Suge Knight is back with another tale from the past, dialing in from prison to give his version of events involving Eminem.
In a new interview from prison, Suge revisited his infamous run-ins with Em, from the 2001 Source Awards to the set of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” video. But here’s the thing: Knight’s version of events does not exactly match up with what others remember.
Let us rewind to the early 2000s. Death Row Records was in free fall, while Dr. Dre and Aftermath dominated the industry with Eminem and 50 Cent. Knight, who had once ruled the West Coast rap scene, was not taking the power shift lightly. In 2001, Eminem was invited to the Source Awards to celebrate his success. Still, according to multiple sources — including both Suge’s head of security and Em’s former bodyguard — Suge made sure the evening was far from welcoming.
Byron “Big Naz” Williams, who worked security for Eminem, once described the situation as tense, saying Suge’s crew deliberately surrounded Em to intimidate him. “There’s a sea of red guys around him,” Big Naz recalled. “They said, ‘Death Row, motherfucker. Suge Knight sent us to strongarm him’”. Em was quickly escorted out of the hall, but still, he did his presentations on stage. However, it would not be the last time he crossed paths with Knight.
Fast-forward to 2002, during the filming of “In Da Club”. The video shoot was a major moment for 50 Cent’s career, and with both Dre and Eminem on set, it was an Aftermath family affair. That’s when, according to several accounts, Suge and his crew tried to storm in, bringing a small army of gang members. The atmosphere turned hostile fast, with helicopters eventually arriving to break things up.
Now, in his recent interview, Knight downplays the whole situation. Suge claims he was never out to get Eminem, saying he even called off his people when they were planning to go after him at the Source Awards. “At the awards was a guy named Gang Steve”, Suge recalled. “He called Death Row. I happened to be on the phone. He said, ‘Eminem is at the award show. They’re about to eat Eminem’s ass up.’ I said, ‘Hey, tell them I didn’t even know no Eminem. He’s that white boy, give him a pass’”.
Suge also spoke about the time he and his crew showed up at the In Da Club video shoot in 2002, where both Dr. Dre and Eminem were present. According to him, nothing serious went down. (It did not, but not for his lack of trying.) “Once we go to this video shoot, it’s probably like 10 of my homies, maybe 15. My Mexican homies, you know, some real-life Southsiders”, he said.
Suge claims that when they were spotted, things quickly escalated, and police were called. “Next thing you know, they said they’re calling the police. Next thing you know, you hear sirens. The helicopter shining the light. We barely got out of here”. He even blames 50 Cent for downplaying the situation afterwards and setting him up:
“After I got out there, I had a violation. Fifty did an interview with Newsweek Entertainment Weekly or whatever. And they ask him about that. They said, hey didn’t they come up there to get y’all? And Fifty was like, no, he just wanted to know who the new kid on the block was. They came up there real deep with Mexican gang members, black gang members. He said, is that a violation of Suge Knight’s parole, being around gang members? And I ended up getting violated on all that type of stuff”.
But here is the thing—Knight’s revisionist history doesn’t line up with the way those moments have been remembered by everyone else. The Game, affiliated with Dre and Fifty at the time, once said that Eminem was “ready to go” but was ultimately held back by Dre and Jimmy Iovine, who knew a physical altercation would only escalate tensions further.
And while Suge now talks like he’s put it all behind him, his actions suggest otherwise. In 2019, he eagerly joined in when Nick Cannon launched his infamous Eminem diss tracks, recording an intro from prison for The Invitation. Once again speaking over the phone, Knight hyped up Cannon, called Eminem names, and challenged him outright. For someone who claims he never had issues with Em, he sure seemed happy to throw gas on the fire nearly two decades later.
Even now, Suge finishes his historic account with thinly veiled intimidation:
“Eminem checking me – that’s a laughing matter. It’s ridiculous. At the same time, Eminem is Eminem. I’m not a rapper. I’m quite sure you can out-rap me. I’m definitely too big to slap the shit out of you. But if that’s something he really wants to get, I’m quite sure I could find a little homie in his class and run in.”
Suge’s past with Eminem is not just about intimidation, though. There’s also the long-standing belief that Em holds Knight responsible for the deaths of 2Pac and Biggie. According to Tony Yayo, Eminem’s late best friend, Proof, publicly accused Suge of being behind the assassinations. Em even recorded a diss track calling Knight out, though it never saw an official release and was only recently revealed among several leaked tracks.
With Knight continuing to speak on old feuds, it is clear that his past still lingers. While we should take every eyewitness account with a grain of salt, this one looks not just like another attempt to rewrite history from behind bars but like an accident report from a parallel universe.
