Teddy Riley On Why He Declined To Partner With Suge Knight At Death Row

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Teddy Riley, Death Row Records
Teddy Riley says Suge Knight offered him a deal to partner at Death Row Records.

Teddy Riley says he passed on an offer to partner with Suge Knight at Death Row Records in the late '90s out of no desire to "go back down that lane."

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“Suge wanted to partner. I didn’t wanna do that,” Teddy told HipHopDX in the third part of our interview. “I wasn’t afraid of it, cause I’ve dealt with his mentor, which was Gene Griffin. That was my godfather. I just didn’t want go back down that lane of dealing with gangsters and things like that. I came from that life, I was once in that life, and I desired not to be back in that. I felt like that would have been a step backward."

Riley says the offer was only made as a result of Dr. Dre leaving in 1996.

“I think [the offer] only happened because of Dre leaving. That’s how I got Dre on ‘No Diggity,’” noted Teddy. “I guess 2Pac was in the midst of leaving, but he was still with Suge and did [‘Toss It Up’] with Jodeci and Aaron Hall. So I guess that was a shot against [me, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre], letting us know that he’s still got those guys on his side. I was still doing what I was doing with Jimmy and Dre. It was a crazy situation.”

Earlier this year, Riley was tapped for a Verzuz appearance with Babyface, but in the initial go-around, Riley couldn't get his sound working and was forced to reschedule.

[Via]


About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.
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