Death Row Records Greatest

Another review from The Pit...

SO there's no war between the West Coast and East Coast rap world. Yeah right. I may be a dumb white boy but I can read the graffiti on the freeway sign.

2Pac was gunned down in Vegas. Notorious B.I.G. was hit in L.A.. Death Row Records head Suge Knight is in prison. Snoop Doggy Dog and Dr. Dre have been keeping mighty quite.

East Coast has Bad Boy Records and the West has Death Row. Both have been linked to gangs and gang money. Members of both rosters are former or current gang members, associate with gangs, have dealt drugs, an so on. Basically they live the lifestyle they sing about.

2 Pac calls out the East Coast rappers on the caustic "Hit Em Up", a steadily building tirade. 2 Pac brags about sleeping with his nemesis B.I.G.'s wife, brags about how Death Row are the "real" mob, and threatens "We gonna kill all you mother fuckers, die slow other fuckers".

"Death Row's Greatest" is a two disc compilation dominated by 2 Pac, Dr. Dre, and Snoop. Death Row purports selling over 26 million records and grossing $170 million.
Suge Knight's liner notes refer to Death Row Records music as chronicalling "the observation and experiences of young African-America". Interestingly, many of these experiences seem to hinge around drinking and drugs, gang banging, misogyny and sex. Perhaps this is the reality in African American life, perhaps it is a stereotype.
The Snoop selections are mellow compared to some of the other fare. "Sippin on gin and juice" and so on. The kind of stuff you might expect on MTV.

What is interesting is the divisiveness evident here, not only among the rap community, but among Death Row artists as well.

Ice Cube's "No Vaseline" is a tirade against Cube's former N.W.A. bandmates Eazy E and Doctor Dre. Cube suggests that Dre should "stick to producin'" and lives "with the whites", with no niggaz in site". Cube calls Eazy E a faggot, and says that Eazy "should be hangin' from a tree".

J Flex dis Dr. Dre some more in "Who been there, who done that?" The track accuses Dre of ripping off other rappers, for money, music and lyrics.

"Death Row Greatest Hits" is a no holds barred chronicle of the label's rise. It's interesting that Suge Knight is not messed with anywhere on the album.

Death Row's music is divisive, controversial and angry. There are a number of standouts on the album, the primary being 2 Pac's "Hit Em Up". Of all the tracks this one comes up as the most timely, angry and realistic.

This is definitely a lifestyle that is being sung about. A lifestyle that killed B.I.G. and 2 Pac. To say these murders are unrelated, is ridiculous. To say that Suge Knight doesn't know what really happened, in both cases, is perhaps even more ridiculous.