As we reported on recently, Joe Rogan hosted the OG Houston native, J. Prince, on his podcast the other week. Rogan and the Rap-A-Lot Records founder dig into a conversation that spans over two hours, discussing Prince's storied history within both the music industry and the boxing industry. The two also touch on Prince's new book, The Art & Science of Respect: A Memoir, as well as Prince's foray into reading, and why reading is so damn important. As J. Prince states in the episode, "Readers are leaders."
Just over an hour and thirty minutes into their conversation, J. Prince shares some hip-hop history about a deal he was working on with Suge Knight and Irv Gotti, in their heyday, that would allow rappers to forgo the traditional major label business model. Basically, they were planning to start the first Black-owned music distribution company. However, as J. Prince details, each label head ended up contending with various legal issues which would ultimately derail the trio's plans altogether, not to mention, put each label executive behind bars.
"Here's what I believe with all of my heart. I'm a guy that made a transition from the streets to corporate in my early twenties," J. Prince begins the story.
"What we had done is had a meeting in LA, and we [Suge Knight, Irv Gotti & J. Prince] were considering starting a black-owned distribution, cause we felt like it was a need for an artist coming after us, and we wanted to make a better way and a smoother way for them. Because even back then, I saw what change was tryna take place in the industry and they wasn't gunna allow - I call it a conspiracy- I saw the conspiracy taking place where they wasn't gunna allow any more Master P's, Cash Money, Irv Gotti's -- independents-- they was like, shutting that door. So in my mind, I was like....let me counter, and make another avenue for the youth to come in after us," J. Prince explains.
"Unfortunately, I think they witnessed this same thing and they hit Murder Inc, Irv Gotti's company and destroyed it, they hit Suge Knight, Death Row, we know what happened with that. And they came at me in a massive way, all the way up to the point where they put a man on me that killed eight people, and I really believe he was trying to kill me."
J. Prince goes on to detail the DEA agent who was assigned to bring down Rap-A-Lot Records in the 1990s, a man who has since been proven to be corrupt.
"They assigned a guy by the name of [Jack] Schumacher on me, to arrest me or whatever he was supposed to do, but he sent death threats at me. Here's a man that killed eight people, since they was investigating me, I decided to hire an investigator to investigate them, and that's when I found out this guy killed all of those people." Schumacher believed that the label was a front for a major trafficking network, and ended up using many illegal tactics to attempt to "prove" what was not true-- and this was ongoing for ten years.
J. Prince added, "This was a real-life situation that people may hear and think it's not true." And indeed, J. Prince's claims against the DEA have since been confirmed true following various internal DEA investigations and court hearings.
You can check out the full episode below.