Did Jay Z Really Just Buy Tupac's Unreleased Material?

Word in the rumor mill is that Jay Z just bought all of the rights to Tupac's unreleased material ($384 million worth supposedly, this includes unreleased and unfinished songs, verses, demos, writings, scripts, poems, and more). Now if anyone has the money to do this it'd be Jay Z (or Dr. Dre, and it'd certainly make more sense for Dre to buy the material), but the question is what interest does Jay Z have in buying Tupac's unreleased material?

So before I get in depth about thoughts on this subject I have to say that rumors are not true, as confirmed by a representative from Roc Nation. However, Jam INC's Jeff Jampol (who oversees Tupac's estate) did confirm that there could be some new unheard Tupac material circulating soon. How soon this will be is unsure, but the 20th anniversary of Tupac's death approaches (though it's next September, 2016) and supposedly Pac has new clothing coming out, as well as a Grammy museum showcasing Tupac's writing, and even a biography deal is being finalized for a "very serious writer" to put out a new Tupac biography.

All of this is exciting no doubt, and though the rumors of Jay Z buying Tupac's unreleased material may be far fetched, there is no denying that Mr. Z certainly has the money to buy Tupac's material if he really wanted to. Rumors of a 2016 album of Tupac's unreleased material titled And Now I Rise boasting such features as Snoop Dogg, Nas, Drake, The Dream, DMX, Beyoncé, and Jay Z were also being put out, although the rumors were confirmed false by Billboard. Interesting, to say the least. If you could see anyone buying Tupac's unreleased material today, who do you believe it would be and why?

For me it'd make sense for Dr. Dre to buy Pac's music and finish off what he and Pac had started with Death Row Records in the 90s, even if they didn't get along very well up until Dre's departure from Death Row. Can you imagine a mastered Dre beat with unreleased Tupac verses and even a hook?  With all of the stuff that Dre has in the bag that nobody's heard (way too much stuff that nobody's heard), there definitely has to be something that would fit Tupac's vibe. It'd certainly be a challenge for Dre to fit a beat around a verse as opposed to the opposite normal way of someone writing to a beat, but it'd also be a nice blast from the past and maybe even a new challenge that Dre could take on.

But anyways, even with the news being untrue, there's my two cents on the matter. Who do you think should buy Tupac's unreleased material and why?  Feel free to give me your answers on Google+ or twitter (@SuperNovaRover). Tupac probably has enough unreleased material to make 5 more albums knowing how hard the man worked during his time on our planet Earth, and probably for good reason seeing as how much he "predicted" things with his eerie lyrics. The sad part is his material from 20+ years ago still probably sounds more ahead of its time than Rae Sremmurd's. Can someone please tell me why they're rapping?  Anyways, let me know your thoughts on the subject if you'd like.     








            

Suge Knight: Gangsta Til Death(Row)

If there is one person in all of hip hop that embodies the gangster aspect of hip hop entirely (and maybe a bit excessively/unhealthily), it's Marion "Suge" Knight. Death Row CEO, co-founder, and arguably the most intimidating man in hip hop, Suge built a name and an empire through money, power, fear, and (believe it or not) respect in one of the most controversial and power packed periods of rap. The ups are some of the best and most well documented in hip hop history, which include 10 plus platinum albums, including 2 diamond, and the launching of legendary careers like Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tha Dogg Pound, and countless others. But perhaps just as talked about (if not more) are the downs of Suge's career, which far outweigh the ups. Though I'm not wanting to break down every single one of them one by one, I am interested in how these things turn a powerful man into someone not so powerful (not physically of course, it seems Suge will always be that). I wouldn't call this the rise and fall, but more so the studying of Suge's roller coaster career. Is Suge Knight really what the public eye makes him out to be?  Is Suge's reputation real?  And is Suge's reputation partly what made Death Row so successful?  I hope to find answers to these questions just as much as anybody else out there, and that's why we're addressing Suge right now (Suge, if you see this, please don't kill me).

To start this off, I had to immediately include the fact that "Suge Knight dead" is one of the first search results that pops up in Google. Does this mean anything?  Maybe so. Do people expect it?  Probably. If I didn't know who he was, this would tell me that Suge's reputation is probably not great. And if you are just learning about Suge, you would be right in that assumption. Suge has had endless legal troubles that include assault charges, drug charges, traffic violations, he's been shot at multiple times (and being hit 6 times the most recent shooting at a Chris Brown party), and the most recent occurrence being theft (for taking a paparazzi camera along with Katt Williams, though Katt isn't seen in the video. I couldn't find it to post, instead I included a video of Katt talking to TMZ about Suge's shooting).

There's just something about Katt Williams and Suge Knight being together that brings the bad out of people (no shade Katt, you're a great comedian). Obviously there have been multiple occurrences including Katt and Suge, including a fight outside of a night club in January of 2013 (which there is also a TMZ video of floating around online), but to prove that Katt is not the common denominator in the bad press, here is a video of Suge throwing some sneak disses at (what you'd think as "former", apparently there still might be some bad blood even today) rival Bad Boy label head Diddy.

  
So discussing this video (besides the conspiracy theories surrounding it and Suge fueling the 'Tupac is alive" debate), the first thing that comes to mind is Suge's very unhesitant diss of Diddy. Which leads to the question: why diss Diddy after all these years?  Seriously though:  how does dissing Diddy right now help your career out?  Back in 94-96 this certainly would have made for great press, but right now can anyone honestly say they feel this holds any sort of significance?  Piling this on top of the "Tupac is alive right now smoking a Cuban cigar" comment makes it seem more of a cry for attention than trying to make a valid point on an issue. Not to mention that Diddy is currently worth $500 million and is in the top 3 on the Forbes list of wealthiest hip hop artists. Who out of these two would you say is winning?  Success is the best revenge.

A very big conspiracy I have to address is Suge's supposed role in Tupac and Biggie's deaths. There are definitely more than enough theories in both rappers' deaths to detail in one post (or several posts for that matter, especially Tupac), whether people believe the shootings were gang-related, that one or both of the rappers are still alive, or that Suge actually orchestrated the hit on one or both of the rappers, the speculation is endless. These arguments are certainly all just rumors, but nonetheless could sway the way somebody would view Suge and what his true intentions are. Why kill off one of your own rappers?  Some might say more money for Suge, others would say that Suge was jealous of the attention Pac was getting that Suge felt he himself deserved, and some might even say that Suge woke up on the wrong side of the bed. While the last one might not be as reasonable (though it could be plausible from what we know about Suge), it seems that people wouldn't know enough about Suge personally to form an honest opinion.

When we get into talking about Suge's most recent burst back into the spotlight, this might be evidence that Suge is indeed human after all. Suge recently had a court hearing for his alleged robbery charge of a paparazzi camera and was taken into custody with bail set at $500 thousand. If Suge were to be convicted, he would be facing 30 years to life in prison (with past charges being mostly because of an assault with a deadly weapon). While all of the charges Suge has faced have been no joke, it seems that it all finally begins to pile up on him in a TMZ video that shows Suge visibly upset with the ruling, and his face wet from crying. You'd have to be a past victim of Suge's to not feel a little bit of sympathy towards him in this video.

                                (*I do not own any of the videos in this post, or the rights to them*)


So while the evidence shows that Suge may not deserve to have any sympathy thrown his way, I'd most certainly love to hear what the audience has to say!  Do you believe that deep down Suge might be a good man whose made mistakes?  Or do you think there's no excuse for so much error and he needs to pay for his wrongdoings?  The sensible person in me believes that Suge is an egotistical, power driven maniac who doesn't care about anything but money, but then the good in me thinks that if anything were to make Suge Knight cry, it's probably pretty harsh. I tried my best to include 2 sides to Suge, but his history of violence and crime charges make it barely believable that there is good in Suge. Let me know your thoughts on Suge and if he's just made a lot of mistakes in his life and you think he can correct them, or if you think that there is no changing a man who has done so much wrong (Vanilla Ice might go with the latter, though that is also just speculation as well). All I really have left to say is that Suge Knight might really be gangster until death row, whether that be his desire or not.   








    









          

Who is Daz Dillinger? The Analysis

Daz Dillinger is not a name many hip hop fans would know right off the top of their heads, or maybe not even a name you'd associate with music, depending what you know. See this was my opinion at first, not knowing who he was, all I saw him as was some random dude who hung out with Snoop Dogg. If you saw Snoop's movie "Reincarnated," which documents Snoop's rebirth and his trip to Jamaica to find himself, your first assumption might be that Daz is just a guy Snoop has been friends with all his life who just tags along with Snoop and smokes weed all day. But to those of us new to Daz, he is definitely much more than that.

Daz Dillinger, real name Delmar Drew Arnaud, is known mostly for his role in the hip hop group "Tha Dogg Pound," originally formed with fellow known west coast rapper Kurupt. Hanging out with Snoop so much of course wouldn't not open up doors for you, although he surely didn't need things handed to him. His real start in the industry began as a producer for legendary west coast rap label Death Row Records, where he produced multi platinum albums and singles for rap goliaths like Snoop and Tupac, along with contributions to Dr. Dre's highly acclaimed debut album "The Chronic."

I knew none of this, and of course didn't bother to do the research until now. The idea of Death Row Records and its rise to the pinnacle of hip hop always fascinated me, so I kept digging. When you think of Death Row you obviously think of Snoop, Dr. Dre, Tupac, Suge Knight and Kurupt. So where really does Daz fit into such a star studded line up of hip hop giants?  Daz got his real chance to show and prove himself once Dr. Dre, head producer of Death Row at the time, left the label in early 1996 due to issues with label boss Suge Knight to form his own label Aftermath. The rest of that story is very well documented history. *Cough Cough* where's Detox?

So this lead to nothing but great things for Daz, not only producing such hit songs as Tupac's "Ambitionz Az A Ridah," "I Ain't Mad At Cha," and Snoop and Pac's "2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted," all multi platinum selling singles, but also being given the task of producing for Snoop's entire sophomore album "Tha Doggfather." But wait, in case you didn't think that was enough to believe Daz has the ultimate resume, there's much more. Would you believe me if I said the man raps as well?  Well you better because guess what; he does!

Shortly after fellow Death Row rappers Snoop, Kurupt, and Nate Dogg had left the label, Daz released his first solo album "Retaliation, Revenge, and Get Back" in 1998. Leaving Death Row seemed to open up many doors for the man, as he put out solo albums in every single year from 2002-2012, including two albums in 2005. Not only the rapping, but the production for other artists continued as well as he produced for rappers Kurupt, Soopafly, and B-Legit. It is known that Dillinger and Kurupt had a brief falling out in 2002 after Kurupt re-signed to Death Row, but they squash the beef in 2005 at a west coast unity event hosted by Snoop. Rumors say that Daz is planning to offer the new owners of Death Row Records unreleased material to re package along with re-mastered old Death Row material.

So that's that, at least for this portion. I hope you learned a lot, I know I definitely did just in this little research project of Daz. It just goes to show you a little research on someone you know little to nothing about can change your perspective about them. Now do I think Daz is just some dude who hangs out with Snoop Dogg and smokes weed all day?  Half of that is right, but I know not to think he isn't productive at least, no pun intended. Daz is just another portion of a huge segment of rap that practically defined a genre inside a genre with west coast g funk hip hop. If only we could relive those days in a way, get all the old heads together and put them on an album that will define the west coast for years to come. I'll bet it could happen, but we'd need a couple producers to work together and a few rappers to get on songs and rap about the right stuff. I wonder who we'd turn to for this project?  Hmmm....