Death Row co-founder Suge Knight is enjoying his new career from behind bars as a podcaster.
The former bodyguard-turned-music executive recently shared his opinions on current events on his “Collect Call” podcast, created and curated by hip-hop media icon Dave Mays. He spilled the beans on some of the inside dirt he was allegedly privy to from his tenure as a prominent figure in the hip-hop industry.
Knight, who allegedly had a relationship with Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, talked about how “gangster” she was. He claims she once told him that one of the reasons she got into arguments with her group mate Chilli was because she slept with her the wavy-haired singer’s child’s father and group producer, Dallas Austin.
Left Eye was signed to Knight’s reimagined Death Row Records, Tha Row Records in 2002 under her new moniker N.I.N.A. (New Identity Non-Applicable). This name was given to her by the label head who became very close with her during that time.
According to Knight, Left Eye was a rebel who fought for what she wanted and was not scared.
“I ain’t never been around woman [who] was so gangster,” he said. “[She] was so full of life and was smart as a mother—ker. They don’t praise her enough on simple fact that she didn’t get shot when she died.”
During the episode, Knight said that one day Left Eye, shortly after the two officially met, moved into his high-rise without warning.
“She was the only one allegedly, according to her, who wouldn’t f—k L.A. Reid. Chilli and T Boz was. They were fighting over L.A. Reid,” Knight dished, adding that the executive was not her type because she considered him “soft.”
The most shocking allegation that Knight made was that Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas was upset with her because she had sexual relations with Austin, her son Tron’s father, and floated the rumor that Thomas had an incurable sexually transmitted disease.
“I remember her really getting into it, checking the other two members of the crew. I remember them being jealous of her,” Knight continued, speaking about Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins. “I remember Chilli mad because Lisa slept with Dallas Austin.”
None of Knight’s allegations have been substantiated by any party aforementioned or credible source.
Austin and Chilli started dating in 1991. The relationship was a huge “no no,” as her manager Pebbles and other executives did not want the two dating.
“They were holding auditions to replace me but never saw anybody that they liked,” Chilli said. “I don’t think anybody cared about the Dallas thing but Pebbles.”
Pebbles has disputed the singer’s claims that she tried to remove her from the group over her relationship with Austin. She did say, however, that she believed that the singer was sleeping with her husband, Reid, bolstering the claim Knight made on his podcast.
“I suspected a couple of things, but I didn’t want to believe that. And for years, I didn’t want to believe that because I felt like they were daughters to me,” Pebbles said in 2013.
As a producer, he recorded many of the hit songs like “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” “What About Your Friends,” and “Unpretty.”
After the two broke up, Austin was a little more selective about giving the group any of his hit songs. One song that was supposed to go to TLC was Gwen Stefani’s “Cool.”
“I didn’t want to give them that song because the song was about me and Rozonda saying, ‘Hey, now that you’re dating Usher, that’s good, me and him was cool, everybody done had their fights and everything else, but now I moved on, you moved on, now we’re cool,’” Austin explained.
He added, “We had just broke up. … I wanted to kill everybody because, honestly, I was friends with Usher too. By the time I call and said, ‘Hey, let’s be together in Miami,’ she was like ‘Nah, nah, nah that’s a wrap. I’m done.’”
That song would land at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 40.
