left N.W.A in the year 1992 and formed his own label "the Death Row" along with Suge Knight.

However, in the year 1992, he left Death Row Records and Retaliated from the previous company by announcing the death of gangsta rap. He then formed his own label, "Aftermath". The bold steps of Dr. Dre earned the label critical respect although success was yet crawling far. During that time, his previous label The Death Row suffered heavy loses due to the death of Tupac Shakur and the Imprisonment of Knight on charges of racketeering. In the same year Dre's first album, under the Aftermath label came out as a various artist collection "Dr. Dre Presents…The Aftermath". Because of the crippling of the Death Row, all the mediation was on "The Aftermath". The album could not make a significant impact on the minds of the people, but his solo presentation, "Been There Done That" was a hit with the listeners.

The album that was released under the label The Aftermath proved Dr. Dre wrong about the death of gangsta rap. However, Aftermath could not match standards with the G-funk template even if they had hard-core rappers in their band. The album however, revealed Dr. Dre's skill and interest for the urban RB and soul that were freshly exciting than other hip-hop tracks of the contemporary time. Even if the urban productions of the album were hits, still the individual performers could not make much of an impact in the creation of the label.

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Dr. Dre Goes To Battle With Death Row

Dr. Dre

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Legendary music genius, Dr. Dre, filed papers on February 5 requesting documents from former label Death Row. His efforts are to help identify the amount of unpaid royalties.

Dr. Dre, real name Andre Young, is doing so under Rule 2004 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows judges to order companies to turn over documents containing sensitive or private information such as financial affairs, assets, and liabilities.

This is not the first time the music mogul has done this. His last filing was in 2007. The disputes are for the royalties of Dr. Dre's solo debut, The Chronic.

The label, at one time, held a power house of artists including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 2 Pac, and many more. Dr. Dre originally helped Suge Knight start Death Row in 1991and initially held 50 percent ownership. In 1996, when Dr. Dre decided to part ways, he agreed to surrender his ownership in the company in exchange for royalties. According to Andre, though, Death Row never held its end of the deal.

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City Of Compton Gives Suge Knight The Boot

Suge Knight

Photo: Getty Images

Founder and CEO of the notorious Death Row Records is one of many alleged "gang members" the city officials in Los Angeles banned from a neighborhood in Compton, California.

As reported by the Associate Press, the city officials requested a judge, in a proposed injunction introduced 01/24/08, that members of the street gang "Mob Piru"be banned from staying out past 10:00 PM, drinking alcoholic beverages in public, carrying weapons, or congregating in general.

Marion "Suge" Knight was just one of an estimated 200 people included in the injunction. The Death Row Record mogul said the proposed order was "crazy" and referred to it as a "publicity stunt."

Death Row Records, with infamous tactics of Suge Knight, spawned a generation of hardcore, gangster rap. Many famous artists such as DJ Quik, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, and Daz owe their roots to Death Row Records.

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