Suge Knight has claimed that 2Pac was interested in signing Aaliyah to Death Row Records.
While talking over the phone from prison with “The Art of Dialogue”, the Death Row co-founder made an interesting revelation involving two late superstars.
According to him, 2Pac was a big fan of Aaliyah so much so that he wanted to sign her to the legendary label.
“We had a thing,” Suge said. “I would always listen to oldies, and Pac would listen to rap. He didn’t like oldies, so I told him, ‘I gotta show you what oldies are about.’ So, I took Tupac to go see Gladys Knight perform in Vegas.”
He went on to say that Aaliyah came out to perform. “Aaliyah starts singing and Tupac said, ‘Don’t get up! Don’t get up! I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because Gladys Knight knows you, you’re gonna speak to Gladys Knight, and then you’re gonna talk to that little girl singing. And the next thing you know, you’re gonna be doing an album.’ He said, ‘I’m gonna go talk to her, you come later on, because I want to do an album with Aaliyah.’”
Knight added of 2Pac, “He wasn’t thinking about signing nobody else. He thought she was the biggest star and had the best voice ever. Me and that dude spent hours and hours and days and days together. Me, personally, I never seen him get so excited about no female artist. … He lost his mind over Aaliyah. He talked about her for days and days. I got tired of hearing him talking about that little girl. He said, ‘I got these songs I want do with her. I’m gonna do this song with her.’ … He was super, super, super excited.”
“I always looked up to 2Pac because he was such a real brother,” Knight continued. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get over his death, but I do know his music will live on forever. All of us have suffered a major loss, including those who tried to destroy his name, reputation and spirit when he was alive.”
Aaliyah died in 2001 at the age of 22, following a plane crash. The tragic accident occurred after filming her “Rock The Boat” music video in the Bahamas, cutting short a career that was reaching new heights.
